Open the flash movie I asked you to create in the Set Up section of this article.  From here we will be making a few objects.  Me personally, I like to put each object on its own layer and have all my actionscript on its own layer as well.  So let's create 6 layers on your timeline.  Name them whatever you want but make the topmost one named "Actionscript" as this is where we will be putting all our code in.

 

Once that is done we got to make some movie clips. 4 to be exact.  One for the image, One for the Read More (or Learn More) button, and two additional buttons, previous and next.  Please note that for this example I use Movie Clips for everything, but you can use buttons if you want too.  There is really no difference in the execution.

 

  1. Create the image movie clip
    1. Go to your library and right click in there.  Choose "New Symbol".
    2. Name the symbol "image_mc"
    3. Go into the symbol and draw a square in it at approximately the same size as your images (this is for no other reason than to make it easy to layout on the timeline when designing it) you do not need to draw the square if you do not want too.
    4. Close it and place it on your stage in one of the layers you created.  Name the instance "image_mc" (same as the library object name)
  2. Create the learn more button movie clip
    1. Go to your library and right click in there.  Choose "New Symbol".
    2. Name the symbol "learnmore_btn"
    3. Make a button design on it with some text that says "Learn More".
    4. Close it and place this on the stage on a layer designated for it. Name the instance "learnmore_btn".
  3. Create the Next Button
    1. Go to your library and right click in there.  Choose "New Symbol".
    2. Name the symbol "next_btn"
    3. Make a button design and add some text saying "Next"
    4. Close it, place it on the stage and name the instance "next_btn"
  4. Create the Previous Button
    1. Go to your library and right click in there.  Choose "New Symbol".
    2. Name the symbol "prev_btn"
    3. Make a button design and add some text saying "Previous"
    4. Close it, place it on the stage and name the instance "prev_btn"

    Ok, so let's re-cap here.  Now we have a movie made, with 6 layers.  4 of which are taken up by movie clips we just made, one is reserved for Actionscript, and one is blank (the blank one we are going to use now). Also, all the clips instances are named the same as the library items.  (that’s its property name when it's placed on the stage) .

     

    In addition to these clips we need to add two text fields directly on the stage.  One for the HEADLINE and one for the Body Copy.  So Place two text fields on the stage in the remaining blank layer.  Name them txtHeadline and txtCopy and make them both dynamic.  You may want to make the txtHeadline Font Bold and maybe a different colour than the other field.  Also make the other field big enough to fit your article text (mine covers about 3 or 4 lines of text).

     

    So  now that you're done all that please save the movie and move on to the next step.