if (fl.getDocumentDOM().selection.length > 0)
{
        mcName = prompt("MovieClip Name", "");
        if (mcName != null)
        {
                newMc = fl.getDocumentDOM().convertToSymbol("movie clip", mcName, "top left");
                fl.getDocumentDOM().selection[0].name = mcName;
        }
}

10 Responses

1. jkozniewski
   February 2nd, 2008 at 2:52 am

   Hi

   I've shared your pain till today
   so thanks for this little yet useful script. I've missed one feature though – setting of reg point other than "top left" so I've extended your jsfl

   Now you can set reg point by just typing mcName*# into prompt where # is 1-9.
   Note that numbers are 'mapped' in a way that links numpad key layout directly with location of reg point. So for ex. 7 == "top left" and 5 == "center".

   You can download extended version here -> http://jkozniewski.com/tools/Convert%20to%20Symbol%20Ext.jsfl

2. Steven Sacks
   February 2nd, 2008 at 3:29 am

   I never set the registration point of a MovieClip to anything other than top left except in very specific edge cases. But, I'm glad you find the script helpful and your addition, too!

3. Chad
   March 3rd, 2008 at 8:49 am

   I had the same problem but tackled it a slightly different way. I created an AutoHotKey script to pop up an input window to enter the name. It doesn't auto-populate the name, but it is more efficient than jumping to the properties panel. Check out the info here:
   http://www.ultrashock.com/forums/flash-professional/jsfl-external-variable-clipboard-text-90632.html

4. Danny
   March 21st, 2008 at 11:02 pm

   You could always create your movie clips the "old fashioned" way and then create a JSFL script that names the instance(s) the same as the movie clip name(s) in the library:

   if (fl.getDocumentDOM().selection.length > 0)
   {

   for(i in fl.getDocumentDOM().selection){
   path = fl.getDocumentDOM().selection[i].libraryItem.name;
   mc_name = path.substr(path.lastIndexOf("/")+1);
   fl.trace('clip = '+mc_name);
   fl.getDocumentDOM().selection[i].name = mc_name;

   }

   }

5. Steven Sacks
   March 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am

   That would take more time than it would for me to name it myself. One keyboard shortcut FTW!

6. Guillermo
   June 30th, 2008 at 11:04 am

   ok so your piece of code is really helpful because it does the job, but what if you have 5 different movie clips and u want to give them instance names that are the same as what their are name as movie clips? u get it?

   5 movie clips distributed each in a layer…
   then give each movie clip an instance name

   any ideas?

   right now what your code does is give an instance name prompt it to the user but i have 5 movie clips and it only prompted me once?.. =/

   thanks

7. Steven Sacks
   July 2nd, 2008 at 11:03 am

   You have to iterate through the selection to get each MovieClip individually, or you're going to turn the selection into a symbol (it's exactly the same behavior as pressing F8, because Flash uses JSFL when you do).

8. Using JSFL to create auto-buttons in Flash | flash developer | steven sacks
   October 20th, 2008 at 10:24 am

   [...] upon the previous post, one of the other things I do quite often is create MovieClip buttons using a little-known trick in [...]

9. Andres Pelaez Lujan
   April 9th, 2010 at 9:55 am

   Thank you man.

10. UglyComputer
    July 23rd, 2010 at 2:25 pm

    thanks for the post — Danny's comment just saved me hours and hours in importing AI files.
    bril.

Leave a Comment