Hide/Show symbols or set alpha to 0%

[Whordan]

I have a simple program which has everything shown on several layers but in just one frame. I was wondering if there was a way to have a button make a symbol hidden or shown without changing frames. Also I think setting the alpha to zero would work for me. I use this code to change the color of a symbol and I'm looking for something similar:

on (release)
{
colorchange = new Color("/ball");
colorchange.setRGB(0x0000FF);
}

"ball" being the name of my movie clip in this instance...

[Ned Murphy]

depnding on where ball is...

ball._visible = false;

will make it disappear as long as it is a movieclip or button instance. Setting it to true will make it reappear.

[Whordan]

Awesome thank you. One more thing... Can I make the same button make it both visible and hidden.

i.e. Click the button to show - Click the button again to hide.

how would I set that code up?

[rlc5611]

The difference between alpha = 0 and visible = 0 is that buttons are still active with alpha 0. If you set the button's visibility to zero, you won't be able to click on it and will have to restore its visibility by some other action.

[Ned Murphy]

You can switch between the two states with the same button using an if/else conditional:

if(ball._visible){
ball._visible = false;
} else {
ball._visible = true;
}

You can use _alpha = 0 versus _alpha = 100 in place of changing the _visible property.

[Whordan]

Thanks for all the help. I think I got it now.

[rlc5611]

if(ball._visible){
ball._visible = false;
} else {
ball._visible = true;
}

The easier way to switch states is

ball._visible = !ball._visible;

[Ned Murphy]

Thanks for that one!