360|Flex Denver 2011 – Seriously, You Can Do Cool Things: Getting Advanced with the Text Layout Framework

The Text Layout Framework (TLF) provides Flex developers advanced typographic and text layout features for both Flex SDK components and custom components. Utilizing TLF can range from straightforward and easy to complex and difficult depending on what a developer needs and wants. However, with some understanding and effort a developer can mold the TLF into something useful and cool. The goal of this session is to briefly review the underlying mechanics of the TLF and discuss strategies and approaches for manipulating these mechanics to add custom functionality and interactivity to text in Flex beyond what is available out of the box, as well as incorporating non-TLF components.

We will discuss creating custom text operations and smoothly incorporating them into the TLF, creating richly featured text components and applications, and bringing user interaction to text beyond just simple text input. Also presented will be code and examples showcasing the possibilities including recreating some features from word processors and desktop publishing software.