TechNote (Archived)

Text in editable text fields do not display below mask layers

Issue

Text in an editable text field does not display if it is covered by a mask layer.

Reason

The Mask feature in Flash is only capable of masking objects drawn by Flash, not objects that Flash relies on the operating system to draw like device text. To conserve .swf file size, editable text fields default to device text. Editable text fields using device text cannot be masked.

Solution

To use editable text fields in a mask, go to the Text Field properties dialog box of the text field object and select the Include Font Outlines check box.