Good answer, except it’s:
Window>Panels>Fill
in Flash 5, but otherwise perfectly functional I think.
I think the problem Dominions has with method one is that he doesn’t have enough frames in text layer 1
select the last keyframe in text layer 1 and press f5 (or Insert>Frame) repeatedly until there are as many frames as on text layer 2, and, eventually, layers 3, 4 and so on. All layers need to end up with the same number of frames.
If you program all this into a new symbol in the first place you can more easily move and re-use the objects (maybe buttons in a menu?
Anyway, although not as smooth and snazzy as the gradient method, if you want your text to appear snappily, it’s perfectly adequate.
If you wanted each line of your text to fade in as a whole (instead of a sliding gradient) you can make a new fading object
press [Ctrl+f8] (or Insert>New symbol…)
Select Movie Clip radio button from the dialog box and name the object. I called mine whiteFade
In the blank stage draw a white rectangle with no stroke. It doesnt actually matter what size the box is, as you can resize the final object however you like, but for convenience you might want to make the rectangle the height and width of your text objects.
If you are working on a white background, you might find it easier to see the object if you click the Show All Layers As Outlines button (a coloured square line) next to the layer name on the timeline.
Select your object with the Arrow Tool (press [V] on the keyboard) and press [f8] or Insert>Convert to symbol…
As before, select Movie Clip radio button from the dialog box and name the object. I called this one whiteBox
Select a frame on the layer with the box. This will determine how long the fade takes. If your movie is at 12fps (Modify>Movie… to chek and alter) and you want the fade to take 1/2 a second, select frame 6 (I’m sure you get the picture)
Hit [f5] to insert a frame. The timeline fills with fames up to the point you clicked.
Hit [f6] to insert a keyframe at frame 6
Select all the frames 1-6 in the timeline (I do this by Click frame one, Ctrl+Click frame 6) and right click ([Ctrl+Click] on mac) and select Create Motion Tween (or Insert>Create Motion Tween)
Select whiteBox in frame 1 and go to he Effect panel (Window>Panels>Effect) from the drop down list select Alpha and set the slider or type in the box to 0%
Finally, double click frame 6 to bring up the actions panel and select Stop from Basic Actions, then close the Actions panel
Now return to Scene 1 (Click where it says Scene 1 above theTimeline)
If you want to change the fade speed at a later date enter whiteFade (double click on an instance on the stage or in the Library (Ctrl+L) and simply drag the keyframe at frame 6 to the new position
Back at scene one you can simply place new instances of whiteFade over your text objects, one per line.
Position them in the timeline as you have placed the text objects in method one. It easiest to put them on their own layers. Remember to include enough frames on each layer to run to the end of your timeline.
You will notice that it is not necessary to refer to the object names that we entered to make this, but it really helps to keep tarack of things and make your library useable
and thats all she wrote ladiesand gentlemen…
Hope it all makes sense!