I'm curious as to people's thoughts for the best methods to display content in
Flex. In particular, I'm creating a UI and want one of the first panels that is
displayed to the user to display some simple instructions on how to use the UI.
Should I import HTML from an external file? Should I embed XML or HTML in the
SWF? Or, should I simply code the content into the SWF? I want the content to
be styled like the rest of my application - fonts, colors, etc.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

You can embed the content in the swf (unless you want it to change).
Then you can style it using standard css.
This way the resulting application is modular, and if you change the css in
the future, changes are reflected in all your styled components.

More here:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/1/fle...mmon/html/wwhe
lp.htm?context=Using_Flex_Builder&file=brady510.ht m

Just put the text in a TextArea control, but ensure the backgroundColor is set
to the backgroundColor of its parent, borderStyle is set to "none", selectable
is set to "false", focusThickness is set to "0", and verticalScrollPolicy is
set to "off".

Define the instructions in the htmlText property.