linking movie clips across layers

yes, im new and lost

[jeremymack]

ok i've built individual movie clips on seperate layers.
within each movie clip i have a menu with buttons.
i cant link the buttons to its relevant movie clip.
i dont want to use scenes...
i tried to loadMovie, but it just stacks the movie clips on top of each other
this is the last thing i tried, and, of course, it doesnt work.

on (release) {
_root.home_mc.play();
}

does anyone know a way to link buttons within movie clips to other movie clips on different layers?

or, does anyone know of an UNDERSTANDABLE tutorial?

thanks!

[jeremymack]

oh just thought of something-

would it just be easier to have all the movie clips on one layer in the main timeline with labels and simply use the goToAndplay/stop() method?

then at least i dont have to deal with parents/_roots...

no...just realized that wont work b/c of the menu...

do i need to put my navigation menu on the main timeline only and link from there?

if so how?

[jeremymack]

okay

on(release) {
loadMovieNum("OPT_about.swf", 2);
play();
}

is working...
problem is that it loads to the top left of the area, and the movie that the button is pressed from remains visible...its like it loads OVER the first movie...

how do i get its position to be centered, and also how to make the first movie clip dissapear when the second is loaded?

[Richard_N]

you load it into the same level as the one your trying to replace, or load it into a higher level and set the the lower movies parameters to _visible = false;

The second way has the advantage of being able to reset it again to visible without having to reload it.

you probably need to put the actionscript on frame ne of th _root movie rather than the button along the lines of

buttoninstancename.onPress =function() {
loadMovieNum("whatever.swf,2);
_level0.visible = false;
}

(you may needdd to mess with the level 0 bit, _root may be better or _this) have not got time to check it.

To centre a movie just add this actionscript to the first frame of the movie you want to centre

_x = 200
_y = 200

this will offst the movie by 200 pixels to the left and down on load, obviously alter the figures to suit.

[jeremymack]

what i meant was hat the first movie is centered. when i link to second movie (with button) the second movie loads, but further up and to the left of the movie with the button.

thanks i will try your suggestion with the actionscript!

[jeremymack]

got it to work

on (release) {
_parent.gotoAndPlay("frame label");
stop();
}

i tried to make it more complicated than it needed to be

thx for the help!