need general strategizing advice, with animated buttons

[hermie]

I'm going to create a navigation bar, with animated buttons. I've done this before, but this time I've got a slightly trickier idea. I can think of some inelegant ways to do it, but I know I'm missing the better ways to get this done, since I'm new to AS.

The "over" states of the buttons will be animated, but the "up" states will not be. However, I do want the last button clicked to be animated (a different movie than the "over" animation) in its "up" state, as an indicator of the user's location.

So my question is, what's the best way to do this? I'm unsure as to where to put my AS code, and how to organize the two different "up" states. Will I have to have two versions of each button?

Thanks for any ideas!

[iREW]

Hi,

I don't think I do things the most logical ways sometimes, but here's how I'd get it done...

in your movie clip with the buttons, have another movie clip called 'selected_button'. When a button is pressed (eg 'home') add an action to it telling 'selected_button' to GoTo and Stop Frame Label 'home'. A frame label Home in 'selected_button' put the button you want for the new up-state of home, making sure it covers the existing button *is on a higher layer in your movie and is in the right place). Repeat this for all other buttons (using the same single 'selected_button' movie and adding frame labels and new up-state buttons - or the existing ones with colour effects) by adding the appropriate action and there you have it.

Not the easiest way, but i'd work.

[hermie]

Thanks... that sounds like a plan!