Buttons in moviclips. Can they control the main timeline?

[olliebopsa]

does anyone know of any actionscript that can be applied to a button that is
IN a movieclip so it can navigate the main timeline INSTEAD of just the mov
ieclip's timeline?

I've tried applying this script to a button in a movieclip:


on (press) {gotoAndPlay("scene1","1");

}


this doesn't seem to navigate the maintimeline at all though.

I would really appreciate any help

[NTD]

Hi,

Button in a Movie Clip explained.

This seems to be one of the most frequent questions at the Flashkit forums and many others.Hopefully, this will explain the mysterious non working buttons inside movie clips.

Once you put a button in a movieClip the typical gotoAndPlay("Scene2",1) will not work...

That is a global function that works on the main timeline only...

So what you need to do is use the MovieClip Method by the same name...it differs in the fact that it only takes only one argument....and that is frameNumber or a frameLabel. FrameLabels when you're dealing with scenes make life a lot easier...so,here's how you do it...

Go to the first frame of the scene and put a "label". To assign a "label" to a frame... Select your frame. Then just go to Window>Panels>Frame and type your label in the Label box.

Then on your button in your movieClip, put this:

code:

---

on (release) { 

_root.gotoAndStop("yourLabel"); 

} 

---

Of course, replace "yourLabel" with the actual label you put on your frame...

You can enter this in the Expert Mode in the Actions Panel...or to enter this in the Normal Mode in the Actions Panel(MX), scroll down to Objects>MovieClip>gotoAndStop (or gotoAndPlay)......... DoubleClick and it automatically puts the on(release) part of the code.

Then in the Expression box, type the path in front of the dot (in this case, _root). Where it asks for the frame, put in your "label".............be sure to put quotes around it.

hope it helps
NTD

[JavaHead]

Here's a tip, use the little target/crosshair icon above the input box on the actionscript panel. It helps!

[olliebopsa]

Thanks a bunch people. You've made someone very happy!!!!!!!!

[CRO8]

hey I was just going to ask this question but did a search b/f hand. glad I did. this is exactly what I need.

Thanks!