ok. im still having trouble with this. its probably related to my undeveloped flash 5 skills.

i have a preload scene that i want to preload 3 .swf files that are being loaded into 3 seperate movie clips.

picture1.swf into a movieclip (instance name picture1)
picture2.swf into a movieclip (instance name picture2)
picture3.swf into a movieclip (instance name picture3)

i would like the preload scene ( main timeline) to not go anywhere until i am absolutley certain that these 3 .swf files are loaded.

im not exactly sure where to put the actions. in flash 4, i'd use a couple of frames that loop through looking until we are ready, but for f5, shouldnt i use onClipEvent. (data?), or should i resort to frame looping?

an additional problem that i am wondering about is this:

once these swf files are loaded into instances in the preload scene. if i change scenes and have new instances that use the swf files, won;t i have to use load movie again to use the 3 swf files? and if so, am i just banking on the fact that they are cached.

sorry if this sounds wordy.

thanks mucho.