I think you're on the right track...you can create a boolean value to check for, and if it's true, run a function. So if you have 4 different sections on one timeline (section 1, section 2, section 3, section 4)...and a user clicks "section 1"...you could have code on that frame that says:
Code:
if(playAll){
//interval that waits a predermined amount of time, then plays then advances the timeline
startTimer(this);
}else{
stop();
}
and your startTimer function could look something like this:
Code:
function startTimer(target:MovieClip){
var ref = target;
var myInterval:Number = setInterval(myTimer, 3000, ref);
}
function myTimer(target:MovieClip){
//advance timline
target.play();
}
so if somebody presses "play all", it will run your startTimer function which will advance through the sections every 3 seconds...
Hope that gets you started.
Josiah