well I have a question for you....lets think o this logically for a second.

you have a Main.swf and you want to load some External.swf's into that Main.swf...correct?

and you want this preloader to reflect ALL things being loaded (Main.swf + External.swf's)..

Q: how are you going to load the external.swf into the main.swf if the main.swf isnt even loaded yet?

now your Main.swf looks to not have ANYTHING in it?..is this correct?

It just has some emptyMovieClips (place holders/container clips) to load the external.swf's into? (menu.swf, header.swf..etc)

Is this correct?

If so then you wont need a preloader for the Main.swf as it should be VERY small in file size and is really just a container...

you can just check all your containers.....and add them up...making 3 movieClipsLoader instances (or however many you need)..

and adding up the callback data for the onProgress callbacks.. to make one..

"OR"... you can use the Multi-Loader class (created by FK member MyFriendIsATaco) that is free to use.. its been posted here a few times.. and I even made a quick working demo on its use the other day for another member.