ok thanks v much for your reply the 2 swf files are definately in the same directory as i have already said in the previous post

the problem is that the movie loads and the "continue" button appears, obviously this allows the user to start the movie. this is the problem because the movie can be started before the music has loaded! the preloader loads the movie but doesn't sadly include the external music file so this only starts to load after the preloader

you may ask why i am using an external swf for the music but i am having difficulty controlling the background music over the different scenes so this is not viable.

so i am basically looking for either a preloader that includes external swf files or a preloader that loads external swf files only

sorry if this isn't very clear but is hard to put down on paper thanks in advance - barry