w. brants, thanks again for pointing me to the above pages. Howeve, I spent a couple hours trying to figure all that stuff out...and the problem is, I just don't understand it yet, and I need to move forward.

So, I'm going to post one more time, and hopefully illuminate this a little more:

Here's my code (numbers are the frame names that I use in the .fun):

one
mc1.loadMovie("QM-SWF-01.swf");

two
if (mc1.getBytesLoaded>=mc1.getBytesTotal){
gotoAndPlay("five");
}

three
gotoAndPlay("two");

four
//i leave this blank so I can visually see where my different movie clips are

five
mc2.loadMovie("QM-SWF-02a.swf");

six
if (mc2.getBytesLoaded>=mc2.getBytesTotal){
gotoAndPlay("nine");
}

seven
gotoAndPlay("six");

eight
//blank

nine
mc3.loadMovie("QM-SWF-02b.swf");

ten
if (mc3.getBytesLoaded>=mc3.getBytesTotal){
gotoAndPlay("thirteen");
}

eleven
gotoAndPlay("ten");

twelve
//blank

thirteen
//for a debugger, I had a congratulatory message here...but that's only the first success

fourteen
//if you get here and you have to wait for a video to load...then there's something wrong with my preloader. However, if the movie plays right away, that's what I want

Also, when you push the button, the video should also play right away, no loading! If it has to load, then something is wrong.

fifteen and sixteen are also video files.

So, before I get into the more complicated AssetManagers or the other AS3 stuff, I should be able to write this correctly...or rather, I figure that if I can't get this simple loadMovie stuff correct, there's no way I'll be able to get the other stuff that you recommend, w.

Here's a link to the .fun file:
http://www.brianheagney.com/Q-Matic/...PL-test_05.fun
Here's a link to the external .swf:
http://www.brianheagney.com/Q-Matic/...load-files.zip

Also, I would be hiring or sub-contracting someone else to do this, but it seems that no one else in my network knows flash. So I'm getting kind of desperate. I would imagine that this would only take a half-hour for someone knowledgeable in Koolmoves.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

thanks again to anyone who can help out.