Yes, that should be quite easy to do. You can actually reference any variables in any movie clips from anywhere in the movie. All you need is the correct path. While the concept of Paths is nothing new in the world of computers.. I believe it could still use some clarification. Actually, the Flash Help has an entire page dedicated to this subject. However, I found that page very confusing when I first read it.. and I was already quite familiar with the concept of paths! So instead of sending folks to their Flash Help file, and further confusing them , I have taken the liberty of putting together my own little "article" on Flash Paths (or "Specifying Targets" as the Flash Help puts it)... May I have better luck than Macromedia

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Paths
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Flash Movies have an internal structure similar to the "tree structure" of folders on your computer's hard drive. You can think of each movie as the drive, and each movie clip instance is a folder. Or, if you prefer, think of it in Internet terms.. the movie is the domain (www.domain.com) and each movie clip is a folder. If you are familiar with the syntax of either of those systems, then you are all set, Flash has pretty much the same syntax:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>The / character separates folders.

<LI>If the path begins with the / character, it refers to the root, or highest level as seen from the current location. In flash, that is the main movie (outside all the movie clips).

<LI>Double dots .. refer to the parent folder.
</UL>

The : character, on the other hand, is used only in Flash. It separates the path from the variable name.

You may also have seen "_level0" used in Flash movies. That is akin to saying "C:\" or "http://www.domain.com/". It refers to the main movie, by name. This is sometimes necessary because Flash allows you to load multiple movies into the same Flash player (the ever popular "Load Movie" command). Movies are loaded into different levels, each with a number, beginning at 0. The movies may be referenced by their level numbers as in "_level2", which refers to the main timeline of the movie that is loaded in level2.


Some examples:

/mclip1

That is the path to the movie clip instance called "mclip1". That movie clip is located directly on the root, or main movie; hence the "/" at the beginning. The statement:

/mclip1/mclip2

refers to the movie clip instance called "mclip2" which is located within the movie clip instance called "mclip1". Now let's say you are currently in "mclip2", and you want to target another movie clip called "mclip3" which is also inside "mclip1". There are two ways to do that:

/mclip1/mclip3

which starts at the root, and includes the complete path to "mclip3". Or you can do it this way:

../mclip3

which refers to "mclip3" in the parent clip, which is "mclip1".

Now those are all movie clips, but what about variables? Variables behave much like files in folders. They can reside in the root (main movie), or they can reside inside folders (movie clips). Let's say you want to refer to the variable called "variable1" which is in the movie clip "mclip2". Here's how you would do it:

/mclip1/mclip2:variable1

And what if simply want to get to a variable in the main movie, but you are inside a movie clip?

/:varname

It's that simple.

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Sorry if that was more info than you wanted, but I hope you find some of it useful. Oh, and if you happen to have any suggestions that would help me improve that "article", please let me know.. since it's not the first, and I'm sure it won't be the last time that someone asks that question...


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