# \_root, \_parent, and this

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [September 2, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005 "2003-09-02T21:51:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![excember](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b38774/32.png) [@excember](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/excember)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005/1 "2003-09-02T21:51:46Z")

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I posted this same problem a few days ago but i never got any feedback …I searched all the forums for a similar problem but found none with a complete answer.  
Can someone please give me some insight as to why my functioning slideshow .fla is not functioning when i load the .swf into my main movie. The buttons are not showing up and neither is the mask around the mages. I used this to load the movie

on (release) {  
\_root.contents.loadMovie(“traditional2.swf”);  
}

any ideas why this would not be working ? thanks for any help!

i will email the fla to anyone…i wasn’t able to post the swf on here even though it was only 74,011 bytes

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005/2 "2003-09-02T21:55:51Z")

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It doesn’t work because you are using \_root. Targeting is a VERY important thing in AS.

\_root is the first timeline in the hierarchy, so when you load that movie into a main movie, the whole timeline structure changes and the first timeline of the main movie will become the \_root.

Here are some tutorials on targeting…

\_root, \_parent, and this…  
[http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/tricks/root\_parent\_this.htm](http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/tricks/root_parent_this.htm)

Relative Addressing…  
[http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/tricks/relativeaddressing.htm](http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/tricks/relativeaddressing.htm)

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005/3 "2003-09-03T02:31:39Z")

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Thanks for your help, i appreciate it

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005/4 "2003-09-03T06:39:37Z")

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improve post titles

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005/5 "2003-09-03T06:44:22Z")

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eyezberg, this is an endless battle… :hangover:

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:51am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005/6 "2003-09-03T07:51:27Z")

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no surrender!! lol  
if you post it once for every member,  
sooner or later, everybody should know…  
got some spare time, so it’s ok… 🙂

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 8:01am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/-root--parent-and-this/30005/7 "2003-09-03T08:01:21Z")

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Yea, hopefully we’ll win this battle  
😉