Dynamic Text problem [Flash 8]

programming flash
1

I’m tearing my hair out hear and I think I’m missing something obvious. Would appreciate any help.

In the library I have a movieclip called topLabel (and exported to AS with the same name) and in that it has a dynamic textbox called mylabel_txt. This movieclip has 1 frame and 3 layers. The dynamic textbox is on its own layer.

This is the AS at the root:

for(i=1;i<5;i++) {
 trace("attaching movie label"+i);
 attachMovie("topLabel","label"+i, _root.getNextHighestDepth(),{_x:60+25*i, _y:75});
 
 trace("changing text on label"+i);
 this["label"+i].mylabel_txt.text = "this is label"+i;
 trace(this["label"+i].mylabel_txt.text);
}

I also added this in the topLabel movieclip for testing purposes.

trace("Creating instance of movie.");

Nothing appears in the dynamic text boxes. Here is the output I receive in the debugger:

attaching movie label1
changing text on label1
this is label1
attaching movie label2
changing text on label2
this is label2
attaching movie label3
changing text on label3
this is label3
attaching movie label4
changing text on label4
this is label4
Creating instance of movie.
Creating instance of movie.
Creating instance of movie.
Creating instance of movie.

When I see that it makes sense that nothing is appearing in the textbox because the text is set before the instance is put on the stage (if I’m interpreting that correctly).

This seems so incredibly simply! What am I missing here???

Thanks,
Mathminded