… you’re thinking that it’s too hard so it is. I’ve writen a few posts on this… so I do suggest taking a look around at the older posts, especially those in “best of Kirupa”, but these are the basics.
Levels are pretty simple. When you write the code in an html document, to embed a flash player, there is an address in there for an swf on the server.
The embeded player loads this swf into level0. From your words I can tell you right now that that’s all you’ve seen of your own movies.
Now… the Flash player can also take more movies and display them. It starts with level0 the base movie. If you load something into level1, it is played by the Flash player in a place above level0 physicaly. A movie in level1 will cover the movie in level0 so that you can’t see it there. It’s still there though. The processor is still paying attention to it, it just doesn’t have to display it because it’s displaying things in level1.
note… that’s a little deceiving because if you have a clear area of the stage in an swf in level1 whatever is below it on level0 will show through to the viewer.
Think of levels as layers of a sort which are not the same as internal layers of a movie, but instead are external layers (very much like html layers) which reside one above another in a stack.
Just to let you know… there will come a time when you will use loadMovieNum(); extensively, and it will be easy to understand. Once I started using and understanding them, I really realized that I couldn’t live without them.
You’re second question is actually a false notion. The nature of “" vs “.” is that there is no vs. You use “.” in Flash 5.0 and above. You also use "” in Flash 5.0 and above. Those are both part of the same naming syntax system for dot notation of location of movie clips.
_root.myMovieClip.myVariable=something;
in a statement like this, you see both of those notations. The “_” is used at the beginning of certain Flash words. In this case “_root” refers to the main timeline… the timeline upon which all other media in your movie opperates. Each period is used to separate elements that you’re refering to in a chain of objects. So the variable called “myVariable” exists inside of the movie clip called “myMovieClip” which in turn exists on the main timeline or the root timeline.
If that’s still not too clear… take a look at my web site www.centerspin.com. gotoAndRead Flash 101: an introduction to Flash. Pay special attention to the paragraph on OOP, but read the whole thing… it should give you a more clear understanding of the notation that we use in Flash.
When you’re done reading that, come back to this post and make a reply to me. I’ll explain loadMovie and loadMovieNum so that you can understand them.
(PS you like that Flash humor in there? gotoAndRead )