Keyboard event and controlling timeline

1

I am very new to AS3. I have not wanted to migrate to it, but have been forced to do it for a current project which uses AS3 components. I am creating a slideshow (full screen) and will be creating each slide as a separate SWF file. I have been successful in loading and unloading the slides (SWF’s). I need to use the arrow keys to move through the slides. I have that working, but want to load the slides without hard coding everything in each frame of the main timeline. I am using a var to get the currentFrame value. All is well exept that if the left arrow key is pressed and the main timeline is on FRAME 1, the playhead seems to think it can go backward to frame zero and then into negative numbers with each press of the left arrow key. I need to be able to stop the timeline from advancing backward at frame one. I have tried several methods that either do nothing or cause the right arrow key to work unpredictably and keep returning to FRAME 1 no matter what if statement and evaluation I perform. Here’s the current code on FRAME 1 of the main swf:

stop();
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN;

import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.display.Loader;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.ProgressEvent;

var swf:MovieClip;
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
var defaultSWF:URLRequest = new URLRequest("slide1.swf");
loader.load(defaultSWF);
addChild(loader);

var currentFrameNumber:Number;
currentFrameNumber = currentFrame;


function setup() {
    stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, useKeys);
}
setup();

this.stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, checkFrame);

function checkFrame(e:Event):void {
    if (MovieClip(root).currentFrame <= 0) {
    MovieClip(root).gotoAndStop(1);
    }
};


/*
///STUFF I'VE TRIED TO GET THIS TO WORK -- COMMENTED OUT
frameChecker.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,enterFrameFunction);
function enterFrameFunction(event:Event) {
trace("do something repetitive");
    if (currentFrameNumber <=0);
    trace("frameChecker is active");
    //currentFrameNumber == 1;
    MovieClip(root).gotoAndStop(1);
}
*/

function useKeys(keyEvent:KeyboardEvent) {

 if (keyEvent.keyCode == 37) {
     currentFrameNumber = currentFrameNumber -1;
        prevFrame();
        //MovieClip(root).prevFrame();
        trace("Left Arrow pressed.");
        trace(currentFrameNumber);
    removeChild(loader);
    var newSWFRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest("slide" + currentFrameNumber + ".swf");
    loader.load(newSWFRequest);
    addChild(loader);
    //checkFrameNumber();
        
        
    } else if (keyEvent.keyCode == 39) {
         currentFrameNumber = currentFrameNumber +1;
            nextFrame();
            //MovieClip(root).nextFrame;
            trace("Right Arrow pressed.");
            trace(currentFrameNumber);
            removeChild(loader);
            var newSWFRequest2:URLRequest = new URLRequest("slide" + currentFrameNumber + ".swf");
            loader.load(newSWFRequest2);
            addChild(loader);
            //checkFrameNumber();

    }
}

ANY HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Thanks!:cons: