# Navigating timelines **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [September 23, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/navigating-timelines/65099 "2004-09-23T01:35:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![skyver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@skyver](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/skyver)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/navigating-timelines/65099/1 "2004-09-23T01:35:33Z")
hi… i have a main movie which i’m using to load external movies into a container clip via a nav bar on the first frame of the main movie. There is no problem in loading the movie itself. that appears on the stage. In each of the loaded movies there is another navigation movie clip where clicking on a but will load a particular page/image… for some reason when i test the movie on it’s own the images load… but when i load the movie into the main movie the movie loads but the nav bar does not work… i’m sure it’s something small i’m missing reagrding the target path but i can’t seem to get it… any help would be appreciated… i’ve attached a rough test example of what i’m working on… scene.swf loads into test.swf. ---
**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 23, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/navigating-timelines/65099/2 "2004-09-23T01:58:37Z")
Welcome to the forums! Your problem is a very common one, and also very simple to solve. In scene.swf you are using \_root. \_root ALWAYS refers to the main timeline of your project, including all external files. So in your case \_root will refer to the main timeline of test, because that is your main file that you are loading all other files into. So when you load scene into test, scene as an fla or swf no longer exists. All of scene’s contents are now part of test, and more specifically, they are loaded into the contents movie clip of test. So the path to anything that WAS in scene is now \_root.contents --\> all the stuff in scene. Does that make sense? Now to your solution. There are a few ways of fixing this. You can start with the movie clip in scene you want to put an action on and work backwards using \_parent. Imagine you are describing your great grandparents without using those words. You would say they were the parents of your parents parents right? In other words the path to your great grandparents would be \_parent.\_parent.\_parent.you Do you follow me? I have never really like working with \_parent. Personally I prefer to go in the other direction, that is to start with the \_root of the whole shebang and work inwards to the object of my desire. In your case, the problem lies with the button in scene that you want to click to gotoAndPlay(2) of the movie clip pics. So the path to pics once it is loaded into content is no longer \_root.pics. It is now \_root.content.pics. Hope this helps! :hr: ---
**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 23, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/navigating-timelines/65099/3 "2004-09-23T02:06:22Z")
thanks for your long reply… i appreciate the time… i’ve tried that path: \_root.contents.pics.gotoAndPlay(2) but it still sisn’t working… does it work for you???