Pop-up menu and button issue

Wow… It’s been so long since I’ve been active here I had to create a new account!

Well. At any rate… Hello all and thank you in advance for any help you may be able to lend to my plight.

I don’t have much issue with old school animation (Tweening/Keyframing) in Flash which is what I’m acustomed to. But I realize my need to begin doing it in actionscripting and frankly AS makes my mind bleed when I look at it. ><

Nonetheless, as a designer I’ve been handed the task of building an web-based interactive console for a future project. I’ve met only a few minor snags but one is really bothering me.

I have an invisible “button” (MC+AS, not a Buton symbol) that fills most of the main body of the console in the background. I also have a few navigation links at the bottom which on release bring up a respective pop-up menu of extra “tools” (MC). My issue is that when the pop-up is up and active on the stage I can still click the invisible button underneath and perform its actions. I need these pop-ups to be “solid” if that makes sense. When they are up and active I don’t want functionality of whats beneath them to come through.

Is there a simple fix for this or am I looking a bigger issue?

Thank you all again for the assistance.

-B-