Preloader, loadmovie, empty movieclip dimensions, and more

Hi everyone,
I have put something together here that so far is just a page with 12 links. If you click on the dragable buttons, they load some experimental external swfs into that page. I have a few problems as you can tell by the subject of the thread, that I hope to resolve.
1- You have to double click the buttons. I know the scripts are not quite correct. How can I change the codes to use a normal single click on the buttons?
2- I tried to use a preloader on each of the movies loading into the stage, but I think there were some path problems. Am I suppose to avoid using _root and may be other terms?
3- What would be the aproach if I wanted to load those movies into a specific area, say a 300px by 300 px. Right now the empty movieclip I am using is taking three quarter of the screen. I would like to gradually use some more graphic to give it a half decent look.
4- If you click on the 12 oclock button, it loads a 3 minute clip of a song I have made (be aware of the lengthy loading time). you can see bits and pieces of the words on the right side of the screen. Is there any way to scale that clip to a smaller size so you can see the whole thing without messing with the clip itself. The full size is here.

Somebody tell me I’m suppose to plan ahead even when I want to do a small project like this one.

Thank you all so much.
My wife tells me that I have kirupa adiction.