# Preloader question from a forum newbie

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloader-question-from-a-forum-newbie/222831
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [April 17, 2007, 10:43am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloader-question-from-a-forum-newbie/222831 "2007-04-17T10:43:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![spaghbol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@spaghbol](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/spaghbol)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2007, 10:43am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloader-question-from-a-forum-newbie/222831/1 "2007-04-17T10:43:24Z")

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Hi all (i’m a newbie - please be gentle lol)

I have posted on certain other forums _ahem_ but have had no luck. This post is basically what I said on the other forums. I hope you can help me - I really do appreciate it and once the project I am working on is finished I will post back the link to show you what you have helped me with! :beam: I apologise now if this has been covered before - I’m sure it has and really I should search before posting - but I’m pushed for time so I thought I would just post anyway lol.  
Here goes:

Flash 8 Prof - mac.

I have a main swf, which has 13 buttons and a empty movie clip called holder\_mc. When you click on a button it loads an external swf into the holder\_mc, and you can navigate from one external swf to another by pressing the Next and Previous buttons (I call these the controls). When you click on Next or Previous, one swf is unloaded and another is loaded into the holder\_mc. This all works fine (hope that all makes sense).

What I would like to know is should I have a preloader for each swf? I have already left a frame at the start of each swf’s timeline just in case. My assumption is that I would need a preloader for the main swf (which is about 24kb) and then a preloader for every external swf (which on average are about 40kb). Is this correct?

I have a feeling I will be asking lots of questions about preloaders so I will keep using this thread. I appreciate any help you can give. I see myself as a comfortable Flash user but not so comfortable with Actionscript - probably top-end beginner/intermediate so please be gentle! If you could explain as much as possible I would appreciate it ![](http://forum.kirupa.com/uploads/kirupa/1105/8ed432c9025fd9ca.gif)

Thanks in advance,

Theo