# Preloading mc question
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [November 8, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817 "2002-11-08T07:07:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@slayerment](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/slayerment)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817/1 "2002-11-08T07:07:15Z")
ok i did this tutorial [http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx/preloader.asp](http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx/preloader.asp) and everything went well. now say if rather than finding all the bytes for \_root. i only wanted to find the bytes for a mc how would it be done. i used the same code on that tutorial and targeted my getBytesLoaded(); and getBytesTotal(); functions to be
\_root.mcname.getBytesTotal(); and \_root.mcname.getBytesLoaded(); and am now getting an error message. neone get what im asking? thanks
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 7:09am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817/2 "2002-11-08T07:09:38Z")
getBytesTotal and such I believe are for the whole entire movie/dynamically loaded item all around.
I don’t believe there is a way to preloader 1 item (without dynamically loading it, which you can’t do with an MC, only an image or song, etc).
May I ask why you need to preload 1 mc only?
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 7:28am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817/3 "2002-11-08T07:28:24Z")
s’ppose you want a similar preloader to what the installer on windows has so it can tell you what item.
You could probably do it by saving the individual items as shockwaves and give them a function that returns their totalbytes when called
then in your main swf make a function that calls the one on each item and displays them and/or adds them up
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 7:30am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817/4 "2002-11-08T07:30:41Z")
well i guess i want to know how to make a percent preloader for loading in swf files. because ive been doing it by loading an swf into a blank mc container and then getting the bytes loaded and total for that mc container. is this the best way to make a percent preloader for this?
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 7:35am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817/5 "2002-11-08T07:35:36Z")
Put your preloader on the .swf file you are loading.
Just don’t use \_root because that will read the \_root of your main timeline of your main movie.
So you can use \_parent I believe.
If not \_parent… try “this” (no quotes).
\I really need to get crankin on my Flash version of my site… I would know this if I worked on that part\ :-\
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 7:42am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817/6 "2002-11-08T07:42:16Z")
hey thx for the quick response and all ur help 🙂
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 7:44am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/preloading-mc-question/7817/7 "2002-11-08T07:44:03Z")
No problem, I hope you get it to work though 🙂
\Alright, its official, I am going to work on my Flash version tomorrow… that will give me a chance to figure this stuff out myself and I can stop guessing…lol\