# Reference Functions On Main Timeline

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/reference-functions-on-main-timeline/278276>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [December 25, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/reference-functions-on-main-timeline/278276 "2008-12-25T16:54:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xFlashStudentx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/57b2e6/32.png) [@xFlashStudentx](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/xFlashStudentx)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/reference-functions-on-main-timeline/278276/1 "2008-12-25T16:54:24Z")

</div>

Merry Xmas flashers.

I’m trying to access a function and a movieclip on the main time line from within a Movieclip. In ActionScript 2.0 days, this would suffice:

\_root.exchangeMovies();  
\_root.myContainerMC.gotoAndPlay(1);

Now, I know we don’t use the underscore in as 3.0; thus, we just use the word “root”. However, I tried to use just “root” or “parent” but that’s not working. Here’s the error message:

\*\*

1061: Call to a possibly undefined method exchangeMovies through a reference with static type flash.display:DisplayObject.\*\*

Any assistance will be so grand. Thank you.

ActionScript 3.0 made alot of issues hard for beginner and intermediate programs as Colin Moock charged in this lengthy article: [http://www.insideria.com/2008/07/the-charges-against-actionscri.html](http://www.insideria.com/2008/07/the-charges-against-actionscri.html)