Stupid preloader question

i’ve gone through the kirupa preloader tutorial and i can’t figure out a basic thing. i’m trying to preload some swf’s that i’ve already made. i’ve tried importing the swf to the preloader movie, but the buttons on the swf don’t work for some reason in the other movie.
is there a way to load the external movie rather than importing and placing it in the preloader movie?
i’m confused as hell on this. would greatly appreciate any help.

The most common reason for loaded movies not working, is references to _root in the loaded movie. Try open up the flas and change _root references to relative references ie/this,_parent etc.