The New Guy

My skill of using Flash is clearly at the beginner stage. However, I’m currently in the process of designing a webite. I’m an aspiring game developer so the website will be used to showcase my artwork, videos, flash games, and will also have downloadable files such as mods and maps. I want my main flash to load as quickly as possible, so what I’m looking for is information or assistance on how to:

  1. load images and movies from an external source

  2. putting a simple preloader (one that just says loading) on the images/movies - if that’s even needed

  3. loading flash games - is it similar to loading a movie?

  4. downloading files from my flash website.

Like I said, I’m only a beginner to all of this so searching around on the forums is mind boggling. I’d greatly appreciate any tutorials or assistance you’d be able to offer.