Thumbnails tutorial - how can i make the thumbnails scroll by default?

i have modified the xml photogallery on my site as i only want to use the scrolling thumbnail component but as a tool to scroll images.

2 modifications i would like to make that have me stuck!

  1. how can i make the thumbnails scroll by default on load?

  2. how can i add a little preloader within the empty thumbnail holder movieclip? i am loading the main gallery images directly into this clip rather than using it to display thumbnails

many thanks in advance if you can help!

natalie