Xml mess - making simple menu proves to be impossible

I need someone to look over my AS and xml… I’ve been sitting with the same code for hours and hours, and I cannot for my life figure out what the bloody h*ll is wrong with it. It’s real simple, I just want an xml-based portfolio. It’s based on the squirrel and portfolio tuts here on site, so this is my starting point… but the hierarchy that I want is sort of different from those two, so I had to start coding differently. Much of the code in the .fla attached are just incomplete snippets of what I really want. I’ve tried teaching myself programming, but for me it goes in one ear and out the other… it’s really tough for me to even get through the technical stuff in the XML tuts here. At times like this, it’s pretty easy to blame it on the fact that you’re female, and that nature has decided that programming will be the one hurdle in life that you’ll never master. (This is the time where the guru-ess of the forum walks up and leads me to some kind of salvation)

j/k.

Basically, this is what I have to get working:
[INDENT]categories -> for different types of work
projects -> for different projects under one type of work. This will be a list menu that people can select in order to view…
images -> five in total, to show the scope of the project. I want the url of these images to be created in AS, so that for example, the project titles correspond with the subfolder name in the “images” folder. All images under these folders are named 01-05.jpg
description -> each image has a corresponding description that is shown together with the images.

[/INDENT]Other than that, there are just a couple of small fancy frills… but I’m willing to set that aside for now. Right now I just want it to work in the most basic fashion… The things in the .zip file are essentially pieces of a bigger site that is under construction, so don’t mind the basic design.

Any help is most appreciated. When I get rich and famous with this portfolio, I will reward accordingly :slight_smile:

Akilah