Using the Load Movie Command

To play additional movies without closing the Flash Player, or to switch movies without loading another HTML page, or to reduce overall file weight by splitting your movie into smaller movies you can use the loadMovie action or method.

Movies are loaded using ACTIONS. You can use a button action, script or keyframe action. When you load a movie, you can specify a level or movie clip target into which the movie will load. If you load a movie into a target, the loaded movie inherits the properties of the targeted movie clip. Once the movie is loaded, you can change those properties.

The unloadMovie action and method remove a movie previously loaded by loadMovie. Explicitly unloading movies with unloadMovie ensures a smooth transition between movies and may decrease the memory required by the Flash Player.

To use the load movie command:

1. Select the button or keyframe you will use to load the movie.

2. Select, open or switch to the ACTIONS PANEL.
3. Make sure you are in NORMAL MODE. See the figure above.
4. Select BROWSER/NETWORK from the left hand panel.
5. Double click the LOADMOVIE command.
6. Enter the required information in the dialog box. The URL option is the name of the .SWF file you will load. Make sure you add the .SWF file extension. For the level choose 1 or above.
7. Levels are hierarchical. Higher numbers appear above those with lower numbers.

Use the loadMovie action to do any of the following:

1. Play a sequence of banner ads that are SWF files by placing a loadMovie action at the end of each SWF file to load the next movie.
2. Develop a branching interface that lets the user choose among several different SWF files.
3. Build a navigation interface with navigation controls in level 0 that load other levels. Loading levels produces smoother transitions than loading new HTML pages in a browser.