It sounds like you’re referencing an object incorrectly, and it’s probably due to your use of this in your ActionScript. From the point of view of your function there, this refers to the timeline in which this code appears — namely, the timeline of your nested “menu” movie clip.

The timeline of the “menu” clip doesn’t contain “sections,” so you’ll need to refer to the parent timeline of “menu,” which does contain the “sections” clip.

Try this:

button1.addEventListener(
  MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,
  function(evt:MouseEvent):void {
    MovieClip(this.parent).sections.gotoAndStop("spaCap");
  }
);

I have a nested movie clip called “menu”. In that mc I have another called “button1″ that is only on frame 10. On frame 10 of the “menu” is a script:

button1.addEventListener(
MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,
function(evt:MouseEvent):void {
this.sections.gotoAndStop(”spaCap”);
}
);

Now I would like this script to go to a frame labeled “spaCap” of a movie clip called “sections” which is actually on the same level as “menu”.

This script runs and i get the error:

TypeError: Error #1010: A term is undefined and has no properties.
at MethodInfo-26()

I think it has something to do with the script being on frame 10, but I put it on frame 1 and it did the same thing. What should I do?

Thanks for the purchase! Your question is answered in the book, but it most certainly isn’t staring you (or anybody) in the face. In fact, we’ve had a number of readers ask where the files are — both privately and through Amazon comments — so we’re breaking from the publisher’s norm for the second edition by making it a note at the beginning of every chapter.

Meanwhile, in the case of the book you have in your hands, you can flip to the inside of the very first printed page (with the copyright info) and you’ll see where to go … but it’s quite the hidden URL!

Here’s what you want:

www.friendsofED.com/download.html?isbn=159059861X

or

www.FoundationFlashCS3.com/sample-files.html

Thanks again for picking up a copy!

Sure thing! Glad to help. Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers assumes you have no experience with programming. The reviews on Amazon are mostly (as in, 99%) positive, and one or two folks have suggested that the ActionScript Basics chapter is worth the price of the book.

I happen to be self-taught, and over the years, I think that’s had a positive effect on my writing style in terms of ActionScript tutorials.

I am a graphic design professor and I am having to teach Flash this coming semester, with my last experience with the program being Flash 4. I was always able to get around in Macromedia Director’s Lingo, but ActionScript baffles me. How basic does your book start out? So many of the self help books assume some basic knowledge, and I don’t have the basic knowledge, or the aptitude, for that matter.

If you check out my reply to wes, you’ll find what you’re after. To go to a specific frame number or label, you need to invoke the MovieClip.gotoAndPlay() (or MovieClip.gotoAndStop()) method on a movie clip instance. If you have the movie clip’s instance name handy, you would specify that instance name, followed by a dot, then the method:

someClip.gotoAndPlay(15)

Or you can leave off the movie clip reference and the method will apply to the timeline in which the frame script appears, such as the main timeline:

gotoAndPlay("someFrameLabel")

Thanks!

I believe the open-in-tabs issue, as opposed to open-in-a-window, is a user configurable browser setting.