Simple Flash Preloader
Flash5

note: I'm not giving you the step by step how to code a Preloader. I will give you the location to download the template I made and use. You can open it and dig into the code. For detailed step by step buy either of these books.. "Essential Flash 5 for Web Professionals" or Essential 4.." by Lynn Kyle. These books give really good instructions for the beginner. (That's where I learned.)

• Open, create, and finish your movie
• Download this file from my site.. http://bobbye.net/hot-tips/preloadertemplate.fla
• You can see from the screenshot below what to put in specific frames but what you can't see from the pic is...
  • in your original file name your scene "Main"
    
  • create a 2nd scene (Insert, Scene)
  • name this one "Preloader"
  • make sure the preloader scene is the FIRST scene
  • in this new Preloader scene add 2 layers, "actions" and "tags"
• Open my .FLA file
• Highlight both layers, "copy frames", and then "paste frames" into your new scene
• The only thing you have to change would be...
  • look closely now at the screen shot below....
  • label frame 1 of the Tag layer "Begin"
  • in frame 1 of the Action layer..
    • the 'ifFrameLoaded' where mine has 40 change it to fit your movie. This number should equal the very last frame in your original scene which should be named "Main"

  
  What this is doing is testing your original movie seeing if the last frame (40) is loaded. If it is it goes to your "Main" scene and plays Frame 1. If frame 40 is not loaded it goes to "Preloader" and plays "Begin"

This sounds more complicated than it is. Practice a couple of times.