Timeline/preloader concept question

Sorry for the newbie Flash question but if I am building a Flash site that is going to have large file sizes displayed when clicking a nav button, do I need to create separate movies for these large files *and* is this where I would place the preloader (prior to the load move script) in order for the main timeline to load and play quickly without having to wait for these large files to load?

I have a diagram below to describe my scenario to see if I am doing this right or not.

http://www.d4design.net/images/flash_question.gif

Thanks in advance from any of you more experienced Flash guys that can help me out here.

in general, yeah, that's the best approach to doing it. i usually use this preloader at ultrashock (its written for flash 5 but it works beautifully) and put it in an extra scene on the front end of my movie (only good use for scenes i've found. hope that helps.

chris

Thanks Fig, for the help and the resource link. I have another question then if you have time (or anybody else who can chime in ).

These other movies with the big content, would I create just the content by itself and have it play on a layer in the main movie's timeline? or would I create the beginning of this movie as a *clone* of the last frame of the main timeline (where the user clicks a nav button) and then add the content? I hope this question makes sense!

Thanks for any help you can provide.

that is a very good question, one i've dealt with before actually. the simplest answer i can give (or at least the best that i've figured out) is to make your main movie as simple as possible and load everything into that. that way you don't have to copy anything from one movie to another, i.e. instead of having to make your nav the same in each movie you're loading you can simply have all your nav contained in a separate swf, load that at the beginning and then just leave it there, loading your other content around it. that can get a bit trickly when referencing different swf's and movieclips but its the best way i've figured out how to do things.

if anyone else has a better method i'd be happy to hear it

chris