I am having a hard time wtih x and y alignment. i can see where they align
with depending on where they are in the MC, but when i have my newly named copy
and drag it to the stage and try to set the same placement in x and y it is
off. any insight into this? Thanks.

Movie clips have their own X and Y independently of the main stage X and Y.
Also, when you make things into MC's or buttons, you have the option of where
to set the registration point and if you mix and match how you do that, you
will have alignment problems. I guess it is not clear to me what problems you
are actually having.

you may have answered the question--to clarify--it's when i drag my movie clip
onto the stage, and i want it in the exact same place as the one in the
previous frame, i can go into the INFO settings and, although they are slightly
off, when i set them to be the same as the ones in previous frames, they run
off the stage, even though, as far as i can tell, they are the same type of
clip, etc.

if you are running off the stage then it sounds like you are not editing the
same timeline in each case. To use the x and y info for alignment, you can only
do this in the same timeline. For example, if you are in the main timeline and
have a clip on the stage centered at 250,250 and then edit the clip and set its
center at 250,250 it will move possibly out of sight because its X and Y were
0,0 for the clip itself. If you have a movie clip inside a movie clip, the
inner most movie clip has its own X and Y and can be moved relative to the X
and Y of its parent clip. The parent clip can move relative to the main stage
so the innermost movie clip is affected by two different X's and Y's. I just
gave myself a headache.

I made you a simple movie at www.sierrabravocharlie.com/experimental/ball
clips.fla

This movie tracks the X and Y of three separate timelines. Dig down into the
clips to see where the variables are assigned.

Notice that myclip3 never "moves" (i.e. X,Y = 0,0) even though it is in
constant motion.

Kay,

I made one addition and called the file "ball clipsa.fla" in the same location
as the previous file and I also saved it as Flash MX just in case and that one
is called "MXball clipsa.fla". Both are the same just in Flash 6 and 7. The
addition is that I also show the absolute position of the myclip3 relative to
the stage itself. Notice you have to add the X's and Y's of all the individual
timelines to get the total.