flash actionscript: i have built a drop down menu with xml and actionscript but i need multiple
instances of the menu on the stage so i want to detect when the mouse touches
the stage so i may close all current open menus.

thanks

no, that wouldn't be good. that would interfere with the response of mouse
handlers of movieclips/buttons below the invisible button.

i'd use:



_root.onMouseMove=function(){
trace('mouse is over stage");
}

There's no real way to do it from within Flash... the problem with onMouseMove
is, as kglad mentioned, that if the user stops moving the mouse, it stops
executing.

If you use AS3 and Flash 9, use Event.MOUSE_LEAVE on the stage:

stage.addEventListener('mouseLeave', mouseLeave);
function mouseLeave(){
//mouse has left the stage
}