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The holder movieclip doesn't have to have any dimensions or pixels in
it. You can do insert new symbol movieclip and don't add anything to
it. Drag that empty movieclip from the library to the stage and give
it an instance name. It shows as a little white dot but that's just
so you can find it again. Wherever you place that clip will be the
top left corner of the loading picture.

If you want to you can make the holder movieclip with just a stroke
(border) and no middle. It's easier to see where the picture will be
if you make it the same size as the loading image.
tralfaz

i'm wondering how to make an invisible holder movie clip for loading externally
stored jpgs. i've made other sites where the holder mc's sat on a solid
background color, and i could make them invisible just by making them the same
as the background color. but for this site, the background is an image, like
a photograph.

would you recommend copying and pasting that part of the background image
where the images would load, and use that as the background layer of the holder
clip, then paste that movie clip back into place on top of the original image,
or is there a simpler way?

any suggestions are much appreciated.

thanks,
macron

sweet. thanks tralfaz. i always wondered what that little dot was. now i know.

you rock.

cheers,
m.

oops. update on this problem. when i create the empty movie clip and drag it
on to the stage, then click on it, i am not able to give it an instance name.
in the properties tab, it just says 'mixed' and gives the width and height as
0,0, then the x and y coordinates.

am i doing something wrong here?

macron

just answered my question. i guess what you have to do first is create a MC
with a rectangle in it, then assign an instance name to the MC when it has some
dimensions, then edit the movie clip and remove the rectangle. that way the
instance name seems to stick.

sorry to bug y'all.

macron.