Can't use "stop" to stop a movieclip from root

[Richard Lettau]

I am trying to figure how to control a movieclip from the main movie

with buttons that use the lingo "play" and "stop". I am able to use this

lingo when i put the buttons in the movieclip.


The main buttons i have been able to get it to work by using this for

the play


_root.myMovieclip.gotoandplay(2)


but i would prefer this


_root.myMovieclip.play


But i can't get the stop button to work. I can send it to a specific

frame but i want it to stop on the frame that it is at when the stop

button is played. I have thought about


_root.myMovieclip.gotoandplay(thisFrameNumber)


But I don't know how to create a variable that looks at the frame number

and becomes it. is there a way to to this. Or another way?


I then would like the play button to continue from there.... Any

thoughts on that??  Sorry if it seems so simple but I spent some time

trying to figure this out... to no avail.


Thankssss Richard