Applying a filter to multiple display objects

Question

I have a large amount of btn's that load full size images when clicked. I simply want to add a filter, scaleX and scaleY to each of those buttons and  I know there is a better method then typing each btn name with an eventListener for the Mouse_Over and Mouse_Out events. I understand that I need to create a variable of a new filter and then apply it to the display object. Like so..
var glow:GlowFilter = new GlowFilter(0x0066FF, 1, 10, 10);
function hover(event:MouseEvent):void
pic1_btn.filter = new Array(glow);
pic1_btn.scaleX = 1.02;
pic1_btn.scaleY = 1.02;
pic1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, hover);
function noHover(event:MouseEvent):void
pic1_btn.filter = new Array();
pic1_btn.scaleX = 1;
pic1_btn.scaleY = 1;
pic1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, noHover);
So if I were to continue this, I would have to type out pic1_btn, pic2_btn, pic3_btn and so on to apply a filter to each object and also type out the object name for each listener. NUTS! So my question is what is the best way to approach this? Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Thank you for that information yesterday, it was really helpful.
OK so what I have is a pretty simple album. At the top of hierarchy I have a file named "loader.swf" that requires a password and then loads the "album.swf" then depending on the button that is selected on the "album.swf" an additional .swf is loaded. These additional .swf's contain the thumbnail buttons which we are discussing and when those buttons are clicked an external full size .jpg is loaded. Following are the actions from the main timeline.
var picLoader:Loader = new Loader();
bar_mc.alpha = 0;
function progressHandler(event:ProgressEvent):void
      var myprogress:Number = event.target.bytesLoaded/event.target.bytesTotal;
      addChild(bar_mc);
      addChild(myTextField_txt);
      bar_mc.alpha = 100;
      bar_mc.scaleY = myprogress;
      myTextField_txt.text = Math.round(myprogress*100)+"%";
picLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, progressHandler);
function imageLoaded(event:Event):void
      addChild(picLoader);
      removeChild(myTextField_txt);
      removeChild(bar_mc);
      picLoader.x = (stage.stageWidth - picLoader.width)/2;
      picLoader.y = (stage.stageHeight - picLoader.height)/2;
picLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, imageLoaded);
function removeFull(event:MouseEvent):void
      picLoader.unload();
      removeChild(picLoader);
picLoader.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, removeFull);
On the main timeline I have an instance of a movie clip called "mcThumbs". Within this movieclip I have different pages on different layers and 12 thumbnails per page.
And the actions for mcThumbs
stop();
function picClick(event:MouseEvent):void
      this.parent.picLoader.load(new URLRequest(event.target.name + ".jpg"));
for(var a:uint=1; a<=76; a++)
      this["newborn"+String(a)].addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, picClick);
function hover(event:MouseEvent):void
      event.currentTarget.scaleX = 1.02;
      event.currentTarget.scaleY = 1.02;
function noHover(event:MouseEvent):void
      event.currentTarget.scaleX = 1;
      event.currentTarget.scaleY = 1;
for(var i:uint=1; i<=76; i++)
      this["newborn"+String(i)].addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, hover);
      this["newborn"+String(i)].addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, noHover);
function goBack(event:MouseEvent):void
      if(currentFrame == 1)
            gotoAndStop(totalFrames);
      else
            prevFrame();
function goForward(event:MouseEvent):void
      if(currentFrame == totalFrames)
            gotoAndStop(1);
      else
            nextFrame();
prev_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, goBack);
next_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, goForward);
This is where the issue arises. If you hover over a thumbnail button and then go to an different page, that same thumbnail button will remain visible behind the thumbnails of that page.