Drop down box drag and drop storyboard

Question

Hello
I'm trying to create an interactive storyboard using the drag
and drop function to drag characters onto a stage so the user can
arrange them however they wish. My problem is that now I have
started this project I have realised I need a lot more images than
first thought and have limited space as this is to go on a website
and have the option to be printed.
Therefore, I have been trying to create a dropdown menu with
tabs with the character name on and when the tab is clicked a box
with all that characters images appears below. Now I managed to
make this work but then when you click between the tabs having
placed the characters on the storyboard, if you click a tab in the
timeline before the one you were on, obviously the character
disappears from the stage. Is there anyway of creating a drop-down
menu or something similar to save space, which can have draggable
movieclips in?
Also my second problem is does anyone know how to create a
duplicateable movieclip. For example, once a character is dragged
from the menu onto the storyboard, it is now only on the storyboard
and there is only one copy. Now I know I could just make loads of
the same character and layer them, but it would be much better if
someone knew of a way to duplicate a movieclip once it is dragged
away so that there is always one in the menu.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am fairly new to
flash and am trying my hardest to get to grips with actionscript.
Cheers,
Anna

Answer 1

Thanks for your help but not too sure I understand most of
it.
Just working on duplicating characters at the moment and so
far have managed to duplicate once but then can only move duplicate
character and original disappears.
This is the code I have on the movieclip at the mo - any
suggestions very very welcome.
on (press) {
startDrag(this, true);
duplicateMovieClip(this, newname="drag_clip_new", 2);
on (release) {
stopDrag();
Don't know much about depth etc.
Also found this code on the net but am having trouble
changing it to fit my needs:
var mcNum = 1;
var dupli:MovieClip;
mc1.onPress = function() {
dupli = mc1.duplicateMovieClip("mcname"+mcNum, ++mcNum);
dupli._x = mc1._x;
dupli._y = mc1._y;
dupli.startDrag();
this._parent["mcname"+mcNum].onPress = function() {
this.startDrag();
this._parent["mcname"+mcNum].onRelease = function() {
this.stopDrag();
mc1.onRelease = function() {
dupli.stopDrag();
mc1.onReleaseOutside = function() {
dupli.stopDrag();
Again any help very welcome!