_x and _y coordinate question

Hello:

 I have a movieclip that is navigated by buttons to various _x and _y 
coordinates. When the user clicks on "button 1" is takes them to a specified 
area, then when the user clicks "button2" is takes them to another area. 
However, the pathway is a straight line between the two. 

 I would like the "path" to negotiate a determined route, (such as a curved or 
"S" shaped route). Is it possible to put a series of _x and _y coordinates into 
the onClipEvent then the final _x and _y coordinate for a final destination, 
(Similar to waypoints in a GPS).

 If so, is there a simple way that "people that know what they are doing" 
calculate  _x and _y coordinates within a movieclip?

 Regards,

 Stephen

mmm sounds to me like what you need is a bit of maths - maybe a sine equation 
to descibe the sort of path you want.

 actually, i'm making the assumption that you are doing this throu 
actionscript, when you are possibly doing it allong the timeline...

 if so, you could use a motion path.

Hello:

 Well, I cannot disagree that I could always use a math lesson, but apart from 
that I was hoping of an easier method within flash to pull from the properties 
panel the various _x _y coordinates.

 I am using actionscript but not to navigate a timeline, but to access "pages" 
within a movieclip. I am using the following:

 onClipEvent (load) {
 _x = -149.0;
 _y = -94.0;
 spd = 8;
 }
 onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
 _x += (endX-_x)/spd;
 _y += (endY-_y)/spd;


 _root.page1.onRelease = function() {
 endX = -149.0;
 endY = -94.0;
 };
 _root.page2.onRelease = function() {
 endX = -449.0;
 endY = -94.0;
 };
 _root.page3.onRelease = function() {
 endX = +151.0;
 endY = -94.0;
 };
 _root.page4.onRelease = function() {
 endX = -149.0;
 endY = +94.0;
 };
 _root.page5.onRelease = function() {
 endX = -149.0;
 endY = -294.0;
 };
 }

 I was just hoping instead of a straight path to have a different route. No 
necessarily the direct route.

 Regards,

 Stephen

no, maths is the only way.

and my mine aint good enough either, however there's loads of tutorials on that sort of thing.  Not that I know of any - not very helpful, sorry

let's say you want to move from (x0, y0) to (x1, y1) in 9 steps.
the following piece of code will move the movie clip mcObject
from the source to the destination as jStep goes from 0 to 9.

    // at beginning of script
    nSteps = 9;

    // event handler or loop
    var t = jStep / nSteps;
    mcObject._x = (1 - t) * x0 + t * x1;
    mcObject._y = (1 - t) * y0 + t * y1;

-----
that's for two points.  now if you have a series of way-points,
then you'd probably store the coordinates in arrays e.g. xCoords,
yCoords (for consistency, the arrays should include the start and
the end point).  let's have an index jWayPoint that goes from 0
to jLastPoint (= the number of intermediate points + 1).

at first you have
    jWayPoint = 1;
    nSteps = 9;
    x1 = xCoords[0];   y1 = yCoords[0];
    x2 = xCoords[1];   y2 = yCoords[1];

your onClipEvent handler would look something like this:-

    onClipEvent = function() {

       var t = jStep / nSteps;
       mcObject._x = (1 - t) * x0 + t * x1;
       mcObject._y = (1 - t) * y0 + t * y1;

       jStep++;
       if (jStep > nSteps) {
          jWayPoint++;
          if (jWayPoint > jLastPoint) {
            // destination reached.  disable the handler
          } else {
            // set new line segment
            jStep = 0;
            x1 = x2;
            y1 = y2;
            x2 = xCoords[jWayPoint];
            y2 = yCoords[jWayPoint];
          }
       }
    }