Yup, sure is catchy! 
It's good that you're moving to write your AS externally. From a programming perspective, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. There are certain things that are done differently but it's the same code (for the most part) and the same behaviors.
The benefit of external AS comes in increased effeciency, workflow and flexibility. Using an external editor (I use SE|PY, the best free one by my standards) makes life 10x easier...you can concentrate on logic and not worry about syntax as much.
Also if you're moving towards OOP or even simple AS3, you'll become familiar with some of the techniques you'll have to use.
The only think you need to know about using external AS, you probably already do...
Those ARE the basics. There really isn't much more to it, especially if you only have one external AS file. (If you have multiple, you have to consider when you're calling variables accessed in other AS files, etc...).
Anything that you're able to code within the Flash IDE, you can do in external AS. There really aren't any limitations.
The major differences, though, are:
1) Buttons, etc...
I've noticed that you put button actions on the actual button. You should really get in the habit of scripting that from a seperate layer or external file. I don't think that CS3 even lets you do that.
So...
Code:
on (release) {
do this
}
would become
Code:
button.onRelease = function() {
do this
}
2) Paths
The biggest change are the paths you use to call MCs. You have to remember that all of your AS now resides on frame 1 of your root timeline. So, everything must be called relative to that. (Another tip: get away from using _root...again, not very AS3/CS3 friendly).
Keeping those two things in mind, you're golden. Not much more to it really. I do all of my AS coding externally. Most of my recent projects (mostly websites) have 1 frame, with an actions layer linked to an external AS file....that's it. Everything is done from that point. That's the implementation that I recommend. I've seen some other link to various AS files from different points on the timeline. This can get very tricky as you have to maintain relative paths to MCs.
I'm not sure if that answers anything for you. Hope it does. Let me know if you have more questions.
Question for Medyman
Originally Posted by BLiZZaRD
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