[Flash] Problems with Portfolio

Hello guys,
this is my first post in this forum I'm already feeling quite comfy - anyways, straight to my problem. I have to design a portfolio for an artist. We have to use flash cs3 to create it. Our seminar leader told us to create backgrounds etc acquire his work and get started. We are supposed to have thumbnails on the first page which can be clicked and are then loaded into a movie clip. Since this sounds a bit to simple for me I want to kick it up a notch. What I want to create is quite simple (in theory, to me ):

- preloader
- first page, background image + various buttons on top (home, infos about the artist, portfolio, etc)
- if you click on one of the links an animation is triggered (> animated inside another movie clip) - something fancy, that opens up the (sub-)section the button is leading to...like something fading in from the side...still not sure.

Now, here is my problem. I think the best solution for this would be to link each button to a (gotoAndPlay - movie clip name - frame #) - I have tried some tutorials but none of them really worked and still I have no idea how to do this !!!

Another problem that will appear is that I want the portfolio section to contain clickable thumbnails (well, buttons ) of his work which would then be loaded into a movie clip and displayed (this is not a problem) - but now my question: if you click the "portfolio" link in the menu I want the button to load the movie clip which will fade in my portfolio part with all the thumbnails etc - can I insert them all into the movie clip ? And will the single thumbnails be displayed correctly if I use a transition effect Alpha 0% -> 100 % ? I am a bit worried about this.

I hope you can help me out.

Cheers
TinXpH