return event.currentTarget. name

thanks a lot. i added the event listener to checkSwatches and just traced the currentTarget from there. didn't need to bother with frameForward.

checkSwathces does the right thing. First of all you, in order for it to "trace" target it has to be a listener of the mouse event like the frameForward function is AND you have to pass the event into it. In your case since there is no event - there is no target.

Secondly, even if you made checkSwatches a listener and passed an event - it would still trace "function frameForward () {}" In plain language your syntax asks "What is frameForwad?" not "Execute frameForward" - naturally it gives the correct answer "It is a function." In order to trace what the function returns you have to use a syntax: trace(frameForward(e:MouseEvent)) because frameForward function expects the event.

Hope it is clear.