OK, so I've changed it to this which nearly works apart from the mouseout.

Which now gives me an undefined property: keyDownHandler?

Any help?

import flash.ui.Keyboard;

          import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;

          import flash.events.Event;

          import flash.events.MouseEvent;

          tetrad.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, manageMouseOver, false, 0, true);

          tetrad.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT, manageMouseOut, false, 0, true);

function manageMouseOver(event:MouseEvent):void{

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler);

function keyDownHandler(event : KeyboardEvent) : void

{

    if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.ENTER)

    {

    var movieClip1:MyCellClass = new MyCellClass();

    addChild(movieClip1);

    movieClip1.x = mouseX - 10;

    movieClip1.y = mouseY - 10;

    movieClip1.name = "cell1";

          var movieClip2:MyCellClass = new MyCellClass();

    addChild(movieClip2);

    movieClip2.x = mouseX + 10;

    movieClip2.y = mouseY + 5;

    movieClip2.name = "cell2";

          var movieClip3:MyCellClass = new MyCellClass();

    addChild(movieClip3);

    movieClip3.x = mouseX;

    movieClip3.y = mouseY;

    movieClip3.name = "cell3";

          var movieClip4:MyCellClass = new MyCellClass();

    addChild(movieClip4);

    movieClip4.x = mouseX + 8;

    movieClip4.y = mouseY - 5;

    movieClip4.name = "cell4";

          stage.removeEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler);

          removeChild(tetrad)

    }

}

}

function manageMouseOut(event:MouseEvent):void{

          stage.removeEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler);

  }

sorry if I'm being thick, I'm clearly doing something wrong, I still havn't been able to get this working.

how can I move the keyDownHandler function and still achieve the Keyboard Event only when the mc is being hovered?

Sorry relative newcomer obviously.

Oh man that was easy!

Thanks so much! I understand much more clearly how actionscript works now - you delcare all your functions at the start and then call them with listeners when they are needed.

Thanks Ned.