I made a chome text for a webpage, I'm trying to use a technique tutorial called shining text with a gradient mask. it works great if I create the text directly in Macromedia Flash however I cannot get it to apply to the already made text that I'm importing into the stage. HELP. can this be done and how?

There are various techniques for making text shine. It sounds like your creating chome shiny text in something like photoshop then importing the image into flash. I'm not sure exactly what type of shine your looking for but if it involves moving the gradient fill around you might just trying breaking all different parts of the image into separate jpgs in Photoshop then importing them seperatly into flash and reassembling them there.

Or just find a different tutorial. Check Flash Kit, A Flash Developer Resource for Macromedia Flash MX Tutorials SWF FLA images clipart Sounds WAVS Animations Help and Support they always have good stuff there.