Opinions on sparingly using flash in a tour...
 

Would you say it was a safe bet to use flash animation in a site tour, only for the NEXT - JOIN - BACK links, as long as I provided text links underneath for non-flash users?

I'm pondering doing this for my site, and I want to see what the prevailing opinions are on using just a little bit of flash...

wouldn't that be the LAST place you'd want to use it?

Isn't there a j a v a s c r i p t that allows you to show flash only if the surfer's browser is flash enabled? I remember someone mentioning it a while back. If they don't have flash enabled, it shows an image in the place of the flash.

For the work I do its the exact opposite - i use elements of flash here and there to add to the design - but leave any buttons in jpg/gif format so the client can easily add scripting to the site (ref. tracking, exits, etc).

A good idea to make sure the site will look good on almost any computer is to publish the flash no higher than version 5 and also put a background image in the frame where the flash will be (so if it does not load for some poeple they will still see something).

I would really like to know this as well... also I have a flash banner and a applet scrolling text on the same page... the flash is interacting with the scrolling, and making the scrolling text go slow... It must be the parameters....

Is there a way I can embed the flash in a js file?

Thanks,
Chuck :)

The GFY banner rotator is js, and it has flash banners, so i'm gonna say yes.

Thanks for the quick replies and the good pointers! :thumbsup

If you're looking for auto-detection and then page redirection for any specific version of Flash, I prefer the Macromedia kit which you can download at:

http://www.macromedia.com/software/f...eployment_kit/

Easy to install and get running. Unzip, edit a few parameters in the index.html and off you go...

As for usage of Flash for nav/graphic areas, as long as they have the plug-in, you're safe using it anywhere, assuming the ActionScript complies with the version you detect. For basic pre-animated buttons, text/bitmap effects, you can probably get away with a Flash 3 export. If you want to be able to easily configure the navs to accept parameters, new URLs, counters, whatever, you can require Flash 6 as the plugin and use a local XML file that contains all your navigation criteria.

If you have any more issues/questions about Flash, feel free to post here. :)