Web-N00b

The actual HTML code for a typical flash animation on a website will look something like this:

<object classid=”clsid:D697CDE7E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-458453540000″
codebase=”http://active.macromedia.com/flash4/cabs/swflash.cab#version=4,0,0,0″
id=”animation name” width=”468″ height=”60″>
<param name=”movie” value=”YOUR.SMF”>
<param name=”quality” value=”high”>
<param name=”bgcolor” value=”#FFFFFF”>
<embed name=”animationname” src=”YOUR.SMF” quality=”high” bgcolor=”#FFFFFF”
width=”468″ height=”60″
type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash”>
</embed>
</object>

The “object” tag is used to embed an object within the document.  “Classid” is used to specify the location of the objects data. Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3.0 and later use the “codebase” attribute to detect which version of the Adobe Flash Player ActiveX Control is installed on a user’s computer. If the user’s version is earlier than the version specified by “codebase”, Internet Explorer can automatically download and install the newer version of the Flash Player from the location specified in “codebase”.   The rest is pretty self-expanatory.
Fortunately, most of the web builders we talked about on the easy web design page offer a simple way to add flash to any web page without having to worry so much about HTML code: simply select a “flash” button, drag your mouse until the animation is the size you want, then browse your computer’s files to find the flash animation’s file name.  In the dialogue box that appears, you can usually specify your preferences for how the animation will look and behave, including scale, looping, and autostart properties.  Consult your software’s user manual for details.

For Dreamweaver, adding a flash animation is somewhat similar:

Select Insert > Media > Flash. This opens the Select File dialog box, where you can select the SWF file of the banner you created.

Navigate to and select the SWF file you wish to use.

Click OK. The SWF file is inserted into the web page. (See the gnome.html document in the finish folder to reference the code that’s added to the document.)

(Optional) Select the SWF file and click Play in the Property inspector to view the flash animation.

Select File > Preview in Browser > iexplore (Windows) or Internet Explorer (Macintosh), or select your preferred browser, to preview your site (which now contains the flash animation) in a browser window.

In Microsoft FrontPage, the process goes like this:

Choose Insert | Picture | Movie in Flash Format while you are on the Design tab. Navigate to and select the .swf file you wish to use.

Right Click on the flash image and select “Movie in Flash Format Properties”.

Set the width and height to the correct settings. Uncheck “Keep aspect ratio” if the size is not using the same aspect ratio.

Click Preview tab to view the flash banner.

Here is an example:

Sorry, but comments are closed. Check out another post and speak up!