tedster - 3:24 am on Feb 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

You bring up several different applications, and each one might well have a different "best solution". I agree that for some applications, especially main menus, Flash should be avoided. Yet for others, such as an animated graphic header, Flash might well be the very best means to the end.

There are two related technologies that can be used in conjunction with Flash files to give search engine spiders and non-Flash user agents something solid to work with - SWFObject and SWFAddress are their names. The key here is to retain the original source files that were worked into the Flash movie, so they can be used to create alternative HTML-only content.

Sometimes a good animated effect can be achieved simply through an animated gif, or a hover effect that reveals a perviously hidden animated gif. Javascript can combine with the DOM (Document Object Model) to create various types of animated interactions as well - it used to be called DHTML.

So I'd suggest learning a few of the technical possibilities I mentioned above. That way you can match the best tool to the job. Just stay away from Java for animations - that's a different technology from Javascript, by the way.