Flash in PS CS4

creating flash banner in photoshop but will they work?

[darcbar]

Hi i have no experience with flash but recently i found out you can design flash animations in phtoshop.
I have been creating basic flash banners which i would like to use in my websites but i have held back from including them as i dont know if there going to work on every computer, e.g would certain flash editions have to be installed to view these banners.

Basically i would really like to be able to have flash animations on my websites so is there a procedure to maybe test or would i have to include plugins or something,

If anyone knows of a good read (link) about this without going into any sort of flash coding that would be great.

OR maybe they will just work on evry computer as they are.... sounds a long shot but we must be optimistic :x)

Thanks in advance

[Leosghost]

All your sites visitors need to see flash is to have the flash player installed ( nearly 98% of all machines do ) and to have their browser set to run scripts ( as action script is one ) ..means that yes they do work on near enough every computer ..:)

however provide them with a link in the html to "skip flash" and go directly to an equivalent html page for those who do have scripts blocked ..or whose bandwidth will be severely slowed by loading your flash ..

[darcbar]

If its just for a banner is there an alternative like maybe a javascript which will place a png or jpeg if the flash wont work rather than maybe an ugly break in place of the flash banner on the page ?

[Leosghost]

If a javascript would work ..so would flash ( unless they dont have the flash player installed ..not much chance of that ) ..if you are not sure use ..anigifs no ( except text only ones ) browsers block them .

[darcbar]

Ok thanks for that Leosghost

[Leosghost]

Ok if you want to still run flash ..and to be able to prompt your users to get the flash player in order to see what you made ..you can use this ..it will take them to adobe and let them load the correct flash player for their platform if they click the link..

You change what is bold for your own sizes , titles and data pathways to your flash file( s) ..
and you can change the text in the red part to any message you like ..

<!--swf movie area begins-->

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="width in pixels goes here" height="height in pixels goes here" id="FlashID" title="your flash file title goes here">

<param name="movie" value="your pathway to your flash file goes here.swf" />

<param name="quality" value="high" />

<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />

<param name="swfversion" value="6.0.65.0" />

<!-- This param tag prompts users with Flash Player 6.0 r65 and higher to download the latest version of Flash Player. Delete it if you don&#146;t want users to see the prompt. -->

<param name="expressinstall" value="Scripts/expressInstall.swf" />

<!-- Next object tag is for non-IE browsers. So hide it from IE using IECC. -->

<!--[if !IE]>-->

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="your pathway to your flash file goes here" width="width="width in pixels goes here" height="height in pixels goes here">

<!--<![endif]-->

<param name="quality" value="high" />

<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />

<param name="swfversion" value="6.0.65.0" />

<param name="expressinstall" value="Scripts/expressInstall.swf" />

<!-- The browser displays the following alternative content for users with Flash Player 6.0 and older. -->

<div>

<h4>Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.</h4>

<p><a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"><img src="http://www.adobe.com/images/shared/download_buttons/get_flash_player.gif" alt="Get Adobe Flash player" /></a></p>

</div>

<!--[if !IE]>-->

</object>

<!--<![endif]-->

</object>

<!--swf movie area ends-->

PS you make it "transparent" or not where I have depending on if you want your file to match your page background ..

HTH

[rocknbil]

You **really** need to have a look at SWFObject [code.google.com]. It's extremely easy to implement and is best Flash inclusion method on many levels.

The premise is it loads the alternate content first - as in, a static image of the Flash - does all the version and Javascript testing for you, and if all is well, writes the Flash object to the div containing the flash placeholder.

Presents valid code, no params, no invalid <embed> nested inside <object>, just a little bit of Javascript include and an image div/paragraph. Check it out.

[Leosghost]

agreed :)..I was just filling in with old school basics until rocknbil got here ..:)