Does anyone have a fake flash plugin?

I want it to stop asking me if I want to install it

[TheDave]

Does anyone know a way I can make IE think flash is installed, without actually having to install flash? I don't want flash, and I'm getting sick of being asked if I want to install it.

[chiyo]

erthworm.. well speaking for myself Im very willing to give flash a chance.

No way flash should mimic HTML. In that case you would use HTML. The Web as you know is far more than HTML - curreny browsers also are a .txt reader, as well as many other formats.

My point was that whatever format you use they should smoothly introduce people to your message. For example, there are some sites i have been to that use Flash, but ive never known they do! That is the sort of thing I meant. I expect websites to deliver good content, no matter how it is delivered, and i dont really care what technology delivers it. html, dhtml, js, flash etc. But at this time when i have a problem with suddenly being thrust into wait=wait-wait land, i find that many times the culprit is a designer who assumed im on braodband and will want to see their message so much i will wait for it, while i go for a cup of tea.

I have the same problems with PDF as i do with flash. Nothing is worse than clicking on a link and suddenly getting that slow old Adobe Acrobat Reader plug in loading.

To me, PDF's are things that should be saved to disk or read later. It is a format that was expressly designed for printing out on paper, not for reading online, and to give designers far more control of layout, using a fixed layout. Like Flash, I want people who have linked PDF files to tell me before i click on the link so i then can make the decision to save it to my disk or come back later. Like much of Flash, PDF does not integrate well with the browsing experience i want.

[erthworm]

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of how Flash, or any plug-in, should work. As a Web developer, we find ourselves repeatedly steering clients away from overusing Flash, even though we make more money creating it. We always make sure that visitors without Flash are having as much of a similar experience as Flash-enabled folk - but we try to suggest that they might have an even better experience if they installed Flash.

My issue is with those on this board who refuse out of hand to give Flash a chance - because I know that it can be used for good, despite all the evil-doers out there. ;)

[Trisha]

When I have Flash embedded on a page, I leave the "codebase" attribute out of the object tag, and "PLUGINSPAGE" out of the embed tag. I remember hearing somewhere that this would keep the flash file from prompting a download if is not found on the visitors computer. I've not tested it though.

I am using embedded flash animations on a new site of mine, about somewhat technical topics. I provide all information in text, but also (when I have the time to make them) create an animation to help display visually what the article is about. In print magazines of similar topics they tend to have diagrams with arrows pointing all over the place, which can get confusing. On a web site with flash I am able to create an animation with real movement instead of static arrows implying movement. For an example, instead of only explaining about two protein molecules binding to each other, moving into the nucleus of a cell, binding to DNA, activating transcription of certain genes, etc. I can actually show them binding, moving into the nucleus, etc. Those who aren't interested can read just the text, but the flash is there for people who may be able to understand the content better with visual cues.

Having said that, I don't particularily like all flash sites and flash intros either. I believe flash does have its place though.

(I apologize to the mods, if I just contributed more to turning this into even more of a flash/antiflash thread. I know there have been plenty of those already.)

[chiyo]

trisha, no your post is very useful. I think that Flash excells in the very type of thing you describe. Ive also seen some excellent product demos, one of the best being the "how it works" flash demo for one of those live customer service chat applications. I was willing to click there because i was very interested, and the dmo was well designed, meaning you could read stuff while the next screens loaded in the background. "filled time" is always perceived as much shorter than "blank time" - which is a good principle for flas designers to keep in mind.. so instead of loading a big grphic or logo first, give the reader some words to read, while the graphics load in the background.

However these types of applications give people a choice to view the flash or not. I wouldn't be surprised that Macromedia spun their "build a whole website with flash" capability to build flash's exposure fast, but in some ways they also attracted a good deal of ill-will from those HAD to read flash sites written by "amateur" designers.