Abhishek Reddy — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 12:18:19 +0000

I'm not a fan of using Flash for navigation. Easier, especially for users, to use hyperlinks. Example: I can't use mouse middle-click in Mozilla to have the link open in a new tab. Also can't "copy link location" with my familiar context-menu, and can't highlight text.

Imo, much of the style in that nav can be reproduced with CSS, if you really really wanted. Except for the fading, of course, for which you might use Javascript.

openmind — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 11:42:19 +0000

Well I quite like the animation effect. I can't say that it would be as a detriment to the site if I didn't use Flash but I think it adds to the overall effect...

Busy — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 03:42:39 +0000

do you really need the flash?

openmind — Fri, 02 Jan 2004 22:41:04 +0000

I did a bit of Googling and cam across this article that deals with the issue I'm experiencing.

If you check out the proof now and you don't have Flash installed it will serve up a graphical reprsentation instead with an obvious prompt to download Flash.

The code is as so:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="flash/0656_about.swf" width="766" height="167">
  <param name="movie" value="flash/0656_about.swf" />
  <param name="quality" value="high" />
  <cfinclude template="../flash/noflashHead.cfm">
</object>

The pros:
1) It still validates
2) It works in IE, Opera and Mozilla (although in IE there is a thin bar running through the top part of the page
3) It doesn't use script etc. so no worrys with JavaScript being switched off to detect Flash

The cons:
1) Increas page size and load time
2) Slight formatting issue with IE but that could be me!

If anyone has a better method, I'd be glad to hear it!