CoffeeCup - HTML Editor, Flash & Web Design Software

In the past, Web designers had to deal with browsers that displayed Flash movies on the top layer of DHTML pages, even if the stacking order of the page dictated otherwise. However, the new generation of Web browsers allows the use of the wmode parameter to give designers more freedom in layering their Flash objects.

The three values that can be assigned to the wmode parameter are window, opaque, and transparent. Window is set by default because it provides optimal animation performance, but a value of opaque or transparent gives designers control over the layering of their pages.

To change the wmode parameter, add this parameter to the object tag:

Then add this parameter to the embed tag:

wmode="transparent"

To set the wmode parameter to opaque, replace “transparent” in the above HTML with “opaque.”

It’s recommended that designers use the opaque option instead of transparent. Although the opaque value is intended to hide other objects on the page, it also lets designers control the layering options. This is because the opaque option actually places the Flash on the page (the default option presents the Flash as an independent object), which means it will obey the layering order in your HTML code.

The transparent mode, on the other hand, places your Flash movie on the top layer of your page with all the other page elements visible underneath the transparent parts of the movie. The only problem with this is that it can cause performance issues. Lowering your frames per second can help counteract these issues, but it’s safest to just use the opaque value.

Note: This fix will only work for browsers that support windowless mode. Here are the browsers this will work for:

• Windows Mozilla 1.0 or higher
• Windows Internet Explorer
• Windows Netscape 7.0
• Windows AOL
• Mac OS X IE 5.1
• Mac OS X IE 5.2
• Mac OS X Netscape 7.0
• Mac OS X AOL
• Mac OS X Mozilla 1.0
• Mac OS X CompuServe