How do they do that????????

[str8acer]

Does anyone know how www.msn.com did there flash thing at the top left of their web page today April 3, 2003???????

[rsdl]

i'm guessing the flash table is layered via css (e.g. z-index) and then i'm guessing the background of the flash is transparent. i stress that i'm simply guessing here though


-rsdl

[Chas]

Do you mean the way the Flash movie animates into the page?

[creole]

If it appeared that the Flash movie was covering the whole screen then yes, that's how they do that. Note that effect only works in Internet Explorer. It might also work in some of the newer browsers from other companies but it does not work in Netscape 4.7 (in case you were wondeirng).

[str8acer]

Do you mean the way the Flash movie animates into the page?

Yeah that's what I mean.

Does anyone know exactly where I need to go to learn how they do that??

[webQS]

G'day
You can put the flash movie in a div container and set it's level (stacking order) with CSS. Because the div sits above the rest of the content it can be set to any width possible given the client screen res
Other containers holding html content can sit below it.... oblivious to the floating content.

Transparency is the key to this as well - and is not browser based... since Flash Player 6r61, wmode="transparent" is supported by MacOS X and Mozilla/Opera browsers on Win32.
Forget NN4 - it doesn't figure any more - just too clunky (and IE4!).

So FP 5 for IE/win32 and Fp6,0,61,0 for everything else.

Of course getting MSN to deploy content for browsers other than IE may be a problem
read: the infamous swedish chef "Bork" edition of Opera 7 that highlighted MSN stupidity by barring Opera.
http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/e...2/14/index.dml

Cheers
James

Yeah that's what I mean.

Does anyone know exactly where I need to go to learn how they do that??

[Chas]

As James pointed out there using the wmode="transparent" - this is why you can view the HTML text / images underneath.

Its worth noting the attribute wmode="transparent" is not an officially listed Object or Embed tag attribute by Macromedia in there Tech Notes:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...attributes.htm

As it can cause IE to crash.

Source:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...0_ie_crash.htm

[webQS]

That's interesting - there seems to be a double standard in the offline and online content regarding tag attributes. (wmode)

My Flash 3 manual even states "WMODE... lets you take advantage of the ..absolute positioning and layering capabilities of Internet Explorer 4". (The Flash MX manual says exactly the same thing - obviously not updated for 5, 5.5 or 6.)

Flash MX was published after that technote was written..

I run w2k and never have that prob, maybe because it's a rare tag attr and I use Mozilla.

cheers
James

As it can cause IE to crash.

Source:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...0_ie_crash.htm

[str8acer]

That's interesting - there seems to be a double standard in the offline and online content regarding tag attributes. (wmode)

My Flash 3 manual even states "WMODE... lets you take advantage of the ..absolute positioning and layering capabilities of Internet Explorer 4". (The Flash MX manual says exactly the same thing - obviously not updated for 5, 5.5 or 6.)

Flash MX was published after that technote was written..

I run w2k and never have that prob, maybe because it's a rare tag attr and I use Mozilla.

cheers
James

Man i'm not at that level yet where I know exactly what you guys are talking about, but i was hoping if someone could direct me to the proper place so that I can take a step by step tutorial(s) that will lead me up to your level. I'm looking but not finding. Can any1 recommend a book/anything for me to buy/donwload so that i can learn more please.

Thanks