Ok, I am in still in the process of designing my company website.

I am now to the highlights of it.

I know that Flash is not compatible across all browsers and really not a good choice if marketing towards smaller companies and individuals as they may not have what is required.

So, my question... is there a way to pull flash from a directory on the server rather than to have it placed directly on the website and to have a background image so if they dont have flash they wont even notice it?

My goal of the site is 100% Accessibility, professional and user friendly to all browsers and users.

My company targets start ups, non profits, small businesses with a professional cutting edge while maintaining an effective rate.

Considering my website is currently down and I just got a few clients by word of mouth this week I am surprised.

All clients had nothing but positive feedback and have started to spread the word.

Thanks for your time and hope to find a solution to this question.

I know that Flash is not compatible across all browsers

And, just where did you hear that ?? It's not true at all.

Most people have a flash player plugin and it is easily obtained if they don't.

is there a way to pull flash from a directory on the server rather than to have it placed directly on the website and to have a background image so if they dont have flash they wont even notice it?

If you're embedding flash you will arleady have the file on the web, no matter where you pull it from. As for the background image, look at the stickies, in particular SWFObject.

you can use noembed tag and write in the the contents you need to display when flash is not enabled

<embed your flash code goes here ...>
<noembed>
code to display when flash is not supported
</noembed>

Nayes, that is exactly, what I was looking for.

LadyNRed,

you are correct. I mis-typed my message. Browsers can support it however website viewers have to have flash and have it enabled to be able to view it.

The reason why I asked this question is because I am marketing to small companies and non profit organazations and believe it or not there are enough businesses out there that make flash not seem possible, they dont have latest computers and there computers cant handle flash let alone going to a website like youtube.

I have been to more than enough and seen...

dialup connection
windows 98 or windows 2000 operating system
256mb ram
pentium 1 performance

I have also taken a tour of some businesses just to see what they use and I was blown away to say the least and was really surprised as I was thinking P4 equivelent would be the norm by now for how long it has been out and the price available.

"did a survey which asked business owners here locally"

So I am keeping all clients and customers in mind.

Thanks

Then you should look into SWFObject as I suggested. You can set it up so that if there is no Flash player installed, it will only display an image of your choice, but WILL display the Flash if it's present - and it's relatively easy to set this up. It also avoids using that nasty <embed> tag and makes that "noembed" completely unnecessary.

Ok, Thanks

I have a similiar issue, using XHTML 1.0 Strict and the embed tag has been depreciated. The primary nav for my site is in the left rail (which is flash that I put into a SSI) and then I have text links in the footer on all pages (which is also an SSI). The issue is with the introduction of emerging new devices/handsets that access my website (that do not support flash e.g. blackberry curve, blackberry javilin, etc.) the left rail flash navigation doesn't appear. Thus, I want to display alternative text links for navigation in the left rail if a "device" does not support flash. Does anyway have an idea how to do this using xhtml 1.0 strict code with an SSI? thanx

@ckellyne - I would recommend looking into using SWFObject that ladynred suggested for the OP. I believe that in addition to images and plain text, you can include links in the alternate content as well. If the user doesn't have flash enabled, SWFObject will display the alternate content you specify.