Question #127
Flash objects show through underlying content such as Pop Menu Magic menus or PVII Widgets, or PVII Galleries, showing on top of the content. What can I do to fix this?
The Answer
Prepared May. 2005 by Gerry Jacobsen, PVII
Flash objects normally appear above all other objects on the page and therefore will show through any positioned elements that would ordinarily show on top. This is a deficiency in the Flash Player technology.
You can use the Flash "wmode" parameter to set the transparency to "opaque".
Here's how:
Essentially you add the "wmode" parameter on both the <object> and the <embed> tag:
A) Inside the <object tag>, add this line:
<param name="wmode" value="opaque">
B) On the <embed> tag, add this attribute:
wmode="opaque"
The typical Flash object html source would now look like this:
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" width="525" height="340" title="MyFlash">
<param name="movie" value="myFlashMovie.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="wmode" value="opaque">
<embed src="myFlashMovie.swf"
wmode="opaque" width="525" height="340" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>
</object>
Important note for Dreamweaver 8-CS4 users
Adobe's Active Content script, new in Dreamweaver 8.02, writes the object and embed tags inside a JavaScript. To set the wmode parameter, you will need to do so in the script. The wmode parameters cannot be assigned in the markup, and Adobe has provided no facility to apply this parameter from within their interface. Here's a quick way to add the wmode parameter to the script:
In Code View, look for the AC_FL_RunContent line where the Flash object is normally embedded, it will look like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
AC_FL_RunContent(
'codebase','http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0','width','450','heigh t','348'......
Next, insert this directly before the 'width',
'wmode','opaque',
So it now looks like this:
.......swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0',
'wmode','opaque','width','450','height','348'............