How to make Flash (.swf) transparent

Did you know, that just like a GIF image, Flash animations can be made transparent when displayed in a Web page? I bet that you probably did not think that it was possible. Let me tell you, that it is possible, and it takes very little skill or time to implement this effect!

Browsers that support Flash Transparency

• Internet Explorer 3 or higher (Windows)
• Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher (Macintosh)*
• Netscape 7.0*
• Mozilla 1.0 or higher*
• Firefox*
• Safari
• AOL*
• CompuServe*

To make the background transparent, you will need to add the WMODE parameters.
1. Add the following parameter to the OBJECT tag

<param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”>

2. Add the following parameter to the EMBED tag.

wmode=”transparent”

Your HTML code should look similar to the following after adding the WMODE parameters, where the changes are shown in red.

<PARAM NAME=wmode VALUE=”transparent”>
<EMBED src=”MyFlashMovie.swf” quality=”high” WMODE=”transparent” WIDTH=”320″ HEIGHT=”240″
NAME=”MyMovieName” ALIGN=”" TYPE=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
PLUGINSPAGE=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”>