Hi folks, I'm wondering if it's possible to have my Flash intro page show a simple gif with a hyperlink to folks who do not have Flash installed. If not, any suggestions as to how I go about setting my web site up so that I'm not excluding people who don't have Flash? I know IE will do an automatic detection searching for Flash and prompt for download, but Netscape won't. Rather than confuse folks who are not very computer-trusting (and would get stressed at download prompts)I'd like to simply show alternate text or images. Thanks for any help.

bytejunkie- You are correct that IE for windows doesn't have a way to detect whether the Macromedia Flash plug-in is installed, and uses activeX to find the plug-in and prompt the user for download. I am a fan of IE, but this is not a feature I like. Netscape (and strangely enough, IE for mac) have the capability you describe. Since it is difficult to post the code here, click here to see the source of how a javascript book, Javascript for the World Wide Web, does it. www.javascriptworld.com Hope this is what you were looking for. -SN

Thanks a lot. One question - before attempting this, should I include a javascript that detects whether the browser is Netscape or not? I'm asking because I have a dummy page written similar to the example you mention and in IE, my .gif is displayed even though I have Flash installed. In Netscape, the Flash is displayed. For example, this is my page right now: if (navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"]) { document.write("") } else { document.write("") }

Yes, that is a good point. If the user has IE, the navigator.plugins["Macromedia Flash"] will return false just like if it were netscape and no macromedia flash were installed. A script to detect whether or not the browser is netscape would not be a bad idea. What to do for IE for mac, I don't know, but maybe the newer versions also prompt the user to download flash... -SN