Flash Movies with a Trasparent Background that work in PowerPoint?

[Anders 205]

Sorry guys for not viewing this thread until now. To have swf objects play with a transparent background setup in PP you do in the same manner as with html coding. It's the attribute WMode that controls background transparency.

In PP toolbox Shockwave Flash Object set WMode to Transparent. Leave the attribute Background empty.

Hope it helps!

Cheers, Anders

[jclements]

THANK YOU, ANDERS.

I will give this a try.

Sincerely, John

[Anders 205]

I thought I was very late on this one and that you had got to it by now. Well, better late than never, as they say.

Perhaps I ought to add a little bit more about the attributes and the control parameter values for you.

Possible values for flash player ActiveX control parameters: Play (True, False); Loop (True, False); Quality (Best, High, AutoHigh, AutoLow, Low); BgColor (nnnnnn - the RGB color in hexadecimal form); Scale (ShowAll, NoBorder, ExactFit); Salign (l, t, r, b, tl, tr, bl, br); Base ( . or base directory or URL); Menu (True, False); WMode (Window, Opaque /=no WMode=default/, Transparent);

The "Opaque" mode is set by default (=no WMode). In this mode, DHTML flyouts (like menu bars, ad banners, whatever) can be placed on top of the Flash element.

The regular WMode "Window" does not support this and would place the Flash clip on top of the DHTML elements unasked. This mode might playback your Flash clip slightly faster.

The "Transparent" mode requires Flash Player 6 or later (minimum "6,0,0,0" as version string by default). This will result in a slower playback, but it looks great as you can place your Flash elements virtually over every (D)HTML background. -- Since summer 2006, this is working for virtually any reasonably modern browser in Windows and MacOS (MSIE 5.5+, Mozilla 1+, of course all Firefox's, Opera 8+, as well as Safari). However I have not yet been able to get transparent mode work in any Linux browser (Mozilla, Firefox, Konqueror or Opera). I am not certain of which versions of PowerPoint that fully support the Transparent WMode.

Ciao, Anders

[Anders 205]

I fail to get wmode transparency to process in PowerPoint. I think that a Flash movie's transparency is done in the HTML that embeds it in the page rather than the SWF itself, so you may struggle to take it into PowerPoint.

I'd like to check it out how (and if!!!) the Flash Ready Power Plugs have made it. There's a hefty price tag on those Power Plugs but I'll try to, one way or the other, sneek in under their hoods to find out. This Flash transparency wmode option in PowerPoint (available in parameter properties, but not working) is intriguing me now! Read about those PowerPlugs at PowerPlugs for PowerPoint.

Anders

[Anders 205]

Hiya guys! I have put up the question to Microsoft MVPs about the non functional transparency mode for SWG objects in PowerPoint. I have a couple of minutes ago received a response from MVP Shyam Pillai, saying, "The transparency mode is not supported in PowerPoint."

On my question if it wouldn't be appropriate that PowerPoint developers removed the WMode "Transparent" parameter option in SchockwaveFlash properties > Custom > Property Pages > Window Mode for the reason that the presence of this option creates nothing but confusion for PowerPoint document producers, the answer is that the transparency mode option is to be removed in PowerPoint upgrades. (My personal view: why not instead supporting it in upgrades?). In HTML the SWG object transparency mode works intentionally.

Please pardon me, guys, for earlier have been giving awry advice on the subject.

Cheers, Anders

[jclements]

Anders,

Thanks for all the background investigation. I should have thought Shyam.

I met him a few years back at a PowerPoint Live conference. He is one smart individual. I use his Animation Carbon plugin for PowerPoint.

Regards, John

[Anders 205]

Nothing at all, John! I feel it to be an obligation to dig into the subject when my suggestion was failing to comply, mislead by the transparency window mode parameter option present and readily available for SWF objects in PowerPoint. Imagine all flashers' (oops!) confusion in their PowerPoint deployments, well aware that *.png alpha channel and *.gif transparenices being flawlessly supported. I am not prepared to give it up, quite yet. I intend to try with scripted HTML off-line solutions, alternatively with iframe coding.

I have not had the priviledge to, so far, personally meet with Shyam Pillai, the MS MVP with renowned expertise in PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and more, applications. You are familiar with his plug-ins, actually called add-ins in the PowerPoint environment, but perhaps other PowerPoint fans would like to make themselves acquainted with them at PowerPoint add-ins. His Flashback Rewind add-in is a must-have!

Thank you for bringing up the subject, John. Have a good day!

Cheers, Anders