Changing images

[davek]

I am new to this and am trying to have a main image at the top of my webpage change images as you are looking at the page. What is the best way to do this? Java or Flash? Can someome let me know how to go about it in using either of these, and let me know if one way is better than the other. Dreamweaver was used to create the page.

Thanks!
www.campmaplehurst.com

[abz]

well if you make a flas movie for it, then you will need to do much less hard work. So long as you are happy enough with flash to be able to put in all your images, and tween them however you want it, then all you need to do is put in the .swf. If you use Javascript, then you will need to code it all.

File-size wise, i dont know which is smaller. coding will take space, plus you will have to load every image seperately. with a swf, you only have to load the movie, but the movie will have all the images and info in too so...not much help really!

moving images can be very distracting for a user. dont make them move too fast, or bee too eye-catching or people will be irritated. For a similar idea, I once added a javascript that made the image at the top change randomly every time the page was refreshed, or changed...

[davek]

I have Flash but have never used it. I don't have a problem uploading the images to use Java script. Is Java script easier for me than Flash? How do you make a file like this with Flash? Is there a benefit for the site (ease of use and looks) to use one vs. the other?

[abz]

the obvious drawback for accessibility with flash is that the user must have the flash plug-in to see it. However, its a large percentage of people that do have it already, so maybe not so much of a problem, depending who your targetted users are.

making the movie in flash is fairly straight forward. there is a timeline at the top. you put the image on the stage, then change it on the timeline where you want it to swap. the default is 12 frames per second, so if you wanted each image to show for 3 seconds, then you need it on for 60 frames. Once you get going, and get used to the interface, im sure you will manage just fine :)

[KDLA]

A Javascript image rotator is probably the simplest way to do it.
http://www.google.com/search?q=javascript+image+rotator&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

No need to learn flash and/or necessitate a plug-in. If the viewer has javascript turned off, then there's still an image (the placeholder or first in the set) to look at instead of a blank box with an "x."