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Create Flash header or slideshow on WordPress easily with Flashfader plugin

My Flash skills are non-existent, so when a client requested some kind of Flash header where the images fade out and in, I was happy that I remembered that I had once come a across a plugin that creates Flash slideshows.

Flashfader plugin lets you easily create Flash slideshows and place them almost anywhere on your blog.

How to use Flashfader:

1. Extract the files and upload them to the plugins directory. There are two files: flashfader.php and flashfader.swf. Both have to be in the root directory of plugins, and not in their own folder.
2. Install Flashfader.
3. Go to Manage > Flashfader. The following screen appears:
   
4. Here you can customize the appearance of the slideshow:
   1. Width/Height: define the width and height of the slideshow. If you upload pictures that are bigger or smaller than this size, they will be automatically edited to the size you define here. So if you want to have complete control over how your pictures look in the slideshow, select and width and height, enter them here, and make sure all your images are exactly that size.
   2. Background color: This is the color that will appear before your first image fades in.
   3. Fade Order: your images can either appear in a selected order, or randomly. Enter 1 if you want your images to appear in the order you define. Enter 2 if you want the images to appear randomly.
   4. Image display time: This is how long each image appears for before it fades out.
   5. Imag2image fade time: This is how long the fade between pictures takes.
   6. XHTML-valid flash embed: You can state whether you want the embed code to be XHTML-compliant. I found that it worked fine when XHTML-compliant.
5. Save your settings.
6. In the next part of the screen, you upload the images you want to appear in the slideshow.
   
7. If you set the Fade Order in step 3 above to sequential, you do not need to worry about the first column of numbers. If you did select to have a sequential slideshow, you can easily change the order by entering numbers in the middle column in the above picture.
8. Save your work.

You now have a completed Flash slideshow. But how do we get it to appear in the header of the site, or in any other part.

Integrating your new Flash show in your site

Posted in Plugins | Tags: Flash, header | 8 Comments »

Viper’s Video Quicktags is the best for embedding movies

After trying out many of the plugins available for helping WordPress users embed videos in their posts and Pages, the one that I find to be the best is Viper’s Video Quicktags plugin. Once activated, you can select which types of videos you want to become available on the editor. You can choose from YouTube, Google Video, IFILM, Metacafe, MySpace, Vimeo, Quicktime, generic video file format, and Flash (flv). Once you select the video formats, these appear on your visual editor as icons.

All you have to do is click on an icon, and a pop-up window asks for the URL of the video you wish to embed.

Viper’s Video Quicktags>>

Posted in Plugins | Tags: Flash, video, YouTube | 6 Comments »

Inserting Flash swf file in WordPress posts or Pages

I’m no Flash expert, so generally if I’m dealing with Flash it’s Flash movies, which are .flv files. However, some people might need to insert Flash objects into their posts or Pages, and these files have the .swf suffix.

Someone on a forum recently was on a search for the easiest and least destructive way of inserting .swf files in their posts, and their conclusion was that the Kimili Flash Embed for Wordpress plugin was the best option out there.

Kimili Flash Embed for Wordpress>>

Posted in Plugins | Tags: Flash | 1 Comment »

Adding unlimited streaming video to your site with Google Video

A client gave me a 15 minute movie that they wanted uploaded to their site. The problem with such a long video is that it needs to be streamed, or else the user has to wait until a good portion is downloaded before they can view it. But adding streaming Flash video demands some Flash programming skills and the Flash software, from what I understand.

I decided to try to use one of the free online video sites. First I tried YouTube. The movie was rejected because of its length. Photobucket was even more restrictive in its size limitations. Then I did a search for “unlimited video hosting,” or something like that, and Google Video came up.

Google Video allows you to host videos with unlimited size and length! I don’t know why more people don’t use Google Video. Not only that, the embeddable player is prettier and less gaudy than the YouTube player, in my opinion.

The only limitation with Google Video is that you can’t upload Flash videos. But that’s not a major problem since you can easily convert Flash to Windows Media files with one of the free file conversion services like Zamzar.

I guess people like YouTube for its social aspect and community. But if you need to make a longer movie easily accessible, I highly recommend that you try Google Video!

Posted in Tips | Tags: Flash, multimedia, video, YouTube | No Comments »

Are Flash blogs the future?

LutinCapuche Blog has developed a plugin called FlogMaker that changes your blog to a Flash-based blog. You can see a demo of a Flash blog on the site, and manipulate the background, colors, and more and see the results. It works like any other plugin, where you just upload and activate.

It’s an interesting concept. It’s hard to tell whether it is user-friendly or not because the demo is in French, so I found myself struggling to figure out what was what because of the language barrier. I am not sure this will catch on, though, since Flash sites are perceived to be non-accessible, and I’m not sure if this type of site is more accessible than any other Flash site.

FlogMaker>>

Posted in Plugins | Tags: Flash | 2 Comments »