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""click to activate and use this control" - annoying message!"

"click to activate and use this control"

Here's a simple tip to remove this annoying message often seen when Macromedia Flash content is used in a web page - I've even seen it here on Freeola ;¬)

This problem only affects Internet Explorer.
Not only do your visitors see this message, but worse they have to "click twice" to follow any hypertext links!

A simple get-a-round to stop the message and the need for 'two clicks' is to add a small JavaScript after the </object> tag.

Add this:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="flashfix.js"></script>

Then create a file named 'flashfix.js' containing the following:

objects = document.getElementsByTagName("object");
for (var i = 0; i < objects.length; i++)
{
objects[ i].outerHTML = objects[ i].outerHTML;
}

To demonstrate the problem and see the fix working visit: www.hmmm.ip3.co.uk/flash

...but I notice on Freeola's SWF advert, where before clicking twice would make the link work, now for me the link doesn't work at all, other swf links seem to be working fine...


*Eccles*...!
If you're not interested just say...




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Update:
Earlier this month the normal Windows Updates introduced the changes to remove "click to activate" for IE.
ieblog.

The "click to activate" certainly seems to have gone, but I notice on Freeola's SWF advert where before clicking twice would make the link work, now for me the link doesn't work at all, other swf links seem to be working fine.

I don't use Flash, so I'm not sure how you've added the link to your swf file but you might want to take a look at it.

I'm using IE7 and the latest Flash Player (9,0,124,0).


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Ah thanks!
Not sure if we should bother to change the code site wide then. We'll only have to change some of it back.
Surely MS had enough money to pay Eolas the license fee in the first place instead of the court battle.

Thanks for that cjh.

Windows XP SP3 - I thought Vista had killed that off, but it appears not.

I hope it doesn't cause as much trouble as SP2 did!

BSODS etc.
I can still remember the phone calls...




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Just a heads up that Microsoft will be removing "click to activate" in April 2008.

I've recently been adding more flash content to my website, then noticed that after upgrading to IE7, I was receiving the click here to activate message, how annoying!

So I searched around for a script or method of properly embedding the flash object into the page. I stumbled by chance across this 'SWFObject' guide that allows you to not only add flash with javascript, but to ensure that the user automatically updates the browser flash plugin, or installs it on the fly if it doesn't exist, without leaving your site. Very handy!

Here's the information:
http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/

I hope you find it as useful as I did...

Garin wrote:
> The "dont use flash" fix is pretty good too. :)


:¬)
That's my favourite one as well!

It was only Freeola's recent "Could your PC be possessed?" banner advert [URL]http://www.hmmm.ip3.co.uk/flash/[/URL] that made me think this could be useful to people...

The "dont use flash" fix is pretty good too. :)

I'm trying to persuade them to use the proper Adobe one, as it seems to cover all possibilities. At the moment there are several different Javascript/VBScript methods in use.

Sorry Eccles, I should have mentioned it was a MS 'feature' in my post. As you mentioned it was introduced a few years back when applying normal Windows Updates.

Which fix are Freeola going to use?
;¬P