About <object> and <embed> tags

For years, the most common way to embed video or Flash into a Web page was to use a combination of the <object> and <embed> tag. Some browsers supported the <object> tag, others the <embed> tag, and making them work together covererd virtually all browsers.

This method still works, but due to a recent court decision, there's a new wrinkle: Microsoft was compelled to release an update for Internet Explorer that prevents that browser from interacting directly with ActiveX controls loaded by the applet, embed, or object elements. (Other browsers are not affected).

For example, a streaming Flash video embedded with these tags can still start automatically when the page is loaded. But clicking the stop button once no longer stops the video - now, the first click activates the ActiveX control and a second click is required to stop playback. (Once activated, however, the object remains activated.) Obviously, this can be confusing for IE uers.

Although work-arounds now exist for this problem, Dreamweaver 8 still writes <object> and <embed> code. However, you can use Dreamweaver to produce your SWF files - essential component for streaming Flash video. We'll go over those steps and also look at using Flash Professional 8 to produce similar SWF files.

Finally, we'll take a look at a popular solution to the <object> and <embed> problem: SWFObject.