A webmaster recently sent me a new banner to link to his site, but it was in a .swf format. I looked everywhere trying to find out if I can link a .swf file in somewhat the same manner as a normal graphic file like .jpg or .gif, but no luck. I ask the webmaster to embed his link in the .swf file, but he has not gotten back to me yet. So while I wait, I was trying to link to his site in the normal way you would like a banner. Ex: <a href="http://www.site.com"><img src="pic/banner.gif"></a>

I tried to link the .swf file by doing this:

<a href="http://www.thesitetolinkto.com"><OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
 codebase=" http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0 - http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0 "
 WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60" id="bfsbanner001" ALIGN="">
 <PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="bfsbanner001.swf"> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high> <PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#000000> <EMBED src="bfsbanner001.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#000000  WIDTH="470" HEIGHT="60" NAME="bfsbanner001" ALIGN=""
 TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED>
</OBJECT></a>

Of course it did not work, but is there some way to do this without having the ability to edit the.swf file? Thought if it was possible someone here would know the answer.

Hey thanks Gullanian,

It did have moving frames, but what I did was follow your instructions and then saved a snapshot of each frame using the print screen button and then pieced them together to make a .gif file. It doesn't perform exactly the same animation, but it is close enough. Again thanks. I learned something new!

this probably would have worked also,

<DIV style="cursor: hand" onclick="document.location='http://www.thesitetolinkto.com';">
<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0"
WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60" id="bfsbanner001" ALIGN="">
<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="bfsbanner001.swf">
<PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high> <PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#000000>
<EMBED src="bfsbanner001.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#000000 WIDTH="470" HEIGHT="60" NAME="bfsbanner001" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED>
</OBJECT>
</DIV>

Okay so I got a new .swf back from the webmaster that originally sent me the first version of his .swf banner. So now he linked up his site in the .swf file and it's good to go to put it as a banner.

Now my question is: If someone does not have flash installed, is there a way to overlay the .swf banner on top of a regular .gif banner. In doing this if someone cannot see the .swf because that don't have flash capabilities then they will see the .gif banner which was hiding behind the .swf banner. Sounds confusing, but hopefully someone will understand what I am trying to say.

most people have it, but if the banner dont have any commands and its just normal frames, you can turn it into gif

Arads1@Doal.co.il - send me the file and i'll try