When OnCouRSS client, Homesol Building Solutions, requested a simple animated header that would be eye-catching and easy to view for rural users, Flashfader fit the bill. This plugin boasts the following features:

• No loading time. The flash file is 2 KB, the images are loaded dynamically one by one
• Can be integrated into template files, not in post and pages (maybe with the php code plugin)
• No limitation in size of the flash movie
• Option for valid xhtml flash code

By finding a small stock video and taking five still images from it we gathered enough content to allow Flashfader to create the illusion of a video while reducing the the necessary download time for Homesol’s rural visitors.

Modifying the size, repeat and interval parameters allowed us to scroll through the five images fast enough to get the desired end result. The appropriate code is placed into the header file and, voila, an animated header that only needs to download to the visitor’s machine once in order to function properly on every page.