Some are calling it a news-FLASH! Others are calling them “FLASHY" websites! If you want to add some zip and zing to your humdrum HTML website, getting what you’re looking for is not a secret anymore, and it’s certainly not just for the computer geniuses anymore. It’s as simple as getting the right tools, software or website designer to create the perfect banner, intro or page for your site. It’s as simple as Flash.

You might be asking yourself what the heck FLASH is, and perhaps even wondering what the differences are between it and regular webpages and sites. Average, everyday websites use a computer language called HTML. This language tells words which font they will be (as well as the color), where pictures will be placed (such as “absolute top left") and where graphics and other immobile doodads will sit on specific webpages.

Flash uses vector images, which are pictures and graphics that have the ability to resize and move. Flashing banners, flickering flames and sparkling snow flurries all utilize the vector images available only with Flash. In order to see Flash, a specific device or player needs to be installed in the computer that it will be viewed on. Nearly 90% of all new computers sold have some type of Flash player installed before leaving the factory, so if you have any concerns of Flash merely being a trend, you can put those concerns to rest.

You might also be wondering what Flash does that makes it so different from boring, old HTML. The easiest way to think about it is like this: think back to when you were a kid and you created your own “movies" by drawing small pictures, each a bit different from the previous, on the corner of the pages of your notebook. If each one of these pictures were in your computer, they would be bitmap images- the type that doesn’t move. Now take your notebook and flip the corner pages quickly so that the pictures you drew “move". You have created animation, and if it were in a computer, it would be sort of a vector graphic. The difference between the flatness of your drawing and the brought-to-life images of your handcrafted animation is the primary difference between HTML and Flash.

If you still have a bit of doubt, think about the main purpose of your website: To attract new customers to your business, and to keep the ones you have coming back to see what’s new. A snazzy site will attract the attention and spark the memory of more viewers than a plain site that simply loads to relay information. Flash will help get your website and corresponding business on the “favorites" list of old, new and potential customers.