Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Since I've made the switch over to Flash CS3, I've noticed a screwy bug in Internet Explorer. I believe it to be nothing more than a production oversight on my part, so let this serve as a warning to others!

My setup is a common one:

• SWFObject 1.5

• Flash CS3, published out to version 8 (or 9, depending on the baseline user of the client)

Here's the problem. I've been publishing out to version 8 for long enough now that it's become habit - and I have starter code that I slap on the page. Enter CS3, with Publish Settings set by default to publish out to version 9. Should you forget to ramp this back down to version 8, or ratchet up the version number in your SWFObject embed code...YOU WILL NEVER SEE A PROBLEM. Unless you view your project in Internet Explorer 7. All other browsers will read the SWFObject code and determine that the user has at least version 8 running, and are therefore good to go. IE7 does not seem to be able to make this leap of intuition. Make sure your publish version and your SWFObject player version match up and IE7 gets a grip.

What's that Theory of troubleshooting again? The one that states that the easiest and most likely solution is generally the best place to start? Case in point.