Flash Templates
When buying a website template which is either a Flash template, or enhanced with Flash, you need to keep the two very distinctly different types of Flash templates in mind.
Some Flash website templates are entire websites, created purely in Flash (or in Swish, a cheaper alternative which compiles the same as Flash).
As a professional website developer, I cannot recommend these. The search engines find them difficult to index, and you are relying on your website visitor having the Flash plugin installed.
However, a Flash-enhanced template is a template which uses Flash animation on particular pages – usually on the home (landing) page – in an appropriate and, in many cases, replaceable way.
The template often doesn’t rely on the Flash being there, but it is an excellent enhancement and certainly gives a professional slant to the website’s look.
If you purchase a web template that includes a Flash animation, be critically aware of the restrictions of that animation. Does the animation include text content? How will you edit that? Website templates that are designed with the end-user in mind will provide you with easy ways to edit the messages displayed in a Flash animation. You should be able to just edit a text file using Notepad, and shouldn’t need Flash skills at all!
Flash website templates are a wonderfully professional option – often at a small price premium, but well worth it – if it is easy for you to change any text in the Flash animation, and if the template does not absolutely rely on Flash being available on your website visitor’s PC.