Fixing zIndex problems
The zIndex that you assign to different elements in your web page is supposed to determine which elements appear in front when the position of two elements overlap. There are a number of instances where no matter what you assign as the zIndex a particular element always ends up appearing in front of the other. ere we'll look at when this can occur and how we can fix it (where it is fixable).
- select lists in Internet Explorer 6 and earlier always appear in front of anything else on the web page. The only way of handling this is to gide the select when there is something that you want to display in front of it.
- iframes in Opera 8.5 and earlier also always appear in front of everything else. Again the only way to handle it is to hide the iframe while the other element overlaps.
- flash objects often end up appearing in front of everything else. Fortunately there is a one line addition that can be made to your HTML to correct this one. Simply add an extra param to the object that reads like this:
<param name="wmode" value="transparent">
Fortunately in the case of the select and iframe problems the most recent versions of the affected browsers have resolved the issue and will use the appropriate zIndex to determine what should appear in front. This problem will therefore gradually disappear as people upgrade their browser.
