The data can be specified in one of several ways: a file specified by a URL, in-line data, or as a set of named properties. In addition, there are a number of attributes that allow authors to specify standard properties such as width, and height. The code for the object is specified in several ways: by an explicit reference, or indirectly by the object's "class name" or media type. This determines where to place the object. The ALIGN attribute allows objects to be placed as part of the current text line, or as a distinct unit, aligned to the left, center or right.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| BASELINE | the bottom of the object is vertically aligned with the baseline of the text line in which the object appears. |
| CENTER | the object is floated to after the end of the current line and centered between the left and right margins. Subsequent text starts at the beginning of the next line. |
| LEFT | the object is floated down and over to the current left margin. Subsequent text is flowed past the right hand side of the visible area of the object. |
| MIDDLE | the middle of the object is vertically aligned with the baseline. |
| RIGHT | the object is floated down and over to the current right margin. Subsequent text is flowed past the left hand side of the visible area of the object. |
| TEXTBOTTOM | the bottom of the object is vertically aligned with the bottom of the current font. |
| TEXTMIDDLE | the middle of the object is vertically aligned with the position midway between the baseline and the x-height for the current font. The x-height is defined as the top of a lower case x in western writing systems. If the text font is an all-caps style then use the height of a capital X. For other writing systems, align the middle of the object with the middle of the text. |
| TEXTTOP | the top of the object is vertically aligned with the top of the current font. |
This attribute applies to the border shown when the object forms part of a hypertext link, as specified by an enclosing anchor element. The attribute specifies the suggested width of this border around the visible area of the object. The width is specified in standard units. For BORDER=0 no border should be shown. This is normally used when such a border would interfere with the visual affordances presented by the object itself. For instance, the object could render itself as a number of beveled buttons. This is a URL that identifies an implementation for the object. In some object systems this is a class identifier. Some URL schemes used to identify implementations require an additional URL to find the implementation. CODEBASE allows you to specify that URL. This specifies the Internet Media Type [Ref 7] of the code referenced by the CLASSID attribute in advance of actually retrieving it. User agents may use the value of the CODETYPE attribute to skip over unsupported media types without needing to make a network access. This is a URL pointing to the object's data, for instance a GIF file for an image. In the absence of the CLASSID attribute, the media type of the data is used to determine a default value for the CLASSID attribute. The implementation is then loaded as if the CLASSID attribute had been given explicitly. Used to indicate that the object is to be declared but not instantiated. A detailed description of the DECLARE attribute is given below. This gives the suggested height of a box enclosing the visible area of the object. The height is specified in standard units. User agents may use this value to scale an object to match the requested height if appropriate. The suggested width of the space to the left and right of the box enclosing the visible area of the object. The width is specified in standard units. This attribute is used to alter the separation of preceding and following text from the object. Generic description of the ID attribute This provides a way for user agents which support FORMs to determine whether an object within a FORM block should participate in the "submit" process. If NAME is specified and the DECLARE attribute is absent, then the user agent should include the value of the NAME attribute and data obtained from the object along with the information derived from other form fields. The mechanism used to obtain the object's data is specific to each object system. The presence of this attribute indicates that the contents of the OBJECT element contains anchors with hypertext links associated with shaped regions on the visible area of the object. See below for further information. This allows you to specify a short text string the browser can show while loading the Object's implementation and data. It can include character entities for accented characters etc. This specifies the Internet Media Type [Ref 7] for the data referenced by the DATA attribute in advance of actually retrieving it. In the absence of the CLASSID attribute, this allows the user agent to retrieve the code implementing the object concurrently with the data, and to skip over unsupported media types without needing to make a network access. This specifies a uniform resource locator for a client-side image map [Ref 4] in the format proposed by Spyglass Inc. This is normally appropriate only for static images. The suggested height of the space to the top and bottom of the box enclosing the visible area of the object. The height is specified in standard units. This gives the suggested width of a box enclosing the visible area of the object. The width is specified in standard units. User agents may use this value to scale an object to match the requested width if appropriate.
Smooth scaling a small image to a larger size provides an effective solution to reducing the time needed to download an image, offering better subjective results when compared to color reduction.
