Rich media is the term often used to refer to file formats that are not supported by the browser without a plug-in. On our Web Graphic Formats page we discuss files that are supported by browsers. Plug-in-dependent file formats include video, sound, PDFs, animation (except animated GIFs), and applets.

Some of the most common plug-ins are Shockwave Flash (Flash), Windows Media Player, QuickTime, iPix, and RealPlayer. There are many, many more plug-ins available; however, only a few are included with your web browser automatically. This means that if you use a file format that needs a plug-in that the web browser does not have, the user will have to download and install the plug-in first. This process has become much more automated in recent years, especially if you include the plug-in's code base in your HTML file. GoLive® will add this for you automatically, by the way.

You can see examples of rich media in the Step-by-Step Tutorials or Video Demonstrations section of this site's Learning Center.