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A designer just gave me the HTML/JS/CSS for a new site design. The page is using the good old fashioned MM_crap methods to preload images.

Should we still be preloading mouseover images in today's world? It feels so 1998.

Jeff Handley
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2 Answers2

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Should we still be preloading mouseover images in today's world?

Yes, absolutely. Even on fast connections, DNS lookups or connection hiccups can create a notable delay when loading an image. You don't want that on a mouseover.

No need to use Dreamweaver's preload code though: See What is the best way to preload multiple images in JavaScript? for alternatives.

Plus, there is a very interesting alternative of course (as mentioned by @hd and @Marcel): CSS sprites. Depending on your situation, they can be a superior solution - if you're working on something new, it may well be worth the switch.

Community
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Pekka
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  • Pekka,i know it is not where to ask my question,but i can ask anymore question here,stackoverflow gives the message that my questions don't meet the standard quality. :( – hd. May 29 '11 at 07:24
  • @hd see [What can I do when getting "Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions from this account"?](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/86997) for some help on that. – Pekka May 29 '11 at 07:25
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    Marking this as the answer since it answered the question at hand, even though I'm actually going to use CSS sprites instead of rollover images as @hd suggested. – Jeff Handley May 29 '11 at 07:35
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yes,why use preload mouseover images when we can use CSS sprites?

hd.
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