<p>I'm brand new to jQuery and have some experience using Prototype. In Prototype, there is a method to "flash" an element &mdash; ie. briefly highlight it in another color and have it fade back to normal so that the user's eye is drawn to it. Is there such a method in jQuery? I see fadeIn, fadeOut, and animate, but I don't see anything like "flash". Perhaps one of these three can be used with appropriate inputs?</p>

Would a
pulse effect
(offline) JQuery plugin be appropriate for what you are looking for ?
You can add a duration for limiting the pulse effect in time.
As mentioned by
J-P
in the comments, there is now
his
updated pulse plugin
.
See his
GitHub repo
. And here is
a demo
.