Web Design All-in-One for Dummies®

Chapter 15. Making Your Pages Interactive

In This Chapter

• Adding interactivity with JavaScript

• Creating customized rollover effects

• Building image maps

• Creating a slide show

• Inserting multimedia such as Flash, QuickTime, and MP3s

• Adding content that changes daily

Hands down, one of the most interesting aspects of using the Internet is the fact that visitors can interact in a variety of ways with Web sites. Many computer users claim, in fact, that they like to spend several hours each day surfing the Internet to listen to music, watch movies, chat with friends, play games, read the news, look up the local weather, participate in forums, browse for products on eBay, research school topics, and more.

There are many different ways to make Web sites interactive, from the very simple (such as rollover buttons) to the very complex (such as Flash components, QuickTime videos, and interactive games). For simple functions, you can easily find free JavaScript code online to add to your pages without even knowing anything about JavaScript. For more complex interactive site features, you need both the multimedia components and their attending browser extensions or plug-ins (many of which are free), and you must find out how to properly insert them onto your pages.

In this chapter, you are introduced to ways of using JavaScript to make your Web sites more interactive — such as creating multi-image rollover ...