Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Sample Scripts

How about some useful scripts to get you started? This section offers several scripts you can copy into your web pages.

Status Line Messages

Probably the simplest JavaScript you can add to your site is a message that appears in the status bar (the bar at the bottom that shows URLs or says “Document: Done”). You can use this bar to display a message or extra information when the user places the mouse over a link. To do this, simply add a little JavaScript to a standard anchor tag. You don’t even need to write a function or use the <script> tag. Browsers that aren’t JavaScript-compatible simply ignore the code. Here’s how you do it:

<A HREF="mozart.com" onMouseOver="window.status='A study of 
Mozart's operas'; return true;">Mozart</A>

This code displays the text “A study of Mozart’s operas” when the user puts the cursor over the Mozart link. This is accomplished using the onMouseOver event handler. When the user puts the cursor over the Mozart link, the window.status variable, which controls the contents of the status bar, is set to the string specified in single quotes. The return true; bit is just some magic required to keep the browser from doing its normal job of writing the URL in the status bar. Without it, the user would never see your status bar message, as it would immediately be overwritten by the URL. To use this code on your site, just replace the text between the single quotes (and the URL and content, of course).

Opening a New Window

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