Goodies to Go ™
February 17, 2003–Newsletter #220
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured
this week:
* Goodies Thoughts –
Your Newsletter.
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Feedback Goodies
* And Remember This…
Goodies Announcement
Just in case you missed
it before, the new Beyond HTML Goodies book is now available!
Go beyond the basics
and learn how the pros add and use dynamic HTML features and advanced
JavaScript techniques. Beyond HTML Goodies demonstrates dozens of new and
different features readers can add to their existing Web pages using HTML and
JavaScript. The book starts with simple text and image tips, such as adding a
clock to a Web page or causing text to appear when the mouse moves over an
image. It gradually builds to more complex tricks, including manipulating forms
or working with cookies behind the scenes. Throughout the book, readers enjoy
Joe’s snappy style and “to the point” discussion of each “goody” in the book.
http://books.internet.com/books/0789727803
| Goodies Thoughts – |
Your Newsletter. |
Over the past few weeks I have
included a series of pieces in this newsletter that
were intended to help those who are at the very
beginnings of their web site development ventures.
These pieces have now been incorporated, together
with additional material, into a new section of the
web site entitled "The Non-Technical Introduction".
If you know somebody who would like to start a web
site but has no idea how to get going, point out
this new section. Without getting involved in the
technical nitty-gritty, the section provides
fundamental explanations, tips and tricks and
guidelines for success from concept to getting your
site right up to where the coding begins. In other
words, everything you need to know and do before you
start our first primer!
This new section should fill a hole that was in need
of plugging, and along with our primers, tutorials
and reference sections will hopefully provide a
place for you to find all you need as you grow your
website developer skills. The question now is: is
there another hole that you see that needs to be
filled? If you have a suggestion for another section
to be added to the website, please send it in to the
newsletter feedback address:
mailto:[email protected] Also, if
you would like to see another series of pieces in
this newsletter, let me know about that too. There
is a .Net tutorial under development that many of
you have asked about. Keep your eyes on the website
– there’s more coming soon!
Many of you have been using the feedback address to
provide your ideas for this newsletter and for that
we are very grateful. I hope that I am taking your
newsletter in a direction that you would like it to
go. I hope also that you will recommend it to your
friends and associates – the company (Jupiter Media)
is keen on the numbers, so I need to make sure our
subscriber list keeps growing!! If you have
suggestions, send them in. If you have been reading
the feedback section, you should know that I do read
all the email I receive and incorporate your ideas
right into the newsletter and the site.
I wanted to take the time this week to make these
few points and to let you know how much I appreciate
your involvement. Next week I’ll be getting back
into the regular format with another development
topic. Until then,
Thanks for Reading!
– Vince Barnes
Q
& A Goodies
Questions are taken
from submissions to our Community Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by
going to
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/.
Q. I have a page divided into 2
frames. Frame A and frame B. Frame A loads the
page NAVIGATOR.HTML and frame B loads
HALLOWEEN3.HTML. When someone clicks on the
button in frame A I want it to load information
in frame B while A remains the same. However
when someone clicks on the button in frame A it
loads the information in frame A and frame B
remains the same. (Code attached.).
A. You have the target designated in the
wrong tag. You have it in the image tag. It
should be in the HREF tag. Your tag:
<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/rfkicker1/HALLOWEEN2.HTML"><IMG
BORDER="0" SRC="ABOUTMEBUTTON.gif"
target="right">
Change it to:
<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/rfkicker1/HALLOWEEN2.HTML"
target="right"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="ABOUTMEBUTTON.gif">
Change all of the tags and that should work.
Q. I have som stand alone HTML program
that reside in multiple laptop computers located
in my client’s fleet of vehicles. I am
attempting to find a program or script that will
act as a hit counter so I can analyze the
traffic and identify the pages or sections
visited or more importantly, those that are not.
A. You might find that cookies would
provide the feedback you are looking for. Take a
look at this HTMLGoodies page:
http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com/beyond/cookiecount.html
Q. I would like to be able to create
clickable buttons at the top of my page to link
to different places further down the page.
A. Add this link code to your button
image:
<a href="#link1"><img src="yourbuttonname.gif"></a>
Then where you want it to link to, add this
anchor code:
<a name="link1"></a>
When you click the button it will jump down on
the same page to the anchor.
Q. I have a folder, and inside that folder
is a webpage and images used on the webpage.
There is another folder inside that folder, and
inside this folder is another webpage. I want to
use the images from the previous folder. Is it
possible to link them in locally? Or do I have
to use an absolute link?
A. You can link to documents in other
directories by specifying the relative path from
the current document to the linked document. For
example, a link to a file "my_file.html" located
in the subdirectory "files" would be:
<A HREF="files/my_file.html">My File</A>
If you wanted to reference an image in another
folder you can use relative paths also. For
instance your page resides in a folder named
"pages" and you want to reference the image that
is in another folder named "images". Both
folders reside on the site in the same level.
The reference would look like this: <img src="../images/my_image.jpg">
This tells the browser to look up into another
folder named "images" [The two dots mean "my
parent folder" – Ed].
If the page were in a folder named "folder2" and
this folder was in the folder named "pages" the
reference could look like this:
<img src="../../images/my_image.jpg">
This tells the browser to look two folders up
for another folder named "images".
These are called relative links because you are
specifying the path to the linked file relative
to the location of the current file. You can
also use the absolute pathname (the complete
URL) of the file, but relative links are more
efficient in accessing a server. By using
relative links you make your site more portable.
You can do all of your work building your
website on your local computer and when you
upload the entire site to the server, all of the
links will work. If you use absolute links then
you run into the problem of having the files
still linked to your local computer.
Q. How do I move stuff where I want it on
my website? I put the html in the scripts area
but when I go to my site everything is in the
top left corner.
A. By default, text and images will be
placed at the top and to the left. There are
tags for positioning, and stylesheets give more
control. Sometimes tables are used for precise
layout. I suspect tables would be the most
useful thing for you right now, so have a look
at the tables tutorials.
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/tbl.html
Q. How do I make animated GIFs?.
A. Basically, you make each frame as a
separate image, and your graphics application
combines them into one file. Imageready can do
this. Shareware sites may have Microsoft GIF
Animator, which I’ve used and works adequately.
There will be other applications for animating
GIFs. Probably shareware sites like Nonags and
Tucows are your best bet. If you’re willing to
learn Flash or Livemotion, they make animations
which are smoother and smaller.
Q. Can you use Visual Basic for making
baners?
A. Visual Basic is not the program you
should be using for creating banners. Take a
look at PhotoShop(http://www.adobe.com)
or Paint Shop Pro(http://www.jasc.com)
Q. What function returns the square root
of a number?
A. That would be Math.sqrt(arg) where arg
is your numeric variable. There is a whole list
of Math Object methods in Joe’s book starting at
the bottom of P159.
News Goodies
Google Acquires Blog Software Firm
[February 17, 2003] Google continues its push
into the content business with the purchase of Pyra
Labs’ Blogger.com ‘push-button’ Web publishing
platform.
Click
here to read the article
Macromedia Unveils DevNet, Freehand MX
[February 10, 2003] The Web graphics software firm
rolls out a subscription-based sales program and an
upgrade to its flagship Macromedia MX product suite.
Click
here to read the article
PGA on Par to Roll Out TOURCast
[February 17, 2003] If you can’t join the PGA
Tour in person or on television, rest assured. Linux
can offer golf fans an all-access pass to the
fairways through TOURCast.
Click here to read the article
Bxrk! Bxrk! Swedish Chef Sings Opera to Microsoft
[February 14, 2003] Opera crafts a special edition
of its Opera 7 browser to render MSN in the wacky
tongue of the Muppet Show’s Swedish Chef — a little
payback for Microsoft’s alleged sleights against
Opera users.
Click here to read the article
And the Online Fraud Goes On…
[February 14, 2003] eBay users continue to be
bombarded with scam e-mails from criminals
harvesting account information; now, the FTC is
investigating some of the frauds.
Click here to read the article
Gates Keeps Eye on Linux Threat
[February 12, 2003] Microsoft’s Gates keeps wary eye
on Linux, but says commercial software development
has advantages over open source.
Click here to read the article
Court: NY Can Ban Online Cigarette Sales
[February 14, 2003] Federal appellate court upholds
a New York statute prohibiting the sale of
cigarettes both online and via mail order.
Click here to read the article
Listen.com Halves CD Burning Cost
[February 13, 2003] A cheaper Rhapsody? Indeed,
Listen.com links with Lycos to offer CD burning for
49 cents per tune.
Click here to read the article
Linux Goes Under Security Microscope
[February 13, 2003] IBM, Oracle and Red Hat plans to
put Linux up for Common Criteria certification, an
international standard that grades technology for
reliability and security.
Click here to read the article
Did you ever wish your newsletter was an easy two way communications medium?
Ploof! It now is!
If you would like to comment on the newsletter or expand/improve on something
you have seen in here, you can now send your input to:
We already receive a lot of email every day. This address will help us sort out
those relating specifically to this newsletter from all the rest. When you send
email to this address it may wind up being included in this section of the
newsletter, to be shared with your fellow readers.
Please don’t send your questions to this address.
They should be sent to our mentors: see
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/
Thanks again for the kind words this week. We are
getting a lot of complements from our readers and I
appreciate them very much.
Peter Mole from Australia sent in a suggestion for a
"Reader’s Site of the Week". The idea would be to
feature a site submitted for consideration by a
reader, and publish some comments from other
readers. Something along these lines sound like a
great idea! What do you think? Would you like the
opportunity to feature your site & get candid
comments and critiques from other readers? Let me
know at our feedback address:
mailto:[email protected]
Thanks for the great suggestion, Peter.
Top
And
Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1996: Kasparov Beats Deep Blue
Gary Kasparov, the champion chess player played
Deep Blue, IBM’s chess playing computer, in a six
game match on this day in 1996. Kasparov won this
match. The computer did win two of the games,
however, which was the first time a computer won
against a chess champion. The story was different a
year later. This time, Deep Blue won the match,
which was the first time Kasparov ever lost a six
game match in championship play.
Mongomery Ward, deparment store mogul, was born
on this day in 1843, and in
1941 this day saw the birth of singer Gene
Pitney.
Thanks for reading
Goodies to Go!
