Copyright: Copyright © 1998, Peter Jukel


Contents
Using Active Toolbar Creator

The Active Toolbar Creator (from now on, ATC) makes "toolbars" for web pages, which change when the viewer moves his or her mouse pointer over a particular "button".  These are also known as "mouseovers", or "rollovers".

New in Version 2.0

This is the second version of ATC, fixing some problems found in the old version, namely the code generated in the old version wasn't compatible with various older browsers, that don't recognize the Javascript images class.  This is fixed in this version.  The code should be "bullet proof" for all browsers.

Using ATC 2.0

When you understand the basics of using ATC, you should have no problems working with the program.  You can have up to 10 "buttons".  You choose the number of buttons you want by using the up-down button to the right of the Number of Images field at the top of the main ATC window.  This will automatically change the number of buttons available in the Image Number combo box.

Once you have selected how many "buttons" you would like in the Number of Images field, you must set the properties of these individual buttons.  You first choose which button you'd like to set the properties of from the Image Number combo box, and then type in the values of the properties in the text-fields.  A list of the properties are listed below, along with a brief description of each.

Dest URL: Short for "destination uniform resource locator", in other words, the page that shows when you click on the button.  This is the value of the HREF attribute of the Anchor tag.  You can type in any HTML compatible URL here -- ATC will not change it.

Static Source: The static source property specifies the location of the image that is displayed when the mouse is NOT over the button and when the page first loads.

Mouseover Source: This is the location of the image shown when the viewer of the web pages moves his or her mouse pointer over a button.

Statusbar Text: This is the text that will be displayed in the status-bar of the web browser when the viewer moves the mouse pointer of a button.  When the mouse pointer exits the button, the text is cleared from the statusbar.

Target Frame: This is only necessary if your page uses frames.  If you want the destination page to open closing all other frames, you must specify the target frame as _top (underscore top).  In all other cases, you must specify the name of the destination frame.

Width: This specifies the width of the image in pixels.  If you omit this, the web browser will find it out itself.

Height: This specifies the height of the image in pixels.  If you omit this, the web browser will find it out itself.

Between the Images

You have various options on what you'd like between each button.  The first option is nothing, which, as you might expect, is...well, nothing.  Your second choice is <BR> tag (line break), which puts a <BR> tag between each button.  This is a forced line-break.  The third option is <P> tag (paragraph), which puts a <P> tag between each button.  This is slightly larger a space than with <BR>.  The final option is &nbsp; (non-breaking space).  &nbsp; is a special character in HTML that represents a non-breaking space.  It's the same as pressing space-bar in a word-processor.


properties
Properties is another name for characteristics.  For example, a property of a person is name, or height.