Defining words in the text (the way FP 2003 Help does)

[sophia]

When you go to FP help, the definitions for a word is accessible with a
mouseclick. It inserts the definition into the original text, then removes
it with a subsequent mouseclick. When I checked the properties, it read,
"javascript:AppendPopup(this,'ofparameter_3')"

I couldn't find a way to view the source. Does anyone know what this is
called and/or how to do it?

It also has a function that reads "Show All" which reveals all definitions.
(I tried using the popup message in the behaviors pane, but it's too
intrusive)

I spent two hours trying to find a post on this subject. If this topic has
been covered, please let me know.

 

[MD Websunlimited]

Hi Sophia,

They are using JavaScript to accomplish this. Take a look at J-Bots Text Tips which can be used to create the same effect.

http://www.websunlimited.com/order/Product/TextTips/text_tips.htm

 

[Chris Leeds, MVP-FrontPage]

JavaScript is a good way to go, there's a link above to this type thing.

You may want to use an <acronym> (I also like to mark up the acronym on the
style sheet so it looks different than the other text, and make the cursor
show as "help" (the one with the ?). It's very easy to do this and if you
don't need much of an explanation it's a good way to go. the result of
doing this causes a little box to come up (like a tool tip) when the acronym
is hovered over.

it'd look like this in your code:
this is a sentence and this is a <acronym title="another definition of this
word">word</acronym> that needs more explanation.

If you're interested in this I'll also give you an example of what you might
want to put on your style sheet to make it stand out and seem more
interactive.

HTH

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP-FrontPage

Please feel free to contact me here:
http://nedp.net/contact/

 

[sophia]

Sorry for the late reply. My server went down leaving me with alot of work
to catch up on. I'm really grateful for the help.

Mike, I appreciate the lead, I checked it out, but it's not what I'm looking
for. (Although it did lead me to some other things I've been curious about.
Good site.)

The way the Microsoft Help screen defines a word is less intrusive - no
popups or frames. The word stands out in a different color and the
definition is inserted in line with the rest of the sentence with a
mouseclick. Click again and it returns to the original state. Unfortunately,
there's no way of viewing the source.

Chris, I'll take you up on that example for the style sheet as soon as I
learn more about CSS. I bookmarked a really good tutorial, but I'm still
working on the HTML tutorials. Had I known coding was this cool, I would
have started years ago.

Thank you both,