Hover buttons not working after XP Service Pack 2

C

Chris27

I have used Hover Buttons in Frontpage on hundreds of
pages on my site that I was about to launch. Now XP
service pack 2 not only stops them changing to the
alternate image when the mouse moves over them, they do
not even display properly on Internet Explorer.
I think it's because hover buttons use activeX in
Frontpage. It is no use leaving a message for visitors to
the site to enable activeX, since most will not
understand and the user gets a security warning that will
stop them wanting to do this.

I used Hover Buttons as colour customised navigation
buttons, which looked impressive (glow effects, alternate
images). If I have to go backwards and simplify the site
to basic buttons I can, but it will cost me 2-3 weeks
reworking numerous pages. If I have to spend the time, I
want to get the best results for my efforts.

As alternatives to hover buttons, I considered using
Interactive Buttons from Frontpage 2003, but again they
don't change with mouseover due to XP SP2, although at
least the button shows.

I also tried to get alternate images by using the Dynamic
HTML feature to swap image on mouseover. Again, with XP
SP2 this doesn't work.

I am using the buttons for navigation. Some purists hight
say drop the buttons and have simple hyperlink text, but
the buttons did look impressive and that is important on
my site.

How can I get changing images with mouseover with minimum
time and effort? I am not advanced, and feel I need to
stick with Frontpage 2003. Does anyone have a fairly
simple solution please?

thanks

Chris
 
T

Tom Pepper Willett

Fine-Tune Your Web Site for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/...x?pull=/library/en-us/dnwxp/html/xpsp2web.asp
--
===
Tom "Pepper" Willett
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
---
About FrontPage 2003:
http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01085802
FrontPage 2003 Product Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/frontpage/prodinfo/default.mspx
Understanding FrontPage:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/frontpage/
===
| I have used Hover Buttons in Frontpage on hundreds of
| pages on my site that I was about to launch. Now XP
| service pack 2 not only stops them changing to the
| alternate image when the mouse moves over them, they do
| not even display properly on Internet Explorer.
| I think it's because hover buttons use activeX in
| Frontpage. It is no use leaving a message for visitors to
| the site to enable activeX, since most will not
| understand and the user gets a security warning that will
| stop them wanting to do this.
|
| I used Hover Buttons as colour customised navigation
| buttons, which looked impressive (glow effects, alternate
| images). If I have to go backwards and simplify the site
| to basic buttons I can, but it will cost me 2-3 weeks
| reworking numerous pages. If I have to spend the time, I
| want to get the best results for my efforts.
|
| As alternatives to hover buttons, I considered using
| Interactive Buttons from Frontpage 2003, but again they
| don't change with mouseover due to XP SP2, although at
| least the button shows.
|
| I also tried to get alternate images by using the Dynamic
| HTML feature to swap image on mouseover. Again, with XP
| SP2 this doesn't work.
|
| I am using the buttons for navigation. Some purists hight
| say drop the buttons and have simple hyperlink text, but
| the buttons did look impressive and that is important on
| my site.
|
| How can I get changing images with mouseover with minimum
| time and effort? I am not advanced, and feel I need to
| stick with Frontpage 2003. Does anyone have a fairly
| simple solution please?
|
| thanks
|
| Chris
|
|
 
R

Ronx

Use Interactive Buttons or images with DHTML rollovers.
SP2 stops pages located on your PC from displaying active components; pages
located on the web server are not affected. This behaviour can be changed
by setting up IE.
In IE - Tools->Internet Options Advanced Tag and scroll down to Security,
and check the box "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer".
(Think about why this defaults to not allowed.)

Java hover buttons should be avoided because new installations of Windows XP
and/or IE6 do not have a Java Virtual Machine, which is necessary for
displaying Java.
 
T

Tina Clarke

I am using the buttons for navigation. Some purists hight
say drop the buttons and have simple hyperlink text, but
the buttons did look impressive and that is important on
my site.

How can I get changing images with mouseover with minimum
time and effort? I am not advanced, and feel I need to
stick with Frontpage 2003. Does anyone have a fairly
simple solution please?

Includes - dwt - css .... and you will never have a problem again.

If you can't do the dwt and css at least use includes for your menus I bet
my site is larger than yours ... though i use text based links ... I use
includes and it takes a few minutes to change hundreds of pages with a few
clicks. On my newer sites I use all three to great effect.

FP hover buttons apart from the other problems mentioned with them won't do
you any good for SEO purposes .... the search engines can't see them if they
can't see them they can't follow the links into the rest of your site and
each and every page on your site is a gateway to your site ... your just
shooting yourself in the font for some pretty eye candy.... makes the page
take longer to load too. Not to mention usability and accessibility ... did
I mention fp hovers were bad? <grin>

hth Tina

--
http://accessfp.net/ - FrontPage Resource Centre
http://anybackpage.com/bytes/ - Ezine with Free E-books
http://artdoodle.com/ - Original Abstract Art
http://addonfp.com - FrontPage Add ons
http://frontpage-tips.com - FrontPage Tips - sign up for the launch now.
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/ - FrontPage Blog
 
G

Guest

Chris:
My e-mail address is ([email protected]). I am
experiencing a similar problem with my Office FrontPage.
The problem is listed under this microsoft link:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;323236
Also, the use of hover buttons in Front Page is discussed
on this Microsoft Office link:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/results.aspx?
Query=hover+button+doesn't+show&Scope=TC%2cHP%2cHA%2cRC%
2cFX%2cES%2cEP%2cDC%
2cXT&QueryID=df86M3SDP&App=FP&TRC=100&iStartAt=1
I followed the procedure listed for correcting the
problem of the hover button that doesn't show on the web
page, but for some reason the button is still displayed
as a white box with an "x" in it. If it is a problem
with the ActiveX being enabled, can you tell me how to
temporarily disable the ActiveX component so that the
hover button can be used on a web page? It's important
because I'm designing a web page for a business and I
would like to complete it for the sake of the business.
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

Hover buttons do not use Active X, they are Java applets and requires that all site visitors have a
Java Virtual Machine installed.

Many users of Windows XP and/or IE 6 no longer have the ability to view Java Applets unless they
have gone to the Sun Java web site and downloaded it or the vendor of their PC has installed the Sun
JVM.

So even if you get the hover button to display by installing Sun JVM, don't count on site visitors
to do the same, best to switch plain text links, image links or JavaScript image swaps, or CSS.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
C

Chris27

RonX,
thanks - you're a lifesaver!

I'm so relieved to understand that although pages don't
run properly if I preview them on my machine, when I
access them from another machine they display OK. That's
saved me masses of rework and I can better see where to
go from here

thanks again
Chris
 
C

Chris27

Tina,
thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I didn't
know about DWT, but I reckon that will be helpful and
I'll replace by bottom shared border with it

Chris
 

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