The Digital Research Initiative
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

JavaScript for any occasion

Status Bar Stuff

The status bar is perhaps one of the most overlooked parts of a webpage. You do have dynamic control over it, making it broadcast messages and what not during mouseovers and onLoads.

Scrolling Status Bar Text

Now this is some serious programming right here. Scrolling text in the status bar can be kinda tricky, but with this script, it's a breeze. Warning: This is very idiotic and not recommended for actual use. I've got it here more as an example of what can happen when people get status bar crazy.

Insert this in your <head>:

<script>
<!-- hide javascript
function scrollmessage(count) {
	var m1 = "Your first sentence goes here";
    var m2 = "...and your second one goes here";
    var m3 = "...and a third one here";
    var m4 = "...and a fourth!";
    var msg=m1+m2+m3+m4;
    var out = " ";
    var c = 1;

    if (count > 100) {
    	count--;
        cmd="scrollmessage("+seed+")";
        timerTwo=window.setTimeout(cmd,100);
    } else if (count <= 100 && count > 0) {
    	for (c=0 ; c < count ; c++) {
        	out+=" ";
        }
        out+=msg;
        count--;
        window.status=out;
        cmd="scrollmessage("+count+")";
        timerTwo=window.setTimeout(cmd,100);
    } else if (count <= 0) {
        if (-count < msg.length) {
        	out+=msg.substring(-count,msg.length);
            count--;
            window.status=out;
            cmd="scrollmessage("+count+")";
            timerTwo=window.setTimeout(cmd,100);
    	} else {
       		window.status=" ";
        	timerTwo=window.setTimeout("scrollmessage(100)",75);
    	}
	}
}
// done hiding -->
</SCRIPT>

Put this in your <body>:

<body onLoad="scrollmessage(100)">

And, as you may have noticed, it can be somewhat irritating

Status Message

Add this little snippet of code to your <a href=""> tags. When the users mouses over the link or image, a little message pops up in the status bar. It's a good way to mask where the link leads to since this overwrites the URL (but I don't know why you'd want to do that).

<a href="URL" onMouseOver="window.status='Your Message Here'; return true" 
onMouseOut="window.status=''">Other Goodies</A>

Again, this works on images and links alike. (Here's a hint, move the mouse back and forth over the cup and link real fast to see the message in the status bar. Now do you see how irritating it is?)

Look at the status bar!!Status Bar


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By the time I get to Arizona...

This site was created especially for students of the UNC School of Journalism's
JOMC 050 Class, and anyone else who may be interested.
For more information, please contactdaikat@email.unc.edu
Last Updated: Thursday, 10-Dec-1998 13:05:04 EST