popup question, and search question.

[Steve K]

After reading Harlan's post about popups some of my questions were
answered but..

I was going to use differnet popups on a lot of my pages. These popups
contain bios on Cornell faculty. Two days ago this was the best place to
put this info, that was until I tested it on my officemates computer
where she has Adzapper installed and it killed the popup before it could
be read. I assumed MANY people have this or similar software.

So, the reason I chose to display this info in a popup was I could
control it's size, I could turn off all the unnecessary items on the
browser window, it just seemed better and maybe "more hip" to put it
here. (I know I'm gonna be clobbered for trying to be hip..)

Now it seems I have to find another way. What is the difference between
making a link that has a target that will open a new window and a popup
window? Can I control the size of this window and its placement?

Search question.

I have a search area on all pages where you type in what you are looking
for and then you have to click the word "search" for the search to
begin. How would I make the search begin by having the user just hit
their return/enter key?

Thanks!

Steve

[Jim Dabell]

Steve K wrote:

I was going to use differnet popups on a lot of my pages. These popups
contain bios on Cornell faculty. Two days ago this was the best place to
put this info, that was until I tested it on my officemates computer
where she has Adzapper installed and it killed the popup before it could
be read. I assumed MANY people have this or similar software.

So, the reason I chose to display this info in a popup was I could
control it's size, I could turn off all the unnecessary items on the
browser window, it just seemed better and maybe "more hip" to put it
here. (I know I'm gonna be clobbered for trying to be hip..)
Why not just put the information into a normal page? Most people don't
consider their browser controls to be unnecessary at all. I don't see how
it's "more hip" in the slightest - with few exceptions, people regard
popups as an annoyance. As far as I can see, you are going to a lot of
trouble to work around people trying to make the web less annoying for
themselves for no apparent gain.

Now it seems I have to find another way. What is the difference between
making a link that has a target that will open a new window and a popup
window? Can I control the size of this window and its placement?
No.

I have a search area on all pages where you type in what you are looking
for and then you have to click the word "search" for the search to
begin. How would I make the search begin by having the user just hit
their return/enter key?

That happens automatically on most browsers, unless you have eschewed normal
forms for the neutered type that require Javascript to operate. Supply a
URL and you might get more useful information.
--
Jim Dabell

[Stan Brown]

In article <sm************ *************@n ewsstand.cit.co rnell.edu>
in comp.infosystem s.www.authoring.html, Steve K <sm***@cornell. edu>
wrote:

So, the reason I chose to display this info in a popup was I could
control it's size, I could turn off all the unnecessary items on the
browser window, it just seemed better and maybe "more hip" to put it
here. (I know I'm gonna be clobbered for trying to be hip..)
There's nothing wrong with being hip. It's just that your definition
of "hip" is wrong. :-) True hipness means making pages that can be
viewed by the largest possible number of people and annoy the
smallest possible number.
Now it seems I have to find another way. What is the difference between
making a link that has a target that will open a new window and a popup
window? Can I control the size of this window and its placement?

True hipness also means recognizing that the visitor's desktop
belongs to the visitor, not to you. If the visitor wants a separate
window, she'll create one. Your attempts to do that, however you do
it, will annoy people who don't want separate windows.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
HTML 4.01 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
validator: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS 2 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/
2.1 changes: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/changes.html
validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

[Stanimir Stamenkov]

Steve K wrote:

So, the reason I chose to display this info in a popup was I could
control it's size, I could turn off all the unnecessary items on the
browser window, it just seemed better and maybe "more hip" to put it
here. (I know I'm gonna be clobbered for trying to be hip..)

Now it seems I have to find another way. What is the difference between
making a link that has a target that will open a new window and a popup
window? Can I control the size of this window and its placement?

I don't like popups but as a compromise and as just another reply -
I've used the following approach when I was requested to make it to
popup:

<a href="popup.htm l"
onclick="return popWnd(this.hre f,410,500)">Pop up Title</a>

And the JavaScript function:

function popWnd(src, w, h, name) {
name = "MYSITE_" + name;
var wnd = window.open(src , name,
"resizable,scro llbars,width=" + w + ",height=" + h);
if (wnd) {
wnd.focus();
return false;
} else
return true;
}

This way if the UA have no or turned off JavaScript support the link
will function as such normal. Further if the UA have no or turned
off capability to open new windows from within scripts the function
will return true where will cause the link to be followed and again
function as normal.

I don't use 'target' attribute on the link because it would
additionally and unnecessary break the user preferences in this case.

You could add function parameters for window placement as well but
make sure the opened window is at least resizable and would show
scrollbars if there is content overflow.

--
Stanimir