HTML, XHTML & CSS

In This Chapter
Chapter 13
Scripting Web Pages
▶ Exploring what JavaScript can do for your Web pages
▶ Arranging content
▶ Opening new windows
▶ Checking user input
▶ Exploring more uses for JavaScript
When used in conjunction with your HTML markup, scripts — small
programs that you add to your Web page — help your Web pages
respond to user actions. Scripts create the interactive and dynamic effects
you see on the Web, such as images that automatically change when visitors
move mouse pointers over them, additional browser windows that pop up
when a page loads, and animated or interactive navigation bars.
Because scripts are mini-programs, they’re often written in a programming
language called JavaScript. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, JavaScript may
sound like a Hollywood screenplay doused with coffee. However, it is actually
a scripting language built right into all popular Web browsers.
Fortunately, because of the Nobel Prize–worthy invention of “copy and
paste,” you don’t need to be a technoguru to add scripting to your Web sites.
The Web has many sites that feature canned JavaScript elements that you
can freely copy and then paste right into your Web page. (Chapter 14 lists
several of the best JavaScript sites.)
Many good Web page editors (such as Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe
Fireworks) include built-in tools to help you create scripts — even if you
don’t know anything about programming.
In this chapter, you explore how scripting works inside your Web page by
dissecting three sample scripts written in JavaScript. If you’re interested in
learning more about JavaScript and how it works, please check out JavaScript
For Dummies, 5th Edition, by Emily Vander Veer, for more information and to
dive a little deeper into the JavaScript language itself.