The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
JOMC 50/EIS Research Initiative
This site last updated April 7, 1997.

How to Make Words Scroll Across the Bottom of the Netscape Window

Like so...

When you include code in your web page which causes messages to scroll across the bottom of the Netscape window as someone is visiting your site, it seems to impress people a lot. However, it is relatively easy to accomplish this impressive task. Here's what you do.
Read these instructions very carefully before you begin

Here is the code which makes it all happen
You will need to click on the words in the first item above to view the code, and then...
You will need to copy this code and paste it somewhere in between the </HEAD> tags of your web page. If you already know how to do this, then you can skip to step 11, but if you don't, you will want to read straight through these steps.
From the Edit menu at the top of the screen, select Select all, then...
From that same Edit menu, select Copy, and next...
Open SimpleText (don't quit Netscape, just click anywhere outside of the Netscape window to go back to the Finder/Desktop without closing Netscape. You can switch back to Netscape by clicking and holding the mouse button while the pointer is positioned over the small picture in the very upper-right corner of the screen and selecting "Netscape Navigator."), and then...
Open your web page, and....
Position your cursor--Note: The Cursor is the vertical line which is constantly flashing, which is found in word processors and from which the text comes from when you type. It is NOT the pointer/arrow which the mouse moves.
Anyhow, position the cursor just before the </HEAD> tag and then...
From the the Edit menu at the top of the screen, select Paste, and if you are doing it right, all the code should show up in your document.
The next thing you will need to do is to use the pointer to copy this text:
OnLoad="show_messages()"
and paste it into the end of your BODY tag.
To do this, you will need to position the pointer at the end of the text (after the "), and hold down the mouse button as you drag the pointer over the words. This should highlight the text you want.
From that same Edit menu, select Copy, and next...
Switch back to SimpleText using the small picture in the upper right hand corner and then be careful, because...
This step is a little tricky: Position the cursor just before the > of the <BODY> tag. This tag should look like this (but not exactly):
<BODY background="file.gif" text="black" link="blue">
Of course, the file names, colors and probably the letter-case is different for your tag, but it looks the same we hope. Make sure your cursor is between the last " and the > (If you have only BODY between the brackets, then you will want the cursor positioned between the Y and the >)
Now press the spacebar ONCE, causing ONE space.
And then from the Edit menu, select Paste
The text (OnLoad="show_messages()") should appear in your BODY tag now.
From the File menu, select Save
Finally, you will want to customize this code to suit your needs--so that the words you want to scroll across the bottom of the screen. (You certainly don't want Eric's stuff on your page.)
To do this, you will need to scroll up to the top of your page's HTML code and then start looking in the murky depths of the long code you have just pasted in between the HEAD tags. You are looking for this:

var msgs = new initArray(" Welcome to the home page of Eric Chernoff", "
You can change ONLY these words
Welcome to the home page of Eric Chernoff
We hope you enjoy your stay
Send comments to echernof@email.unc.edu
By the way, have a nice day
BUT DO NOT REMOVE THE QUOTATION MARKS AROUND THESE WORDS OR THE SPACES BEFORE "WELCOME" AND "BY" AND YOU CANNOT REMOVE THE HORIZONTAL LINE BEFORE "SEND"
Once you have finished, making sure you only changed the proper words, be sure to save your work.
Check it out in Netscape.

This web site maintained by Eric Chernoff especially for students of the UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication's JOMC 50 class. For more information, please contact one of the following:

Prof. Deb Aikat
daikat@email.unc.edu Tom Hughes, teaching assistant
tahughes@email.unc.edu

Eric Chernoff, student coordinator
echernof@email.unc.edu Mike Manning
manning1@email.unc.edu

Eric Chernoff, student coordinator
echernof@email.unc.edu

Prof. Deb Aikat daikat@email.unc.edu	Tom Hughes, teaching assistant tahughes@email.unc.edu
Eric Chernoff, student coordinator echernof@email.unc.edu	Mike Manning manning1@email.unc.edu