Because of the frantic development pace of the web, new tips and tricks will be presented on this page to keep the readers of Web Graphics Tools and Techniques up-to-date!


TIP 1  JavaScript interaction
Web design and CD-ROM design are coming closer. New developments in HTML are bringing multimedia design solutions to the web. The combination of layers and style sheets combined with the power of Javascript will become an essential tool for the modern web designer. Basic Java scripting can be used to create 'highlights' as seen in the examples of Philips Speech Processing and Fractal Design. This technology is only supported in Netscape Navigator 3 so be careful not to offend the growing Internet Explorer crowd.

TIP 2  Targets and frames
A simple addition to hyperlink HTML-code will force the browser to open the linked URL in a new, separate window. This can be useful to avoid a 'frame trap'. The code TARGET="mm_window" has to be added to the hyperlink. The resulting code will be something like:

<A HREF="http://www.kentie.com" TARGET="mm_window">Take me home</A>

TIP 3  Ready to shock?
Using JavaScript you can avoid the irritating error message (or crash) that a Shockwave plug-in hasn't been installed. A GIF or JPEG image will be shown instead. Be careful to use the same dimensions.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!-- Hide this script for non-Navigator 2.0 or 3.0 browsers. document.write( '<EMBED SRC="shock.dcr"
WIDTH=384 HEIGHT=200 TEXTFOCUS=onStart>')
<!-- Ready hiding -->
</SCRIPT>
<NOEMBED>
<IMG SRC="shock.gif" WIDTH=384 HEIGHT=200>
</NOEMBED>






TIP 4  Web page dimensions
The differences in size and resolution is a growing concern for web designers. The basic 640 x 480 pixels, 256 colors set-up is still a majority. So its safe to use a width of 580 pixels for a web page layout. But the number of people using a 17 inch monitor will create a lot of 'empty' space. There is however a way to influence the users' settings. A Web designer can ask the viewer to position their browser to a certain width that suits the design using a graphical element as shown above.



TIP 5  Virtual Reality and beyond
Apple is the inventor of 'QuickTime Virtual Reality' images. Using this technology a room or scenery can be 'caught' in a special non-linear movie format. At Apple's QuickTime VR web site you will find some fine examples. There's also a 'Developers' page which will teach you more about the technology and the necessary plug-ins. The latest QuickTime 1.1 plug-in has built-in support for QTVR. Older versions need the additional 'QuickTime VR Components' file.
Meanwhile a lot of other companies are using three-dimensional technologies based on photographic images. Microsoft has some great sites based on their opposing standard. Check out carpoint.msn.com for a new experience. Another alternative is offered by the engineers from Omniview Their PhotoBubbles take QTVR one step further. Be sure to download the PhotoBubble Viewer. The last addition to this arena is the offer of a company called OLiVR Corporation. They have found a way to make 'streaming' VR-movies. On their well-designed OLiVR web site you'll find info about the plug-in and some fine examples.



TIP 6  Look for yourself!
The impressive AltaVista search-engine from Digital offers a unique way to check the success of your site. With their search-engine you can check the hyperlinks that refer to your site! All you have to do is type instead of 'www.mysite.com' your URL paste the following code in the main search window of AltaVista:

link:http://www.mysite.com -host:http://www.mysite.com


TIP 7  Invisible downloading
The downloading of images and the time (and effort) involved is one of the most talked about subjects on the web and in the interested newsgroups. A sure thing is to always add the width and height of an image in the HTML code. This will please the Netscape surfers because the download of the complete web page won't be obstructed by a single image. And the Microsoft Internet Explorer users will be able to look at a web page with some ease. Instead of the constant shifting of the page due to the expanding images.
There are also other solutions surfacing to improve the download time. There's a so-called 'Preloader' ActiveX which will load the images of the 'next' pages in advance into the cache of the computer. If the subsequent page is addressed, the images will appear promptly. Netscape users who can't use ActiveX components need an alternative. There's a neat trick you can use. Place an image on the web page that will be used on a linked page and give this image a width and height of 1 pixel. This will make the image almost invisible, it's just a little dot. If you click on a link that uses the image in the subsequent page you get a real fast download. The necessary HTML code looks like this

<IMG src="image" border=0 width=1 height=1>

The proof? Check out the download-time of this GIF-animation...





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