Click to activate and use this control 2

[eman6]

I have internet explorer 6 and SP2.
On a web page I created, I used Hover Buttons from MS Front Page 2003.
When I point on the button with the mouse, a tool-tip appears and prompts: Click to activate and use this control

Whatever the reason is (Legal stuff with Microsoft), is there an easy way to overcome this?
P.S. I do not have <object> </object>

The code actually looks like this:

<applet code="fphover.class" codebase="../" width="110" height="20">
<param name="textcolor" value="#FFFFFF">
<param name="text" value="whatever">
<param name="color" value="#666666">
<param name="hovercolor" value="#000000">
<param name="effect" value="bevelIn">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF">
<param name="url" valuetype="ref" value="abouttheconcerts.htm">
<param name="font" value="Helvetica">
<param name="fontstyle" value="regular">
<param name="fontsize" value="11">
<param name="target" value="whateverpage">
</applet></td>



______________________________________
Eman6
Technical User

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Have you thought about using only an anchor element ("a href=...") and styling it to look good, rather than using a Java applet for navigation (which seems like massive overkill to me).

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

[/tt]

 

[Diancecht]

AFAIK, you have no control about the behaviour of an applet, the tooltip is just a part of the functionality you cannot change.

Cheers,
Dian

 

[eman6]

Thank you, both for the input.
I do not work with Java script at all.
I am just using Front Page existing controls (which happen to be Java Script).
This tooltip is happeneing apparently after some MS update.
It is not working like this on all computers.
The problem is: visitors to my web site will have to click on each button at least once to activate it and only after that they can click on it as a button. (how silly)
I checked on the internet this issue and found many alternative proposed solutions but don't seem to manage to get anyone working.
They propose script file to put on my page and some script that calls it. However, they ask to put the calling script before tha last </object>
I do not have a </object>

What else can I do?


______________________________________
Eman6
Technical User

 

[eman6]

The web page in question is this:

http://smartistek.com/cmb/

Thank you.

______________________________________
Eman6
Technical User

 

[Diancecht]

Well, the code you posted above is a Java applet so yes, you're using Java.

And I don't get any tooltip on that page.

Cheers,
Dian

 

[eman6]

Like I said:
"I am just using Front Page existing controls (which happen to be Java Script)." Happened to be..
But anyway, I am just explainig that I am not a java kind of guy to adopt the proposal from BillyRayPreachersSon.
But if I see an example script, I might be able to imitate it.

It looks like a certain update from Microsoft caused this.
Microsoft lost a legal case regarding ActiveX stuff (don't remember exactly the details) after which they packaged an updated that made activeX controls and some other controls behave like that.
If you do not get this tooltip, you are lucky.
Do not update your browser.

As far as I am concerned, it's too late.
I have the problem and need a solution.

Anybody out there has any idea?


______________________________________
Eman6
Technical User

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Some things you should *really* do - and these are pretty much essentials to getting a good web page:

1. Add a complete and valid DOCTYPE. See here for more infomration:

http://www.code-couch.com/jeff/blog/index.php/webdev/how-do-i-choose-a-doctype/

This will aid point 2:

2. Get your HTML and CSS source to validate against your choesn DOCTYPE. You can validate your HTML / XHTML here:

http://validator.w3.org/

or here:

http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/

and your CSS here:

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

That aside, you can replace your whole menu table with this HTML:

<ul id="leftNavigation">
	<li><a href="abouttheconcerts.htm" target="collegiummusicumbasel">Konzerte Ueberblick</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/abo.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Tickets</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/orchester.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Orchester</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/dirigent.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Dirigent</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/verein.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Verein</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/vereinfreunde.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Verein der Freunde</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/sponsoren.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Sponsoren</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/kontakt.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Kontakt</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/presse.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Presse</a></li>
	<li><a href="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.collegiummusicumbasel.ch/cmb_konzertarchiv.htm"[/URL] target="collegiummusicumbasel">Archiv</a></li>
</ul>

and adding this CSS to the HEAD section of your nav frame::

<style type="text/css">
	#leftNavigation {
		border: 3px groove #FFFFFF;
		margin: 0px 3px;
		background-color: #666666;
		width: 9em;
	}

	#leftNavigation, #leftNavigation li {
		padding: 0px;
		margin: 0px;
		list-style-type: none;
		border-bottom: 1px solid #999999;
	}

	#leftNavigation a {
		display: block;
		_width: 100%;
		text-decoration: none;
		text-align: center;
		padding: 0.15em 0px;
		border: 2px solid #666666;
	}

	#leftNavigation a:hover {
		border-top: 2px solid #000000;
		border-left: 2px solid #000000;
		border-right: 2px solid #CCCCCC;
		border-bottom: 2px solid #CCCCCC;
	}
</style>

Not only does it work nicely with styles off (without tables), but it involves no Java, no images, is smaller, clearaner markup, and is fairly cross-browser compatible (tested in Fx 1.5, IE 6, Opera 9, NN 7.1 with no probs at all).

Hope this helps,
Dan

Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

[/tt]

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Even if you're not entirely convinced by the above solution, i really do think that using a Java applet for simple navigation is just so wrong it's hard to put into words.

Really - you should think twice about continuing with it.

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

[/tt]

 

[eman6]

You see, I'm a lazy man.
Front Page has the advantage of offering functionalities that provide the script behind it automatically.
I have done VB and Word VBA in my experience, but no Java and very limited HTML.
In general, I am not such a lover of Java. I keep teasing a friend of mine who is a Java Software Engineer.

It's a little like my story with German.
I understand it enough to handle what I need of it in life, but in general I prefer English.

______________________________________
Eman6
Technical User

 

[ChrisHunt]

Front Page has the advantage of offering functionalities that provide the script behind it automatically.

And the disadvantage that the script in question produces these sucky tool-tips.

So you have a choice between sticking with AffrontPage to produce sucky pages automatically, or to put some effort in to producing decent code.



-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[eman6]

If I ever find the time to learn script, I surely would.
I guess then I will have to rediscuss with those who suggested to me to learn Perl, those who suggested HTML, those who suggested Java script, and so on, and see how much time I have to invest to learn which one(s) of these.

Do you play Piano? If I told you I love playing piano, and only now at the age of 52 I found a little bit of time to finally learn it.

It's not the tool tip that is sucky, my friend, it's life.

______________________________________
Eman6
Technical User

 

[ChrisHunt]

Learn HTML first - it's piss easy, and fundamental to everything else you might do on the web.

Then learn some CSS, it's also pretty easy and also pretty fundamental.

If you're a programmer, you'll have no trouble picking up enough Javascript to get by - at least enough to tweak any scripts you get from the web to do what you need. It's not a priority though.

Don't bother with Java (a completely different thing to Javascript, btw) you're unlikely to need it.

Perl is used for server-side programming - discussion forums and the like - but many now prefer php for this. Again, you may only need to know enough to customise other peoples' scripts, you may not even need that much.

FrumpPage produces dreadful web sites, frankly you're better off without it.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd