The Java Effects Applets use several common panels and Dialogs as illustrated below:
 | Applet Panel |
| Background Panel |
| Animation Panel - (Scroller and Presentation Only) |
| URL Panel - (Image and Text Effects Only) |
| Sound File Dialog |
| Image File Dialog |
OK and Cancel buttons for each of the following panels or dialogs will not be specified.
The Applet Panel allows you set some of the applet tag parameters.
Applet Panel
Margin (Right and Left) - Sets the
right and left margins in pixels for text and other page object that might
flow around or underneath the applet. For example, if the right margin is
set to 50, any text to the right of the applet will be spaced 50 pixels away
from the applet and if the bottom margin is set to 30, then the next line of
text will appear 30 pixels underneath the applet.
Alignment - Sets the alignment of the applet with respect to the text
around it. For example, if the alignment is set to "Left", then text will
flow to the left of the applet. Note: once the alignment is set, you make
have to set the alignment of the following paragraph to make the page align
normal again.
Applet Name - Sets the JavaScript name for the applet in case there
are two applets on the same page, you can one of them different than the
other. This name will be used in the Button Bar Applet to control applet
sequencing. If you place multiple applets on a page, then you will need to
make sure the Applet name here and in the Button Bar Helper match exactly.
Non Java Browser String/HTML - Sets the alternate text/HTML seen by a
non-Java Browser.
Tip: Making Alternate HTML using FrontPage - You can use FrontPage to
generate the desired HTML by creating the text you desire as the alternate
for non-Java browser somewhere on a page. Select the text and switch to HTML
mode by selecting the HTML tab. You will note that your ready made HTML is
highlighted. Just press "Control-C" to copy the HTML text and then open the
FrontLook Applet and go to the Applet Panel and paste the HTML into the Non
Java Browser String/HTML area.
Make references absolute for insertion into Shared Borders
Check this when inserting the applet into the shared borders of the web
page. See "Using FrontLook Java Effects in Shared Borders" topic for background
information.
Local Preview / Server Preview (when editing disk web only)
When editing a disk web, two additional radio buttons appear under the
"Absolute references..." check box. Because of Java Security, the applet
will not preview on both the local disk web and the published the web to the
server. A gray box will appear when the applet does not have access to its
class files.
Special Options when editing a Disk Web
Therefore an option has been added so you can preview the applet locally for testing purposes and then set "Absolute references..." check box to Server Preview mode for when the web is published.
Note:
The component will not preview on both the local disk web and the
published the web to the server. During testing locally, select the "Local
Preview" button so that the component can be viewed. Once
testing is completed, select the "Server Preview" button so that when you
publish the web, the component will operate properly. If you
publish the component with the "Local Preview" button selected, the
component will not operate properly.
Force write of existing support and applets files - Checking this and
then pressing the OK button will force all files on the web to be updated
from the master "bots\FLWebbot\_frontlook" folder. Normally only new files
are copied up to the web. This check box will be unchecked each time the
properties dialog is brought up unless an update is required. Once checked,
you may see a confirmation dialog appear when existing files are copied to
the web. You should say "Yes" to this confirmation dialog.
The Background Panel allow you set the Applet Size, Initialization String and Background Color, Image and Audio settings.
Background Panel
Background Image - Brings up the
Image Files
dialog to select a background image. Select "None" for no background
image.
Tile Image - Checking this box tells the applet to tile or wrap the
specified background image across the background area of the applet. This is
used to make the applet match the background of the web page. For example,
say the background of the page is a small 30 x 30 gif file and say the
applet size is set to 600 x 72. Now set the background image of the applet
to the background image of the page using the Add File functions as
described above. Then check the "Tile Image" checkbox. When you preview the
applet on the page, you will note that the 30 x 30 tile has been tiled
across the face of the applet which makes it appear that the applet
background is transparent. This trick may not work if the background of the
page is graduated.
Applet Size (Width and Height) - Sets the applet width and height in
pixels as it will appear in the viewers browser. These size parameters maybe
set by the "Size to Image" button.
Size To Image - Pressing this button will set the size of the applet
to the size of the current background image. After pressing this button you
can see the image size in the Applet Size text edit fields.
Background Color - Sets the background color of the applet. Choose
the "Custom..." Setting if the color your looking for is not in the list.
This will bring up the standard Color Picker dialog. If the background image
is a gif and has transparent areas, this is the color that will show in
those areas.
Background Audio - Brings up the Sound
Files dialog to select a background sound to play continuously once the
component starts running. Select "None" to disable the background sound.
Play Once - Tells the applet to play the background audio file only
once and then stop.
Initialization String - Sets the string to be presented to the user
while the applet is being initialized. Select the Custom setting to
customize the string. The other settings maybe useful in debugging Java
virtual machine problems. For example, by setting this item to "Java
Version", you can see the version of the Java Virtual Machine that your
browser is running.
The Animation Panel allows you set the animation characteristics of the Applet. This Panel is common to both the Scroller Applet and the Present Applet, although there is one extra control for the Present Applet.
Presentation Animation Panel
Step Delay - The delay time in milli-seconds
between display updates. Large values can create a choppy appearance.
Typical values range from 10-50.
Step Size - For the Present Applet, this sets the number of animation
steps. Larger numbers create animation that is smooth but slow, small
numbers animation that is choppy and fast. Typical numbers range from 10-50.
For the Scroller applet, this number sets the number of pixels that the
message scrolls with each step. This number should be set to 1 for smooth
scrolling.
Mode - Sets the animation mode for the applet.
For the Scroller applet the choices are:
| Stop on Cursor Entry - when the users cursor enters the applet, the scrolling will stop until the cursor leaves the applet. |
| Continuous - Scrolling is continuous and cursor is ignored. |
For the Present applet, the choices are
| Sequential - Images are sequenced one after the other in the order designated in the Images Panel |
| Random - The image Order is random (useful in Banner ad applications) |
| First and Then Random - the \first image is shown and then after that the images will appear in random order. |
| JavaScript Controlled - The first image will be displayed and then the applet will wait for a JavaScript event from the Button Bar (see button bar helper). |
| Cycle then stop on Last - The entire sequence of images will be displayed and then the applet will stop on the last image and go into manual mode. |
| Cycle then stop on Last - The entire sequence of images will be displayed and then the applet will stop on the first image and go into manual mode. |
Image Delay (Present Applet Only) - Sets the hold time for each image when the applet is sequencing the images.
URL Panel -
(Text and Image Effects Applet Only)
The URL Panel allow you set the Hyperlinking, highlighting and Status Bar
messages of the Applet. This Panel is common to both the Text Effects Applet
and the Image Effects Applet.
Presentation Animation Panel
URL - Sets the hyperlink URL
used when user clicks in applet. You can type in a URL or use the
"Browse..." button to locate a URL on your web.
Browse... - Press to browse the current web for a URL.
Target popup - Sets the Target window for the hyperlink. Select Self
if you would like the new URL to appear in the current browser window. For a
new window select Blank. If the applet is placed in a child frame, you can
select "Parent" to return to the parent frame.
Highlight popup - Sets the items highlighted when the user puts
the cursor in the applet. You can have the current string, the frame of the
applet or both highlighted when the viewer puts the cursor in the applet.
Highlight Color popup - Sets the highlight color.
Status Bar Message - Sets the Status bar message that appears
when user puts the cursor in the applet.
Sound File Dialog
The Sound File dialog enables the selection of a Java .au
sound file for playback.
Sound File Dialog
Sound File - A list of the standard sounds available in the frontlook master and users directories.
Sound File Playback controls - The sound playback controls; Play and Stop.
Add File from Web... - Brings up a web browse dialog so that new audio files can be added to the FrontLook users directory. Once added, the files will appear in the file list.
Add File from Disk... - Brings up a file browse dialog so that new audio files can be added to the FrontLook users directory. Once added, the files will appear in the file list.
No Audio - Sets the sound to None.
Image File Dialog
The Image File dialog enables the selection of a .jpg and
.gif image files.
Image File Dialog
Image File - A list of the standard images available in the FrontLook master and users directories. "No Image" item will set the image to None.
Image File Preview / Checkbox - Check Preview to see the preview of the selected image.
Add File from Web... - Brings up a web browse dialog so that new image files can be added to the FrontLook users directory. Once added, the files will appear in the file list.
Add File from Disk... - Brings up a file browse dialog so that new image files can be added to the FrontLook users directory. Once added, the files will appear in the file list.
No Image - Sets the image to None.
Image and Audio File Management - The image and audio files
available in the list are typically located in the following directories:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\bots\FLWebbot\_frontlook" and
"C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\DPA Software\FrontLook\_frontlook"
where <user> is the currently logged on user. The Office installation path
and the Application Data path may vary for each machine and OS. When you use
the "Add from..." buttons on the dialog, the newly added files are copied to the
Application Data _frontlook folder. If you would like to remove or edit an
image or audio file from the list, you can do so from these directories. All
the files selected in the bot will be copied to the web into the _frontlook
directory in the same directory as that of the page that contains bot. This
makes the management of FrontPage webs simpler although it might waste
disk space if you have a copy of the files elsewhere on the web.
Audio files must be in the .au format. If you have a .wav file or other format, you will need to convert it to .au before adding to the list of audio files. A shareware product like Goldwave (http://www.goldwave.com/) can convert almost any audio file to the .au format (sometimes called the Sun/Java Web format).