Operation Manual

Working with Hyperlinks and Interactivity 87
Java is a cross-platform, object-oriented programming language used
to create mini-applications called applets that can be attached to Web
pages and that run when the page is viewed in a Web browser.
WebPlus lets you add Java applets to your Web sites. You don’t have
to write your own! Plenty of applets are available online—for example
animation, interface components, live information updating, two-way
interaction, graphics rendering, live updating, streaming audio and
video, games, and many more.
To insert a Java applet, choose Web Objects... from the Insert menu
and select Java Applet... from the submenu (again, there’s a button on
the Tools toolbar). In the dialog, list the applet’s component files as
well as any necessary parameters (as described in the applet’s
documentation) that specify exactly how the applet should run. You
don’t necessarily need to understand the underlying code, but it’s
essential to make sense of any “Read Me” documentation that comes
with the applet.
As with HTML, WebPlus inserts a marker into your site at the site
where the code will run. The marker’s dimensions probably won’t
correspond exactly to those of the applet when it’s running, so plan
your page layout accordingly, and the more preview tests you can run
(using various versions of different browsers), the better.
Design tips
Hyperlinks and anchors
The World Wide Web has finally popularized the concept of hypertext,
which has been around for a couple of decades. We’re now accustomed
to clicking ‘round the world in a matter of seconds! Yet the skill of
authoring effective hypertext documents is still not widespread. Here
are several tips for linking:
♦ Use links in text sparingly: quality, not quantity, matters. If you
want readers to finish reading your paragraph, don’t fill it full of
invitations to jump elsewhere.
♦ Don’t let links in text disrupt the flow of your writing. Avoid
sentences like: “Click here
to learn about linking text.” An
improvement would be: “Linking text
can greatly enhance your
Web site.”