I'm wondering if it's possible to create a 'scrolldown' box using VSD... I've tried searching in the forums, but I don't actually know what to call the thing that I'm looking for, other than a scrolldown box, which I'm pretty sure is not the proper name! What I would like to do is create a box with text, with the option to scroll down and read more text. Does that make sense? So I can fit more text on a page, without actually having to scroll down the entire page.

I hope someonbody understands what I mean :s If so, could you please let me know if it's even possible to do? Thank you!

You can't do it directly in VSD, no. If you pick up enough HTML to be able to code one yourself you can possibly add it into VSD via an HTML box.

Another possibility is to have all the text you want to include on its own page, then link that page into your VSD page with an iframe--again using an HTML box in VSD. As above, this would require you learning a little HTML so you could code iframes. It's fairly simple, only a tiny bit more involved than doing anchors or links. The upside of this is the iframe will have its own scroll bars independent of the main page and you control the size that's displayed by making the HTML box the desired size.

Thank you!

If you know how to paste html into your page, you can play with the following code. I don't have VSD, so I can't test this, but it should be possible to move it around on the page once it has been pasted, so you can place it where you want. I'm just not sure that VSD will understand the overflow styling and display the scrolling div correctly.



position:absolute; top:0px; left:0px;
This tells VSD where to place the scrolling div on the page. The top and left numbers will change when you move the div to a new location on the page.

overflow: auto;
This creates the scroll bar.

padding: 10px;
10 pixels of space on all four sides of the text within the scrolling div. Change this to increase or decrease the size of the space around the text.

width: 200px;
This is the width of the scrolling div minus the padding, so the total width of the div is two times the padding plus the width, or 220 pixels in this case.

height: 200px;
This is the height of the scrolling div minus the padding, so the total height of the div is two times the padding plus the height, or 220 pixels in this case.

font-size: 110%;
This controls the size of the text.

font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;
This tells the browser what font to use. In this example, the font, Times New Roman (in quotes because its name contains spaces), will be the first choice. If it isn't available, the browser will try to use Times. If that isn't available, then the browser will fall back to its default serif font.

color: #000099;
This is the hex color value of the font. If you want a black font, you can use

color: #000000;

or

color: black;

background-color: #CCCCCC;
This is the background color for the scrolling div. If you want a white background, you can use

background-color: #FFFFFF;

or

background-color: white;

Keep in mind the frame -- or the content of the frame - will not be visible to search engines. So unless this is supplemental information which you do not care if it is or is not indexed, use frames with caution. I am not one who says never use frames, but use them only where they are a benefit. I have a zip-code search box which is accessed via a very small iframe, for instance. It is convenient and does not require search-ability...but if this is information which you would want people to find in search engines, keep frames to a minimum.

Melanie

I'm still a neophyte to all this, but to my mind one advantage of the iframes method is the main text is on its own page. If the search spiders can't crawl the iframe link to the other page (I don't know) you can drop an invisible link to it somewhere on the page, or use something like the CC SIte Mapper software to make sure that page gets listed on the site map that your register with Google.

Well, beware the invisible link, too, they are not always a good idea for SEO. A site map is of course an option, but make sure there are means for other search engines other than Google to find you. The Google Gods are big and powerful, but not the only ones to be appeased... but then again, if you use the html page the Google sitemapper creates, that would certainly be a work-around.

Like I said, I am not against iframes (as many are)...where they are a viable design option...but I think of them almost as an image...will it enhance or hinder the page? I find them useful for inserting small scripts. And if you are considering them as an "include" method...there are better ways. Granted, the options may be different for VSD...and in that case, an html sitemap would be critical if there are links that cannot be found otherwise. Might be good to include a small link back to the main site, in case the odd frame content were found on the internet...all by itself...

For "invisible" I meant more "unobtrusive" or even colored to match the background, something that couldn't be distinguished from any other link by the bots.

The reason I was thinking about iframes at all...maybe I could get some opinions on this idea:

I maintain a golf league web page where I use software that generates the score tables, handicaps, points standings, player stats, and the like. It creates over a dozen "raw HTML" tables as files, no head or body tags, just the unadorned tables. You just overwrite the old page with the new and upload the whole lot with an index.html page linking them all up--which is made in MS Word. Not my idea, I inherited this site and haven't yet done anything but keep up the stats pages.

I want to create a themed web site to replace this junk, but one problem is I have no control over the pages created by the software. I want them "wrapped" in pages that match the theme, but I don't want to have to manually copy and paste HTML into the themed pages every week for every page. My idea was to have the themed pages each call a software-generated HTML file as an iframe. There will be some scrolling as the pages lengthen over the season, but that's how it is already. Then each week all I need do is generate and upload the stats pages, and the actual themed site won't change at all.

Does this seem a legitimate use for iframes?

Spinny, have you looked into using server-side includes (SSI) instead of iframes?

Nope, not sure what they are. Something I can do in VSD?