[Web4lib] Re: Valid substitute for body onLoad()

[Dan Scott]

Ugh. CSS drop-downs or JavaScript drop-downs -- either way, they are
relatively evil because as non-standard browser widgets they tend to
become a guessing game for your users. How many sites have you played
the game where you try to hover your mouse over exactly the right
spot? Or watched your menu scroll off the bottom (or top) of the page
with no way of getting to the hidden options because the designer did
not anticipate that you were using an 800x600 display instead of a
1280x1024?

The reason for this mini-rant is to beg you to consider using simple
select / input type=¨option¨ HTML form elements. Any browser made in
the last 6 years, including links/lynx, renders select forms in a
usable way, and users are perfectly familiar with using select forms
in their own preferred browser, which is probably why Google uses them
extensively in its interfaces. They might not be sexy, but they work
-- and that´s what is going to enable your users to get to your
information they need (even if they need sexy information)!

Dan Scott