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How do they do that? Popup Text If you haven't yet, roll your mouse cursor over the Her Technology logo in the left corner. When you do, text will magically appear (ooooh!) Well, it's not magic at all. So, if it's not magic, how is it done? First, a few concepts. This effect is done with a program written in JavaScript. A JavaScript program is a series of instructions that tell the browser to do something, and JavaScript is the syntax and grammar for the instructions. In addition to the program, we also need to tell the browser what text to write on the screen, the colors to use, and what graphics. These items are described using HTML, which is a markup language. You don't see the markups (which are rather like the red ink your teacher used to write on your papers in school), but the browser does, and using the instructions in those markups, it creates the page that you see. Moreover, the browser has to keep track of your inputs via the mouse, so that when you move the mouse cursor or click on a link the browser can perform the correct action. Every time you move the mouse, the browser keeps track of the position of the mouse cursor. Two important concepts come together at this point. 1) The browser creates the web page and knows the location of each item on the page (where items may be text, graphics, links, etc.). 2) The browser knows where the mouse cursor is. Consequently, when you roll the cursor over the logo image the browser recognizes this fact and is ready to do something if the programmer has told it to. Page 2

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