DR. WEBSITE ®: Copyrights Are Not For the Borrowing; Underlined Links; Self-Selecting Browser Code; Downloadable Fonts / February 15, 1999

Copyrights Are Not For the Borrowing; Underlined Links

Dear Dr. Website®: My team and I are working on an online roommate-matching service. We feel that the theme of "The Odd Couple" fits the site perfectly. What is the law regarding copyright in this case? Can we use this theme? After all, we are in a way promoting the movie.

While I identify with your plight, understand that a corporation's idea of what is promotion and your own ideas about the topic may conflict, landing you in court over the use of copyrighted names or images. You may wish to contact the company in question and see if they mind your use of the term.

Copyrights are a hot topic today [see Boardwatch magazine's story about copyright/protection issues], and it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Dear Dr. Website®: How do you make links underline when your mouse goes over them?

You create the effect by using style sheets, though this solution will only work for Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers:


<STYLE>
<!--
A:hover {text-decoration:underline; color:blue;}
A:link {text-decoration:none; color:blue;}
-->
</STYLE>

Although there may be a quick hack for achieving the same effect under Netscape, the doctor hasn't had any luck in finding such a solution.

Dear Dr. Website®: I constructed a site with frames, and it has a drop-down menu in the left frame that I built using DHTML. I also built a normal HTML version for antiquated browsers. Is there a script I could add to that frame cell that would load the appropriate menu.htm, depending on what version browser was using it?

Sure -- you'll want to visit the JavaScriptSource page on User Details. They have many scripts you can use for just such a task.

Dear Dr. Website®: How can I create a title (with a unique font) for my Web page that will work on every computer? Do I have to make a GIF or JPEG image with the particular font and text I want to use?

You could always create downloadable, or "dynamic," fonts, but you'd have to create a set for both MSIE and Netscape, as they use different methods. See our Dynamic Fonts article for more information.

Realize, however, that creating downloadable font sets is not an easy task, and you can save time and effort by solving the problem as you suggest.

Simply create the title by using the unique font that's already installed on your system along with your favorite graphics program. You just make a new image, select the text button from the toolbar, and choose the font, style, and colors you wish to use. Type the text of your title, and save your graphic image using as few colors as possible as a GIF. This way the file will remain small in size and will download quickly.

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