Scrolling Message on Status Bar Example

MyMessage is the variable name. The message to be displayed is in quotes.

var MyMessage = "This is an example of a scrolling message.";

spaces is the variable name. A string of blank spaces (made by pressing the spacebar) is in quotes.

var spaces = " ";

The variable position is numeric and it stores the current position of the string. Initialize it with 0.

var position = 0;

Function is a keyword and is used to begin the function. ScrollingMessage() is the name of the function. A brace ( { ) is needed to begin the function. Be sure there is a space before the brace.

function ScrollingMessage() {

The window.status indicates there is going to be a display on the status bar. The display includes the message (MyMessage) which you want to begin at the very beginning (position 0), the spaces, and the message again.

window.status = MyMessage.substring(position, MyMessage.length) + spaces + MyMessage.substring(0, position);

The position is incremented by one. This can be written "position = position + 1". This gives the message the appearance of scrolling.

position++;

This checks to see if the position is larger than the length of the message. If it is, the position is reset to 0 and the message begins again.

if (position > MyMessage.length) position = 0;

The window.setTimeout method is used to run the function after a delay. This delay is set to .2 seconds. Increase this value to make the scrolling appear to be slower.

window.setTimeout("ScrollingMessage()",200);

The right brace ends the function.

}

This statement is used to call the function you just wrote.

ScrollingMessage();

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
var MyMessage = "This is an example of a scrolling message.";
var spaces = "                     ";
var position = 0;

function ScrollingMessage() {

window.status = MyMessage.substring(position, MyMessage.length) + spaces + MyMessage.substring(0, position);
position++;
if (position > MyMessage.length) position = 0;
window.setTimeout("ScrollingMessage()",200);

}
ScrollingMessage();
</SCRIPT>