21 I made a cake too

Just finished writing this:
http://www.geocities.com/seanmhall2003/SeanSoft/accesskeys.html
It is a much simpler way of adding accessibility and usability in a way that works with more than 5% of the browsers out there today.
I hope you like my cake too.

posted at 02:13 pm on April 16, 2004 by Dante-Cubed

22 Two minds...

I’m of two minds on the subject — on the one hand, I think the technique has merit, on the other, breaking the back button and other browserly-expected-functions (as delineated by Dimitri Glazkov on p.1) seems to make dubious the claim that this enhances “usability.”

I think it’s key to note that this method really can only apply to lengthy documents like this article … beyond that the issues definitely outweight the merits.

I also have to note that I got a giggle out of your JS function:

What does that look like it should do? Hide the “intro” div or hide everything BUT the “intro” div?

posted at 03:14 pm on April 16, 2004 by Nate

23 Nate's right

A user would expect the back button to do that. The hideDivs function looks like it should hive all intro divs, but in my opinion ids are unique. They must be used only once on a whole page.

posted at 03:58 pm on April 16, 2004 by Dante-Cubed

24 Rewrite

I’m going to rewrite this script so that:
1. It will include a “Back” and “Forward” functionality.
2. It will use no inline event handlers.
3. The names of functions will not be misleading

posted at 04:20 pm on April 16, 2004 by Dante-Cubed

25 printing?

Yes, it is a cool trick, and works, but how does the user know that when he hits print, the entire content will print? I would expect as a user only the currently selected section to print. This means you have to have additional information given to the user to explain how to use the page. Hardly good usability technique.

I use a similar technique for an image gallery, but that is as far as I would take it. This just confuses the end user, imo.

posted at 07:03 pm on April 16, 2004 by Eric

26 Re-baked cake

I did a rewrite of this script from scratch. Take a look at http://www.geocities.com/seanmhall2003/SeanSoft/cake.html
It has a “Back” functionality and you can also use URL queries (like http://www.geocities.com/seanmhall2003/SeanSoft/cake.html?tab=ing will take you the the same page but the “Ingredients” div will be shown).
It only works perfectly in IE6 (can’t test Safari). The back button always goes to the “Serving” div in Opera, and Mozilla has trouble with the URL query part.
Is switchDiv a more appropriate name for the main function?
The only thing I didn’t do was add a printsheet. I was focusing more on the Javascript/DOM part.

posted at 07:38 pm on April 16, 2004 by Dante-Cubed

27 And it breakes browser ;-)

The original article has one big advantage, try to search for word ‘Sprinkle’ regardless what page you are looking for, browser will find it. Not try with the alternative approach go to any other section but the first one and search for ‘Sprinkle’. browser will not find it since it is in the hidden section. :-) Seems like breaking something which worked just fine.

posted at 10:53 pm on April 16, 2004 by Miro Halas

28 If it ain't broke...

..break it. How or why should the browser find text if the text is hidden? That would be counter-intuitive.

posted at 11:14 pm on April 16, 2004 by Dante-Cubed

29 Great Tutorial

It took me a few hours to follow through this tutorial – i’m not much of a javascript expert – but i found it very well written and informative. Thank you for taking the time out to write and share this with the CSS3 community.

posted at 11:53 pm on April 16, 2004 by Eric Draht

30 The receipe and the resulting product

I guess the idea gets obscured by the execution of the example.

I really dislike javascript or ECMA-script or what the lastest correct label might be, because its application often reduces the usability for me as a user, unless I would buy a windows box and stick with IE6. Too many webmasters haven’t got a clue what they are doing when applying it.

But the example of the rewrites of the links using javascript is brilliant: for me its the first glimpse under the hood of DOM that implicates its real power. If javascript is of, you are still having a valid functioning document!

The example of application though isn’t exactly wonderful. If ALA would structure all its tutorials this way, I never would read it again.
Maybe I’m the odd fellow, but I like to be able to scroll back and forth on the same page when reading a tutorial, I dislike having to “tab” through it.

I guess that with a little more ado you could give your user the option to get 5 slices or a whole cake when served, so thank you for showing us the receipe of baking cake.

posted at 12:53 am on April 17, 2004 by Martijn ten Napel