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loading

Figure 5-9

Normally, the status bar tells the user when the page is loading and when it has finished loading; however,

it is possible to set its value using two properties of the window object:

status

and

defaultStatus

. As

you may have guessed,

status

changes the status bar text for a moment while

defaultStatus

changes it

as long as the user is on the page. For example, you may use a default status bar message when the page

first loads:

window.defaultStatus = “You are surfing www.wrox.com. “;

You may also want to display information about a certain link when the user moves the mouse over it:

<a href=”books.htm” onmouseover=”window.status=’Information on Wrox books.’

“>Books</a>

This is especially useful when using a JavaScript URL because browsers, by default, display the value of

the

href

attribute in the status bar when the user mouses over. Setting

window.status

can keep the

details of the link implementation from users:

The Statusbar

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JavaScript in the Browser

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