Using JavaScript and DHTML Once you have your page, you may want to add something dynamic. "Dynamic" on a web page means the same thing it always does - something that is moving. We use dynamic things on web pages to keep the viewer's attention so they want to look at our sites! There are two programming languages that bring dynamic stuff to your web page called JavaScript and DHTML. What is JavaScript? You can recognize JavaScript when you see a tag that begins with <script>. JavaScript is a complicated and very mathematical programming language. Sometimes not all JavaScript works with everyone's browsers because a lot of it is new stuff that old browsers don't understand. If you see things like calculators or a countdown to someone's birthday then its probably made in JavaScript. What is DHTML? DHTML stands for dynamic hypertext markup language. It actually uses a lot of JavaScript too. It creates layers on top of your browser for things to move around on. If you see things like snowflakes falling or a menu moving around it is almost definitely done in DHTML. JavaScript and DHTML take years to learn how to write, so people like you and me borrow scripts that other people let us use for free. We can do all sorts of fun things like making our cursors dance, make snow fall, or even set up a menu for our site that moves around! Use this list of sites that give away free scripts to find something cool to add to your page. All you have to do is copy and paste the code into your page. Be sure to follow the directions on these sites! DHTML Sites Dynamic Drive DHTML Shock WebCoder.com JavaScript Sites Website Abstraction JavaScripts.com JavaScript Search