So, You Want An External JavaScript, Huh?

     Or go look... I don't care.

     In order to get that on the page I created what is known as a "JS" file, or a "JavaScript" file. The JavaScript file is nothing more than a JavaScript saved as a text file and given the extension ".js".

A little more detail please, Joe...

     Let's say you have a JavaScript. Like the one above. In fact, let's say you have the one above. Here's what it looked like when I started:

     Okay, there you go. It's a very short, simple script. Even if you are not overly schooled in JavaScript you can pretty much pick out how it works. It gets the day, the month, and the year from your computer, then posts them all in a row with slashes between the numbers. Ta da! You have a date!

Create The JS File

     Get rid of them. Erase them. You'll pick them up again later. Now the page should look like this:

     Now do a SAVE AS command and save the file as TEXT only (the same way you would an HTML file), give it a name of eight (8) letters or less and add the extension .js.
     Let's say you want to name this file "george". Do a Save As, making sure you are saving as text alone, and give the file the name "george.js". Again, make sure you give the file a name of eight letters or less. I have found that more than eight letters messes up the process. Why? My guess is that it's a leftover DOS concern, but that's just a guess. Okay, you're done with that.

Moving along...

     To get its effect on my page, I placed these commands:

     See, I told you you'd pick up those two commands again. That's all you need. Any time you place those commands on your page, the JavaScript denoted by the .js extension will appear. Just remember to lose the beginning and end script commands in the JavaScript file or you'll get an error: Line 1.

• The .js file name cannot be more than 8 characters long.
• This works best with self-contained JavaScripts.
  Scripts that have multiple parts throw a lot of errors. It's better to just paste the script onto the document in those cases.
• This will not work with multiple scripts in the same .js file.
  Many times you will find that an effect is created by two JavaScripts, one following right after the other. No dice here. In order to get the effect, you would either need to have a <SCRIPT> command in the .js file or call for two js files. Either way it will kill the effect. It's best to just paste the scripts onto the page in cases like that.

     I did that above, see? Those commands hide the text from viewers that cannot read JavaScript. It won't make the browser run the script, but it will stop Java-impared surfers from getting any error codes when they access your page.

Enjoy!