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Behaviors in Microsoft FrontPage are scripting options that enable you to quickly add interactivity or increased functionality to text or other elements of your Web page.

A Behavior is a combination of an event and an action that you want to occur when a site visitor interacts with a Web page or an element of a page.

You can customize built-in FrontPage Behaviors by using a task pane (task pane: A window within an Office application that provides commonly used commands. Its location and small size allow you to use these commands while still working on your files.).

Events

An event is a condition that causes a Web browser to trigger a script (script: A type of computer code used to perform tasks on Web pages, such as incrementing a "number of visitors" counter each time there is a new visitor. Web scripts can be written in several script languages. Scripts do not need to be compiled to be run.). For example, moving the pointer over a graphic or clicking a link can trigger an event.

Event names usually reflect how they are activated. For example, the onMouseOver event is triggered when the mouse pointer moves over a page element. Likewise, the onMouseClick event is activated when the user clicks a page element.

Actions

An action is an instruction that executes when an event occurs. Actions are functions — prewritten blocks of script code — that perform a specific task, such as swapping an image or opening a browser window.

After you attach a script to a page element (using the Behaviors task pane), the browser "calls" the action that is triggered by the event.

Each action requires a set of properties and parameters (parameter: A value that is assigned to a variable at the beginning of an operation or before an expression is evaluated by a program. A parameter can be text, a number, or an argument name assigned to another value.) in order to do a task. In FrontPage, you can view or edit the properties for each action using the Behaviors task pane.

Note  Most Behaviors work with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, and Netscape Navigator 4.0 or later. Some Behaviors, such as Check Plug-in, Change Property, and Control Flash, require Internet Explorer 5 or later, and Netscape Navigator 6.0 or later.