| Adding a Counter
It's totally a matter of personal preference. Some people want to put
a counter on their page
to show how many people have visited. Others think it's
crazy to put it on there. They say that if you don't have
a lot of visitors, you don't want anyone to know that. If
you have a lot of visitors, you're just bragging. So, if you decide to add one, how do you do it?
- Go to the RootsWeb counter site at
http://counter.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/createcounter.cgi
Counter Name - input what you want to call your counter.
It must have no spaces or periods - if you
want to separate words, use a dash or underline.
Starting Count - usually 0, but if you're moving your
site from another place, you may want to start with the
last count from your previous place to keep it going.
Password and Verify Password - choose a password and
type it twice and click "Create"
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- You will get a brief message stating that your
counter has been created and giving you the code to
insert on your page.
Copy the last line (click and drag to highlight, then right-click and choose
copy).
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- Open your web design program. Go to the place
you want to insert a counter and paste the code.
NOTE: You must insert the code in HTML view, not
in a WYSIWYG view. AND, if you're a FrontPage
user, you'll need to copy it into Notepad first or it
may change some of the formatting when you paste it.
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<img src="http://counter.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=xxxxxx"> |
- The above is just the basic code to get a basic
counter. There are a lot of tips on the RootsWeb
Create-Modify Counter page and on Cliff Lamere's page on
how to customize your counter with special number
formats, background colors, frame colors, etc.
Basically, you add these special codes after the
preceding code but before the > at the end. Each
of the special codes has to be separated by a | sign
(located above the enter key on your keyboard).
Here's an example of how you can change it. Here's
the original code given to me (using xxxxxx for a
counter name):
<img src="http://counter.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=xxxxxx">
And here's what it looks like:
Now, using some of the special codes to change the
appearance of the counter, here's my code:
<img src="http://counter.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?trgb=0;255;0|frgb=255;255;204
|dd=C|df="xxxxxx" alt="Counter">
The additional code sets the following:
trgb=0;255;0 sets the text color values, of which this
one sets the green transparent
frgb=255;255;204 sets the frame color values, of which this
one sets a lite yellow
dd=C sets the "type" of number
alt="Counter" sets the alternate text for the image
(see my
alternate text page for info on this)
And here's what it looks like:
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Check out the links below to
get more ideas/information on putting a counter on your
page and changing the look of it.
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| Tip: Once you have a counter, it's
interesting once in a while to
query your counter and
get some statistics. |
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