Upgrading to Gemini 2.0             

This page describes the changes you'll have to make - and the additional options you can add - to web pages currently containing Gemini 1.0 or 1.01. Most of Gemini 2.0 has been rewritten from the ground upwards, so you may find that in addition to the required changes below, the dimensions of your existing Gemini implementations need to be adjusted.

Required Changes

  • The primary change to Gemini 2.0 is the retirement of the OverImage and DownImage parameters. A three-stage Gemini button required 3 individual image files to be specified in these parameters. Gemini now requires the three images to be placed in a single file, side by side, in the order PLAIN, OVER, DOWN. This image is then specified in the HeaderImage parameter. Thus, if your old HeaderImage was 100 pixels wide, create a new image 300 pixels wide and copy the HeaderImage into it on the left, the OverImage in the middle and the DownImage on the right, and then specify this image in the HeaderImage parameter.

  • As a result of allowing images to be used instead of text, the numbered Text parameters have been renamed Entry to make them more intuitive to new Gemini users. Thus, you need to work through your HTML replacing the word Text in the parameter names with the word Entry.

  • Please note that the value of the Copyright parameter has changed to reflect the new version date. We recommend that you copy-and-paste the parameter below to avoid mistakes.

    <param name=Copyright value="Gemini © 1999 Cool Focus [www.coolfocus.com]">

    New Features

  • Gemini now supports Cool Focus' Smart Cursors feature. In compatible browsers, whenever the mouse moves over an item that links somewhere, the pointer will change to a hand. An added parameter, UseHandCursor, allows you to turn off this feature universally if you don't like it. Although many Cool Focus applets share this feature, Gemini adds an extra value, "all", letting you fine-tune cursor use.

  • This version of Gemini supports LiveConnect, which allows any URL parameter to point to a JavaScript method on the page instead of a web URL if required.

  • A UseImages parameter has been added. By setting this Yes/No parameter to Yes, you can replace Gemini's text links with 3-stage images. These images are constructed in the same way as the HeaderImages, by placing three images in a single file. The location of that file is given in the Entry parameters.

  • If you use text links with Gemini, you can now opt to display selector bars that follow the mouse in addition to (or instead of) mouse-reactive text colors. The choice of selector styles is made in the new Selectors parameter, and their color is chosen in the SelectorColor parameter.

  • The Testmode feature, popular in many of our other applets, has been added to Gemini, letting you find the perfect dimensions for the applet with none of that painful trial-and-error.