Megan — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:27:10 +0000

I use a browser that doesn't "support" them (thank you Opera), but I would say that it shouldn't be a huge deal as long as you make the colour scheme high-contrast enough to 1. make it look like a scrollbar and 2. make it stand out from the site enough so people can see it right away. When I used to use IE those were the biggest problesm I had with them. Unforunately I think this is one of those gimmicks that "designers" tend to abuse. Same goes for colouring of form boxes.

brady.k — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 01:57:27 +0000

i always use the colored scroll bars, just because i think it adds a more personalized touch to the site, a little more professional. i do make sure they color co-ordinate...lol (none are puke orange)

i realize not everybody can see it, but they prob will in the future (i hope)...

ROB — Tue, 24 Sep 2002 08:51:41 +0000

I agree with The Webmistress that it's all personal taste, but i maintain that this is one place where Microsoft went that they shouldnt have. By specification, a webpage cannot alter anything other than the webpage (with the exception of creating new windows with javascript, where the initial state can be determined but never modified after the window is drawn). What's the next step? A webpage replacing your refresh icon with a frog?

I do see some legitimate potential, such as making scrollbars in a dark frameset match or compliment rather than protrude, but overall it's just people who want to make my scrollbars puke orange to match their puke orange site. When it comes down to it, i dont go back to those sites anyways so no harm no foul.

The Webmistress — Tue, 24 Sep 2002 08:11:22 +0000

Most things in webdesign are very much down to personal taste, so whatever you put on your website probably some people will like some wont, fact of life!

Busy — Mon, 23 Sep 2002 21:50:23 +0000

it just gets ignored, i have only seen the colour scroll bar in pics even thou I have 6 different browsers (IE5, opera6, ns4.7, ns7, mozilla1 and ieopera6.5) none of which display it.

when you do style sheets, you should use the comment tags

that way older browser than dont understand it wont try display it in the head section.

KnightRobby — Mon, 23 Sep 2002 21:26:47 +0000

Thanks for the replies. I personally enjoy the scroll bar color changing; it really creates a certain atmosphere of a website. So, what do you all think? Should I use it or not? I know such websites as phpbb use it, and they are popular, as well as many other websites among the internet (such as videogames.com).

Now, I have one more question for you:

1) What happens if I put the code on my website, but a visitor who does not have Internet Explorer 5.0, and over, does not support the code? Does an error show up, or does is the script ignored??

Well, thanks again fellow webmasters,
Robby

The Webmistress — Mon, 23 Sep 2002 06:55:11 +0000

Yes that is the right code but as Rob says it is only a IE thing from 5.5+ and although it can be seen as a design feature be careful not to hide the scrollbar as so many sites do as that it then interfering with the visitors browsing.

ROB — Mon, 23 Sep 2002 02:39:30 +0000

i'd say since this is a microsoft 'feature' youll probably find the answers in msdn - http://msdn.microsoft.com

im not even sure they work anymore to tell you the truth (or maybe i unknowingly disabled it somehow). the browser 'skin' has absolutely NOTHING to do with a webpage and shouldnt be changable. careful not to drive people away by being too intrusive.