The appearance and content of the Remote News Box can be altered by adding one or more options to the newsbox command line. For example:

newsbox.cgi?bordercolor=gray&linkcolor=black

The optional settings are separated from the newsbox.cgi command with a ? symbol and then, if there are more than one option, each option is separated from one another with an & symbol.

Each option has a default value. If you want to use the default value of an option, it's not necessary to specify the option at all.

These are the optional settings you can add to the newsbox command line to customize the appearance of the Remote News Box on your web site:

count

Change the number of news items listed.

default: 6, maximum: 10
example: count=4

topic

Specify whether to show Beatles or All (including Beach Boys) news.

default: beatles
example: topic=all

linktype

Specifies whether links in the news display will open in the browser's current window or open a new window.

default: currentwindow
example: linktype=newwindow

format

Specifies whether to show news listing in table format or plain html text. Use the plain text option to combine the News Box with the look and feel already on your web site.

default: table
example: format=text

The following settings apply when using table format only:

width

Changes the width of the table. Can either be an absolute number of pixels or a percentage of window space.

default: table takes up as much width as longest headline
example: width=160
example: width=100%

fontface

Changes font used in table. Be careful to only specify a font that all computers have.

default: arial
example: fontface=courier
example: fontface=verdana

fontsize

Changes the font size of text in the table.

default: 2
example: fontsize=1

color

Changes the color of the non-link text in the table.

Note: Do NOT preface a hex color combination with the # symbol.

default: black
example: color=red (or any valid color name)
example: color=FF0000 (or any hex color combination)

bgcolor

Changes the background color of the table.

default: white

bordercolor

Changes the color of the border of the table.

default: black

linkcolor

Changes the color of links in the table.

default: blue

hlinkcolor

Changes the color of the links when the mouse is hovering over them.

default: darkred

More customization features may be added in the future, and ideas for new customizations from webmasters may be considered. We appreciate your ideas and comments.

The What Goes On Remote News Box is Copyright 2005, David Haber