RE: Refesh without images?

On May 2, 1998, Gregg V wrote, re: refreshing pages without images:
>IE 4.0 does this quite nicely.   They also post a utility on their IE
>website that lets you add a button to your address toolbar called
>Toggle Images.exe
-- end quote

While this is quite commendable, I believe it misses the point of Kitch's
original post.  Image toggling, in my opinion, falls into the realm of
"base functionality", and as such, should be added to the guidelines list..
That is to say, that such an option should be universally implemented--not
merely on the toolbar, nor hidden in a menu/submenu, but addressable via a
hotkey.

Merely stating that a powertoy, which toggles images on and off, exists for
IE 4.01, does not address the need which Kitch articulated.  As an end-user
and someone who has worked with 'net novices of every ilk and level of
proficiency, i have reservations about the powertoy approach.  How many
users of IE 4.01 are aware of the existence of powertoys, let alone
actually download, implement, and use them?  Will the current set of power
toys be implemented in the next release/update of MSIE as part and parcel
of the browser, or will they remain peripheral powertoys?  And if the next
release of  MSIE will not include built-in support for the powertoys
accumulating at microsoft.com, will it at least come bundled with a
powertoy wizard, that allows the user to choose which powertoys to install,
and which will present the user with the option to download new powertoys
as they become available at microsoft.com?

I also have reservations about the implementation/accessibility of the
image toggle patch based on gregg's footnote:
>Note:  it usually installs the button way off to the right ... where
>you have to scroll the toolbar to see it.  But you can just grab it
>and drag it over to the left end of the  bar where it always shows.
-- end quote

Is this easily achievable/practicable if one is using speech synthesis?  I
have tried moving the toolbar using HAL, but in vain.  Moreover, anything
off-screen usually isn't voiced by a screen reader, hence the necessity of
a hotkey.

In conclusion, I would be remiss if I didn't note that since May of '97,
Lynx has contained a toggle key that allows you to convert all images to
hyperlinks (so that they can be viewed via a helper app or downloaded for
off-line viewing), as well as a toggle to hide the pseudo-ALT tags (the
all-too-familiar [INLINE]s) that it generates when it encounters
ALT--tagless images.  In both instances, as with most, if not all of Lynx's
toggles, the page is automatically refreshed/reloaded.

gregory

Received on Wednesday, 6 May 1998 13:02:30 UTC