Introduction

Click here to install the sidebar immediately!

The TSZ Explorer Bar/Sidebar (from now on we'll call it "Sidebar") is something we've made to make it even easier for you to stay up-to-date with the latest Sims news, the latest files at The Sims Zone, or to see a bunch of links to other Sims fan sites. It's a very small version of The Sims Zone, for which you don't even have to visit us. It just stays on the left of your browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape etc), like the search bar. In Internet Explorer you can activate it by just clicking one button. You won't have to visit The Sims Zone and search through all the pages to get the latest news anymore. You can browse any other site, while the sidebar will refresh itself automatically so you always see the recent headlines. Whenever you click a link in the sidebar, you will be taken to that news item, the file's details page or the site you clicked immediately. On the left of this text is a preview of what the sidebar looks like. Note that in this preview, links to news, files or fansites will open up a new window of your browser. This is not the case with the actual sidebar, which will open the link in the browser window that's active at that moment. Also, you can make the sidebar in your browser as wide as you want to.

 

How does it work?

As soon as you open the sidebar, you must be connected to the internet. That's required, as your browser will have to load the page from The Sims Zone. That page is shown in the sidebar, from where you can continue using it. As it'll load the page from the internet, you won't have to download anything if we add new features to the sidebar, or if we change its design. You will see the changes immediately as soon as it loads up. It's really a matter of installing once, then using it millions of times! Anybody can do it.

If you use Internet Explorer (you need version 5.0 or higher), you will have to download a special program first. You can find that below on this page. This program will install (or uninstall) the sidebar in Internet Explorer. You can then activate the sidebar by clicking the button in the toolbar of Internet Explorer, or through the "View" menu. More instructions are in the program itself.

For Netscape (Version 6 or higher), Mozilla, Opera (Version 6 or higher) or other browsers which use Netscape-like sidebar functionality, it's even easier to install. Simply click the install link later on this page. After you've confirmed to install it, you can immediately load and use it through the sidebar in your browser. It will be installed like a regular Sidebar.
 

Download/Install

We've made you nervous, so now it's time to finally give you the sidebar. Please follow the instructions below to install it:

• Internet Explorer
  1. Make sure you have version 5.0 or higher. You can find the version number by going to Help-->About. You also need to be running Windows. Macintosh computers will not work, we recommend you use Netscape or Mozilla if you have a Mac.
  2. Click here to download the installation file ("Explorer Bar Setup"). Save this to your harddisk. Do NOT open it from the location directly, because that can cause some problems later on. It doesn't matter where you save it, but make sure it doesn't get deleted from there.
  3. With Windows Explorer, go to the location where you saved the file. Open the file.
  4. Choose "Install Explorer Bar", and click "Continue". Then exit the program.
  5. Restart your computer. This is necessary, otherwise Internet Explorer will not be able to show the sidebar!
  6. Open Internet Explorer, and click the "The Sims Zone" button in the toolbar. If it isn't there, choose View-->Explorer Bars-->The Sims Zone from the menu at the top. You can also customize the toolbar, by clicking the toolbar with your right-mouse button, and choosing "Customize" from the menu.
  7. Use the sidebar as much as you want.
  
  Notes:
  • You can hide the sidebar the same way as you show it, or by activating a different explorer bar.
  • If you delete the downloaded file, the button in the toolbar will not have an icon anymore. You can either choose to hide the button then, or you must redownload the file. If you reinstall the sidebar using that, the icon will appear again.
  
  
• Netscape, Mozilla, FireFox, Opera and other (similar) browsers
1. Make sure you have Netscape 6 or higher, Mozilla, FireFox, Opera 6 or higher, or a different browser which uses similar Sidebar functionality.
2. (Not for Opera or recent versions of FireFox) Make sure My Sidebar is open. If it isn't open yet, press F9 once or twice and it'll open.
3. Click here to install the sidebar to your panel. Note: In FireFox this will create a new bookmark. When choosing the bookmark, it will open the bookmark in the sidebar.
4. Use the sidebar as much as you want. It's that easy!

Who made it?

ChEeTaH took the effort to create this sidebar. the "Explorer Bar Setup" program, the code used for the sidebar etc, is all © Copyright 2003 ChEeTaH & The Sims Zone. The contents of the sidebar is © Copyright 2001-2005 The Sims Zone. The "Explorer Bar Setup" program has been made with Borland Delphi 6. Please click here to e-mail ChEeTaH with questions or more information about this sidebar.
 

Can you make a sidebar for my site?

Yes and no. That means, not completely. You have to do several things yourself.

First of all, you will need to make the sidebar's page yourself. You can use plain html for this, or any other language that browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape support. You have to make 2 different pages, one for Internet Explorer and one for Netscape or Mozilla. You can make the pages very similar, but you must follow these simple rules:
Both versions:
Links that should open in the sidebar's panel, should have target="_self" as property. For instance, in html:

<a href="sidebar2.html" target="_self">Go to sidebar 2!</a>

Internet Explorer:
Links that should open in the browser's main window, should have target="_main" as property. For instance, in html:

<a href="http://www.mysite.com" target="_main">Visit my site!</a>

Netscape or Mozilla:
Links that should open in the browser's main window, should have target="_content" as property. For instance, in html:

<a href="http://www.mysite.com" target="_content">Visit my site!</a>

If your links open only in the sidebar, and not in the main browser window, then one version will work for all browsers.

It is your own responsibility to create those pages, to update them, and to host them on your server. If you use web-scripting like PHP or ASP, you can use that too, as long as it creates a page that the browser can read properly. You can include images etc. too. You can also include advertisement banners as you like - we don't restrict that.

It is advisable to make sure that the content of the page fits within a width of 150 pixels. You should also make it stretch the width if the user makes the sidebar panel wider or narrower.

Next is to make some icons for the button in Internet Explorer. You can choose to leave this out, but people will definately find it easier to activate the sidebar using a button rather than going through menus. You can send the icons in Bitmap files. Note that there are some rules to these icons. First of all, the icons for the button may contain the 16 Windows colours ONLY, not more. Do NOT use an 8-bit palette (256 colours), as it will probably not look right in action. You also should make the icons in 2 dimensions: 16 by 16 pixels, and 20 by 20 pixels. You also have to make two different icons for the button. One for when the sidebar is not activated (usually a greyed-out version), and one for when the user holds their mouse over the icon or if the sidebar is activated. That means you have to make 4 icons in total:

A greyed-out icon, 16 by 16 pixels (16 colours!)

A greyed-out icon, 20 by 20 pixels (16 colours!)

An "activated" icon, 16 by 16 pixels (16 colours!)

An "activated" icon, 20 by 20 pixels (16 colours!)

You'll need to send at least one 16 by 16 pixels icon. Windows will automatically stretch that if necessary. Making all 4 variants is recommended though.

If you want the program to have a more advanced icon, you have to make more icons. You can make those in the following resolutions:

16 by 16 pixels, 16 and/or 256 colours

32 by 32 pixels, 16 and/or 256 colours

48 by 48 pixels, 16 and/or 256 colours
We recommend that you do make at least a 32 by 32 pixels icon so it'll look a bit sharper in Windows. The 48 by 48 pixels icons are rarely used, but you can make them if you want. Please always make icons using only the default 16 Windows colours, as some older Windows versions don't accept icons with 256 colours. If you don't send us these icons, we will use the 16 by 16 pixels and 16 colours icon for the button by default.

We recommend making these icons in total:

Greyed-out icons for the button, 16 by 16 and 20 by 20 pixels, both 16 colours

"Activated" icons for the button, 16 by 16 and 20 by 20 pixels, both 16 colours

For the program: 32 by 32 pixels and 16 colours

Optional for the program: 16 by 16 and 32 by 32 pixels, both 256 colours

Now you've made those pages and icons, you want to make it possible for people to install it. That's what we'll help you out with. You can get a program like the one we use for Internet Explorer. You can download the example above. Click the PayPal button below to make the payment. You can use a credit-card or your PayPal account to pay us. If you want to pay in a different way, please contact ChEeTaH first.

Please send ChEeTaH an e-mail telling you want to get the customised program. Please include the following in that e-mail:

Your website's name and URL (address)

The URLs (addresses) of the sidebar pages you created (one for Internet Explorer, one for Netscape, Mozilla and FireFox, or just one link for all browsers)

The icons (Windows Bitmaps, see above), in one single ZIP file. Our e-mail form only allows sending one file attachment, so please use zip so you can send all the icons in one file. If the file is too big, or if you can't make a ZIP file out of the bitmaps, let us know and then you can send the files through your favourite email program later. If you want, you can also give a link to these bitmaps and we'll download them. It doesn't matter much how you do it, as long as we receive those icons. We prefer the ZIP method though.

The background and the text colours that should be used for the program. If you don't include this, the program will use the default Windows colour.

Your e-mail address you made the payment with, if that's different than the e-mail address you enter in the "From" field on the form.

After we received your e-mail (and confirmed it), and the payment, we will make the program for you, and send it to you as soon as possible. We'll also send you the code you should put on a webpage which will allow people to install the sidebar in Netscape, Mozilla or FireFox. People will only have to click a link to install the sidebar then. You can check out our link for an example.

Once you received the code and the program, you have to put the program somewhere, as well as the link.

You don't have to make both versions of the sidebar. As most people use Internet Explorer, we do recommend making at least that version though. If you don't want us to make a Netscape sidebar, but an Internet Explorer program only, that will still cost $5. Creating the program costs the most time, the Netscape sidebar code is included for free. It's up to you what you make - but after making the Internet Explorer version, it's only a small effort to make the Netscape version.

If we received your payment for the sidebar, we'll also offer (limited) help with the coding of the sidebar. You have to do web-scripting and the designing of images yourself, but we can help with html coding and some fixes for the design. We'll also test the sidebars before you put them online, so you're sure they are looking right before you put them online.