In this post we present a collection of excellent Adobe Illustrator tutorials for beginners and advanced designers.

Have fun and Good Luck!

1. Create a Magic Book Using Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial will find out how to create a magic book. The first half of this tutorial is dedicated to creating an open book, and in the remaining steps you’ll  learn how to create the background and add the magic effects.

2. Gradient Mesh Flower

In this tutorial you will see how to use Gradient Mesh for creation of this wonderful flower.

3. Create Bloody Halloween Ornament Using Adobe Illustrator

In this 20 steps tutorial you will find out how to create a bloody Halloween ornament yourselves. The ornament is a bit psychedelic however it worth doing it.

4. Realistic Vintage Vector Tutorial

In this tutorial you will discover how to make a great realistic typewriter with the help of Adobe Illustrator, so fasten your seat belts and let’s go.

5. Create Trees in Illustrator

In this tutorial you will see how to create a tree from a photograph. During the steps of this tutorial you will see the following tools in use: the freehand drawing tools, the shape tools and the Layers palette.

6. Create A Semi Realistic Bulb

In this tutorial, you will  see how to create a light bulb illustration. It’s a good tutorial for those struggling with drawing freehand.

7. Create psychedelic Halloween pumpkin face using Adobe Illustrator

During this 20 steps Illustrator tutorial you will create a cool spooky 5-eyed pumpkin.

8. Create a Jelly Fish In Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial,  you will learn how to create a stylized jellyfish using blends and brushes.

9. Create a Sparkly Female Portrait

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create a sparkly female portrait by playing with transparency and overlapping vector shapes.

10. Create a Painterly Landscape With the Blob Brush Tool

In this tutorial you will create a painterly landscape with an intuitive and versatile Blob Brush Tool.

11. Create a Smoking Wooden Pipe

In this tutorial you will find out how to draw a stylish smoking tobacco pipe. You will also see how to create wood texture illustrator effect on the pipe.

12. Tracing a Vector Face From a Reference Photo

In this tutorial you will see the the process of tracing the basic shapes and contours of a photograph, as opposed to using predominately vector lines with strokes. This will result in a desirable, realistic yet stylized image.

13. Create a Lava Island Scenario in Illustrator

This tutorial is inspired by the Tiki and Mario culture. You will see how to draw these Mario characters.

14. Create an Elegant Patterned Vector Owl

In this tutorial you will draw an elegant patterned vector owl.

15. Zombie Illustration

In this step by step tutorial you will create a hand-drawn zombie illustration.

16. Create an awesome vector skate deck

In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial you will create your own vibrant and stunning vector artwork using geometric lines, shapes and a perfect color scheme. The result is an awesome deck design ready for wall hanging, or hooking up with trucks and wheels for a session on the street!

17. How to Illustrate a LeBron James Cartoon Character

This tutorial shows how to create an illustration of a LeBron James.

18. Perfect Vector Portraiture

In this tutorial by Simeon Elson you will see how to create a vector portrait.

19. Rolling Stone Inspired Tongue

In this tutorial you will create a graphic design icon – the bright red Rolling Stones tongue and lips logo.  It’s not a direct copy of the original but an inspired tongue graphic, starting with a quick pencil sketch and finishing with a vector based graphic in Adobe Illustrator.

20. Create an Grisly Zombie Illustration

In this tutorial you will create a zombie illustration with a pen tablet from a photo. Have fun utilizing the Blob Brush and Eraser tool in recreating this tutorial or apply these techniques to other ghoulish illustrations!

21. Create an awesome music Poster

In this tutorial you will draw an awesome music poster.

22. Create Realistic Bubble Effect

In this tutorial we will find out how to create realistic colorful bubbles. This tut covers numerous techniques.

23. Design a Skate deck With a Cool Skull Pattern

In this tutorial you will use Symbol Sprayer tool can for creating awesome pattern graphics and then combine them into an intricate pattern design to customize a skateboard deck.

24. Comic Book Style Graphic Design

In this tutorial you will learn how to create awesome illustrations and turn them into flyers or posters.

25. Stinking style Zombie Flesh Eater

In this tutorial, you will see how to create a cartoon zombie in Adobe Illustrator. Starting by creating a fresh corpse, you will then ‘yuck’ it up using a number of techniques.

26. Design With Flair

In this tutorial you will see how to apply flair technique. You will start from scratch with a basic photo and create a fully realized design.

27. How to Create Transparent Battery icon

In this tutorial,  you will create a detailed battery icon similar to the one used in the iPhone.

28. Making an abstract art Work

This tutorial shows you the principles of using the Live Paint Bucket tool, and what can be achieved with this great innovation in color management, which saves time, and may be used in countless sorts of project from character design to abstract Illustration.

29. Test Your Creativity

In this simple Adobe Illustrator tutorial you will create some sort of abstract mask.

30. Add Motion To Illustration Using lines

In this tutorial by Eric Van Den Boom you will see how to use lines and patterns to add a sense of motion to your illustration or photograph.

31. Create an Awesome Retro Beetle Type

In this tutorial you will create a vector image of an original Volkswagen Beetle using one of Illustrators most-used tools; the Pen Tool, as well as adding some finishing touches using a graphics tablet (an affordable Wacom Bamboo tablet in my case) to give the vector a nice hand-drawn style.

32. Create a Valentines Day Illustration For Your Sweetie

In this tutorial you will discover how to create a cheerful character and lovely, colorful bubbles. Use this knowledge to create a darling Valentine’s Day card for your sweetie.

33. Create a Realistic Candy Bar In Illustration

In this tutorial, you will see step by step how to create a realistic candy bar using Illustrator.

34. Create Movement In Illustration

In this tutorial you will learn how to create stylistic lines that can be used to simulate movement.

35. Creating a Toaster popping Illustration

In this tutorial, you will learn how to apply such rare effect as the Chrome effect, which is used to create a metallic look.  You will also use Texturizer tool to create a toast texture.

36. Create an Angry Octopus

This tutorial shows how to create an angry vector octopus character using brushes in Adobe Illustrator. It’s a simple 12 steps tutorial. Have fun!

37. From Start To Finish

In this tutorial,  you will find out how to create an illustration art piece so that you can witness what goes behind a digital illustrator’s work, as well as gain some new insights for your own projects’ workflow. We’ll go through conceptualization and idea gathering, creating illustrations in Illustrator, and then finishing the piece in Photoshop.

38. Create a luxurious Gold Watch

In this tutorial you will see how to create a very realistic and stunning gold watch using simple tools and techniques like the Pathfinder, Blend, Clipping Mask, etc.

39. Make a colorful, Environment Slice

In this tutorial you will create an earth slice that looks like a piece of cake.

40. Create a Cubist Style Logo Design

In this tutorial you will see how to create a cubist style logo design made up of lots of detailed vector facets.

41. Create a Realistic Guitar

In this tutorial you will draw a realistic guitar from scratch using the free vector program.  This tut requires a basic knowledge of vector tools, such as: the Pen tool, Edit Path Nodes tools, and you should be familiar with the Fill and Stroke toolbox.

42. Create a Video Projector

In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial you will learn how to make an old film projector, such as the early 20th century. Get ready because it’s time to start, open your Illustrator and let’s go.

43. Create a trippy Psychedelic Poster

In this tutorial you will see how to make a funny psychedelic poster in Adobe Illustrator.

44. Create a Clean Retro Badge

In this tutorial you will draw a clean retro-looking badge/burst in Adobe Illustrator. These are great for adding to a website, advertisement, etc to help the text stand out.

45. How to Illustrate a Tomato Using Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial you  will use Meshes, Gradients and Blends for drawing a tomato. The skills you will learn here can easily be transferred to creating various objects. So let’s get started!

46. How To Make White Holiday Scene

In this tutorial you will create an entire winter landscape and fill it using numerous techniques, like blended blizzards, sprayed snowflakes, and more. The techniques you will use to create this illustration are fairly basic.

47. How to Create a Beautiful Windmill

Windmills have been around for centuries and although their construction evolved through time the idea remains the same. Let this tutorial be a tribute to those old fashioned windmills that are hardly met these days.

48. Create a Grumpy Troll Character

In this step by step tutorial  you will create a grumpy Internet troll character.  You will start the process with a basic pencil sketch then build up a complete vector character design with linework, color fills and basic shading to create a funny cartoon mascot.

49. Create a Picture Gallery In Gallery

In this tutorial you will see how to use 3D rendering, Blends, Opacity masks for creating this three-dimensional stage with vanishing points.

50. Create a Disco Ball

In this tutorial you will find out the right way for drawing a realistic disco ball.

Preview of Final Results

Download the PSD

samsung-galaxy-s-PSD.zip | 13 MB

Resources

• New York Skyline – Dreamstime
• Watercolor Splatters Photoshop Brushes – Photoshop Tutorials
• Water Background – knightfall-stock

Step 1

Firstly, we must create a new document ( Ctrl + N ). See the following image.

Step 2

To make background more beautiful, double clicks ìBackgroundî layer to change it become ìlayer 0î. Then double clicks it again to add Layer Style.

This is background’s appearance after been added Layer Style.

Step 3

Now, we will make the main body. Create a big rounded rectangle with the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Set the radius to 75px, and then colored it with #252f39.

Step 4

Duplicate it, change the color to white (#ffffff), and then set the opacity to 20%.

Step 5

Create a black part like image below with ìRounded Rectangle Toolî again.

Step 6

Now, create a rounded rectangle again like above but smaller than previously and colored it with white. Set Fill to 15%.

Step 7

Create a black rectangle with the Rectangle Tool, and then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set radius to 20 px.

Step 8

Set the opacity to 40%.

Step 9

Now, we will makes camera and the sensors. Create a small white circle with the Ellipse Tool, then set the opacity to 5%.

Step 10

Afterwards, create a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool at right side and then set the opacity to 5% too.

Step 11

Add white circle upon the rectangle, then set the opacity to 7%.

Step 12

To makes more good looking, add the SAMSUNGís logo.

Step 13

Double clicks its layer, and then add this Layer Style.

Step 14

For the screen, create a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool.

Step 15

Create a new layer, then convert it to Clipping Mask (Ctrl + Alt + G) to the screen layer. Colored it with #686862

Below is the process you need to follow to use Adobe Photoshop to design your own post-it note picture.

The first thing to do is to measure your workspace, whether it’s a wall, ceiling or window and work out how many post-it notes it would take to fill the space by simply dividing the total space by the size of an individual note.

Once this is done, you need to turn on the grid function (select View, Show and check Grid, or pres Control apostrophe) and create a canvas size that matches the dimensions of post-it notes that you need for the collage to the squares in the grid.

The next step is to either sketch out your overall design, or import an image for the design into Photoshop and expand it to fill the canvas size you’ve selected. With Snap To Grid on (select View, Show, Snap To and Grid) use the Eyedropper Tool to select the main colour in the background of each square, then use the Rectangular Marque Tool to select the grid square and use Paint Brush Tool to fill it in. Repeat this process until every square on your canvas is covered.

You’ll notice the 8-bit change in the design pretty quickly and get a feel for any manual changes you might need to make to keep it looking good.

Now that you have your design in place, it’s simply a case of matching the post-it notes on your work surface to the squares on the Photoshop canvas. Before you know it, you’ve finished your first ever post-it note art.

Adding Default Datepicker

Step 1

Create a standard HTML file first.

Step 2

You should link the default datepicker JS and CSS files within the <head> section of your HTML file. You can download these files at the end of this article. Here is the code:

<link rel="stylesheet" typePreview post="text/css" href="demos.css">

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="jquery-ui.css">

<script src="jquery-1.5.1.js"></script>

<script src="jquery.ui.core.js"></script>

<script src="jquery.ui.widget.js"></script>

<script src="jquery.ui.datepicker.js"></script>

You can customize the demo.css file to change the layout and positioning of datepicker. In addition, you can extract the CSS code used in the HTML from it and add it within style tag for integrating the datepicker in your Website. We suggest you not play with the jquery-ui.css file as it is a member of jQuery libraries and Google AJAX APIs.

Step 3

Now, you have to add a container in the body tag to create the datepicker. Following is the code for it:

<div>

<p>Select the date: <input type="text"></p>

</div>

The scripts mentioned in above JS file works automatically and adds the datepicker in the input box created. When a user clicks the box, the datepicker will appear.

Complete Code of default datepicker

<html>

<head>

<title>Default jQuery Datepicker</title>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="demos.css">

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="jquery-ui.css">

<script src="jquery-1.5.1.js"></script>

<script src="jquery.ui.core.js"></script>

<script src="jquery.ui.widget.js"></script>

<script src="jquery.ui.datepicker.js"></script>

<script>

$(function() {

$( "#datepicker" ).datepicker();

});

</script>

</head>

<body>

<div style="width:500px; height:auto; font-size:small;">

<div class="demo">

<p>Select the date: <input type="text"></p>

</div>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Output

Following is a screenshot of the output:

Screenshot of default jQuery datepicker

Date Format Options

In the default jQuery datepicker, the date is displayed in the default format MM/DD/YYYY after selecting any date. jQuery allows you modifying the date format. Let us have a look how to customize the date format for datepicker.

Step 1

Change the default script code with this one:

<script>

$(function() {

$( "#datepicker" ).datepicker();

$( "#format" ).change(function() {

$("#datepicker").datepicker( "option", "dateFormat", $( this ).val() );

});

});

</script>

The jQuery provides following date formats:

1. mm/dd/yy like 06/12/10
2. yy-mm-dd like 10-06-12
3. d M, y like 6 Jun, 10
4. d MM, y like 6 June, 10
5. DD, d MM, yy like Sunday, 6 June, 2010
6. ‘day’ d ‘of’ MM ‘in the year’ yy like day 6 of June in the year 2010

Step 2

Add the follow code in the HTML below the div demo code:

<p>Select the format to display date:

<select>

<option value="mm/dd/yy">Default - mm/dd/yy</option>

<option value="yy-mm-dd">ISO 8601 - yy-mm-dd</option>

<option value="d M, y">Short - d M, y</option>

<option value="d MM, y">Medium - d MM, y</option>

<option value="DD, d MM, yy">Full - DD, d MM, yy</option>

<option value="'day' d 'of' MM 'in the year' yy">With text - 'day' d 'of' MM 'in the ye ar' yy</option>

</select>

</p>

Restricting the Date Range

You can restrict the date ranges on and specify the interval in which one can select the dates. Make use of minDate and maxDate options to set the beginning and end dates of the interval.  For example, if you are using June 6 as current date then minDate = -20D will be 20 days before June 6 and maxDate = +1M 5D will be one month 5days after June 6. The dates will be disabled before minimum date and after maximum date.

You can use following script code and change the minDate & maxDate as per your requirement.

<script>

$(function() {

$("#datepicker").datepicker({minDate: -40, maxDate:"+2M +5D" });

});

</script>

Output

Displaying the Inline Datepicker

Well till now we have worked to display the datepicker only when user clicks textbox. There is no scripting for this as you just have to show the datepicker div without any input box. Following is the HTML code to display inline datepicker:

Select the Date: <div></div>

Datepicker with Drop-down Boxes of Years & Months

To have the drop-down boxes or menus of years and months in a datepicker, you just have to add two Boolean options changeMonth & changeYear and set them to true.

<script>

$(function() {

$( "#datepicker" ).datepicker({

changeMonth: true,

changeYear: true

});

});

</script>

Conclusion

You can easily add a datepicker using the codes mentioned above. The datepicker is not limited to the above features only. You can also add following features to the datepicker:

●      Populating another text field on selecting a date

●      Displaying buttons on the datepicker

●      Showing dates of other months in the current month

●      Showing weeks of the year

●      Displaying multiple months

●      Adding icon trigger to launch datepicker

●      Date Range with two datepickers one for ‘from’ and another for ‘to’

Demo & Download

jQuery Datepicker Demo: Click here

Download the files: demo-jquery-datepicker.zip

The zip file will also have the code of above listed features. Please read the readme.txt for details of the contents of zip file.

Unlike MB6-202 training program, our best 70-441 tests and MB4-212 training courses provide you quick success in first try of 70-506.

Before getting started, be sure to view the demo to see how the ticker works. Here’s what the finished project will look like:

HTML Demo

Tutorial Details

• Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 20-30 minutes

Intro: Preparations

You should create an empty HTML file and save it somewhere convenient now; we’ll be working with it throughout this tutorial. We’ll be working exclusively with client-side code, so there’s no need for a server – you can preview directly on your computer. In the demo files we’ll use inline CSS and JavaScript, but you can externalize these if desired.

Tip: For this type of tutorial, it can be helpful to use jsBin or jsFiddle to follow along. These free online tools let you experiment with HTML, JavaScript and CSS without having to create any files on your computer. Best of all, you can save, version and share your experiments. It’s a great way to perfect a technique without cluttering up your computer with tons of files.

If you’re creating your own HTML file, here’s the code you should have to start:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />

  <title>jQuery News Ticker</title>
  <style type="text/css">
  /* CSS will go here */

  </style>
</head>

<body>

  <!-- Markup will go here -->

  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript">
  // JavaScript will go here

  </script>
</body>
</html>

Note the designated places for markup, CSS and JavaScript. Additionally, note that we have included jQuery 1.6 from Google’s CDN.

Step 1: The HTML Markup

We’ll use a dedicated <div> to hold the ticker. The links will be contained within an unordered list (<ul>). By using an HTML list to define the links, we ensure that the ticker will gracefully degrade for users with JavaScript disabled, and that search engines will still be able to see and follow all of the links. Add the following HTML markup to your page:

<div id="ticker" class="newsTicker">
    <a href="#">Newsroom</a>
    <span class="divider">|</span>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#story1">Story headline 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#story2">Another Story headline 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#story3">Some third story headline</a></li>
        <li><a href="#story4">A final, fourth headline</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

Update the list to contain an <li> for each of the links you want in the ticker. I’ve chosen to put a ‘Newsroom’ link at the start, but that’s up to you.

Step 2: Styling

Now it’s time to make the scroller look nice. In the <style> tag in the <head>, add the following CSS:

#ticker
{
    border: 1px solid #666;
    background: #DDD;
    -webkit-border-radius: 4px;
    -moz-border-radius: 4px;
    border-radius: 4px;
    color: #333;
    font: 13px/16px Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;
    padding: 3px 7px;
    width: 400px;
}
#ticker .divider {
    padding: 0 4px;
}
#ticker a, #ticker a:visited
{
    color: #333;
    text-decoration: none;
}
#ticker a:hover
{
    color: #930;
}

This adds some background and border to the overall ticker, and styles the links. These styles are just to get you started – if you want, you can add some creativity at this point! As we style, keep in mind that the <ul> won’t be present in the rendered HTML – it will be replaced with a single link that changes. That’s why there are only link styles and no list-related styling.

Step 3: Making It Work

Now we’re ready to add the jQuery-enhanced JavaScript to make the ticker actually work. I’ll show you the overall chunk first, then break down what each portion is doing.

Add the following chunk of JavaScript to the <script> tag at the bottom of the page:

$(function()
{
    $('#ticker').each(function()
    {
        var ticker = $(this);
        var fader = $('<span class="fader">&nbsp;</span>').css({display:'inline-block'});
        var links = ticker.find('ul>li>a');
        ticker.find('ul').replaceWith(fader);

        var counter = 0;
        var curLink;
        var fadeSpeed = 600;
        var showLink = function()
            {
                var newLinkIndex = (counter++) % links.length;
                var newLink = $(links[newLinkIndex]);
                var fadeInFunction = function()
                    {
                        curLink = newLink;
                        fader.append(curLink).fadeIn(fadeSpeed);
                    };
                if (curLink)
                {
                    fader.fadeOut(fadeSpeed, function(){
                        curLink.remove();
                        setTimeout(fadeInFunction, 0);
                    });
                }
                else
                {
                    fadeInFunction();
                }
            };

        var speed = 5500;
        var autoInterval;

        var startTimer = function()
        {
            autoInterval = setInterval(showLink, speed);
        };
        ticker.hover(function(){
            clearInterval(autoInterval);
        }, startTimer);

        fader.fadeOut(0, function(){
            fader.text('');
            showLink();
        });
        startTimer();

    });
});

If you preview now, you should see a working ticker that cycles through all of your links. If you hover over the ticker, it will pause; if you move your mouse away again, it will restart. Now, let’s break down what all of that code is doing.

Breaking Down the JavaScript – Overview

In plain English, here’s what the JavaScript is doing:

• Everything is wrapped in a document-ready trigger, so it will be called once the document is ready for manipulation
• We locate the news ticker
• We create an array that references the links, then replace the unordered list element in the document with a holder span. That holder will be used for displaying the current link.
• We define a function that transitions from one link to the next
• We create a timer, and set it to automatically pause when the user hovers over the ticker
• We show the first link and start running the timer

Breaking Down the JavaScript – Details

Now, lets take an in-depth look at what each of these pieces of code is doing.

Note that we use the #ticker selector to locate the ticker. If you had multiple tickers in your page, you could change this to div.newsTicker instead, since we applied a class of newsTicker to our ticker.

Chunk 1 – Finding the content, Preparing the document

var ticker = $(this);
var fader = $('<span class="fader">&nbsp;</span>').css({display:'inline-block'});
var links = ticker.find('ul>li>a');
ticker.find('ul').replaceWith(fader);

In this first chunk, we create a jQuery reference

to the current ticker. Then, we create a new <span> that will be used to hold the current link. The fader class is applied, to enable styling if desired. Note that we set the display property of the span to inline-block. This is important to enable fading of the text in Internet Explorer. Without some annoyingly-complex trickery (treating the text as a block-level element to be precise), IE fails to fade the text. Next, we create a jQuery list that references all of the link elements that were defined in the markup, so we can use them later on. Having created this list, we destroy the unordered list, replacing it with the fader span.

Chunk 2 – Creating the "Show me a new link" function

var counter = 0;
var curLink;
var fadeSpeed = 600;
var showLink = function()
    {
        var newLinkIndex = (counter++) % links.length;
        var newLink = $(links[newLinkIndex]);
        var fadeInFunction = function()
            {
                curLink = newLink;
                fader.append(curLink).fadeIn(fadeSpeed);
            };
        if (curLink)
        {
            fader.fadeOut(fadeSpeed, function(){
                curLink.remove();
                setTimeout(fadeInFunction, 0);
            });
        }
        else
        {
            fadeInFunction();
        }
    };

In this next major chunk, we define the method that will fade the link in and out. A counter keeps track of which link we’re on. The fadeSpeed variable specifies how fast the fade effect should be. By default, we use 600 milliseconds (0.6 seconds). Next, we define the function that will swap out the links. In this function we increment the counter and select the next link in the earlier-created list, automatically cycling back to the first by using the modulus operator (%). Then we define a temporary function that updates the reference to the current link, adds it to the fader span, then fades it in. Note that we fade the fader, not the link itself; this is part of the trickery to make the fading work properly in IE. Finally, we check to see if a link already is being displayed. If so, we first fade out the fader and remove that link upon effect completion. Then, after a microscopic delay to avoid item reference problems, we call the method to display the new link. On the other hand, if no link exists, we just display the new link directly.

Chunk 3 – Configuring Automatic progression, Starting it up

var speed = 5500;
var autoInterval;

var startTimer = function()
{
    autoInterval = setInterval(showLink, speed);
};
ticker.hover(function(){
    clearInterval(autoInterval);
}, startTimer);

fader.fadeOut(0, function(){
    fader.text('');
    showLink();
});
startTimer();

In the final chunk, we start things running. The speed variable defines (again, in milliseconds) how long each link should be visible when the ticker is automatically progressing. By default, we use 5500 (5.5 seconds). We define a startTimer method that creates an interval to call the earlier-defined showLink method every few seconds. Next, we add the listener that will automatically pause and restart the ticker when the user hovers over and leaves it. Then, to start the initial display, we instantly fade out the fader, empty its existing contents (a space character that’s required to force it to fade), and use showLink to fade in the first link. Finally, we start the timer.

Summary

You’ve now created a simple, compact news ticker to display newsworthy links on your site. The ticker functions properly in all browsers (including IE!) and automatically pauses when hovered-over, to ensure a good user experience. To enhance the ticker, you could use a server-side script (like PHP) to dynamically output the links. There are many possibilities! Moreover, you’ve learned about how jQuery’s document manipulation and effect tools can be leveraged to create nifty, useful widgets for your page. Have fun with your new knowledge!