DHTML question:  Can anyone tell me a browser-independent method of finding out where on screen a particular HTML element is?

What I'm trying to do is this:

I have a hidden <DIV> that I want to contain some context sensitive information.  This information is related to other on-screen elements.  When a user moves their mouse over certain hotspot areas I want to make the DIV visible and move it next to the hotspot.

For the life of me though, I can't figure out how to go from Element-ID to onscreen location.

Any help would be much appreciated.

As a small demonstration that progress towards liveTopics version 1.1 is being made I've just put up a screenshot of the new status & configuration screen.

This is a radical overhaul of the interface both in the current release 1.06 and that I initially developed for 1.1.  I've put everything on a single screen and tried to make it as simple as possible.

Everything got a lot more complicated when I started to have per-category preferences and, rather than continue with the grotty hack I had in place (which was proving incredibly hard to document, and wouldn't have worked properly) I decided to start with a clean slate.

All feedback is welcome.

Make your stand now

Paul Makepeace at Ecademy:

Take a stand on UK ID cards [Paul Makepeace]. Once again the UK govt is trying to foist a national ID system on the Brits. Stand.org.uk has prepared a piece to enable people to review the govt docs, and send an email to Those In Charge. There isn't a lot of time left. If you're going to do this, do it now. It's worth noting that this kind of protest killed off the RIP bill, so it works. It's very easy - read the page -- lively, short and entertainingly informative -- then click on the relevant checkboxes in Step 1, edit the form they present, and then off it goes. You must edit the box as it contains instructions that would look particularly stupid if sent. Here's what I hastily threw together, Dear Sir/Madam, I was dismayed recently to learn about the Government's proposals for Entitlement Cards (aka ID cards). [Ecademy: user blogs]

Is restriction of liberty hardwired into politicians?

[Dangerous thinking]

Here we go again.

Part of the problem is that MP's are, by and large, horribly ill-informed about IT issues.  Couple this with a need to be seen to be doing something and you have a nasty situation where any loud voice is likely to receive widespread support.

My own MP gets most of her information from the Home Office.  She's a Labour MP so I guess she feels she can trust them.  This is bad.  Of course my own guilty secret is that I was supposed to be sending them information about where they kind find other opinions about RIP.  I could have thrown in some stuff about identity cards too.  I still should.

In the meantime it's off to the Stand.