need the text to go away when clicked

[Scriptage]

Indeed. Another thing to point out is that adding these event handlers needs to be done after the page has loaded which means that the functionality is only available when all of the elements on the page have loaded (don't forget that you could have advertisements on the page linked to external servers which can affect the onload status of the page), whereas, inline statements are available as soon as the element is rendered; making inline statements more efficient.

[LeadMagnet]

don't forget that you could have advertisements on the page linked to external servers which can affect the onload status of the page

Yeah that's a big one against other methods. Wouldn't consider using anything but inline if i had ads in the site.
If you're using a server-side script, you can also have it add the inline onclick events where they're needed, which is a way to separate it from the markup. Although it's probably mostly unnecessary.

[hmbl programmer]

Are seriously suggesting that the onclick event has been deprecated.

Yes. Much better to use JavaScript to observe events after page loads. onclick="" is deprecated. EDIT: I recant that; it's my personal preference that it's better to observe events after the page has loaded. An example (uses fastInit and prototype):

<script type="text/javascript">
var someFunction = function(e)
{
     doSomething();
     e.stop();
}

FastInit.addOnLoad(function(){
     $('someLink').observe(someFunction.bindAsEventListener({});
});
</script>

<a href="/javascript_required.html" id="someLink">This link does something...</a>

--
Joshua Gitlin
Website Developer
Welcome To Site Palette - sitepalette.com

[Scriptage]

For the love of God don't use Javascript frameworks; and no onclick is not deprecated, see my earlier posts.

[Arkady]

onclick="" is deprecated.

There it is again. Would you like to share with us the relevant W3C documents or RFC's that support this. I have trawled the W3C and cannot find any such reference.

[hmbl programmer]

For the love of God don't use Javascript frameworks

Why do you feel that way?

[hmbl programmer]

There it is again. Would you like to share with us the relevant W3C documents or RFC's that support this. I have trawled the W3C and cannot find any such reference.

You may be right. Probably the word "discouraged" would be more appropriate than "deprecated", reason being the separation of presentation and content. I'll try to find a specific W3C document to back me up here.

[Scriptage]

Why do you feel that way?

Why have code for AJAX on the page when you don't use it? The most compressed version of jQuery is 15k; that's a lot of superfluous code. When somebody else does the coding you lose control of memory management, which is bad. It's just a sucky way to program.

[Arkady]

Probably the word "discouraged" would be more appropriate than "deprecated"

I'm sorry; discouraged by whom exactly?

[jameson]

At the risk of repeating myself:

Rule #1 - jQuery and JavaScript Coding: Examples and Best Practices | How-To | Smashing Magazine

Really, there's nothing wrong with using onClick in the instance this thread was originally about. The original poster ended up going that route, and that's just fine for a quick fix on a temporary website.

It is the opinion of many, however, (myself included) that the most logical way to design a website is by separating markup (HTML), presentation (CSS), and behavior (JavaScript). Of course, it's just an opinion - I also think it's crazy to split CSS files into typography, layout, etc., but some think that's a good idea.

The bottom line is this: Use the best solution for each problem.