Let your client think you’re smarter than the previous designer. Let her watch as the nested tables that delivered the previous design unravel when she adds “too much text” to the page. Let her try the same thing on the old design. Let your client update the content in real time and see that the design, with all its nuances, remains intact. Show your client the old and new designs over dialup. With fewer table cells for the browser to parse, fewer bytes of markup for the server to cough up, and fewer meaningless spacer and border gifs for the user to download, the new design loads far faster than the old one, even though it looks more sophisticated. One layout that would ordinarily require 22 table cells gets by with six CSS handles the rest of the formatting. We’re working on three sites that combine traditional techniques with current methods. Don’t say: “Web standards did this.” Do say: “We’ve set up a system that will automatically format the page whenever you update it.” Let the client think you’re smart and give you more business. No need to worry that the client will accidentally hose the design post-delivery and blame you. No need for the client to cut and paste tricky, table-driven image alignments (if she doesn’t). No need to over-complicate the client’s existing content management system (if she has one). Show your client that when she updates the page, your style sheet will automatically insert the appropriate image in front of each new list item. Use CSS list properties to automatically insert the image. Take a comp you’ve designed in which a small, branded graphic precedes every item on a list. When your client changes the architecture a week before the launch, you’ll edit a text file in minutes instead of spending hours in Photoshop. Show them Rollovers that work on ASCII text - no JavaScript or menu gifs needed. Show a fellow designer how CSS frees you from the need to create and mark up images merely to create a border. Readers continually ask: “How can I sell standards to my client/boss/co-workers?” Here’s a thought: Don’t sell. The person who updates the content was so amazed at how easy it is to 1) update the content, and 2) change the way it looks with CSS, that now I’m helping him create an RFP to have me re-do. I edited the page dedicated to a local high school outreach program, and re-built it using XHTML and CSS. writes: “‘ Show, don’t sell’ is getting me a gig redoing a rather large local Rotary Club site. While you’re there, check out DOM-Drag, a chunk of open source code that helps you program “DHTML” interfaces with draggable elements.Īt, W3C members fail test (again) and AOL switches Mac users to Mozilla, a possible portent. Said menus can be viewed in any browser (including a text browser) and the CSS and markup validate. Geek Soup: At DHTML Central, a tutorial by Thomas Brattli tells how to build “dynamic” menus using XHTML, CSS, and the DOM. Some readers who attended the Seybold conference have asked to see the Super Secret Style Guide for the Charlotte Gray website. It’s the 1.1 version that seems to have gone off its meds.) The WaSP’s Report Browser Bugs tells how to let browser makers know about flaws in their software. Bug reports are great, but only if they’re sent to the right people. We’ve been getting bug reports aplenty from people who use Mozilla 1.1 to visit, ALA, and our other sites. Imagine scripting behaviors that work the same way in all major browsers. Our fingers are crossed that the new Opera browser will provide standard DOM support comparable to that of IE5/6, Mozilla, and Netscape 6/7. The DOM-compliant Opera 7 browser mentioned last week may be closer to release: Opera Software has published a preliminary Opera 7 news page. If you’re at work and don’t want to be logged as having attempted to visit an adult site, avoid the link. WARNING: Tyler’s Room contains content unsuitable for children and may be blocked as an “adult site” by gateway software installed on your computer or your office network. Tyler’s Room (“Where the Boys Are!”) smells a lot like Glassdog, Lance Arthur’s long-running personal site. Pirated Sites, recently added to our Affiliates bar, may have a new crime to punish. Good thinking: xBlog, “the visual thinking weblog” (and one of our favorite web design resources) is now laid out in CSS2, and marked up in XHTML 1. The creator of the winning design will receive Curt Cloninger’s Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground. Bon voyage! :::Ĭatscape’s Design Project: Currency asks you to design money for the fictional nation of Zambonia. CSS: The heartbreak of small ems (17 May)įlash Player 6 & broken detection scripts (14 May)Ĭlickable “Essentials” feature requires DOM–compliant browser.Īfter a brief visit, Zeldman’s dad and bride Catherine have sailed out of New York Harbor on their honeymoon cruise.
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