Velochicdunord wrote:
I've just tossed up a personal professional site that is partially
composed using CSS principles, and partly composed using HTML. (
It's all done with both, not half with one and half with the other.
They're complementary, not alternatives.
Find a copy of "Head First HTML & CSS" and learn some decent coding
style, or else hang around this ng and ciwah
First of all, keep the page simple and always completely valid (start
from scratch and add stuff as you go).
Use a validator and learn to understand what it's telling you. I
suggest the recent 0.8.3.4 HTML Validator for Firefox, just for its
convenience. Otherwise the W3C online one.
Ditch the XHTML You're not doing XHTML, you're doing XHTML Appendix C.
Pure XHTML isn't usable or advisable either. As the actual markup is
far from being XHTML anyway, then switch to HTML 4.01 Strict
Use Strict, not Transitional.
Ditch the <table>s and ditch them now. Easier to never have them than
to have to get rid of them later.
Don't set font sizes in pixels or points. This is the web, not rigid
paper.
Don't boilerplate in bogus font selctions like this
font-family: arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif;
Just use font-family: sans-serif; alone
Learn what semantic HTML and the class attribute is about. If your CSS
looks like a phone directory of repeated settings, then that's a hint
that you're doing things the hard way.
Use some meta tags. Opinion varies, but IMHO it's worth using them just
for your own production notes if nothing else.
Abstract isn't widely recognised and you've used it as a keywords list
anyway.
<meta name="abstract" ... />
Don't duplicate <meta>s
<meta name="abstract" ... />
And don't use this one, set the HTTP header instead
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
However, I can't seem to figure out how to
do the equivalent using CSS.
Stick the blocks of content into <div>s, then worry about the layout
later. Web search "three column layout" and you'll find any number of
articles on placing them. Although blocks of content are even simpler
than sidebar menus. Start with glish.com and brainjar.com
The "sliding windows" approach will improve your nav bar.
incorporate rules for consistency of appearance between my print and
pdf promotional materials,
Then you might want to look into XSL:FO, maybe even Apache Forrest,
although it's far from a simple amount of tech.
Any pointers?
Keep reading the group.