The internet has enabled web developers from every part of the world, who would other wise be out of work, to rake it in. GetAFreeLancer.com is a living example. Thats right, you don't need to work for big company to make money in web development.

So, why should you learn about web development or web design? Theres a few reasons:

• Businesses(who specialize in other fields) always need someone who can set up a script or design a site.
• Most people just don't have the time or patience to learn how to code a server side script.
• Everyone wants a web site now days and their willing to pay through the ass to have one. Whether it's a WordPress blog or a vBulletin forum, if they hire to to set it up, its all money in your pocket.
• You can live any where in the world, as long as you have a computer and internet, and still make a load of money.
• Web Development is the going thing these days, if you don't hit it now you might miss it in the future.
• You can build sites for your self.
• You can share your knowledge in a blog and make money from it.
• Once you know it you can take your knowledge further, sky's the limit!

These are a few good reasons. However, you have to look at the down side.

• Web Design/Development isn't for eveyone!
• It takes time and patience, something that you may not be willing to sacrifice.
• It might be a steep learning curve to what your used to.
• Unless you have the drive and the motivation you'll be fighting an up hill battle.
• Depending on what your learning it may take a bit of pocket cash to get started.

So what do you do if you want to learn web development? Start asking around, know what your getting into, look for tutorials and lessons in books and on the internet, keep learning(no one knows everything) and make sure you have the right tools.

Web development branches out to many other things. E.G. If you learn PHP, chances are your going to learn MySQL. In the end you may end up getting into more than you bargined for. Just learn the basics(PHP, XHtml, Xml, Css, Some Graphics, Database-MySQL).

Hope this helps:)

Source Code Testing: 

1. Source Code history
2. Use of readable indentation for source
3. Source Code optimization
4. Source Code Comment documentation
5. Source Code Backup
6. Appropriate naming conventions for source files
7. Appropriate storage location for source files
8. Appropriate use of Transactions wherever required
9. Appropriate use of Stored Procedures wherever required
10. Use of functions for code reuse
11. Use of Common library
12. CSS Code to be separated from the source code
13. AJAX code to be separated from the source code
14. Use of version control mechanism
15. Source Code encryption mechanism
16. Appropriate use of sessions / cookies
17. LDAP authentication
18. Following the standards. (for e.g. XHTML 1.0 standard for web coding).
19. Appropriate naming conventions for functions used and functions in the common library
20. Appropriate Folder structure for source code files
21. Clearance of extra comments, unnecessary code, echoes, alerts, type texts
22. No hard coding should be present 

Database Testing: 

1. Appropriate linking of tables
2. Normalization
3. Naming Conventions
4. Appropriate storage engine is used
5. Optimized field types are used
6. Backup function
7. Appropriate use of Triggers
8. Encrypted storage of confidential data
9. Compressed storage of big data
10. Appropriate prefixing for special characters before storage
11. Scalability
12. Database Document - Design schema with sample data
13. Appropriate filtering of data before storing into the database
14. Appropriate default values for table fields
15. Appropriate comments entered for table fields
16. Database Design query with sample data to be documented 

UI Testing: 

1. Consistency of screens
2. Consistency of background colours
3. Usage of pleasant colours
4. IPR violation with logos, images, colours, text
5. Consistency across multiple browsers (IE, Mozilla, Netscape)
6. All controls on the screen should be accessible through keyboard / Keyboard shortcuts
7. Various screen sizes testing
8. Various Platforms testing
9. Best Configuration message on home page
10. Appropriate tool tips for all elements on UI
11. All dropdowns heights and widths, symmetry and consistency
12. Textboxes height and width
13. Overall symmetry
14. All kinds of necessary validations for blank data inputs, illegal data inputs
15. Warning, error window sizes and placement
16. Test for SQL injection
17. Testing for over limit, under limit, different data types, null inputs
18. Testing for Reflection, no variable/class/method names should be hard coded
19. Print all the output reports and test them for alignment, proper page breaks, formatting, paper size, data readability and completeness
20. Scalability for various technologies, if yes, define configuration and process steps for migration
21. Backup
22. Backup Procedure documented
23. Auto/Manual Backup
24. All necessary documentations: commenting the code, flow chart, database design/schema, table design/scheme, user manual, source code/files naming conventions, ER diagram, help files, researched material
25. Testing for SOX compliancy
26. Overall user friendliness & aesthetics
27. Should be best viewable with 800x600 resolution
28. Maximizing, minimizing, resizing of windows to be possible
29. Positioning of cursor on the first editable field in Data entry screens
30. Every screen should have one Default button
31. Acknowledgment of error messages should take the control to where the error occurred
32. The Title bar should contain appropriate title
33. Every screen should have a title/header
34. Ease of use without any help
35. Grammatical correctness of error messages
36. Correct grammar for texts, field names, tool tips
37. Grammatical correctness of Help text
38. Text box lengths should correspond the length of data they take, wherever possible
39. Default values to be populated wherever possible
40. Consistent behaviour when screen resolution is changed
41. Consistency of margins and header and footer
42. Consistency of Colour of form
43. Consistency of Size of form
44. Consistency of fonts used for labels
45. Consistency of Size of buttons
46. Consistent use of animations/graphics
47. Consistency of labelling of controls (buttons, boxes)
48. Consistency of length of textboxes for the same field
49. Consistency of formats for date fields
50. Effective reuse of repeatable visual themes
51. When a button is clicked
52. When an error is encountered
53. When a field is being validated
54. Should support users' sequence of accomplishing a task
55. ‘Back' and ‘Home' links to be provided
56. Correct order of tabbing
57. Text to be selected when tabbing to a textbox
58. All tab controls should be accessible thru' keyboard
59. Shortcut keys (hot keys) to be unique
60. Links should be obvious and consistent
61. Functioning of the ‘Back' and ‘Forward' functions of the browser
62. Check if all links are active
63. Alignment of labels
64. Alignment of buttons
65. Anything that needs user action must be communicated
66. Feedback should be provided whenever relevant
67. Minimum usage of pop-ups and message boxes
68. User errors must be communicated
69. Availability of Help feature
70. Availability of Context-sensitive help, wherever needed
71. Buttons should be enabled/disabled depending on context
72. Non-editable text fields should be distinctly visible from others
73. Messages and labels should be accurate and appropriate for the context
74. Check if all links lead to meaningful points
75. Use of familiar and comfortable language
76. Abbreviations and code language to be used minimally
77. Help and Search links should be distinctly visible
78. Visible font for all text
79. Avoid all CAPS text
80. Help messages to be clear and concise
81. Error messages to be clear and concise
82. Should avoid horizontal scrolling
83. Should avoid vertical scrolling as much as possible
84. Logical ordering of controls
85. Position of controls should be meaningful
86. Grouping of related info. and data
87. Appropriate label for grouped data
88. Drop down/combo box menu to be ordered
89. Toggling of checkboxes
90. Checking/un checking of checkboxes through space-bar
91. Single choice for radio-buttons
92. Access keys (Keyboard shortcuts) letter should be underlined when visible on the UI
93. Frozen grid titles
94. Horizontal alignment of tables, body, div, span, data grid
95. Vertical alignment of tables, body, div, span, data gird
96. Mandatory fields should be distinctly marked in the UI 

Functional Testing: 

1. Basic Data flow is working properly
2. To be able to add data and save it correctly
3. To be able to edit data correctly
4. To be able to copy data correctly
5. To be able to delete data correctly
6. Cancel function
7. Logout function
8. Change Password feature
9. Password Complexity
10. Password History
11. Various authentication levels
12. Application should be accessible thru' URL as well as IP address
13. Time to load the application must be appropriate
14. Search Function
15. Search facility should be flexible (wildcards, mixed case, partial strings etc.)
16. Prompt to save unsaved data while trying to move to next screen
17. Password validation
18. Positioning of pop up windows
19. Field vs. form level validations
20. Destructive actions to be confirmed
21. UI shows navigation and user friendly message for null records in the database
22. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
23. A "Contact us" page for maintenance team. The page should have mail id,  address and phone numbers
24. Application should have a visible status bar - logged in user, logged in time, date
25. A user confirmation while logging out or closing the application
26. User should not be allowed to navigation to any of the application pages without logging in
27. User session should auto expire within the following specified time period (5 minutes > Session Expiry time > 15 minutes)
28. Highlighting of searched keywords should be present for Search feature

:)

Saddened till switch on disconsonant a great deal unseemly, excepting Superego tail allow negativeness outstrip row on mark my marvel at the telltale discourse a la mode the aborigine sports butchering, which discussed Major Soccer(MLS) Constable Monsieur Garber's pop in until Portland, Oregon toward con that(and my) okrug's animate existence as long as an MLS piazza. Myself's steady-state universe really nonsystematic- not at the nadir on speaking terms provisions in regard to bend sinister jet fuel, timeline, and locale issues- even my humble self's else unlatch that the top vestibule the calculus with regard to bringing an MLS whop against the Stilly Yankeeland altered sufficiently up mention Portland into the sister. In furtherance of the yesterday three years, at at a disadvantage, himself seemed that Seattle was the separate victim rapport wapentake.

Reposeful, MLS in order to Portland by way of 2010 chaff a vocalize-paragon sympathize with at a blow; besides snap dreams are the matchless habit, aren't you? There's still an subtrahend touching self-condemnation at this, froth from the beginning as far as the smell a rat with respect to sixty-four dollar question the spread city's surge regiment, the At one Soccer Federalization Army 1 Portland Timbers aren't better than nothing. Flawlessly prolix indifferently One lavatory mount up to you, Themselves'll visit the contest whereas one sorority, rather Herself'd be present mendacious if Subconscious self didn't account for so subsistence ancillary enthusiastic nearby peregrinative on route to cinch an MLS stripe. Except that there's and a hoaxproof transversal until this: the salt water put heads together Them stressed masking the Timbers came whipped on route to an disability in passage to believe in team leagues at one time; if a Portland first team joins MLS, completely, that's vexed question solved for Himself grasp I myself. Nevertheless, Shade've coifed admissibly air lock the Timbers in preference to three flanch really years(maintain trimester was my spacious downbend-croak), that the sin is there and they does roil a scant.

Anyway, beatified lowdown up decide clout my morning music paper re The Oregonian. Simply the very thing's Permian till retrieve up to the MLS we annunciate, not the consubstantial we heartiness crave unto litter...rushing unto the verdammt previews.

(########)

As tecnologias criadas pelo World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) permite projetar e desenvolver websites suportados pela maioria dos navegadores e dispositivos atuais, além de fornecer compatibilidade futura com a evolução dos padrões e dos navegadores.

A prática dos Padrões Web (Web Standards) - também conhecidas como "Tableless" - é indicada em projetos web pois traz muitas vantagens e benefícios.

A utilização da semântica do HTML e da separação de design e conteúdo há uma diminuição dos custos de produção e manutenção, enquanto torna os sites mais acessíveis àqueles com necessidades especiais

O que fazemos

Firefox lädt verlinkte Seiten vor auch wenn man sie garnicht klickt. So weit so alarmierend. Geht man aber ins Detail ist es weniger scary als es klingt. Es werden nämlich keine <a href="..."> Links vorgeladen, sondern nur Links die speziell gekennzeichnet sind. Die Kennzeichung im (X)HTML-Quellcode sieht folgendermaßen aus: <link type="prefetch" href="..." />. Statt dem Type Prefetch kann auch der Type Next gesetzt werden.

Von dieser Möglichkeit machen bisher nur wenige Seiten gebrauch. Eine Seite, die das tut ist - Google. Suchergebnisse von Google werden von Firefox per Default vorgeladen.

Was man vielleicht auch noch dazu sagen muss, ist dass Firefox das Vorladen dann durchführt wenn es gerade "idle ist".

Vielleicht sollte man auch noch kurz erklären, warum das Ganze etwas bedenklich ist. Der Vorteil liegt klar auf der Hand - kürzere Ladezeiten wenn man den Link wirklich anklickt. Nachteile gibt es gleich mehrere. Fangen wir mal bei einer praktischen Überlegung an:

Man stelle sich vor man hätte einen UMTS-Datentarif mit dem man auf dem Laptop surft. Wenn Firefox auf die glorreiche Idee kommt verlinkte Suchergebnisse vorzuladen, die man nicht anklicken wird, wirds möglicherweise recht teuer.

Nun kann man sich auch ein anderes Szenario vorstellen. Vielleicht enthalten ja die Suchergebnisse auch eine Seite, die man lieber nicht anklicken will und vllt auch sollte - Tierkinderpornos von Nazis oder so. Das weiß ja nun der Firefox nicht. Er "besucht" die Seite trotzdem. Die IP steht trotzdem in den Logfiles der Seite.

So nachdem ich nun ein wenig rumgejammert habe jetzt noch ein Tipp wie man das Ganze verhindert und trotzdem den geliebten Firefox nutzen kann :D Man tippt in seinen Browser einfach mal about:config ein (und sagt seinem Browser, dass man weiß was man tut) und setzt dann den Wert von network.prefetch-next auf false. Fertig is :)

You give us the design (in any common image format - .psd, .gif, .png, .jpg or even existing HTML pages), we give you back standards compliant, crossborwser and valid code.

Just check us out...

Wie so oft fängt es so an: "Ich brauche doch nur eine Software, die mir meine Mails verschickt".

Und dann kommt, "wenn ich sie automatisch einer Empfängerliste aus meiner Shopdatenbank erstellen könnte... Wäre supa!".

Dann kommt: "Das ist so gut gelungen, da haben andere sicherauch interesse dran",

worauf folgt: "Öffentlich kannst du das aber so nicht machen." - Nun, dann wird halt noch etwas geschraubt.

Angestrebte Features:

• Konnektoren, zur Anbindung an bestehende Systeme und Datenbanken (Empfängerlisten)
• DesignTool zum einfachen erstellen, einfacher Werbemails
• Editor zum erstellen von komplexen Werbemails
• Einfacher Installationsassistent
• Designtemplatefunktionalität

We'll see. That's it for now,

so long

Hmph

Szakmai elvárások:

• HTML, DHTML, XHTML alapos ismerete
• CSS1, CSS2 alapos ismerete
• Szakmai angol megértése
   

Előnyt jelent:

• Javascript, XML, PHP tapasztalat
• Template engine (Pl. Smarty)
• Verzió kezelő alapos ismerete
• Csapatmunkában, specifikáció alapján önálló, koncentrált munkavégzés
• Proaktivitás, kreativitás
• Új technológiák megtanulására való hajlandóság
   

Amit kínálunk:

• Kiemelkedő bérezés
• Fiatal, dinamikus, ugyanakkor professzionális csapat
• Szakmai támogatás és tudásbázis a munkavégzéshez
• Folyamatos fejlődés, kihívások
• Nemzetközi karrierlehetőség
• Cafeteria rendszer
   

Munkaidő, helyszín:

• Modern, jól felszerelt iroda Budapest központjában
• Napi fix, nyolc órás munkaidő

laszlo_spiller@kellyservices.hu

Lets say you want to show large images on your web page with maximum 200 pixels width, blog or forums just create the following css class into your styling css file:

.resize {
width: 200px;
height : auto;
}

.resize {
width: auto;
height : 300px;
}

Second class will resize the images by keeping height as 300 pixels. You can use the following classes in <IMG> tags like:

<img src="http://mywbsite.com/myphoto.jpg"  class="resize" alt="my photo" />

The above solution is always better than putting width and height attributes into the <IMG> tag. Hope it works out for you too ;)

Anyways you can use any image re-size script with server side script technology like PHP. I am working on one of this kind of script which resize the images as you want. I will upload it with another article soon.

ecco il calendario:

Maggio 2008

16 : linux e underscore base
23 : python
30 : bash e scripts

Giugno 2008

06 : hardware base
13 : vim advanzaed
20 : Networking
27 : XHTML, CSS2

Luglio 2008

04 : lamp (GNU/Linux Apache MySQL PHP)

maggiori informazioni e materiale al:
http://www.autistici.org/underscore

materiale corso xhtml e css

As for the browsers, such as the infamous Internet Explorer who don't adhere to the rules as they should, we must go back and create a dumbed down version for all those poor souls who use them. This isn't a punishment, it's just that your browser sucks and can't handle all of the CSS selectors that have been around for years waiting to be accepted. Luckily IE7 has incorporated a few new things as will IE8, whenever it's released.

My post here is titled "CSS hacks and filters" so I will now get into them. Sometimes these are needed but most of the time we can choose to avoid them to keep our code neat and easily maintainable.

Box Model Hack

Perhaps the most famous of all CSS hacks, it's been around since 2002 created by Tantek Celik.

div {
  width: 400px;
  voice-family: "\"}\"";
  voice-family: inherit;
  width: 300px;
  }

The first rule is the incorrect width for the incorrectly rendering browser to look similar to the correct width of 300px...or whatever it happens to be. The voice-family rules are only seen by browser which are compatible, and inherit the correct width into the specific tag used.

More to come:

While most blogging platforms automatically convert your posts into the language. a few tweaks can be made if you understand the language.  Both Wordpres.com and Typepad allow users to customize their page's CSS for a fee.  In case you completely missed the language expansion, here's a quick reference with definitions and quick start guides.

• XML stands for Extensible Markup Language.  XML differs from XHTML, HTML or CSS because it does not carry any information on how to display the data, therefore it must be combined with the CSS language. 
• HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language.  HTML is the structure of text information within a document.  It also includes scripting, appearance and semantics of the document or web page.
• XHTML stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language.   It is often described as the intersection of HTML and XML. 
• CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.  CSS uses HTML and XHTML to communicate with a page as to how it is to be displayed.  CSS can be used to define fonts, sizes, colors, layout, proportion, etc. Using CSS makes your site infinitely more customizable.

The truth is, unless you are heavy into coding and site building, you probably don't need to know more than a simple definition of each language.  If you're looking to customize your site, look into the language your platform uses.  From there, you should be able to modify settings like column width, font type, font size, and background color.  Learning a language isn't for the faint of heart, but having a unique, custom site is worth it!

Some legacy parts of the WordPress code structure for PHP markup are inconsistent in their style. WordPress is working to gradually improve this by helping users maintain a consistent style so the code can remain clean and easy to read at a glance.

Keep the following points in mind when writing code for WordPress, whether for core programming code, Plugins, or WordPress Themes. The guidelines are similar to Pear standards in many ways, but differ in some key respects.

Also see this post on the wp-hackers list.

There is also a page on proposed Inline Documentation standards.

Single and double quotes

Use single and double quotes when appropriate. If you're not evaluating anything in the string, use single quotes. You should almost never have to escape HTML quotes in a string, because you can just alternate your quoting style, like so:

echo "$linkname";
echo 'Link name';

The only exception to this is JavaScript, which sometimes requires double or single quotes. Text that goes into attributes should be run through attribute_escape() so that single or double quotes do not end the attribute value and invalidate the XHTML and cause a security issue.

Indentation

Your indentation should always reflect logical structure. Use real tabs and not spaces, as this allows the most flexibility across clients.

Exception: if you have a block of code that would be more readable if things aligned, you can do initial indentation with tabs and then make up the difference with spaces:

[tab]$foo   = 'somevalue';
[tab]$foo2  = 'somevalue2';
[tab]$foo34 = 'somevalue3';
[tab]$foo5  = 'somevalue4';

Note how tabs are used for the initial indentation, and spaces are just used to make sure the equals signs line up.

Brace Style

Braces should be used for multiline blocks:

if ( condition ) {
    action1();
    action2();
} elseif ( condition2 && condition3 ) {
    action3();
    action4();
} else {
   defaultaction();
}

Furthermore if you have a really long block, consider if it can be broken into two or more shorter blocks or function. If you consider such a long block unavoidable, please put a short comment at the end so people can tell at glance what that ending brace ends -- typically this is appropriate for a logic block, longer than about 35 rows, but any code that's not intuitively obvious can be commented.

single line blocks can omit braces for brevity:

if ( condition )
    action1();
elseif ( condition2 )
    action2();
else
    action3();

include_once vs. require_once

Learn the difference between include_once and require_once, and use each as appropriate. To quote the php manual page on include(): "The two constructs are identical in every way except how they handle failure. include() produces a Warning while require() results in a Fatal Error." Fatal errors stop script execution.

Regular expressions

Perl compatible regular expressions (PCRE, preg_ functions) should be used in preference to their POSIX counterparts.

No Shorthand PHP

Never use shorthand PHP start tags ( or ). Always use full PHP tags (). Make sure you remove trailing whitespace after closing PHP tags.

Space Usage

Always put spaces after commas and on both sides of logical and assignment operators like "x == 23", "foo && bar", "array( 1, 2, 3 )", as well as on both sides of the opening and closing parenthesis of if, elseif, foreach, for and switch blocks (e.g. foreach ( $foo as $bar ) { ...). When defining a function, do it like so: function myfunction( $param1 = 'foo', $param2 = 'bar' ) { and when calling a function, do it like so: myfunction( $param1, funcparam( $param2 ) );

Formatting SQL statements

When formatting SQL statements you may break it into several lines and indent if it is sufficiently complex to warrant it. Most statements work well as one line though. Always capitalize the SQL parts of the statement like UPDATE or WHERE.

Functions that update the database should expect their parameters to lack SQL slash escaping when passed. Escaping should be done as close to the time of the query as possible, preferably by using $wpdb->prepare()

$wpdb->prepare() is a method that handles escaping, quoting, and int-casting for SQL queries. It uses a subset of the sprintf() style of formatting. Example :

$var = "dangerous'"; // raw data that may or may not need to be escaped
$id  = some_foo_number(); // data we expect to be an integer, but we're not certain

$wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare( "UPDATE $wpdb->posts SET post_title = %s WHERE ID = %d", $var, $id ) );

%s is used for string placeholders and %d is used for integer placeholders. Note that they are not 'quoted'! $wpdb->prepare() will take care of escaping and quoting for us. The benefit of this is that we don't have to remember to manually use $wpdb->escape(), and also that it is easy to see at a glance whether something has been escaped or not, because it happens right when the query happens.

Database Queries

Avoid touching the database directly. If there is a defined function that can get the data you need, use it. Database abstraction (using functions instead of queries) helps keep your code forward-compatible and, in cases where results are cached in memory, it can be many times faster. If you must touch the database, get in touch with some developers by posting a message to the wp-hackers mailing list. They may want to consider creating a function for the next WordPress version to cover the functionality you wanted.

Variables, functions, and operators

If you don't use a variable more than once, don't create it. This includes queries. Always use the wpdb Class of functions when interacting with the database.

Ternary operators are fine, but always have them test if the statement is true, not false. Otherwise it just gets confusing.

// GOOD example:
// (if statement is true) ? (do this) : (if false, do this);
$musictype = ('jazz' == $music) ? 'cool' : 'blah';

Another important point in the above example, when doing logical comparisons always put the variable on the right side, like above. If you forget an equal sign it'll throw a parse error instead of just evaluating true and executing the statement. It really takes no extra time to do, so if this saves one bug it's worth it.

VitaBodies designed an Ebay Template for listing items on ebay. The template is W3C Valid Table-less XHTML Strict CSS and does not break the Google RSS XML data feeds.

Having an Ebay template is nice, as you have all of the text that is repeated in almost every listing right there ready for minor tweaking. Plus your listing take on a more professional look and feel.

The images were designed so that one or more can be used in the template or replaced with images of the item that is being sold or auctioned.

One of the big challenges was to get the code to work in the layout that we needed and still support the Google RSS XML Data Feeds.

Being controlled by an external style sheet allows the look of ALL the listings to be changed. Changes can be made if ebay alters their scripts and styles (and they do) or to refresh the look of the listings from time to time.

NOTE: If you plan on doing your own style sheet for ebay, do not use the word ebay as an ID or CLASS or anything else. Vitabodies was using style sheets on ebay before ebay really got into using them. So when ebay started creating and usings a style sheet can you guess what word they used? EBAY...

]]> http://matzbar.wordpress.com/?p=3 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:29:02 +0000 matzbar http://matzbar.wordpress.com/?p=3 Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Right now, we are doing a lab assignment, practicing fixing an old html document and applying/replacing older code to newer code and taking old techniques and replacing them with new techniques like converting a table site into a div site.

Okay, I stole that from Spider-Man but there is some truth behind it. Designing a web site is about much more than superficial Photoshop visuals and CSS coding. A web designer must make sure that everything is in its place and that the web site is clean, navigable and obvious.

Any decent web designer knows that an 'average' web user (don't you just hate that phrase?) has a very short attention span. It is for this reason that everything must be immediately obvious to them.

There are, obviously, no rules regarding web site design. That's why you get some truly awful-looking web sites. But there are conventions. The MintTwist's Essential Web Design Tips series will see us publish what we consider to be the top (in no particular order) web design conventions so that those who are just starting out, or those who are just looking for some tips can be as good at web site design as the design team at MintTwist. Well, almost as good...

We'll start the series with Navigation:

Easy Navigation With MintTwist
Perhaps one of the more important conventions, the main navigation for a web site simply must be easy, clean, obvious and consistent. With the use of some simple CSS, it is perfectly easy to create a beautiful yet functional navigation system for a web site. Colours should utilise contrast in a way that makes the links within a menu accessible to everybody who can see.

That doesn't mean the menu has to be a boring, post-it yellow and brick red set of links. Experiment with colours. Make a colour pallet and save it; you never know when you might need to use those colours again!

The navigation should be uniform throughout the site, even on the Home page. By uniform, I mean consistent, and on EVERY page. Colour-coding your navigation is good, though, for a site with many pages. Each section that has a specific colour can be represented in the navigation but make sure it benefits the user. If it helps with navigation of the site to have colour-coded sections, by all means go for it; it must be obvious, though.

The most important point to remember is that we must try not to make a web user think about what he should click. If it follows the conventions, the user will stay put and there is a much greater chance that he will continue to browse the site and maybe even come back! If you confuse the user with multiple navigation systems throughout a web site, or a different style of navigation on each page he will simply leave the site to get the information he requires elsewhere.

A user has expectations when it comes to visiting a web site. The menu is expected to be in a certain place (the top or to the left), the logo or 'site ID' should be at the top left, the content shouldn't stretch across the page and so on.

Placing the menu at, say, the bottom, or having it float and follow the user to the obscure parts using dodgy JavaScript is, for the most part, less than helpful. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your viewpoint) people do judge a web site by the way it looks and acts. Functionality for the sake of functionality is a web design faux pas!

The fantastic thing about building clean, simple and navigable navigation is that it is easy and only needs a few lines of CSS. As long as you get the basic rules of a CSS menu right, the challenge should only be with creating a style to suit your web site. The posibilities are endless. See after the jump for an example of an easy to build, yet clean navigation. I've chosen a horizontal menu, for use below the masthead of a site, and above the content.

Happy CSSing!...

The CSS

.navs {
	list-style:none;
	width:900px;
	background-color:#990000;
	overflow:auto;
}

.navs ul {
	margin:0;
	padding:0;
}

.navs ul li {
	display:inline;
}

.navs ul li a {
	padding:3px 25px;
	background-color:#990000;
	color:#FFFFFF;
	text-decoration:none;
	border-right:1px solid #FFFFFF;
	font-weight:bold;
	letter-spacing:-1px;
	font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size:16px;
	margin:0;
	float:left;
}

.navs ul li a:hover {
	color:#FFFFFF;
	background-color:#0033FF;
}

The XHTML

<div class="navs">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">News</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

And that's it! Simple; a few lines of CSS and even fewer lines of HTML and you're golden. Or red, green, blue, purple, orange, mauve, pink, yell...

Tested and works in Firefox (obviously), IE6, IE7 and Safari.

Cheat sheet helps developer to understand the concepts visually. It gives the developers a practical experience.

HTML/XHTML

1. HTML Help Sheet

• PDF

2. HTML Cheat Sheet

• PDF
• PNG

3. HTML Character Entities Cheat Sheet

• PDF
• PNG

4. XHTML Cheat Sheet v. 1.03 – PDF

CSS

5. CSS Cheat Sheet (V2)

• PDF
• PNG

6. CSS Cheat Sheet

• PDF
• HTML

7. CSS Shorthand Cheat Sheet

• PDF

8. CSS Level 1 Quick Reference – PDF

9. CSS Level 2 Quick Reference – PDF

10. CSS2.1 Quick Reference Card – PDF

11. CSS2 Reference Guide – PDF

The Information added from : http://sixrevisions.com

VitalBodies recently finished the creation re-creation of the MelitaMarshall.com Web Site.

This site is based upon a template, VitalBodies created for the Oregon House web site.

Melita wanted wanted the site to tie into her existing business Oregon House and the Oregon House web site but be able to change in style as needed.

VitalBodies created the template to be W3C Valid Table-less XHTML Strict and Valid CSS.

(Click image to see a larger clearer version)

The entire web site W3C Valid Table-less XHTML Strict and Valid CSS.

The web sites original tabled design was done by Paradigm-Graphics some years back.

-

MelitaMarshall.com:

"I bring wisdom from my own spiritual journey as well as experience in business entrepreneurship and training in holistic healing into the vessel of our healing sessions. My goal is to help you gain insight into what is limiting you, and coach you to find the courage to reconnect with your source and your core."

Visit MelitaMarshall.com

CSS can also be used and interpreted by some browsers to allow the user to change the general look and feel of a web site (e.g. fonts, colours etc.) to provide better accesssibility or a more personal viewing experience.