Level Your CSS Playing Field
One of the most frustrating thing about using CSS styles is that it doesn't always work the same way across all browsers. The most obvious differences (and arguably the most distressing) are those between IE and Firefox. The answer has been to include workarounds for specific browsers -- usually IE. But this can be messy, both in terms of trying to get the CSS to work, and in terms of the extra code it leaves in your files.Well, we've found a way to eliminate at least some of those problems. The Yahoo! Users Interface (YUI) Reset CSS levels the playing field by essentially setting all values to zero. This erases all the presets included with the individual browsers and allows you to "explictly declare your intentions" with the css, as YUI describes it. We think this may mean "be careful what you wish for...!"
We came across this little snippet after Googling a problem we were having displaying the same code in IE and Firefox. All we did is call the file in like you would any other CSS file (the website gives you a line of code to include in your header) and Bingo! the problem was fixed.
We can't claim it will fix every problem -- but what we can say is that it has worked like a charm so far. And all it took was one line of code...
Find out more about the YUI Reset CSS.
The DMXReady Team
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One Free Way to Advertise: iGoogle Themes
If you are a graphic designer/web designer and are looking for a way to get your name out there, creating an iGoogle theme might be the ticket.iGoogle themes are personalized themes for your iGoogle home page. The hallmark of these XML themes is that you can change their appearance throughout the day. This is done by creating a number of banners and rotating them based on the local time. So, for example, you can have a "night" image at night, a "sunrise" image in the morning, etc.
Then you simply submit your theme to Google, and they will decide whether or not to add it to their library. (This is the part that is a little hard to swallow. Google doesn't tell you when or if your design has been accepted, and doesn't tell you why it's been rejected. However, it would be safe to assume that any honest efforts that design for a "Rated G" audience would likely be accepted...)
The most popular themes right now have about 1,000,000 users, though most have considerably less. But even a few thousand people who like your work could lead to some new contracts. You can add your own logo and contact information in the space Google provides so that these potential clients can reach you. A great way to showcase your work and get some free advertising!
More information about designing and submitting your own theme can be found at Google itself:
http://code.google.com/apis/themes/docs/dev_guide.html
Don't forget to let us know how it goes!
The DMXReady Team
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Where to Draw the CSS Line
Stefan at KillerSites.com raises some good points about CSS. In his recent post, he talks about the limitations of CSS, and -- perhaps more interestingly -- why those limitations exist.CSS is very powerful for many reasons. It is great for "standardizing" your websites, especially if you design for a living. Once you have your basic template, you simply tweak those values to give each client a unique palette of colors, fonts, and backgrounds. It also helps keep your pages organized and makes SEO efforts more efficient.
However as Stefan points out, using CSS to completely design a page can be counter-productive. It is not a programming language like VBScript, yet essentially that is how people are using it.
So where do you draw the CSS line?
That's a personal choice. At DMXReady, we feel that if you start having to make "work-arounds" for IE (still the world's most popular browser by far) then you have probably crossed the line. In essence, using tables is still the easiest way to organize page elements and ensure that your page will look the same across all browsers. This is especially true for beginner web designers.
The other method, and one that Stefan mentions, is to start with a CSS template. In most cases, these have already been cross-browser tested, so that you don't have to worry so much about these issues. The work-arounds are all included as well (though we still recommend browser testing before you send your website live!).
It is good to learn the basics of CSS. And it is likely that in the future, it will become a more efficient method of designing web pages -- especially as web browsers continue to accept CSS standards. But for now, draw the line at your comfort level. If you don't want to "de-bug" your website, stick with tables for your design layout, and use CSS for the basics like color and fonts.
The DMXReady Team
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Using Color Effectively
We’ve
all seen this before: you surf the web for some information and come
across a very colorful (and very loud!) website. The designer obviously
had fun with this one. The only problem is that it is very difficult to
read the white text on the screaming orange background. Not that the
flashing symphony of colors in the background would let us read
anything anyway…Yet it is easy enough to fall into the same trap ourselves. We might not create the Herb Tarlek of websites, but we may forget the most important rule of web design: don’t let it get in the way of the content!
Except for the rare occasion where the visuals carry the story, your visitors are there to read information. Reading on a screen is a challenge for most people as it is, and crazy color palettes can just make it worse.
Aim to make the main content area as easy to read as possible. Black lettering on a white background is usually the easiest to read. But even this is flexible – try dark grey for a more soothing effect.
This does not mean, of course, that you need a plain black and white website. Add photos or images throughout your main content area to take away the starkness of the white background. Add color to your headers – these short pieces of text are usually bigger and easier to read anyway, and injecting color here can really keep interest in the main text. And of course, color all around your main content area is definitely encouraged.
A simple rule to remember: the color, design, and layout are what attracts readers but it is the content itself that people are there for.
The DMXReady Team
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Avoid Spam - Hide Your Email
Spammers use bots called email harvesters to spider websites all across the Internet and collect email addresses. Most look for the basic "yourname@yourdomain.com" arrangement. You can avoid getting your email (or those of your clients) scraped using a simple encoding method. There are actually several different ways to do this -- just Google "email encoding". Here is one JavaScript method:
<script language="JavaScript"> <!--
document.write ('<A HREF="mai')
document.write ('lto:yourn')
document.write ('ame')
document.write ('@')
document.write ('yourd')
document.write ('omain.com">contact')
document.write ('yourname')
document.write ('@')
document.write ('yourdo')
document.write ('main.com</A>')
// -->
</script>
Note that no method is perfect -- email harvesters are becoming more sophisticated all the time. But this will at least allow you to confuse the majority of spammers.
The DMXReady Team
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Google Chrome - A Glimpse of the Future?
Although it may not be apparent right now, Google Chrome may represent a serious turning point for the Internet, and the way that we interact with websites. Google Chrome is described as a "browser" but the media giant seems to be prepping users for something very different than your standard web brower.For one thing, it handles web page information more like applications than content. The example Google gives in its descriptive comic book is a JavaScript application. In a standard single-thread browser, the user cannot do anything until the JavaScript stops running and returns control back to the browser. But Google Chrome can handle what it calls "multi-threads" or, to take it one step further, multi-processes.
This is where things start to really get interesting. The most telling quote is this one: "We're applying the same kind of process isolation you find in modern operating systems" (emphasis ours). Yes, Chrome not only represents Google's first browser, but is also the forerunner of its first operating system. In fact, it seems it will be an operating system that will essentially integrate the Internet rather than have it running as a separate process. Our computers will become little more than a workstation on a global network.
In retrospect, this shouldn't be too surprising. Google has been preparing us for a 100% online world for quite a while now with things like Google Docs and Calendar. We were quite sure how that would work, but Chrome may just well be a glimpse of our online future.
So what does this mean for web designers? Will the website as we know it disappear? Perhaps. Websites of today look nothing like they did on Netscape Navigator 1.0. In another 15 years, websites will probably look just as different. But what hasn't (and what won't) change is the need for designers to build and maintain those sites. We may be doing it differently, but we'll still be doing it.
The DMXReady Team
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CMS Dress for Success!
Content Management Systems, or CMS, are very easy to use. That being said, your clients still might have a natural fear of the "technology" behind it. Yes, if they know Word and they know how to open a web browser, they will be able to update their content (using DMXReady applications, anyway -- we can't vouch for other systems!). But sometimes there will be a bit of hand-holding on your part to launch the CMS. Here are a few ways to make that easier:Go Through the CMS With Your Client
Walking your client through the CMS is the best way to get them familiar with the system. If you can do it in their office, all the better, but usually the CMS is user-friendly enough that simply walking through it over the phone will be enough. Make sure too that you point out the Help files. Once they've seen how the CMS works and know where they can get help, they will be much more comfortable going on their own.Create "Editable" Areas
Sometimes giving your client too much freedom is a bad thing. You want to make editing or even adding new pages as easy as possible. You can do this by making each web page "modular" with editable areas. For example, keep images the same size and at the same spot so your client simply has to replace it with their new image. Text is the same thing -- they can add/remove/change their own text in the same spot without disturbing the overall design.You can also save generic templates that they can copy so that anytime they want to add a new page, they have something to work from. This way they have the freedom of managing their own content without disturbing the main design.
Train the Eager Staff First
If your client has more than one person who will be using the CMS, go through it with the person who seems most eager to learn it. Not only will it be easier for to teach someone who wants to learn, but that person will most likely pick it up faster and be the person in the office that fields questions from the others -- taking some of this responsibility off your own shoulders.A CMS system is designed to make things easier for your client. But you have to remember that things that seem "obvious" to you may not be so obvious for a worker who is suspicious of technology. Fear, anxiety, even an unwillingness to learn will make it difficult sometimes. But once you push through that with your client, it will be easier for both of you in the long run.
The DMXReady Team
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Has Your Content Expired?
There is an interesting paradox on the Internet. On the one hand, it is absolutely the best medium to handle new content or "breaking news." You can have a volcano erupt somewhere in the South Pacific, and literally within seconds you can let millions of people around the world know about it.On the other hand, there are websites out there that have not changed their content since 1999, with their FrontPage 1.0 flashing text, moving flames, and psychedelic backgrounds. It's like a cyber time capsule, with little or no relevance to today.
This is an extreme example, but the fact is that many website owners do not keep their content as fresh as it could be. Yes, you can post something that happened a split-second ago. But this usually means getting someone who can upload the images and content. Most web owners do not have the capabilities to do that themselves.
But there is a way to empower website owners: Content Management Systems or CMS allow anyone with basic web skills to create and update their own content. Some systems, like DMXReady applications for example, are easy to install and will have the owner up and running in no time. Then all the website owner has to do is log in through any standard browser, and type new content, upload images and media, even plug in Web 2.0 applications for further functionality.
If you are a web designer, you should consider offering CMS to your clients. Not only does it give them the power to update their own content, but it can bring in more work for you through customizing and installing the software.
Take a look at some of our customizable CMS solutions including the new Online Notebook Manager. And make sure that your website doesn't become a time capsule as well!
The DMXReady Team
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Online Notebook Manager - A New Application From DMXReady!
As many of you know, yesterday was the official launch of DMXReady's Online Notebook Manager. This revolutionary product gives all sorts of people a powerful self-publishing tool, using the Internet to communicate to their colleagues, customers, and friends easily and effectively.We've come up with over a dozen uses for this software, from teaching syllabus to group work "tech notes" to employee manuals and help guides. In fact, the DMXReady team used it as a communication tool at one point during its development.
One of its strongest features is that people can use it to leverage other Web 2.0 applications. Once Online Notebook Manager is installed, you don't need HTML editors or FTP programs to add these Web 2.0 gadgets. All it takes to include your Google Calendar, for example, is to create a new page and embed the line of script that Google gives you. Now every change you make to your Google calendar will be automatically updated on that Notebook page!
Online Notebook Manager is also an important step for DMXReady. This app represents the "2.0" version of our applications. With a stronger architecture, more features like AJAX functionality, and a more streamlined approach, Online Notebook Manager is at the vanguard of the new wave of DMXReady applications.
Try out the demo for yourself, if you haven't already. And don't forget to drop us a note to tell us what you think!
The DMXReady Team
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Client Service: Get It In Writing
Too often web designers -- and many freelancers for that matter -- start work based on a verbal description of the project. Perhaps you chat on the phone or even face-to-face, and the client gives you an outline of what he or she wants from the website.The problem is, two weeks later when you deliver the first review, the client says "No, no, I want it like this." You can argue all you want (actually, not a great idea...) but the fact of the matter is that you have nothing in writing in front of you to prove one way or another what you had verbally "agreed" upon. And it is not uncommon for the client to forget everything you talked about in that first meeting.
This can mean more work for you (unpaid, if you are working for a project fee), and it can lead to bad feelings and perhaps even a lost contract.
Get it in writing. After a meeting, jot down some notes -- almost like the meeting minutes -- and email your client, along with any other project participants. This way, you are all on the same page. And in two weeks when the client says they need something different, you can at least you have proof of the original specs in writing. Either it will jog the client's memory about the original project, or you'll have a solid basis for charging extra hours to make the changes.
The DMXReady Team
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