tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82148532024-03-08T11:15:55.446+00:00Exploring Rootsweband making web pagesHugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.comBlogger301125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-73041149455581311112009-09-23T07:11:00.000+00:002009-09-23T07:11:38.645+00:00lightboxnyack.com<a href="http://www.lightboxnyack.com/Home.html">lightboxnyack.com<br /></a>: "Lightbox is located at 256 Main Street, Downtown Nyack, New York."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">built using iWeb on a Macintosh</span>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-92032082130286609792009-07-29T00:01:00.000+00:002009-07-29T00:01:46.384+00:00HTML 5<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_5">HTML 5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>: "HTML 5 is the next advancement of both HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, as development on the next version of the latter has been ceased. HTML 5 was initially said to become a game-changer in Web application development, making obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.[1] Such applications would be made obsolete by specifying a standard video codec for all browsers to use. However, in July 2009, the editor of the burgeoning draft specification dropped the recommendation of the free software Theora and Vorbis codecs, after opposition from Apple and Nokia. This means HTML 5 does not currently specify a common video codec for Web development."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=HTML5%2C&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">HTML5, - Google Search</a>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-59999084324739739242009-07-02T20:30:00.000+00:002009-07-02T20:30:59.082+00:00Expression Web 3 launch<a href="http://www.expression-web-tips.com/expression-web-3/">Expression Web 3 « Expression Web Tips</a>: "Expression Studio 3 due to be launched on July 10th. Expression Web 3.0 will be a part of that release. Information on the program is slow in appearing. What will be the look and feel of EW 3.0? Should you upgrade to the newest release? If you are using any of the Expression Web addons, will they continue to work with the newest version?"Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-36054267237302213242009-05-03T06:35:00.000+00:002009-05-03T06:35:40.198+00:00Fever Ray<a href="http://feverray.com/">Fever Ray</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">design !!!<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-35328675064103938142009-04-08T23:53:00.000+00:002009-04-08T23:53:23.194+00:00| Web Development Blog<a href="http://www.heidicool.com/blog/">| Web Development Blog: Heidi Adams Cool</a>: "Why do you want to redesign your Web site?<br /><br /> Hint: The answer is not 'because the old site is old and boring and I'm sick of looking at it. I want something new.' A lot of site owners use this line of reasoning, but we have to keep in mind that we're designing sites for our visitors, not ourselves. If you're thinking about redesigning a site, take stock of the old one"Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-23174171168581597272009-02-11T10:58:00.000+00:002009-02-11T10:58:33.196+00:00kgsindex<a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Etxkgs/index.html">kgsindex</a>: "KINGSLAND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY<br />P.O. Box 952, KINGSLAND, TEXAS 78639<br /><br /> © KGS 1989-2005<br /><br /> Are you an active Genealogist?<br /><br />Would you like to learn more about your ancestors?<br /><br />Are you interested in history? Have you ever thought about recording your family history?<br /><br />Would you like to learn what it takes to get started in Genealogy?"Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-76104233680009520842008-09-04T01:08:00.000+00:002008-09-04T01:08:24.627+00:00Breadcrumb Navigation<a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/breadcrumbs.html">Breadcrumb Navigation Increasingly Useful (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)</a><br /><p> Breadcrumbs won't help a site answer users' questions or fix a hopelessly confused information architecture. All that breadcrumbs do is make it easier for users to move around the site, assuming its content and overall structure make sense. That's sufficient contribution for something that takes up only one line in the design. </p><p> Breadcrumbs have always been a <strong>secondary navigation</strong> aid. They share this humble status with <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/sitemaps.html" title="Alertbox: Site Map Usability" class="old">site maps</a>. To navigate, site visitors mainly use the primary menus and the search box, which are certainly more important for usability. But from time to time, people do turn to the site map or the breadcrumbs, particularly when the main navigation doesn't quite meet their needs. </p><p> Despite their secondary status, I've <strong>recommended breadcrumbs since 1995</strong> for a few simple reasons: </p><ul><li>Breadcrumbs show people their <strong>current location</strong> relative to higher-level concepts, helping them understand where they are in relation to the rest of the site. </li><li>Breadcrumbs afford <strong>one-click access to higher site levels</strong> and thus rescue users who parachute into very specific but inappropriate destinations through search or deep links. </li><li>Breadcrumbs <strong>never cause problems in user testing</strong>: people might overlook this small design element, but they never misinterpret breadcrumb trails or have trouble operating them. </li><li>Breadcrumbs <strong>take up very little space</strong> on the page. </li></ul> So, despite the merely mid-sized benefits, the overall <strong>cost-benefit analysis</strong> comes out quite strongly in favor of breadcrumbs. Their downside is incredibly small: while they do take up space, that space is minute. When you divide a mid-sized numerator by a tiny denominator, the resulting fraction is substantial. <p> The main argument against breadcrumbs is that many users overlook them. So, why do something that only benefits a minority? </p><p>As I've long argued, breadcrumbs are different than most other little-used design elements for the simple reason that they don't hurt users who ignore them. </p>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-66885951243944407942008-09-04T00:58:00.000+00:002008-09-04T00:58:04.480+00:00Site Map Usability<a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/sitemaps.html">Site Map Usability (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)</a>: "Despite the prevalence of good site maps these days, users don't use them very much. So why bother making a site map for your website? Because it can help users understand your site and what it offers.<br /><br />I still recommend site maps because they're the only feature that gives users a true overview of everything on a site. One could argue that a site's navigation serves the same purpose. For example, some navigation offers drop-down menus that let users see the options available in each site section. But even with these menus, users can see only one section of content at a time.<br /><br />A site map lets users see all available content areas on one page, and gives them instant access to those site pages. Site maps can also help users find information on a cluttered site, providing a clean, simple view of the user interface and the available content. Site maps are not a cure-all, however. No site map can fix problems inherent in a site's structure, such as poor navigational organization, poorly named sections, or poorly coordinated subsites.<br /><br />If site maps required a major investment to design, they wouldn't offer sufficient ROI to be worth doing. But because all of our guidelines call for site map simplicity, making a good one doesn't require a lot of work, and it will help some of your users. More importantly, it will help users at a critical time:"Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-38508793382070759222008-07-22T02:36:00.000+00:002008-07-22T02:36:24.195+00:00Monitors and VDU<a href="http://www.thepattysite.com/window_sizes1.cfm">How Can I Make My Web Pages Look Good On All Monitors? | The Patty Site</a>: "Generally, there's not even any way to make most web pages look great on every monitor. A page which looks perfect at one size is going to suffer at a different size, at least to some extent, no matter how carefully you deal with the issue. But I'm going to suggest that there are wise compromises; you can please most of the people most of the time, and at least satisfy the rest most of the time."Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-74667054103891905312008-07-17T06:32:00.001+00:002008-07-17T06:34:13.044+00:00The Difference Between ID and Class - CSS-Tricks<a href="http://css-tricks.com/the-difference-between-id-and-class/">The Difference Between ID and Class - CSS-Tricks</a>: "We need to ways to describe content in an HTML/XHTML document. The basic elements like <h1>, <p> and <ul> will often do the job, but our basic set of tags doesn’t cover every possible type of page element or layout choice. For this we need ID’s and Classes. For example <ul id="”nav”">, this will give us the chance to target this unordered list specifically, so that we may manipulate it uniquely to other unordered lists on our page. Or we might have a section on our page that has no relevant tag to signify it, for example a footer, where we might do something like this: <div id="”footer”">. Or perhaps we have boxes in our sidebar for keeping content over there separated in some way: <div class="”sidebar-box”">.<h1><p></p></h1>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-46778188956405849662008-07-17T06:18:00.000+00:002008-07-17T06:18:52.695+00:00RootsWeb FreePages<a href="http://www.genealogy-computer-tips.com/xhtml-doctype/">RootsWeb FreePages Banners and XHTML Doctype</a>: "RootsWeb recently revised the masthead banners that are displayed on all free hosted websites. If you are using the HTML Transitional doctype and your pages already validate, you should experience no problems with the new banner validating.<br /><br />If on the other hand, if your account is hosted on the FreePages server and you are using the XHTML doctype, your pages will no longer validate because of the bottom banner. Goods News, there is a “fix.”To change the banner code so that it will validate if you are using the XHTML doctype create a file named “banner_select” containing only that text: . . <span style="font-style: italic;">. continues . </span>. "<br /><br /><a href="http://www.genealogy-computer-tips.com/">Genealogy Computer Tips & Tutorials</a>: "For those of you who may just be getting started with separating the presentation of your website from the content of your site by using cascading style sheets, understanding the difference between using id and class attributes may seem overwhelming. The id attribute provides a unique identifier for an element within the document. The class attribute classifies this element into one or more subtypes. The biggest difference between the ID and class attribute is that an ID can be used only once in a document while class can be used as many times as needed."Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-55106371499181231612008-06-29T00:09:00.000+00:002008-06-29T00:09:15.353+00:00Flexible Layouts<a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/06/26/flexible-layouts-challenge-for-the-future/">Flexible Layouts: Challenge For The Future | How-To | Smashing Magazine</a>: "According to w3schools.com, the larger and wider screen resolutions (larger than 1024×768px) will become a standard in the future.<br /><br /><img src="http://88.198.60.17/images/yaml/resolution.png" height="357" width="550" /><br /><br />More problematic is the overwhelming confidence of developers that the individual decision-making is better for users from the accessibility point of view. When applied to fixed layouts the web-developer delivers a clear message:<br /><br />Dear users, your browser can zoom my fixed layout - so please help yourself if you want or need to!<br /><br />From designer’s perspective with this argument it is tempting to switch to a more comfortable (fixed) design solution at expense of accessibility. Why should a user adapt his viewing preferences to a web-site? Shouldn’t a web-site rather adapt itself to the viewing preferences of its users? If you think about it for a second, you have the same situation as in a cloth store where you are offered cloth only in some very specific size. If the size doesn’t fit to you, it’s your problem, not store’s owner. And if you want to you can take a needle, some fabric and create the cloth of its own choice for free. That is not user-friendly."Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-42858198377800635652008-06-29T00:04:00.000+00:002008-06-29T00:04:39.058+00:0025 SEO WEB DESIGN TIPS<a href="http://www.webguru-india.com/blog/25-seo-web-design-tips/">25 SEO WEB DESIGN TIPS</a>: "You may have a beautiful website but that alone does not promise a bright future in the web arena. It is essential that a website design must be properly optimized to reach out to the target audience. A well optimized website which is both search engine as well as user friendly makes a strong presence in the web world. Here are some SEO web design tips that can help to optimize your website properly."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">with thanks to Pat Geary</span>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-38146218170969496982008-06-27T17:06:00.000+00:002008-06-27T17:06:24.271+00:00Joomla!<a href="http://www.joomla.org/">Joomla!</a>: "Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">but no sitemap</span>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-77434816207018825622008-06-22T14:19:00.000+00:002008-06-22T14:19:59.977+00:00Life at the Home20<a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Eldwom/">Life at the Home20 - Genealogy</a>: "This research began in 1986. It covers both my family and my husband's. Amazingly, we are both, so far, from southern families (Delaware and down) who originated mostly from the British isles. We were each told we have an American Indian line but neither can be proven at this point. Both families have been traced back several generations on most lines and there is but one line from France (tradition, but no proof) and no lines going back to Germany or Eastern Europe (although my grandmother swore otherwise). There is one possible Scandinavian line but I base that theory on the fact that the surname ends in 'son', no other reason. So while I ponder a few brick walls, I will try to share my findings here."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lifeatthehome20.com/">Life at the Home20 <span style="font-style: italic;">blog</span></a><br /><br /><h2 class="leaf">Thompson Name Meaning and History</h2> <div class="nameMeaning"><div><ol style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><li>English: patronymic from <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Thompson-civil-war.ashx?ln=Thomas">Thomas</a>. Thompson is widely distributed throughout Britain, but is most common in northern England and northern Ireland. </li><li>Americanized form of <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Thompson-civil-war.ashx?ln=Thomsen">Thomsen</a>.</li></ol><br /><h2 class="leaf">Thomsen Name Meaning and History</h2> <div class="nameMeaning"><div>Dutch, North German, Danish, and Norwegian: patronymic from a short form of <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Thomsen-civil-war.ashx?ln=Thomas">Thomas</a>. </div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="source">Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4</span></div></div><span class="source"><br /></span></div><br /><a href="http://www.lifeatthehome20.com/"> </a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">thanks to</span> <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Thompson-civil-war.ashx">Thompson Family Civil War Service - Ancestry.com</a>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-18965835489873870722008-06-18T14:26:00.000+00:002008-06-18T14:26:08.722+00:00Using Rootsweb Online Editor<a href="http://www.genealogy-computer-tips.com/using-rootsweb-online-editor/">Using Rootsweb Online Editor</a>: "This very basic guide will get you familiar with the resources on RootsWeb that can help you build your own Web page. It will not help you create the page of your dreams—yet. I will write several follow-up articles on this topic over the upcoming months that go into more depth."Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-63243666141156770002008-05-25T14:36:00.000+00:002008-05-25T14:36:23.821+00:00rootsweb and ancestry sponsorship<a href="http://www.virginiafamilytree.com/2008/05/whats-up-with-rootsweb-and-ancestry.html">Virginia Family Tree - a genealogy resource: What's up with Rootsweb and Ancestry?</a><br /><br />A few months ago, Ancestry sprung a surprise on the volunteers at Rootsweb and the USGenWeb Project. Ancestry was going to put a banner at the top of every page hosted on Rootsweb, an advertisement for their company. A large number of Rootsweb volunteers went crazy, furious that Ancestry had the audacity to turn their <span lang="en-US">genealogy project</span> into a profit center. The USGenWeb Project always stated its mission as being “non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone.” These principles seemed to clash...or did they?<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">I <span lang="en-US">currently</span> volunteer for two counties in Virginia. I have honestly neglected the sites for awhile because I am tired of all the <span lang="en-US">controversy that has been brewing.</span> Volunteers are moving their sites off Ancestry's servers so a lot of the old links do not work anymore. How does that help freely spread genealogy when you cannot find it? This is a huge mess and I am honestly getting tired of being a part of it. I think I am going to probably give up my two sites but I have not decided yet.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">Through all of this I have not moved my sites nor would I in the future, if I keep them. The Ancestry banner is quite small, very similar to the Blogger <span lang="en-US">banner</span> you see at the very top of this page. Google owns Blogger. Blogger gives free web space for people to host their blog. It is therefore their right to get at least a small ad out of it. The ads are unobtrusive and most people do not pay any attention to them. I do not see what <span lang="en-US">all </span>the fuss is about.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">I am getting a little off track but the point is that the USGenWeb project is at risk of falling apart, simply over a one-half inch banner at the top of every page. The banner says “Hosted at Rootsweb...an Ancestry.com Community.” It does not sell products or blatantly push a subscription service. It is a token gesture to give Ancestry more exposure in a tough market. If you look at Google trends, genealogy searches are falling off more each year. You cannot fault Ancestry for trying to expand their market reach in these trying times.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">I would estimate that Ancestry spends tens of thousands of dollars per year to pay for all of the server space and <span lang="en-US">bandwidth</span> that Rootsweb has enjoyed for years. Instead of understanding that someone has to pay for all that space, people get all upset and scream that genealogy <span lang="en-US">should</span> be free for everyone. The last time I checked, it still was free. Ancestry is not directly selling anything with the banner and no subscription is required. I doubt they even get a large amount of traffic off the banners. People will become blind to them in a short mount of time. I wish some of the volunteers at the USGenWeb Project would stop looking a gift horse in the mouth and be happy that they have the support of a large, <span lang="en-US">financial</span> backer."</p>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-31287498666217477062008-05-23T09:14:00.000+00:002008-05-23T09:14:24.724+00:00Usability, Design, and CSS<a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/article/andy-budd-design-usability-css/3">Andy Budd on Usability, Design, and the Death of CSS [Design Principles]</a>:<span style="font-weight: bold;"> "SP: What's your opinion of CSS Frameworks, and how do they fit into the approach you guys take in developing a solution for a client?"<br /></span><p>We have an internal framework that we use for our wireframes -- our prototypes. Wireframes are not things that live by themselves, so it doesn't really matter how semantic or pure they are.</p> <p>This library, or "framework" if you want to be down with the hip kids, is a mixture of <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/glossary.php?q=H#term_75" class="glossary" title="HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language.">HTML</a> and CSS and <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/glossary.php?q=J#term_9" class="glossary" title="JavaScript is a Web scripting language most commonly used for client-side applications.">JavaScript</a>, which we use time and time again for our wireframing. It makes use of jQuery, and a company we work with called <a class="sublink" href="http://new-bamboo.co.uk/">New Bamboo</a> have helped us to develop a jQuery plugin called polyPage, which allows multiple state changing within a wireframe, which is really cool. </p> <p>So I think these libraries -- frankly, I think "framework" is a bit of a grandiose term for something like <a class="sublink" href="http://code.google.com/p/blueprintcss/">Blueprint</a>, for example. Essentially it's three or four CSS files and a page worth of HTML. It's not a framework -- a framework, I think, is a much bigger thing. And there's a certain element of trumpet-blowing going on there. By calling it a framework, it makes it sound like it's this big, important thing like Ruby on Rails. Everyone knows Ruby on Rails is hot, everyone knows Django is hot -- let's call it a CSS framework, and it will be big.</p> <p>I think what you need to do is develop your own framework. You need to develop a series of tools, a library of elements that work for your team, that work for the types of sites you build, that work for the internal belief system structure and knowledge that your team has.</p> <p>I think generic libraries like Blueprint box you in to certain solutions. They have a certain amount of flexibility, sure. You can choose between one of any number of columns -- I think it's 16 or 24 -- and you can span columns and stuff. But it's still limited to this column behaviour. And you're limited to the size of the gutters and the width of the window, and if that doesn't necessarily fit with your designs, what do you do? Do you spend hours hacking your library to fit with your designs? . . . . . .<br /></p><br /><p><br /></p><p><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.sitepoint.com/article/andy-budd-design-usability-css/4">Andy Budd on Usability, Design, and the Death of CSS [Design Principles]</a><br /></p><p>But on the other hand the whole purpose of web standards, partly, is digital preservation -- if everyone created web sites in the proper fashion, we wouldn't have this problem in the first place. Wishful thinking, perhaps.</p> <p>I honestly think that CSS is basically a dead technology after this next revision. I think that's really sad, because I'm a standards advocate, but that's what I believe. I don't think we'll see a CSS4. I don't think we'll see half of the modules in CSS3 implemented, or even end up in the specification, because CSS3 has been under development for 8 years or something ridiculous, and in 8 years we haven't got a single module complete yet. We've got a few almost finished. </p> <p>But I do think that in this world where I've got a PS3 at home that performs live texture-mapping rendering in 3D, on the fly, why we can't get a browser that can render rounded corners on a box in 2008. You know, we should all have jet packs here! A rounded corner box or multiple background images shouldn't be rocket science. </p> <p>I think part of the problem is that there are innate problems with the standards development mechanism, and I think there are innate problems with the browser vendors, and I do think we're going to see other technologies -- sadly, proprietary technologies like <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/glossary.php?q=F#term_16" class="glossary" title="Flash is Adobe's vector-based web multimedia product.">Flash</a> and Flex and XAML and <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/glossary.php?q=X#term_3" class="glossary" title="eXtensible Markup Language, or XML, is a text markup language designed for the easy sharing of data.">XML</a> and MXML and non-native Web technologies -- take over, because we are limited with what we can do with our current technology. The reason we're seeing all of these <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/glossary.php?q=J#term_9" class="glossary" title="JavaScript is a Web scripting language most commonly used for client-side applications.">JavaScript</a> libraries come out is because they're supplementing what the standards and the browsers should be doing. It's kind of a stupid situation to be in, and we've got to lobby the <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/glossary.php?q=W#term_49" class="glossary" title="The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - A consortium of industry leaders for drafting Web standards.">W3C</a> to pull their finger out to get these standards ratified, we've got to lobby the browser vendors to stop arguing among each other over petty little things and implement them, and there needs to be a radical shake-up in the way these things are created.</p><p><a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/article/andy-budd-design-usability-css/5">Andy Budd on Usability, Design, and the Death of CSS [Design Principles]</a>: "I do think it's really hard though, and I think what you need to do is specialise. I think gone are the days of the generalist, because I think that, sadly, if you're a generalist, it does mean that you're doing everything not to the highest possible quality. Because there are so many specialists now, you've got to compete with those. So starting off and being really good at web standards, for example, if you want to get a job in industry, if you're really good at HTML and CSS then you will get a job, it doesn't take that long to learn HTML and CSS.<br /><br />But learning the softer usability skills -- you can learn heuristics, you can learn basic principles. But it's not until you've actually sat down and built loads of sites and screwed them up that you can do that properly."</p>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-79708754679089030722008-05-21T17:31:00.001+00:002008-05-21T17:31:40.742+00:00RootsWeb: NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT-L [NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT] New Mastheads - Look for them today.<a href="http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT/2008-05/1211376942">RootsWeb: NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT-L [NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT] New Mastheads - Look for them today.</a>: "ay 21st, 2008 by Anna<br /><br />As planned, the updated mastheads will start appearing later today. We<br />receive a lot of positive feedback on the content of your sites and are<br />proud to be able to be a small part of your success.<br /><br />If you would like to change the masthead on your site from the new default<br />gray color to the green masthead please follow the instructions below.<br /><br />Place a file named 'banner_select' in your public_html directory. (Yes, it<br />is a text file, containing only the text listed. But there is no file<br />extension; the file should be named 'banner_select'). This file should<br />contain the text 'BasicGreen' and nothing else.<br />Hosted projects who are using custom mastheads have been sent additional<br />emails with specific instructions. If you have not received these<br />instructions please contact the leader of the project you belong to."Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-42751119425645100532008-05-21T17:31:00.000+00:002008-05-21T17:31:36.861+00:00RootsWeb: NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT-L [NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT] New Mastheads - Look for them today.<a href="http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT/2008-05/1211376942">RootsWeb: NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT-L [NEWSROOM-ANNOUNCEMENT] New Mastheads - Look for them today.</a>: "ay 21st, 2008 by Anna<br /><br />As planned, the updated mastheads will start appearing later today. We<br />receive a lot of positive feedback on the content of your sites and are<br />proud to be able to be a small part of your success.<br /><br />If you would like to change the masthead on your site from the new default<br />gray color to the green masthead please follow the instructions below.<br /><br />Place a file named 'banner_select' in your public_html directory. (Yes, it<br />is a text file, containing only the text listed. But there is no file<br />extension; the file should be named 'banner_select'). This file should<br />contain the text 'BasicGreen' and nothing else.<br />Hosted projects who are using custom mastheads have been sent additional<br />emails with specific instructions. If you have not received these<br />instructions please contact the leader of the project you belong to."Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-68599075831477396452008-04-29T19:00:00.000+00:002008-04-29T19:00:05.197+00:00Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)<a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/navigation-menu-alignment.html">Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)</a>: "8 hours after posting this article, I got email from the University of Michigan design team that they had redesigned their navigation menu. Fast work.<br /><br />Redesigned navigation menu from the University of Michigan.8 hours after posting this article, I got email from the University of Michigan design team that they had redesigned their navigation menu. <em>Fast work.</em> <p style="text-align: center;"> <img src="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/university-michigan-left-justified-navigation-menu.gif" alt="Redesigned navigation menu from the University of Michigan." height="275" width="570" /><br /><em>U. Michigan's old (left) and new (right) nav menus.</em> </p> <p> Usually, I don't update my articles just because somebody redesigns a website I criticized. After all, any site I mention is only used as <em>an example</em> of a larger principle and the critique of any specific design choice is still valid, whether or not the mistake is live on one particular site. But fixing a usability problem the same day is unusual, and also allows me to show you the above screenshot of the improved menu. I think you'll agree that it's much easier to read than the earlier design."</p><p class="overline"> <strong><a href="http://www.useit.com/jakob/" title="Author biography">Jakob Nielsen</a>'s Alertbox, April 28, 2008:</strong></p> <h1>Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability</h1> <blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 221);"> <strong>Summary:</strong><br />Users scan lists by moving their eyes rapidly down the left edge. Menu items that are right-aligned make scanning more difficult. </blockquote><p> </p><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">study his site</span> <a href="http://www.useit.com/">useit.com: Jakob Nielsen on Usability and Web Design</a>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-72184809665256662872008-04-21T18:45:00.000+00:002008-04-21T18:45:26.279+00:00Technical Articles on Genealogy Websites<a href="http://www.genealogyhosting.com/articles.htm">Technical Articles on Genealogy Websites</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.genealogyhosting.com/">Genealogy Hosting - Start your genealogy website now! - it's never been easier!</a>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-20139148596030790822008-04-17T06:33:00.000+00:002008-04-17T06:33:13.524+00:00Document Object Model<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_Object_Model">Document Object Model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>: "(DOM) is a platform- and language-independent standard object model for representing HTML or XML and related formats.<br /><br />A web browser is not obliged to use DOM in order to render an HTML document. However, the DOM is required by JavaScript scripts that wish to inspect or modify a web page dynamically. In other words, the Document Object Model is the way JavaScript sees its containing HTML page and browser state.<br /><br />Because the DOM supports navigation in any direction (e.g., parent and previous sibling) and allows for arbitrary modifications, an implementation must at least buffer the document that has been read so far (or some parsed form of it). Hence the DOM is likely to be best suited for applications where the document must be accessed repeatedly or out of sequence order. If the application is strictly sequential and one-pass, the SAX model is likely to be faster and use less memory. In addition, non-extractive XML parsing models, such as VTD-XML, provide a new memory-efficient option."<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOM_Inspector">DOM Inspector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>: "DOM Inspector (DOMi) is one of the web developer tools included in Mozilla Application Suite and Mozilla Firefox. Its main purpose is to inspect the Document Object Model (DOM) tree of HTML and XML-based documents.<br /><br />A DOM node can be selected from the tree structure, or by clicking on the browser chrome. Besides DOM node, other views are also available, including box model, XBL bindings, CSS style rules, computed styles, and JavaScript objects. Document stylesheets and JavaScript objects can also be selected from the tree. The active element is highlighted with blinking red border, which is helpful in 'debugging' CSS.<br /><br />Other than inspecting, editing is also possible, though not via a rich text interface."Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-80776823902786310482008-04-12T23:48:00.000+00:002008-04-12T23:48:00.561+00:00Sonderzeichen<a href="http://www.imn.htwk-leipzig.de/%7Ewswg/X/HTML-szt.html">Sonderzeichen</a>: "Ø and many other <h2>HTML - Special Codes:</h2>"Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214853.post-11454846968982809152008-04-11T13:08:00.000+00:002008-04-11T13:08:28.967+00:00RootsWeb.com - Find Answers RootsWeb.com - (Page 1 of 2)<a href="http://rootsweb.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/rootsweb.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_sid=pEW4n-*i&p_lva=3244&p_li=&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_new_search=1&p_search_type=answers.search_nl&p_sort_by=&p_page=1&prod_lvl1=1001&p_pv=1.1001&p_prods=1001">RootsWeb.com - Find Answers RootsWeb.com - (Page 1 of 2)</a><br /><br /><a class="plain" href="http://rootsweb.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/rootsweb.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3244&p_created=1195143441&p_sid=L2Bsz-*i&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=3244&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MjksMjkmcF9wcm9kcz0xMDAxJnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0xLjEwMDEmcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1">Uploading web account pages</a><br /><br /><table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="subtitle"><br /></td> <td class="subtitle">Question</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="textcell"><br /></td> <td class="textcell" id="desc">How do I upload pages to my web account?</td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="http://rootsweb.custhelp.com/rnt/rnw/img/trnsp.gif" alt="" height="6" width="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="subtitle"><br /></td> <td class="subtitle">Answer</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="textcell"><br /></td> <td class="textcell" id="soln"> Once you have created your web pages, you must upload them to the server so the rest of the world can see them. There are several types of programs that can be used to upload files. If you create them online in the <b>Online Editor</b> you automatically upload them when you "save" them in the Editor. Other HTML Editors you may include an upload utility as part of the program. Consult the documentation for the program you are using. <p>Many current browsers support file uploads and include a File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is a special type of connection that allows you to transfer (copy) files from your computer to a server such as RootsWeb. You can upload files to the server as well as download from the server to your computer. General instructions for uploading to the Freepages server using your browser are available by <a href="http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.com/%7Epasher/dragndrop.htm">clicking here</a>. Consult your browser documentation for instructions specific to your browser and the version you are using. If your Web account is not located on the Freepages server, modify the ftp:// address in the instructions to reflect the location of your account.</p></td></tr></tbody></table>Hugh Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207noreply@blogger.com0