Sunday
Mar232003
CSS
March 23, 2003
(Hmmm....the espresso must be in the bloodstream, 'cause the fingers keep typing :-) CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are in use, at least to a degree, on more and more sites. This is pretty much required if one wishes to approach a goal of separating content from presentation. In the USA, the Rehabilitation Act's Section 508 requires Federal agencies to make their web sites accessible to those with disabilities. This would include designing the site to be compatible with software that 'reads' the site for folks who are visually impaired. More on theories of usability is available at Jakob Nielsen's site.
As for me, I see that the folks who have graciously offered Domino blog templates (BlogSphere, CodeStore, DominoBlog, and FreeDom Blog - on which this site is currently based) have all used CSS to some or large degree. On my own site, one of my goals is to completely get away from the use of tables for formatting, unless I am presenting true tabular data (row/column stuff).
So, as a start, a week or so ago I changed my About page to use only CSS for the presentation, instead of tables. I've used tables for years to control the presentation of data within Notes client documents and pages, Domino pages, and 'regular' web sites. Part of that is from having FrontPage at work and at home (NetObjects Fusion at home before that), and it's just so easy to use the WYSIWYG editors to get a page looking how you want. But if you look at the generated html, it's a mess! There are font tags and all kinds of junk strewn throughout the page. While FrontPage (and I'm guessing most other web tools) have provisions for CSS, if one simply opens the tool and starts building a page, what you end up with is heavy use of tables and heavy use of the HTML4-deprecated font tag.
My first html editor was Notepad and that's still the editor I use the most. When using FrontPage, I tend to use the html tab to type or paste in my html (after first deleting the stuff that FrontPage puts in there), and then use the preview mode to check how it's looking. Even easier is using my favorite JavaScript editor, Antechinus, plopping the html in there, and doing a preview.
With the studying I'm doing, and all the stuff going on at work, no guarantees just how soon I'll meet my goal of a site devoid of tables, a site with ALT text equivalents for all images, etc.,etc........but it will happen.
As for me, I see that the folks who have graciously offered Domino blog templates (BlogSphere, CodeStore, DominoBlog, and FreeDom Blog - on which this site is currently based) have all used CSS to some or large degree. On my own site, one of my goals is to completely get away from the use of tables for formatting, unless I am presenting true tabular data (row/column stuff).
So, as a start, a week or so ago I changed my About page to use only CSS for the presentation, instead of tables. I've used tables for years to control the presentation of data within Notes client documents and pages, Domino pages, and 'regular' web sites. Part of that is from having FrontPage at work and at home (NetObjects Fusion at home before that), and it's just so easy to use the WYSIWYG editors to get a page looking how you want. But if you look at the generated html, it's a mess! There are font tags and all kinds of junk strewn throughout the page. While FrontPage (and I'm guessing most other web tools) have provisions for CSS, if one simply opens the tool and starts building a page, what you end up with is heavy use of tables and heavy use of the HTML4-deprecated font tag.
My first html editor was Notepad and that's still the editor I use the most. When using FrontPage, I tend to use the html tab to type or paste in my html (after first deleting the stuff that FrontPage puts in there), and then use the preview mode to check how it's looking. Even easier is using my favorite JavaScript editor, Antechinus, plopping the html in there, and doing a preview.
With the studying I'm doing, and all the stuff going on at work, no guarantees just how soon I'll meet my goal of a site devoid of tables, a site with ALT text equivalents for all images, etc.,etc........but it will happen.
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