Sunday, November 09, 2008

Validation: Why bother?

If you give your web page a doctype, then you can make use of a validator to see that the markup is in good condition.

Smarten up your act. Validate your web pages so that web browsers know what they are getting and can interpret your HTML correctly.

Validation is an important part of web site implementation because if a page validates it means that the main browsers will be getting well formed markup and (in theory) should be able to render your design as expected.

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Start of the Page Navigation

Where pages are very long, like a list of events or news items, we might want a way to quickly move back the top of the page.

You will have seen ‘back to the Top’ or some such phrase used on web sites. I have always hated seeing that phrse, because ‘top’ doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Words lke this just distract from the real content.

There are often times, though that pages become very long when lots of items (like in a blog) are listed, and it really does help if there is a quick way to get back to the navigation and menus etc.

Here is what I am doing on a few sites.

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Monday, February 04, 2008

Public or Private

I have set up a few forums and blogs with commenting and I have had some thoughts and issues about what should be private and what should be public. This can often lead to confusion. Why should things need to be kept private and how do you manage different levels of privilege?

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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Page or Leaf

What is the difference between a page and a leaf?

I was thinking of the word leaf and how it is not often used in relation to books and metaphors that we use in screen-media.

The page of a book is the surface on which words and pictures are presented. The leaf refers to the actual sheet. A leaf will have two pages - one on each side. We say in the English idiom:

Turn a new leaf

To mean, starting again in a positive way. Of course, this means turning two pages. Screens are only one sided but there are a variety of ebook systems that simulate the turning of a page. I wrote an article about this a while ago, so I make a link to it here.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Concealed in a Book?

Our holiday in Greece this summer got off to a bad start. We found ourselves at Heathrow at 8am, in the middle of the security alert that was widely reported.

Queuing at the check-in desk we were told to put all hand luggage into the hold, so we had to stuff our suitcases with all the things that we expected to be able to carry-on. Are we OK to take a book each? - I asked. That should be alright, said an airline worker.

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