In todays advanced marketplace there are a number of inexpensive Custom Web Site Software programs offered. These programs offer a large array of tools and devices through which a person can design and put together a website that is completely suited to either an individual or business use.
It is very important to keep in mind when selecting an easy website program that fits snugly with your own skills and talents, you need to honestly assess your own familiarity of website design and website building. You should also honestly assess your own knowledge as the same apply to the understanding of software products.
You do not want to purchase a custom web site builder software program that operates in a manner beyond your technical means. You will end up upset if not utterly defeated. It is likely that if you obtain and attempt to use a software program that has tools and devices that outstrip your abilities and is hard to use, you may end up with a website that is not the way you would like it.
Additionally making certain that the custom web site builder program that you buy will be easy to learn, you will want to make certain that such a program includes features that will best suit your own particular needs.
By way of an example, many website builders require you to construct an entire site layout, or part of the site such as a nav bar in one sitting. Therefore, there is no proverbial pause button on the program. This type of software would not be best for an individual who is busy and simply does not have many blocks of the required time to design a basic website.
There are now custom web site builder programs on the market that allow an individual to build and design a site layout in small steps. So now, you choose how much work you want to accomplish in one sitting. You are in charge and you are in control of the timing of the building of a website.
Source: http://www.a1articles.com
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Increasing Your Marketability: An Introduction to Accessible Web Design
Accessibility in Web Design addresses the issue of creating Web sites that are accessible to all users, regardless of physical ability or the way in which they are using the Internet.
Why Accessibility Is Important
Why aren't all Web sites accessible? You may be asking yourself why this issue exists and why all Web sites aren't already accessible to all users. There are a number of reasons.
Visually Disabled Users
Visually disabled users ranging from colour blind to fully blind have problems with images that do not provide a text description of what they show. Without a text description a user who can't see an image has no way of knowing what it is or what it represents.
These users also have problems understanding sites that are not logically built when "viewed" using a non-visual browser such as a screen reader. A screen reader is a Web Browser that reads Web sites out loud so as to make them accessible to visually disabled users. Often a Web site that looks nice visually will be a complete mess when it is listened to through a screen reader.
Hearing Disabilities
In a similar way to visually disabled users not having any way of understanding an image, users with hearing disabilities have no way of understanding information that is communicated with sound, unless an alternative is provided that does not use sound, such as a text description or an image.
Physical Disabilities
If you are not physically disabled, have you tried using a Web site without your mouse? Unless you were lucky with the site you chose then you probably found it very difficult. Physically disabled users are often incapable of using a mouse. Unless these users needs are taken into account when creating Web site navigation and input methods physically disabled users will sometimes find a Web site completely inaccessible.
Cognitive and Neurological Disabilities
Web sites can be complex, and finding the information we want can be difficult for the most able of us. This is not helped by sites that use an overly complex design, navigation that works differently on different pages (inconsistent) and distracting repetitive animation. All of these problems are compounded for users with Cognitive and Neurological Disabilities and this makes some sites completely inaccessible for them.
Beyond Disabilities
As we have seen, using the Internet if you have a disability can be a difficult task. By observing and understanding the guidelines for accessible Web Design, a site can be produced that serves it's purpose and is accessible to all of it's users, not just those without disabilities. But it doesn't stop there. Accessible Web Design has benefits for other users too.
The Marketplace
There's another reason for making the site accessible .According to current figures disabled users currently make up around 10% to 20% of the population in most countries. Increase that for the amount of users who fall into the categories listed above and you're looking at up to 30% of the market. If making the site accessible to 30% of the market doesn't persuade you that accessible Web Design is worth it then stop reading now.
The average age of the population in many countries is also increasing. Aging results in a number of accessibility issues including vision and hearing changes and changes in dexterity and memory. If your market includes a significant number of elderly users then better increase that 30% to a much larger percentage of users who will reap the benefits of accessible Web Design.
--
Dallin Horneby is a design professional for a New York Web Design company. He has has helped to establish many successful online Web Design businesses over the past 10 years.
Why Accessibility Is Important
Why aren't all Web sites accessible? You may be asking yourself why this issue exists and why all Web sites aren't already accessible to all users. There are a number of reasons.
Visually Disabled Users
Visually disabled users ranging from colour blind to fully blind have problems with images that do not provide a text description of what they show. Without a text description a user who can't see an image has no way of knowing what it is or what it represents.
These users also have problems understanding sites that are not logically built when "viewed" using a non-visual browser such as a screen reader. A screen reader is a Web Browser that reads Web sites out loud so as to make them accessible to visually disabled users. Often a Web site that looks nice visually will be a complete mess when it is listened to through a screen reader.
Hearing Disabilities
In a similar way to visually disabled users not having any way of understanding an image, users with hearing disabilities have no way of understanding information that is communicated with sound, unless an alternative is provided that does not use sound, such as a text description or an image.
Physical Disabilities
If you are not physically disabled, have you tried using a Web site without your mouse? Unless you were lucky with the site you chose then you probably found it very difficult. Physically disabled users are often incapable of using a mouse. Unless these users needs are taken into account when creating Web site navigation and input methods physically disabled users will sometimes find a Web site completely inaccessible.
Cognitive and Neurological Disabilities
Web sites can be complex, and finding the information we want can be difficult for the most able of us. This is not helped by sites that use an overly complex design, navigation that works differently on different pages (inconsistent) and distracting repetitive animation. All of these problems are compounded for users with Cognitive and Neurological Disabilities and this makes some sites completely inaccessible for them.
Beyond Disabilities
As we have seen, using the Internet if you have a disability can be a difficult task. By observing and understanding the guidelines for accessible Web Design, a site can be produced that serves it's purpose and is accessible to all of it's users, not just those without disabilities. But it doesn't stop there. Accessible Web Design has benefits for other users too.
The Marketplace
There's another reason for making the site accessible .According to current figures disabled users currently make up around 10% to 20% of the population in most countries. Increase that for the amount of users who fall into the categories listed above and you're looking at up to 30% of the market. If making the site accessible to 30% of the market doesn't persuade you that accessible Web Design is worth it then stop reading now.
The average age of the population in many countries is also increasing. Aging results in a number of accessibility issues including vision and hearing changes and changes in dexterity and memory. If your market includes a significant number of elderly users then better increase that 30% to a much larger percentage of users who will reap the benefits of accessible Web Design.
--
Dallin Horneby is a design professional for a New York Web Design company. He has has helped to establish many successful online Web Design businesses over the past 10 years.
Benefits of Working with a Logo Designer
There are many benefits that you can take advantage of by hiring a logo designer to work on your behalf. So many people need a professional logo designer, but in the end they are too cheap to hire one. Instead of letting this happen to you, you should simply consider the benefits of working with a logo designer. This will surely show you that it is well worth the money.
Here are three benefits that go along with hiring a logo designer.
1. You may not think it, but the logo that you use can go a long way in making your company a success. Think about all of the big companies in the world today. They all have a quality logo that consumers relate to their products. If you work with a professional logo designer you can become one of those companies more easily.
2. Logo designers are good at what they do. All you have to do is give them some background on your company, and they will in turn take things from there. Even if you have no clue as to what type of logo you want they should be able to help you out.
3. Contrary to popular belief working with a logo designer is not always an expensive project. There are many logo designers to choose from, and if you take your time you should be able to find one that suits your every need.
Even if you do not think that a logo designer can help you out, why not get in touch with one in order to learn a bit more? They will be able to supply you with details on what they can do for you, pricing, and samples of past work. When you take all of these things into consideration you will be able to see if working with a logo designer is right for you.
As you can see, there are many benefits that you can take advantage of when you work with a logo designer. Although this is going to cost you some money, a good logo is priceless if you want your business or website to be a success.
http://www.a1articles.com
Here are three benefits that go along with hiring a logo designer.
1. You may not think it, but the logo that you use can go a long way in making your company a success. Think about all of the big companies in the world today. They all have a quality logo that consumers relate to their products. If you work with a professional logo designer you can become one of those companies more easily.
2. Logo designers are good at what they do. All you have to do is give them some background on your company, and they will in turn take things from there. Even if you have no clue as to what type of logo you want they should be able to help you out.
3. Contrary to popular belief working with a logo designer is not always an expensive project. There are many logo designers to choose from, and if you take your time you should be able to find one that suits your every need.
Even if you do not think that a logo designer can help you out, why not get in touch with one in order to learn a bit more? They will be able to supply you with details on what they can do for you, pricing, and samples of past work. When you take all of these things into consideration you will be able to see if working with a logo designer is right for you.
As you can see, there are many benefits that you can take advantage of when you work with a logo designer. Although this is going to cost you some money, a good logo is priceless if you want your business or website to be a success.
http://www.a1articles.com
Advantages Of A Professional Web Design Vs Doing It Yourself
Your website says a great deal about you and your business. It can make the difference between making a sell and the consumer using another website for their purchase. It is quite possible to design a website on your own, but it isn’t always the best choice.
A professional web designer has insight about what consumers are going to focus on and how to set your site up to offer them exactly what they are looking for. They are also very skilled in how to promote various aspects of your website to help you generate even more sales.
Having a professional design your website generally means you won’t have to spend so much of your time focusing on this aspect of the business. Websites continually need changes and updates so you can see how that will eat away at your time. This means the navigation tools will often need revamping to keep up with such changes. A professional web designer is an expert in making everything fall into place. You want the consumer to be able to click and access on your website without having to consider how to make it happen.
A professional web designer does cost more than doing it yourself, but you can avoid common mistakes that plague do it your self website projects. A huge issue is the scripting of the website. It takes more than good spelling and grammar to make it interesting and attractive to the consumer. Graphic designs look great, but do you know how they affect the consumer? It may attract their attention but if it takes too long for the graphic to open they will likely move on to another website.
You can avoid both of these issues by placing your web design needs into the hand of a professional web designer.
A professional web designer has insight about what consumers are going to focus on and how to set your site up to offer them exactly what they are looking for. They are also very skilled in how to promote various aspects of your website to help you generate even more sales.
Having a professional design your website generally means you won’t have to spend so much of your time focusing on this aspect of the business. Websites continually need changes and updates so you can see how that will eat away at your time. This means the navigation tools will often need revamping to keep up with such changes. A professional web designer is an expert in making everything fall into place. You want the consumer to be able to click and access on your website without having to consider how to make it happen.
A professional web designer does cost more than doing it yourself, but you can avoid common mistakes that plague do it your self website projects. A huge issue is the scripting of the website. It takes more than good spelling and grammar to make it interesting and attractive to the consumer. Graphic designs look great, but do you know how they affect the consumer? It may attract their attention but if it takes too long for the graphic to open they will likely move on to another website.
You can avoid both of these issues by placing your web design needs into the hand of a professional web designer.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Moreworld Development Webdesign
We have specialists that offer a variety of services to suit your every online development need. If we don't posses the expertise you seek we are more than happy to refer you to one of our partners who may better meet your needs. From website designing to e-marketing, web consultation & software development, we are here to improve your presence on the internet help you reach your desired business goals.
We offer complete web design and development services including:
* New site design
* Existing site redesign
* Website updates and maintenance
We specialize in custom web site design, web site solutions, custom web site development and custom online publishing. We develop using the latest tools and techniques, including:
We use Tools:
Macromedia Dreamweaver
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe ImageReady
CorelDraw
Macromedia Flash
Macromedia Fireworks
Core Technologies:
HTML
DHTML
CSS
XML
Javascript
VBscript
We offer complete web design and development services including:
* New site design
* Existing site redesign
* Website updates and maintenance
We specialize in custom web site design, web site solutions, custom web site development and custom online publishing. We develop using the latest tools and techniques, including:
We use Tools:
Macromedia Dreamweaver
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe ImageReady
CorelDraw
Macromedia Flash
Macromedia Fireworks
Core Technologies:
HTML
DHTML
CSS
XML
Javascript
VBscript
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Thursday, March 1, 2007
How To Learn Designing Your First Website
HTML is a common language for building and designing website. It tells the Internet browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox how to display web content on the screen via HTML tags. In fact, everything you see on the web is under the control of HTML. What is HTML editor? It is a software like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage which helps you to create websites even though you know nothing about HTML.
WOW! Does it mean by using HTML editor, you need not learn HTML yourself?? NOT necessarily. Below I'll explain why and will also talk about some learning tips.
HTML
As I told you earlier, everything you see on the web is under the instructions written in HTML. Therefore, HTML editors also create webpages using HTML. The difference is that when you use HTML editor, you just have to click the buttons to "draw" webpages as you see on screen (What-You-See) and then HTML editor writes the HTML tags for you to display the webpages on web browser in exactly the same form (What-You-Get). However, it always happens that HTML editors write clumsy HTML tags, especially when you amend the webpage layout again and again during your website designing process, which may possibly deter search engines from reading your web page and in turn poorly affect your search engine ranking. What's worse, your website cannot even be listed in search engines at all! The clumsy HTML codings will also increase your file size and hence the loading time, encouraging visitors to leave your website soon. Therefore, you should understand HTML to unable yourself to modify the HTML codes produced by WYSIWYG HTML editors. Besides, in the designing perspective, there are also some design limitations and restrictions using HTML editors when compared to free writing of HTML codes. If you would like some special design or custom look to your webpages, you are recommended to have some knowledge on HTML yourself. In more advanced level, if you are to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your web page, you should know how to make use of meta tags like title, content, alt, header, etc. in order to attain better keyword positions in search engines. If you just happen to own a website designed by others, you should learn HTML in order to edit the context of your website without the need to depend on someone else in this simple but routine updating task. Or you have no website yet but you like to write articles to be displayed in others' websites, you also should learn HTML in order to create appropriate links in your articles for others' easy reference.
Tips: If you have already got some basic knowledge on HTML, you may study Getting Started With HTML which is the most popular free HTML tutorials online provided by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which develops interoperable technologies including specifications, guidelines, software and tools to lead the Web to its full potential. If you still find the above tutorials too difficult or boring to start with or your time being too limited, "One Hour HTML" is highly recommended for you. It is a practical program to take you step by step in learning HTML from the very beginning and it offers you hands-on HTML encoding experience instead of merely teaching you theories so that you could have already experienced creating webpage using HTML as early as in the first hour of learning.
WYSIWYG HTML Editor
Indeed, despite my understanding on HTML, like many other web designers, I like to use WYSIWYG HTML editor such as Dreamweaver a lot and in fact, I can't even think of living without it once I encountered it as it saves me so much time in writing the complex HTML codes and the best advantage is that i can immediately visualize the effect in the splitted WYSIWYG designing screen whenever I change the HTML codings above in the HTML encoding screen! I am not contradicting myself. In fact, the key to make use WYSIWYG HTML editor software is that you have to learn the software well and to use its buttons for quick and easy HTML editing yet you don't let the software generated HTML codes to take the control but it is you who know how to master all HTML tags and to make any necessary changes to the HTML tags in order to bring the best visual and seo benefits to your website. Among all HTML editors in the market, Dreamweaver and Frontpage are the most popular ones. Dreamweaver is very popular among professional web designers while Frontpage is popular for small enterprise users. Dreamweaver has more user-friendly features than Frontpage which include its seamless integration with Flash, its automatic generation of closing tags once you enter the opening tags, the fact that it would not automatically re-write your codings like Frontpage does when you save an external HTML page not created by Frontpage, etc. Despite less user-friendly features, Frontpage is a Microsoft Office's tool which many of you will be familiar with and it is fine enough for creating or editing websites for small projects.
Tips: If you have never encountered HTML editors before, you may download the free trial provided by Macromedia. There are a few good Dreamweaver tutorials in the market. Among those, "Tutorials-4-You" and "Dreamweaver Made Simple" are two more popular ones due to the interactive nature of their video tutorials, giving Dreamweaver beginners hands on experience in using Dreamweaver from the very beginning of the tutorials. For Tutorials-4-You, a free demo is offered for you to experience the tutorials yourself and you can choose the version of Dreamweaver in meeting your practical needs. For Dreamweaver Made Simple, you are offered free download of a few chapters of the videos plus the ebook. Why not giving a try? It's free and for sure you'll have a lot of fun!
CSS
Aha! So it comes the time for CSS. If you are using HTML editors like Dreamweaver, indeed you are using CSS and creating styles yourself without even your noticing it! Wait, so you may ask, why do I need to learn CSS when I am able to create styles even without my own notice using an HTML editor? I can just tell you the answer is - "magics". Yes yes, CSS is indeed a magic and it also creates many magics. But are you satisfied if you are just able to perform one of the many magics of CSS? Your answer is surely NO. Let me tell you what the CSS magics are.
CSS Magic #1:
- You no longer need to rewrite the same set of presentation style attributes like font color, background style, alignment, border, size, etc. repeatedly within the HTML codings but can group the set of attributes into a single style class within the stylesheet. In your HTML document, you just have to call it out using the style name. CSS is well designed to allow the separation of presentation style from the main content and a stylesheet can either be included inline as part of the HTML document or referenced externally as a CSS file. (So you may have already tried this magic from Dreamweaver)
CSS Magic #2:
- You now have great control over how your website looks and can change the presentation of hundreds or even thousands of your web pages by altering just one file (i.e. your stylesheet!) if it is referenced externally as a single source by your different web pages instead of being contained inline in each one of your web page. Presentation information including positioning, layout, font, color, etc. for your entire website can be contained in this single CSS file.
CSS Magic #3:
- You can eliminate the use of table to be nested inside some more tables for your web design layout anymore as you may now use the CSS file to control the positioning of all elements inside your website. Spiders no longer have to crawl through each one of your tables and page loading time can be much faster as visitors only have to download the lightweight stylesheet once and it is automatically reused for every page. What's remained to be loaded is the actual HTML content which is now much smaller in size and hence your website can be made visible in a flash! What's more, you can now get rid of a lot of complicated codes with tables and so your site code can be cleaner and neater for prior view and amendment.
CSS Magic#4:
- You can use CSS to place your important keyword phrases at top of your web pages which search engines love before other of your source code. In such a way, you can gain search engine ranking benefits as search engines like Google gives more weight to content closer to the top of your HTML document and now search engines can pick up the main content of your website first before your header images or navigation menus.
CSS Magic#5:
- You can use CSS to simulate some beautiful javascript effects like rollover buttons in your website design. Yet, you need not have any images visible on your html codes which will slow down your page loading time and you need not worry about visitors turning off javascript in eliminating pop-ups as for now, all are done just inside your CSS file instead of your HTML documents.
Actually CSS can bring about much more than the above 5 magics. As I said in the first paragraph, learning CSS is not a "must" but you can certainly perform magics in your website when you know it more and more. Moreover, using CSS is a trend in web design and it is also conforming to future web standard in letting your website compatible with different browsers and making it much easier to be spidered by different search engines.
Tips: I myself am learning it right a way and I find myself like a magician whenever I learn to eliminate the long HTML tags and replace them using CSS! I have done many researches on CSS tutorials and I find "How To Master CSS" of such a high quality and it meets my needs so well! It is a CSS know-it-all, teaching me all I need to master CSS in simple languages and how to use CSS to its full potential. Its step-by-step training videos and comprehensive CSS book are my favourites and it is even used by school teachers in teaching web design in class! It's really worth a try if you are to learn CSS yourself. There is also a 100% risk-free money back guarantee, as for other professional web design related tutorials that I recommended. But I'm sure you won't need it after your first trial on the tutorial! If you want a free tutorial regarding some basics of CSS instead, I would recommend "Adding A Touch Of Style" which is also provided by the reputable World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Conclusion
Building and designing website is not as difficult as you think. It just takes you hours to start with but of course it takes more time for your further practices. However, it will become your valuable asset for life once you've acquired the skill and got to know the crack. Don't you hesitate anymore. Start learning it today!
If you want to obtain more information and resources about website designing tutorials, please visit http://www.about-webdesign.com
About the Author
Want to learn more about how to design a good website? Siuchu Suga is a specialist on the above subject and also the webmaster of http://www.about-webdesign.com.
Source: http://www.a1articles.com
WOW! Does it mean by using HTML editor, you need not learn HTML yourself?? NOT necessarily. Below I'll explain why and will also talk about some learning tips.
HTML
As I told you earlier, everything you see on the web is under the instructions written in HTML. Therefore, HTML editors also create webpages using HTML. The difference is that when you use HTML editor, you just have to click the buttons to "draw" webpages as you see on screen (What-You-See) and then HTML editor writes the HTML tags for you to display the webpages on web browser in exactly the same form (What-You-Get). However, it always happens that HTML editors write clumsy HTML tags, especially when you amend the webpage layout again and again during your website designing process, which may possibly deter search engines from reading your web page and in turn poorly affect your search engine ranking. What's worse, your website cannot even be listed in search engines at all! The clumsy HTML codings will also increase your file size and hence the loading time, encouraging visitors to leave your website soon. Therefore, you should understand HTML to unable yourself to modify the HTML codes produced by WYSIWYG HTML editors. Besides, in the designing perspective, there are also some design limitations and restrictions using HTML editors when compared to free writing of HTML codes. If you would like some special design or custom look to your webpages, you are recommended to have some knowledge on HTML yourself. In more advanced level, if you are to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your web page, you should know how to make use of meta tags like title, content, alt, header, etc. in order to attain better keyword positions in search engines. If you just happen to own a website designed by others, you should learn HTML in order to edit the context of your website without the need to depend on someone else in this simple but routine updating task. Or you have no website yet but you like to write articles to be displayed in others' websites, you also should learn HTML in order to create appropriate links in your articles for others' easy reference.
Tips: If you have already got some basic knowledge on HTML, you may study Getting Started With HTML which is the most popular free HTML tutorials online provided by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which develops interoperable technologies including specifications, guidelines, software and tools to lead the Web to its full potential. If you still find the above tutorials too difficult or boring to start with or your time being too limited, "One Hour HTML" is highly recommended for you. It is a practical program to take you step by step in learning HTML from the very beginning and it offers you hands-on HTML encoding experience instead of merely teaching you theories so that you could have already experienced creating webpage using HTML as early as in the first hour of learning.
WYSIWYG HTML Editor
Indeed, despite my understanding on HTML, like many other web designers, I like to use WYSIWYG HTML editor such as Dreamweaver a lot and in fact, I can't even think of living without it once I encountered it as it saves me so much time in writing the complex HTML codes and the best advantage is that i can immediately visualize the effect in the splitted WYSIWYG designing screen whenever I change the HTML codings above in the HTML encoding screen! I am not contradicting myself. In fact, the key to make use WYSIWYG HTML editor software is that you have to learn the software well and to use its buttons for quick and easy HTML editing yet you don't let the software generated HTML codes to take the control but it is you who know how to master all HTML tags and to make any necessary changes to the HTML tags in order to bring the best visual and seo benefits to your website. Among all HTML editors in the market, Dreamweaver and Frontpage are the most popular ones. Dreamweaver is very popular among professional web designers while Frontpage is popular for small enterprise users. Dreamweaver has more user-friendly features than Frontpage which include its seamless integration with Flash, its automatic generation of closing tags once you enter the opening tags, the fact that it would not automatically re-write your codings like Frontpage does when you save an external HTML page not created by Frontpage, etc. Despite less user-friendly features, Frontpage is a Microsoft Office's tool which many of you will be familiar with and it is fine enough for creating or editing websites for small projects.
Tips: If you have never encountered HTML editors before, you may download the free trial provided by Macromedia. There are a few good Dreamweaver tutorials in the market. Among those, "Tutorials-4-You" and "Dreamweaver Made Simple" are two more popular ones due to the interactive nature of their video tutorials, giving Dreamweaver beginners hands on experience in using Dreamweaver from the very beginning of the tutorials. For Tutorials-4-You, a free demo is offered for you to experience the tutorials yourself and you can choose the version of Dreamweaver in meeting your practical needs. For Dreamweaver Made Simple, you are offered free download of a few chapters of the videos plus the ebook. Why not giving a try? It's free and for sure you'll have a lot of fun!
CSS
Aha! So it comes the time for CSS. If you are using HTML editors like Dreamweaver, indeed you are using CSS and creating styles yourself without even your noticing it! Wait, so you may ask, why do I need to learn CSS when I am able to create styles even without my own notice using an HTML editor? I can just tell you the answer is - "magics". Yes yes, CSS is indeed a magic and it also creates many magics. But are you satisfied if you are just able to perform one of the many magics of CSS? Your answer is surely NO. Let me tell you what the CSS magics are.
CSS Magic #1:
- You no longer need to rewrite the same set of presentation style attributes like font color, background style, alignment, border, size, etc. repeatedly within the HTML codings but can group the set of attributes into a single style class within the stylesheet. In your HTML document, you just have to call it out using the style name. CSS is well designed to allow the separation of presentation style from the main content and a stylesheet can either be included inline as part of the HTML document or referenced externally as a CSS file. (So you may have already tried this magic from Dreamweaver)
CSS Magic #2:
- You now have great control over how your website looks and can change the presentation of hundreds or even thousands of your web pages by altering just one file (i.e. your stylesheet!) if it is referenced externally as a single source by your different web pages instead of being contained inline in each one of your web page. Presentation information including positioning, layout, font, color, etc. for your entire website can be contained in this single CSS file.
CSS Magic #3:
- You can eliminate the use of table to be nested inside some more tables for your web design layout anymore as you may now use the CSS file to control the positioning of all elements inside your website. Spiders no longer have to crawl through each one of your tables and page loading time can be much faster as visitors only have to download the lightweight stylesheet once and it is automatically reused for every page. What's remained to be loaded is the actual HTML content which is now much smaller in size and hence your website can be made visible in a flash! What's more, you can now get rid of a lot of complicated codes with tables and so your site code can be cleaner and neater for prior view and amendment.
CSS Magic#4:
- You can use CSS to place your important keyword phrases at top of your web pages which search engines love before other of your source code. In such a way, you can gain search engine ranking benefits as search engines like Google gives more weight to content closer to the top of your HTML document and now search engines can pick up the main content of your website first before your header images or navigation menus.
CSS Magic#5:
- You can use CSS to simulate some beautiful javascript effects like rollover buttons in your website design. Yet, you need not have any images visible on your html codes which will slow down your page loading time and you need not worry about visitors turning off javascript in eliminating pop-ups as for now, all are done just inside your CSS file instead of your HTML documents.
Actually CSS can bring about much more than the above 5 magics. As I said in the first paragraph, learning CSS is not a "must" but you can certainly perform magics in your website when you know it more and more. Moreover, using CSS is a trend in web design and it is also conforming to future web standard in letting your website compatible with different browsers and making it much easier to be spidered by different search engines.
Tips: I myself am learning it right a way and I find myself like a magician whenever I learn to eliminate the long HTML tags and replace them using CSS! I have done many researches on CSS tutorials and I find "How To Master CSS" of such a high quality and it meets my needs so well! It is a CSS know-it-all, teaching me all I need to master CSS in simple languages and how to use CSS to its full potential. Its step-by-step training videos and comprehensive CSS book are my favourites and it is even used by school teachers in teaching web design in class! It's really worth a try if you are to learn CSS yourself. There is also a 100% risk-free money back guarantee, as for other professional web design related tutorials that I recommended. But I'm sure you won't need it after your first trial on the tutorial! If you want a free tutorial regarding some basics of CSS instead, I would recommend "Adding A Touch Of Style" which is also provided by the reputable World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Conclusion
Building and designing website is not as difficult as you think. It just takes you hours to start with but of course it takes more time for your further practices. However, it will become your valuable asset for life once you've acquired the skill and got to know the crack. Don't you hesitate anymore. Start learning it today!
If you want to obtain more information and resources about website designing tutorials, please visit http://www.about-webdesign.com
About the Author
Want to learn more about how to design a good website? Siuchu Suga is a specialist on the above subject and also the webmaster of http://www.about-webdesign.com.
Source: http://www.a1articles.com
WebDesign Blunders: 7 things you should not do to your site.
As a freelance webpage designer I often come accross
sites designed so horribly or so badly maintained that I
often find myself emailing the author some quick fixes or
pointing out script errors.
Number One: Colorful pages
We've all seen them, you know the florescent green,
yellow or orange backgrounds. Just don't do it ... it's
ugly and it overpowers the text on the screen making it
difficult for those who don't click away instantly to
comprehend what your site is trying to say.
Number Two: Super-Font-Man
These are pages with 3 or more drastically different
font types on one page. They usually start of with Times New
Roman(looks like newspaper text) and then switch to 2, 3, 4
and sometimes more different font styles. A word of advice -
stick to arial or verdana at size 3 for general text and
reserve Times New Roman for headlines, and please don't
dare use H1 headings they appear super large.
Number Three: Black Backgrounds
Why on earth would anyone use a black background for
their website? Have you ever read a book with black pages
and white text? I don't think so. White text on a black
background will cause eye strain and literally give you a
headache.
Besides it takes much longer to load a black
background because your computer screen has to paint
'paint' on many colors to get a black background. White
loads the quickest and works best with black text.
Number Four: Msiplet Wrods
A scientific test recently proved that mispelt words
can be read by the human brain without much problem as
long as the first and last letters are in the right place.
See waht I maen?
But if you are trying to sell a product or service to
a visitor bad spelling and indeed bad grammar can seriously
ruin your reputation. If you can't take 3 minutes to
spellcheck your salesletter chances are the product won't
be of highest quality either, at least that how it is
interpreted by your visitors.
Number Five: Script Errors
Ooh my favorite! Ever got a javascript error when you
visited a website, it often says 'abc is not an object' or
'script error found at line 12'. Script errors are just
like spelling and grammar errors but more annoying because
they often will pop up an alert box with some strange
error message to make sure your visitor is aware that
something is wrong with your web page.
Number Six: 100 links on your home page ...
...and only 20 of them still work. The rest are broken and
your visitor can't even email you and tell you that you've
got 80 broken links on your home page because ...
Number Seven: No Contact Information
I can't tell you about the errors on your page or ask
you a question about your product because there is no way to
contact you. You have no email address, no phone number,
no postal address, not even your business name ... are you
even a real person? Who knows?
Strangely enough the persons that commit these design
blunders online will walk into a restaurant or store and
point out everything wrong with the place. Go figure.
http://a1articles.com/article_35551_4.html
sites designed so horribly or so badly maintained that I
often find myself emailing the author some quick fixes or
pointing out script errors.
Number One: Colorful pages
We've all seen them, you know the florescent green,
yellow or orange backgrounds. Just don't do it ... it's
ugly and it overpowers the text on the screen making it
difficult for those who don't click away instantly to
comprehend what your site is trying to say.
Number Two: Super-Font-Man
These are pages with 3 or more drastically different
font types on one page. They usually start of with Times New
Roman(looks like newspaper text) and then switch to 2, 3, 4
and sometimes more different font styles. A word of advice -
stick to arial or verdana at size 3 for general text and
reserve Times New Roman for headlines, and please don't
dare use H1 headings they appear super large.
Number Three: Black Backgrounds
Why on earth would anyone use a black background for
their website? Have you ever read a book with black pages
and white text? I don't think so. White text on a black
background will cause eye strain and literally give you a
headache.
Besides it takes much longer to load a black
background because your computer screen has to paint
'paint' on many colors to get a black background. White
loads the quickest and works best with black text.
Number Four: Msiplet Wrods
A scientific test recently proved that mispelt words
can be read by the human brain without much problem as
long as the first and last letters are in the right place.
See waht I maen?
But if you are trying to sell a product or service to
a visitor bad spelling and indeed bad grammar can seriously
ruin your reputation. If you can't take 3 minutes to
spellcheck your salesletter chances are the product won't
be of highest quality either, at least that how it is
interpreted by your visitors.
Number Five: Script Errors
Ooh my favorite! Ever got a javascript error when you
visited a website, it often says 'abc is not an object' or
'script error found at line 12'. Script errors are just
like spelling and grammar errors but more annoying because
they often will pop up an alert box with some strange
error message to make sure your visitor is aware that
something is wrong with your web page.
Number Six: 100 links on your home page ...
...and only 20 of them still work. The rest are broken and
your visitor can't even email you and tell you that you've
got 80 broken links on your home page because ...
Number Seven: No Contact Information
I can't tell you about the errors on your page or ask
you a question about your product because there is no way to
contact you. You have no email address, no phone number,
no postal address, not even your business name ... are you
even a real person? Who knows?
Strangely enough the persons that commit these design
blunders online will walk into a restaurant or store and
point out everything wrong with the place. Go figure.
http://a1articles.com/article_35551_4.html
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