I’m constantly running across different useful sites when it comes to choosing a Web page’s HTML, formatting, CSS, fonts, layout, and so forth. Here are a couple of notable ones:
FontTester, as you might expect, lets you play with different CSS and HTML options to adjust what fonts you use and how they are formatted. The page starts with up to three columns of sample text at the top. Then you can edit the properties of the individual columns to compare and contrast different effects. Once you have the look you like, including color, line height, indentation, and more, you can copy the corresponding CSS.
If you’re new to CSS, you might want to check out CSS Basics. I think it’s a fairly straightforward, easy to understand introduction to Cascading Style Sheets. Once you’ve grasped CSS fundamentals, and found yourself wanting more, check out the exhaustive 84 Amazingly Useful CSS Tips & Resources. There are links to LOTS of good content there; just give yourself time to kill and don’t forget to take good notes!
Once you’ve got a site fairly well developed, you ought to do the professional thing and check its accessibility. This is a pretty easy step to skip, especially if you don’t have personal experience in accessing sites using non-standard tools. Sitepoint put together an article worth reading called 12 Tools To Check Your Site’s Accessibility. Some are software plug-ins that work with Dreamweaver, Eclipse, Firefox, or Opera; other tools are Web based, just like those used to validate a site’s HTML. Besides increasing the potential number of viewers for your site, making it universally accessible may even be something that’s mandated by the client. For example, I do a lot of work for educational institutions and the federal government, both of which insist on sites being accessible.
When it comes to CSS you need to know the compatibility, http://www.webdevout.net/browser-support-css
Make sure you click “Pick browsers to display”.
And for checking the design HTML cutup in IE use the IE Tester, http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
Thanks for those suggestions, Jason. Good additions!
Glad you are back, Larry.
I’d like to know your opnitons, if you have, about CSS 3, HTML 5, and Codeigniter. There are a lot of hype about the first two items. And I am pondering when I should start them.
Thanks for the support and for the comments. In reverse, I’ve heard very good things about CodeIgniter. I’ve not used it, though, simply because it runs on PHP 4 and I’m of the opinion that the object model changed so significantly (for the better) in PHP 5, that there’s no need to run a PHP 4-based OOP framework. That’s just me, and I can be picky here because there are so many frameworks available. But I have heard good things about it.
As for HTML 5, the question is when will it finally come out and, when will Internet Explorer support it and to what extent? It is interesting that HTML 5 beat out XHTML, as I’ve been using XHTML for years now. I think some of the new HTML 5 elements are interesting, but there’s always the chance that no one will use a footer tag and it’ll eventually be deprecated. The most important thing, I think, will be how it affects RIAs, as that’s where the Web is at these days.
I’m not thoroughly familiar with CSS 3 but from what I’ve seen, it’s not a mindblowing change, just nice additions. But I’m so far from being a designer that maybe there’s more there than I’m aware of.
I would take your time getting to these new standards, however. Because it’ll be years before they’re finished and years after that before they’re reasonably adopted.