Web Standards' Journal

fuzzygoth @ 4:35pm: Accessability Changing Font Sizes
Hello Again,
So I am wondering if anyone can help or has some similarly good idea
for a solution to this problem. We as currently trying to deploy a site
which will be generated HTML, on this site we need to provide an accessable
method to re-size the font between meduim, larger, largest. We need a
non-javascript alterntive, we where thinking of using a set of three
diffrent stylesheets to acheive this. But is there a cunning CSS hack
for example we can use to adjust the base font size rather than using a
scripting language (asp/php/javascript)?

I would have toyed with the idea of maybe triggering the browsers text
re-size ability but it needs to be usable across browsers up to two
versions old. Any thoughts gladly appreciated :)

Cheers

xmliacom @ 3:13pm: http://xmlia.com
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See you in http://xmlia.com

qoelet @ 5:28am: Need help with character entities
Hi every!
First: forgive me if I write something wrong, but my English is what it is (that is bad).
Second: I hope you can help me, but, whatever, I want to thanks you. :)

I'm studying XHTML, using the W3C validator. I use Dreamweaver MX as editor, but it cannot help me with the little problem I have.

I must write the apostrophe, but the editor proposes only these choices: test.

Given that the first is the acute accent, and the second and the third are for quotations, have I to resolve that I have to mean "prime" as the correct one for the apostrophe? Or rather there is another character entity for the apostrophe?

I checked a page with the validator, and it told me:
Your best bet is to replace the character with the nearest equivalent ASCII character, or to use an appropriate character entity.
In the list of character entities, there is:

&39; Apostrophe

... But I don't understand how I must use this info. If I write &39; in the code, it doesn't work. Given that I'm a dummy, I rely on your clemency.

enderandrew @ 6:22am: standard compliant code
I'm a big fan of valid xhtml/css/div/table-free design. I'm just not great at it. So when I opened up some phpbb templates and poked around I wanted to cry.

Creating a standards-compliant phpbb theme is sadly beyond my capabilities, so I am looking for help.

I'd like a dark, gritty, industrial feel to it.

I'd also really like the templates to be fully xhtml/css compliant, but that can be split into two tasks. One task is developing the artwork, which can simply be putting together a sliced psd file, and the other is making the templates. If you have artistic skills, or xhtml/css skills, I can use your help either way.

Here are a couple examples of themes I like to give you an idea. The top example is probably the best, and the theme I normally use is Zarron's Charcoal3Steel.

design - http://osc.template-help.com/forum_12926/
Charcoal3Steel - http://zarron.com/
side tabs - http://osc.template-help.com/forum_12882/
dance - http://osc.template-help.com/forum_11934/
Ambience - http://www.extremepixels.net/phpbb/index.php?s=35
Tren_z - http://www.extremepixels.net/phpbb/index.php?s=58
mechanical_creator - http://osc2.template-help.com:8081/forum_13468/

I like how some of these break up the layout with some white space, move the navigation tabs to the left, and utilize non-standard lines to break up the usual boxy layout of phpbb. Sometimes it is just the same blocky layout, but the graphics have nifty tabs and curves to dress it up.

The artist who helps me would obviously still own the work and would decide distribution rights of it as they wish.

Thanks for your time!

deadringrancor @ 9:19pm: Pleasently Discovering Microformats
Hello guys, I just finished writing an article about Microformats, along with a nice-looking, inline way to alert you when microformats are present. Please have a read and let me know what you think.

tcpip @ 10:48pm: HR in TD
Complete newcomer here, so my apologies if this has been asked in the distant past or it's off-topic etc.

Why does xhtml-transitional complain bitterly about the inclusion of hr within a td element, and what's the alternative to achieve the same result?

Edit Wait a minute, I had it in a P element. Ignore me :/

deadringrancor @ 9:54am: To hell with WCAG 2
Here's an interesting development in web standards; this one in the realm of accessibility. According to Joe Clark, things are really fucked up now:

"To Hell with WCAG 2"

He's also trying to do something about it. Methinks WCAG Samurai is going to be fun to watch in the future.

Any thoughts?

jdnnj @ 9:47am: Explaining Standards
I am attempting to come up with a "short and sweet" explanation why standards are important to the average person/company needing a web site developed. I believe my use of standards is a definite selling point in someone hiring myself over another designer though I often stumble over elegantly explaining this to the average non-tech-savvy individual and freezing. Typical situation, "…by using web standards maintenance time is reduced, your page is more easily index by search engines…but do you know Flash?" Is it just that some people will value quality and some will not? Below are some pages I've collected from Google, had seen most of them before. The Mozilla explanation seems to be the simplest and direct. Does anyone know of any from more common business sites, say Money or Fast Company or something a bit less tech based?

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/The_Business_Benefits_of_Web_Standards
http://www.maccaws.org/kit/way-forward/#myths
http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/07/WebAgency-Requirements
http://www.webstandards.org/about/
http://www.nypl.org/styleguide/xhtml/benefits.html

jdnnj @ 9:58am: Formatting Forms

Is there a way to isolate styling to a <label> in the following exact instance:

<fieldset>
<legend>Billing Address</legend>
<div class="row"><label>name:<input type="text" size="40"></label></div>…

What I want to do is the typical label is right aligned to the input without using for="name"…id="name". I would like to avoid adding any additional class, spans or divs.

stepfordtwit @ 2:59pm: I'm working on a CSS/HTML webpage for an Intermediate CSS class I am in.  It's a tableless version of my current business site.  I need to incorporate the Flash header without negating the HTML 4.0 validity.  I used the article on A List Apart on doing just this - and it didn't work. It's still not validating HTML 4.0.

http://www.wrightwebworks.com/css_class/assignment5.html

Rachel

detalles @ 9:06pm: Hallelujah Amen (Open Standards)

Proprietary solutions are never as compelling for Web designers as open standards are. Web designers are passionate about the Web as a medium, and that medium doesn’t belong to any technology provider.

--Jesse James Garrett, of Adaptive Path, on "Why Ajax Matters Now", a commentary on the wonderful OK-Cancel.com

Can I get an "Amen" somebody?

jdnnj @ 10:47am: Portfolio Site
I recently posted asking for feedback on my portfolio site in design. I would greatly appreciate any comments anyone from this forum would be able to contribute.
This has been crossposted though I've only enabled comments in the original post, is this a proper was to handle a "cross-post"?

schnee @ 3:37am: Hi everyone, here's a question.

How can you, using CSS (for an XHTML document, but I don't think that really matters), vertically center a block-level element with regard to the surrounding block? For example, suppose I want to create something that looks roughly like the following:

+--------------------------------+
I Text text text text text text  I
I Text text text text text text  I
+-------+ Text text text +-------+
I Image I Text text text I Image I
+-------+ Text text text +-------+
I Text text text text text text  I
I Text text text text text text  I
+--------------------------------+

The images are floating objects right now, but that could be changed, if necessary, as long as they're sitting on the left- and right-hand side, respectively, centered vertically. It would be nice if the text flowed around them, but a layout where the text is confined to the middle "column" would also be acceptable.

The solution should work in all browsers, if possible, and should adjust to the size (width and height) of the surrounding box automatically.

Any ideas? I'm rather lost, myself (but then, I know next to nothing about CSS, so I'm probably just missing something obvious).

detalles @ 4:06pm: ALA redesign
This just in... A List Apart, affectionately known as ALA, has just finished a major overhaul.
> alistapart.com

jdnnj @ 10:30am: List of Books
I'm working on a site with a list of Recommended Reading books.
I currently have them styled as so:
<ul>

<li><a title="purchase page will open in a new window" href="http://www.url.com" rel="external"><em>book title</em></a><span class="author">by <em>author name</em></span></li>…
With .author { display: block; clear: both }

Would the following be more semantically correct?
<dl>

<dt><a title="purchase page will open in a new window" href="http://www.url.com" rel="external"><em>book title</em></a></dt>

<dd>by <em>author name</em></dd>…

detalles @ 2:40pm: Firefox now has an OFFICIAL Google Toolbar!
Yes, that's correct. Google has released an OFFICIAL Firefox version of its Google Toolbar!

Yup, I'm a few days late, but in case you hadn't heard... Oh yeah, and don't have Firefox? About it - Get it

sydneygrey @ 10:02pm: . how to create/purchase a domain name .
I need help. I need someone to give me a step by step instructional process on how to find, create and purchase and domain name. Not for me- but for my client. I need to make sure I get the user name and password for the FTP transfer. Can anyone help?

detalles @ 9:56pm: XML Prolog & IE6 Quirks Mode
Why didn't anybody tell me before!?

Explorer Windows special: the xml prolog

In Explorer 6 Windows, Microsoft implemented one extra rule: if a doctype that triggers strict mode is preceded by an xml prolog, the page shows in quirks mode. This was done to allow web developers to achieve valid pages (which require a doctype) but nonetheless stay in quirks mode.

This is the xml prolog. You should put it on the very first line of your document, before the doctype.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

--Peter Paul Koch, "Quirks mode and strict mode" on quirksmode.org

cross-posted: weblingo, webmasterguild

dap6000 @ 1:42pm: share your educational experiences
i'm planning on writing an article on the state of education in the field of web design. i'd like for anyone who has gone through any sort of training at a post-secondary level (any college, university, or vocational/tech school) and who has 5-10 minutes to spare to share your experiences. i'd like to particular focus on how these institutions teach (or fail to teach) web standards, accessability, usability, etc.

my personal experience so far has been with a 2 year program at a community college. the program would have produced great web designers in 1997, but in 2005 it's seriously lacking. we were taught to do everything the quick and dirty way, letting software do our work for us, hardly ever looking at the actual source code. the only time css came up is in sections dealing with 4.0 era "DHTML", none of it using even remotely valid code. accessability and usability were given lip service in some of the text books, but never given any real in depth discussion and rarely even defined for the students. (ok, there was one class where "don't make me think" was listed as a reccomended read but not required for the class.) so i've got a CIW Master Site Designer certification and an associates of applied science in web design, but i honestly feel like i could have taught myself much more if i'd spent less time doing school work and more time taking advantage of the wealth of free resources online (which is what i've always done before).j

now i'm enrolled in a university that offers a BA (or maybe it's a BS, i'm not sure) in web design. the dept head is a major accessability and usability proponent. from talking to him, i'm very ecited about the possabilities, but at the same time i'm so disappointed with my previous experienes that i'm hesitant to get my hopes up.

so i'd like to write an article that can hopefully help future web design students find a program that will actually prepare them for the real world and this millenium. i'd also like to exercise some of my own deamons by hopefully findout out i'm not alone in feeling disinfranchised with the quality of education in this field that i've been able to find. i'd also love to find out that there ARE some people out there who have had great experiences in great programs that teach web design the "right" way.

so let me know what it's been like for you. even if you dropped out after one semester. even if you've only had one class, or if your degree doesn't or won't have the word "web" anywhere on it; like you're in a graphic design program or a digital media program and adapting the broader education you're getting to the web through supplimental material.

good stories, horror stories, mediocre stories, name names or don't (i really hope those of you with good experiences will name names so i can follow up with these institutions). you can post your experiences as a reply to this post or email me at dap6000 at hotmail dot com.

cross posted to _css, css_forum, and wwwstandards.

det_n @ 1:18pm: Hi everyone,

I am looking for a programme that visualizes a possible xml tree structure as defined by a dtd. E.g., if I have a (very simple, incomplete, not considering attributes or the like) dtd containing the following lines:

<!ELEMENT	one	(two?, three)>
<!ELEMENT 	two	(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT 	three	(four)+>
<!ELEMENT	four	(five | six)>

I want to have an output that looks somthing like this (format doesn’t matter at all):

one
   |__two?
   |    |__ #PCDATA
   |
   |__three
          |__ four+
                 |__five
                 | OR
                 |__six

Is there such a tool?

_r_and_l_ @ 10:06pm: monitoring
Safari... Opera... Konqueror...
...Firefox?
.........................IE-7???

acid2

livenolies @ 8:20pm: help with some HTML
Hoping somebody here can help me out, I'm obviously not seeing the solution.

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/nolane/billie/speakers/index.html

See the brown box on the left? it's "pushing" the border of the table it's in, over to the right about 20 pixes (I left the border on so you can see the problem), which is also pushing the menu items (approach, coaching, etc) over to the right some. It's definitely being caused by that brown square table on the left side, but I can't see how to fix the problem. Does anyone here have a sec to look at it and offer some ideas? I think I'm just sleep deprived.

Thanks in advance.

alanocity @ 7:50pm: PNG support in IE on the way! :-)
In the official Internet Explorer blog I read that there will definitely be support for alpha (transparency) blending in IE7, the beta of which is due out this summer!

This is not to be confused with Dean's IE7, which is not a browser at all but a hack that forced IE to accept valid CSS2.

dap6000 @ 4:15pm: streaming quicktime cross browser with valid XHTML
is this even possible? even resorting to the non-standard embed tag work around, i can only get the streams to work in IE. i'm sure the twice cooked flash method from a list apart would work, but my client isn't gonna be willing to create a reference movie for every stream he plans to serve. there's got to be an easy way to do this.

i prefer to have all my pages validate. but if anyone out there just knows how to get the damn streams to work, i'm willing to let the streams cause a few validation errors on those pages.

alanocity @ 12:13pm:

Meanwhile, it's Mozilla über alles in Germany, where Firefox has a 21.4 percent Sunday usage share, making it almost as popular as David Hasselhoff.

—MozillaZine