a dan.info site -- by Dan Tobias

Since I was bitten by a radioactive Web site, my spider-sense tingles whenever I encounter invalid HTML or other improper, careless, or inelegant Web authoring. With great power comes great responsibility, so I have created this site to discuss some of the little details I've discovered over the years that help make a Web site better. Many of them are seldom discussed in books and tutorials on Web site design and implementation. This site is not a complete guide, tutorial, or reference to HTML. Rather, it's designed for people who already know some of the basics, but are looking for some guidance to improve their sites and avoid some common pitfalls.

• Introduction -- A few words on HTML philosophy
• "How do I force..." -- "Newbies" ask these questions, but the answer probably isn't what they want to hear.
• Directories and Default Index Files -- structuring your site
• Titles, LINK Tags, META Tags, and Search Engine Robots -- identifying your pages to browsers and search engines; includes info on various META and LINK tags.
• Physical vs. Logical Markup -- about the two kinds of HTML tags
• Validators -- checking the correctness of your documents
• Brand X Browsers -- the Web isn't a Microsoft monopoly
• My Site Doesn't Work In Mosaic Netscape Internet Explorer Firefox Chrome Fill-In-Browser-Name-Here? -- It might be your own fault.
• Graceful Degradation -- how to use the latest bells and whistles without eliminating accessibility for those who can't or won't use them.
• Nesting -- how the elements of an HTML document are structured.
• Cascading Stylesheets -- the way to separate structure from presentation.
• Colors -- if you don't like the "default grey", read this!
• Languages -- Implementing a multilingual site
• Characters and Fonts -- which of them are standard?
• Images -- what to do when adding graphics
• Sounds -- if you wanna make some noise
• Tables -- dos and don'ts for this popular HTML construct
• Frames -- do you really need to use them?
• Auto-Refreshing Pages -- How to make a page load another one after a given length of time, if that's really what you want.
• Opening New Browser Windows -- another Stupid Web Trick.
• HTML Comments -- learn the proper, often-misunderstood syntax for inserting comments in a document.
• Cleaning Up After WYSIWYG Editors -- Those things are not very well housebroken.
• Dealing with Changes -- what to do when you redesign your site.
• URLs -- knowing the difference between relative and absolute addresses, and when to use each
• Domain Names -- (Virtually) Every URL contains one!
• E-Mail -- giving users a way to provide feedback
• Server vs. Client -- know which parts of the Web are handled by each
• Miscellaneous -- a few more notes
• Things on the Web that Annoy Me -- new article with some pet peeves

Has somebody framed this site? Break free with this link!

 

This page was first created 13 Jul 1997, and was last modified 22 Feb 2024.
Spider picture by Len Peleshok, Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society; used with permission.
Copyright © 1997-2024 by Daniel R. Tobias. All rights reserved.