Saturday, November 22, 2008

Rainbow Text Maker (HTML Generator)

Rainbow Text Generators
Copy n Paste Code for Forum (message boards)

The HTML Rainbow Text generator in the top section of this page is a PHP script written for IBDguy.com. It is customized to help people post rainbow text in a forum or discussion / messages boards. (There are additional HTML generators on ibdguy.com for people that want to generate HTML Signatures, Banners, etc)

The Javascript version of the Rainbow Text Maker was removed because there are MANY sizes (in google) that have the Javascript 'crap'.
Tips for use

After you finalize your design, copy n paste the HTML code into the forum, message board, etc. All the HTML code is basic and will work in a forum post as long as HTML is allowed on the forum.
Reminder: When saving this code in a .htm or .html file, do NOT add the head / body tags.



CLICK Crate RAINBOW TEXT

A Few Entities

A Few Entities
Note: Entities are not same as tags.
They start with a &
and end with a ;
Example - type:
0.02 ¢
0.02 ¢ (will display) By Name By Number Result:
& amp; & #38; &
& lt; & #60; <
& gt; & #62; >
& nbsp; & #160; (blank space)
& cent; & #162; ¢
& euro; & #8364; €
& pound; & #163; £
& copy; & #169; ©
& reg; & #174; ®
& trade; & #8482; ™
& plusmn; & #177; ±
& deg; & #176; °
& frac14; & #188; ¼
& frac12; & #189; ½
& frac34; & #190; ¾

Hint: Use the < and > entities to show the HTML tags inside a web page i.e. when the code in these pages displays the HTML tags it was done with the < and > entities

Friday, November 21, 2008

Content Articles, Keywords, & Web Design

Content Articles, Keywords, and Web Page Design

by Candice Pardue

You've probably heard all the hype about content articles and how you can use them to improve search engine ranking and get more traffic. There's only one problem... content articles will be of no benefit to you without proper keywording and web page design. Let's take a look at how all three areas - content articles, keywords, and design - can work together to explode your Web promotions.

Content Article Layout

When adding a content article to your website, be sure it is formatted correctly. The paragraphs should have a double return space in between so they won't run together. If the entire content article looks like one BIG connected paragraph, the reader is likely to skip it. This makes the article very difficult to read, and your readers are probably in a hurry when they arrive at your site.

Break up the content article into multiple short sections using sub-headings. Also, use the "Heading 1" tag for your main title. Use "Heading 2" tags for your sub-headings. Search engines often look for these tags to determine the main theme of a website and to seek out important keywords on a web page.

** Recap: Be sure there are double returns between paragraphs and make headings stand out with bold print and with the "Heading" tags.

Formatting Your Content Article for Google Adsense, MSN Ads, or Yahoo! Ads

Content articles with contextual ads such as Google Adsense will likely not be the prettiest in design if you're going to earn money with Google Ads. These ads usually work best formatted within the article reading - not along the sides of your web page. Don't fret - just put the ads where they will get clicks! But be sure your content articles are still readable using the tips above.

Keywording for Content Articles

Keywording is another tricky area. Be sure to include targeted keywords throughout your content article, but not too much. You'll want the article to make sense and stay within good grammar rules while also attracting search engine traffic for that particular keyword. Also include related keywords within the article to give your page even more relevance and clarity in the search engines.

Keywords should be chosen carefully. Be as specific as possible. General keywords are usually difficult to achieve a top position because so many other websites have them. Use specific keyword phrases in your article title and throughout your content article.

**Examples: - Use "website content writing" instead of "writing" - Use "bathroom home decor" instead of "home decor" - Use "insurance premium quotes" instead of "insurance" - Use "biking with the kids" instead of "biking"

Web Page Design for Content Articles

Your content article is the "meat" of your page, but the design plays a great role in how readers will perceive your article. Avoid lots of graphics, photos, videos, etc. on a web content page unless you are using these design features to complement the article. These items can distract your readers if you're not careful. Also, begin your content article below the logo. People generally look at logos, banners, or graphics, and will start reading below these images.

Avoid fancy stuff such as Flash animations where your reader is required to download something before they can read the article. Many will just click out and forget about you! If your website is designed in Flash, be sure you create some HTML versions of your content pages to make it easier for readers and search engines to find your articles.

Keywords in Your Design

Your main keywords for a particular content article should be sprinkled throughout your web page design. Use the keywords in the "Alt Text" of images or logos, within your linking text, and other areas of your design when possible. This enhances your chances at a good search engine position. Also, be sure to include them in your HTML Meta Tags when possible.

Content articles should be easy to read for your visitors, keyword-rich, and creative in design without distracting the reader. Keep these tips in mind while designing your content pages.



About the Author

Candice Pardue is a content writer providing informative articles to Web companies for SEO purposes. She owns and operates SelectWriters.com.... http://www.selectwriters.com/


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Seo Security

Seo Security

by Henry Guinan

Whether the tools of script kiddies or more advanced hackers; a breach in security can result in a website being flagged as badware by Google. This wouldn't affect a mom and pop personal website to a major degree but would surely carry a negative view for a site which purports to be somewhat professional in nature.

Supposing one was to sell hosting, scripts themselves or security even; then it would look particularly bad for a customer or client to stumble upon a search engine result page which won't bring them to their site but rather to a page which suggests that they should pick another result........Disaster!

Of course in real terms, its not a disaster but perception can be everything.

Following are some guidelines which may be helpful.

  1. If you don't already have a Google webmaster account, then sign up. Ensure too that your account email address is kept functional rather than forgotten.
  2. If using a content management system for publishing, ensure also that heed is paid to the security aspects associated with that particular cms. Its not enough to publish and forget!
  3. As a matter of good practice, be sure to chmod files and directories with as tight permissions as possible without upsetting the functionality of the site.
  4. Passwords can be a pain, but are so called, for a reason. Make these difficult to crack.
  5. Sometimes, it can be enough to view the source code of a webpage, to find hidden and malicious code. Seeing iframes where they don't belong is a give away.
  6. Patrol files on your server to see if anything is there which shouldn't be there. Remove such files once you determine that you or your host are not the instigators. Sometimes, new files are created to quickly help a hacker to quickly find re-entry information such as database names and passwords.
  7. While it is good practice to become familiar with all files and directories of a given cms, some will not be competent to this level. If this is the case, then the total clearance or deletion of all server files and folders may be the quickest option. Once done, known and safe backup copies can be quickly uploaded. Likewise for the database, where undesirable code may be inserted.
  8. While one might feel popular by having hundreds or thousands of users; not everyone is your friend. Limit the ways which your users can manipulate your database, usually by limiting their webform input. If you don't know how, then ask someone trustworthy.
  9. Get the latest possible update to your software. As well as increased functionality, updates are for plugging security vulnerabilities as they arise.
  10. A reliable host is a great line of defense as well, as some of the better ones will monitor activity on their servers and can spot nastiness. Most of the time though, responsibility is yours. In the western world at least, there are choices of where to shop and set up your stall.
  11. Finally, Google does not appear to punish publishers harshly and tend to help actually. For an established domain, they seem to have a good idea that such hacks are not the intention of good people. If hacked, join the forum at stopbadware.org where these great volunteers may help you to clean out your cupboard.

One thing for sure is that it is difficult enough to get into the serps in the first place. When that is done, you don't want anyone to find a page which might suggest that your site and all indexed pages of it; are not exactly fit for public consumption. Worse again, would be complaints to you that the innocent surfer suffered personal computer damage and associated malware, by simply visiting your website. What good then, is an S.E.O.?

Henry Guinan contributes to open source projects and is at Seo Ireland and other seo security information can be viewed through the link.


About the Author

Henry Guinan contributes to various open source projects



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Search Engine Optimization Tips

Best SEO Tools

What are the best ways to boost your position in search engines? What keywords should you use on your web-pages? And which tools should you use to improve the quality of backlinks, link popularity and Google Pagerank? We deliver answers. Here is the list of the most useful SEO-tools you might be willing to use, developing and optimizing your next web-site.

1. We Build Web Pages: This tool allows you to compare your site against the top 10 listed sites in Google for a particular keyword or phrase. You simply enter your keyword and the system will begin comparing 9 different metrics for the top 10 rankings. This allows you to quickly compare the Yahoo rank, MSN rank, Google pages indexed, altavista pages indexed, backlinks to page, backlinks to domain, all in anchor rank, age of url, and whether or not the phrase is on the page. Check out the rest of their SEO tools here.

2. Zippy: Zippy is a new meta search engine that queries other major engines and returns results in a format most suited for Webmasters and SEOs. The site was launched in September by the seasoned SEO Dave Naylor, and provides some valuable tools for site optimization.

3.URL Trends: UrlTrends allows you to see at a glance any of the information that you want to see about all of the selected urls. Whether you only want to see the PageRank of the Urls, or everything they monitor, you can now do so very easily.

4.NUAH: Super cool site. Crawls your entire site, see how many pages you have, their respective PageRanks, keywords and descriptions. Also has good sitemap generators for both Yahoo! and Google.

* Google Sitemap Generator: Create a valid Google Sitemap with no programming experience needed. Why should you install and configure a confusing python script when you can have Nuah.com to crawl your website and build a valid sitemap.gz file?

* Google PageRank Crawler: Easily get a big picture view of your Google PageRank for your entire website.

* Yahoo Sitemap Generator: Create a valid Yahoo Sitemap with no programming experience needed.

* Link Check Crawler: Let's face it links can expire, because invalid/expired links can effect both your search engine position and reputation we recommend you validate the integrity of your links with our Free Link Validation Tool.

5.Widexl: I love this tool. I mostly use the Meta Tag Analyzer and the Link Popularity tools but each of their tools is powerful and useful. Widexl is a web developers best friend. They offer the following free hosted tools to assist in SEO:

* Link Popularity - How popular are you on the internet?

* Search Engine Saturation How many pages do you have indexed?

* Meta Tag Analyzer - Analyze the Meta Tags from your website

* Password Generator - Password Generator for Basic and Digest authentication

* Geo Tracker - Locate country by IP address or domain name

6. Ezer: Need to check your Page Rank across all the data centers? This is a very handy tool. You can even get an idea of whe they are about to update PR with this tool.

7.Firefox SEO extension: When Aaron Wall of SEOBook says something is cool, we take note. I have been using this very cool SEO extension for Firefox (my favorite browser) for quite some time now and love it. I can click on the tool to display meta tags for any site I visit without having to switch to code view and scroll all over creation for them. It does much more than just that but that is one of my favorite features.

Credit : http://free-seo-advice.blogspot.com/

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

SEO Tactics for Better Ranking

SEO Tactics for Better Ranking

by Mr.John Brown

What is the basis of search engine optimization? The answer is - keyword density and selection. It is impossible to form SEO tactics without the appropriate keywords/phrases. SEO copywriting is not possible in the absence of keywords. The importance of accurate keywords/phrases cannot be ruled by even the top most search engine optimizers. You might think there should be some success formula to create the magic, but there is no such formula.

Copywriting, coding and linking are the three most essential factors of SEO. Their proper usage determines the outcome of the optimization process. Usually copywriting comprises one third portion of the entire procedure.

The websites that are slotted in the first page of any search engine results as a result of entering in a key phrase doesn’t have a similar keyword density that you had typed. If there was any formula for setting keyword density, then every site would have similar keyword saturation intensities.

Apart from identifying the target key phrase/words, the next step is to decide upon the positioning of these key phrases in the web content. They require specialized formatting and are sometimes highlighted online. There are certain basic guidelines that if followed, might yield positive outcomes. The key phrases, if possible, should be included in headlines and sub-headlines, provided it makes sense.

Following the keyword density strictly, despite it not making relevant sense, is not a brilliant idea. Using a key phrase once or twice in a paragraph is okay. On the whole, the web page should look interesting and attractive

Use natural language which is easier to understand, and create interest in the minds of the target site visitors. Sometimes your site may rank in the topmost position, but what is the point if your content is awful to read, and causes the reader to go to another site result? Keywords/phrases usage shouldn’t look funny and senseless. As sugar dissolves in milk, the key phrases should adjust and blend into the web content. Currently every small or big firm is willing to outsource their projects to SEO Company India.

SEO outsourcing servicefrom India yields better quality and offers tremendous monetary benefits. The IT workforce in India is far cheaper and has a good hold on the English language. Their work is often at the level of international quality standards. The World Wide Web is a highly competitive field, therefore it is always advisable to hire a professional SEO firm to target the right keywords and set their appropriate density. Now-a-days outsourcing to SEO companies in India has become a highly cost effective and lucrative option. But remember to always consider the past work assignments of the outsourcing company before finalizing the deal. Copyright © 2008



About the Author

Best Web Outsourcing is a leading SEO Company India offering SEO outsourcing Services, Internet Marketing Services. Hire a SEO from Professional SEO Consultant India.


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10 SEO Tips To Boost

10 SEO Tips To Boost Your Organic Ranking

by OrganicWithSEO

Search engine optimisation is a term the experts use when they adjust different elements of your website to make it easier for the search engine spiders to find you, to improve the relative ranking of your website compared to other websites and as a result to boost the number of customers visiting your website.

Your organic ranking is your natural ranking on search engines. The higher you appear on search engine listings , the more people will visit your website.

While there are many hundreds of factors search engine optimisation (SEO) companies' work with, here are the top 10 tips to boost your organic ranking.

1. Clean navigation.

Some of the most important factors in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are clear navigation paths throughout your website. This serves two purposes:- you want your customers to be able to find what they are looking for using as few clicks as possible and you also want search engine spiders to be able to find their way to all of your pages. By making sure your website is easy and logical to navigate around, you will make it easier for search engines to find you (and all of your sub-pages).

2. Clear internal page links.

Unless each page is cleanly and logically linked to other pages within your website, you will reduce your rankings. If a page is not linked to any other page, generally the search engines will not be able to find it, index it and rank it. You also need to consider adding and submitting a site map to the major search engines to assist them index all of your pages.

3. High quality inbound links.

Links to your website from high quality (higher ranking) websites that are directly relevant to your site content is a great strategy to boost your rankings. Links from government and education sites are particularly useful strategies to boost your organic rankings when they are relevant to your content.

4. One theme.

Search engines try to determine what your website is about in order to rank it and to know for which search terms to show your website in the results. One way they do this is to work out what is the overall theme or topic of your website. You will get the best organic results if you have one clear overall theme or topic for your website rather than trying to cram in lots of totally different parts of your business under the one website banner.

5. One theme per page.

Each website page stands alone. The best rankings come from dedicating individual pages to a specific theme. For example: large fitting wedding shoes rather than just wedding accessories.

6. Use words instead of graphics of words.

If you are using a word as a heading or sub heading on your page, the temptation is to make it look beautiful by making it a graphic jpg or gif. This is costing you rankings. Search engines read words and not images. If your word is an image it will be invisible to the search engine. You also need to ensure any pictures you use in your website have ALT tags present to ensure people with visual disabilities can also read your website. These ALT tags can be read by the search engine spiders.

7. Headlines.

Following on from the previous point, at the top of the page you need to have a clear headline that describes the content of that page in a Heading tag. This headline needs to be keyword rich and located at the right place on the page for maximum results.

8. Keywords are critical.

Keywords are the words people type into a search engine to find you. You need to know the most common keywords people use to find sites such as yours and make sure these keywords are reflected in your web copy. Determining the correct keywords is an art form as well as a science.

9. Copy is king.

The words you use on your page are critical for search engine success. You need to ensure your keywords are naturally scattered throughout your page rather than artificially added to the end of sentences or standing alone in your text. You need to walk a fine balance between interesting and enticing copy for your reader and optimised copy for the search engines.

10. Don't double up.
It is important to have fresh and different content on each page of your website. If you double up on the information you will cost yourself rankings.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) does not have to be difficult, it just needs to be worked at on a regular basis for maximum results.


About the Author

Organicwith SEO is a Brisbane Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company that specialises in boosting organic search engine rankings. Our low cost OrganicwithSEO site evaluation gives you a detailed report on areas such as keyword analysis, competition research, link mapping and SEO strategies.Visit www.organicwithseo.com

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

How To Learn Dreamweaver

How To Learn Dreamweaver

by Mark Kostner

Have you seen a really well designed website and thought that you would like to do the same? Well, now you can with the use of the ever-popular Dreamweaver. Learning how to use Dreamweaver can really help to save a lot of time when writing lots of codes in an html editor.

So what exactly is Dreamweaver? Basically, it is a powerful website development piece of software that is easy to use and it can really help you to build impressive websites. With its extensive libraries and templates, even a complete beginner can easily make a website. However, if you are one of the more advanced web designers and coders, Dreamweaver can also be used to develop database driven websites and to develop server side websites that give a lot more functionality to the user.

Dreamweaver's interface has been designed to make it easier to build both simple and complex websites by using a point and click method that helps to simplify most tasks.

The Benefits of Using Dreamweaver

The benefits of using Dreamweaver over plain html coding from scratch are endless. Dreamweaver creates a lot of the code for the user already, which makes it incredibly useful for those who have no idea what they are doing and, for the people who do know how to code html, they can always add it to the written code a lot easier.

You can switch between code view and the design view and you can even have both in the same window to keep tabs on any changes that you have made. Also, when you save your site, you can view your page in a web browser just to see what it would look like on the internet. For this you do not have to be on the internet to view it, as you can view it without your computer being online.

If you do edit any code, there are tools on Dreamweaver that help to correct any mistakes in the syntax. There are so many great features in Dreamweaver that you would not get in ordinary html editors.

Another great feature in Dreamweaver is the layout tool. You can use this to get an idea of where you put your navigation, menus, pictures, etc.

Where to Go In Order To Learn Dreamweaver

If you are interested in learning Dreamweaver, a great place to start is in google. Do a search for Dreamweaver Tutorial or Dreamweaver Video Tutorial you'll find a whole range of top quality Dreamweaver Tutorials. This will help people who are starting from scratch to feel confident in making great looking websites and it can also help more advanced users to pick up new skills or refresh existing skills.

Overall, Dreamweaver is worth learning if you are serious about web design, so why not start today and show the world just how good your website can be.

About the Author

Visit www.DreamweaverMadeSimple.com for your free 14 part dreamweaver mini course.

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Top 10 Ways to Peeve

Top 10 Ways to Peeve Your Website Visitors

by Charles Lamm

How did peeves become pets? Don't know. Don't really care. But all of us have our pet peeves when it comes to surfing the net for information.

Here are the top 10 according to many surveys

1. Pop Ups

Pop ups come in many flavors: entry pop ups, exit pop ups, delayed, small, large, multiple, Flyin, scrolling, always on top, browser stopping, surf interrupting, must be cleared to move on, viagra, and the ever popular porn.

Except for an occasional squeeze page to get a free ebook or report, web surfers HATE pop ups.

So why do they continue to litter the Internet landscape? Simple. They work.

2. Extra Software Needed to View Site

Don't blame Canada. Blame Adobe.

Adobe made the Acrobat reader a must for viewing PDF files mainly because:

- It solved a need. Every page now printed out the same regardless of which printer or operating system was being used. It could even be made interactive for form completion.

- Adobe gave away millions of the free readers before publishers adopted the new PDF format as a standard for ebooks.

Acrobat users now demand PDF files in most instances where ebooks used to have various formats including "exe". Hackers have made downloading exe files from unknown sources an unsafe activity.

As standard as Acrobat now is, the same is not true for Flash, Shockwave, Deja Vu, and a host of other add-ons with various degrees of support.

I don't need to sit through a 2 meg Flash intro when what I want is information. Apparently, many others agree. You can add Flashblock to your FireFox browser and decide for yourself when to allow the Flash to load.

3. Dead Dead Dead Links

Nothing hacks me off faster than finding a spot on anchor text link that goes nowhere.

It's like having you mouth water over a menu special only to have the kitchen say they have run out.

4. Registration Required to Visit Site

Some sites think their bytes don't stink. They think you should register and login to see anything beyond the home page.

What they are doing is asking me to get married before the first date.

What's in it for me?

In this Internet day and age, a company and site has to build trust before a random visitor is going to cough up a name and email address.

Show me a little leg first.

5. Slowwww Pages

If I have to wait more than 4 or 5 seconds to begin viewing your site, I am gone - never to return.

If your servers are slow, find a new ISP.

If you loaded your pages with Flash, MIDI, audio, video, or other files that load with the page, dump them. Put up links instead. Let the visitor choose if they want to read or watch the video.

6. Outdated Content

One huge advantage of the web is the ability of bloggers and other Drudge wannabes to bypass traditional media and post news online instantly.

If you have not updated your website in 14 months, what does that tell me about your company. Certainly, you are less than a cutting edge solution for my problem.

7. Bad Navigation

Web designers prefer dazzle over function. Function is boring. Who wants a simple text link when a pop up Javascript navigation bar impresses the client?

I do.

So do the search engines.

Every web page needs recognizable, underlined text links on every page, preferably top and bottom.

8. No Contact Information

Poor contact information is a binary pair of bad navigation. How many sites have you been to where you cannot find a phone number, a street address, or even an email address? Plenty.

I think it's sweet that you put up an email contact form on your site, but I prefer to use my default email compose screen. Every web-based email form is different. I don't want to waste time learning to use your form when my email client works fine.

What are you hiding?

9. No Decent Site Search Tool

There is no excuse for this one. If you have a large website with dozens or hundreds of pages, give me an internal search box to find what I need.

Google and Yahoo! and many others will give you the tool - free - to put on your site. Use it.

10. Disabled "Back" Button

I don't want a website to dictate how I experience their site. I am a guest on your site. I don't need to come back to your page when I hit the back button. That's why I hit the back button in the first place. You don't have the information I am looking for.
< /strong >
In a similar vein, I don't like to see other right click functions like "view page source" disabled. I don't need to steal your HTML code, but if I want to, disabling right click will not stop me. I might want to see how you achieved a certain formatting effect. If I am impressed, you can bet I'll be back

Pet peeves take many forms online. No list like this is complete, but any webmaster that can avoid these 10 major annoyances is a hero in my book.

I look forward to visiting your site.


About the Author

Charles Lamm is a retired attorney who can be reached via email at focus@clixforbrix.com. His articles are posted on his blog at: http://www.virtualjoefriday.com.


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Pushing HTML Beyond Its Intended Use

Pushing HTML Beyond Its Intended Use

by Pamela Upshur

The following represents examples of what I call "pushing HTML." In most cases, the HTML elements either do not or would not include keyword content, or the specific HTML is included on a Web page in spite of the fact that it is not needed or used by the Web page. It is not inappropriate to have an input type HTML statement on a Web page as part of any number of scripts, and it is not inappropriate to include keywords in such a form field. However, in "pushing HTML," some Web marketers include hidden form fields, for example, on pages where it is neither functional nor part of the Web page design. As such, it is just a hidden HTML statement stuffed with keywords. Below is a laundry list of the remaining HTML statement that can, but probably shouldn't include keywords.
  • Keywords contained in an input type hidden statement (now widely considered spamming by search engines).
  • Keywords included in the head statement, as a homemade HTML tag of sorts.
  • Keywords improperly included in the ALT text of background images. The background of a Web page doesn't ordinary contain ALT text. However, since ALT text is generally not weighted very heavily by search engines, including your keywords in your ALT tag is unlikely to produce results better than including keywords in any ALT tag on the document.
  • Keywords improperly included in a font tag
  • Keywords in the comment tags
  • Keywords in the NO FRAMES tag of a Web page
  • Keywords in the image tag
  • Keywords included in a style tag.

While these are acceptable places to include keywords, you may be spamming, according to some search engine, if the page wouldn't ordinary contain or need this HTML as part of its design.

About the Author

Pamela Upshur is the owner of Upshur Creative.
Upshur Creative combines fresh, contemporary, fully functional turnkey websites with the best PHP scripts and databases to create the largest and most comprehensive turnkey collection for entrepreneurs.

The Major Benefits of Layouts....

The Major Benefits of Layouts in CSS

By: stefano sandano

One of the major features of CSS is the possibility to control page layout without needing to use presentational tools. However, CSS layout has gained a rather undeserved reputation of being difficult, particularly among those who are studying this language for the first time. This is partly due to browser problems like for example IExplorer 7, but mostly due to a proliferation of different layout techniques available on the Web. It seems that every CSS author has their own technique for creating multicolumn layouts, and new CSS developers will often use a technique without really understanding how it works. This “black box” approach to CSS layout may get quick results, but ultimately stunts the developer’s understanding of the language.

All the main CSS layout techniques rely on three basic concepts: positioning, floating, and margin understanding. The different techniques really aren’t that different, and if you understand the core concepts, it is relatively easy to create your own layouts with little or no hassle.

Long lines of text can be difficult and unpleasant to read. As modern monitors continue to grow in size, the issue of screen readability is becoming increasingly important. One way designers have attempted to tackle this problem is by centering their designs. Rather than spanning the full width of the screen, centered designs span only a portion of the screen, creating shorter and easier-to-read line lengths.

Centered designs are very important at the moment, so learning how to center a design in CSS is one of the first things most developers want to learn. There are two basic methods for centering a design: one uses auto margins and the other uses positioning and negative margins.

There are a few different ways of doing CSS-based layout, including absolute positioning and using negative margins. Float-based layouts the easiest method to use. As the name suggests, in a float-based layout you simply set the width of the elements you want to position, and then float them left or right.

Because floated elements no longer take up any space in the flow of the document, they no longer appear to exert any influence on the surrounding block boxes. To get around this, you will need to clear the floats at various points throughout the layout. Rather than continuously floating and clearing elements, it is quite common to float nearly everything, and then clear once or twice at strategic points throughout the document, such as the page footer.

Normally when webmasters create float-based layouts, they float both columns left, and then create a gutter between the columns using margin or padding. When using this approach, the columns are packed tightly into the available space with no room to breathe. Although this wouldn’t be a problem if browsers behaved themselves, buggy browsers can cause tightly packed layouts to break, forcing columns to drop below each other.

Another kind of CSS layout is the Fixed -width layout.Fixed-width layouts are very common as they give the developer more control over layout and positioning. If you set the width of your design to be 720 pixels wide, it will always be 720 pixels. If you then want a branding image spanning the top of your design, you know it needs to be 720 pixels wide to fit. Knowing the exact width of each element allows you to lay them out precisely and know where everything will be. This predictability makes fixed-width layout by far the most common layout method around the cascading style sheets.
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Which is the Best Browser....


Which is the Best Browser Supporting CSS ?

By: catering roma

Today both Netscape and Microsoft have agreed to implement CSS in their respective browsers and this means that Web authors who want to use CSS have to knowwhich CSS elements they can and can’t use, as well as the significant differencesin the way adopted CSS elements behave in both browsers.
Both use only a subset of the complete specification as laid out by the W3C. Since both companiesare members of the W3C, however, they will adopt the full set of CSS elements over time — at least that is the hope. CSS1 (and CSS2) will only be useful to Web authors if they are widely adopted and fully implemented by browser manufacturers. If they are not, CSS could easily disappear. There is a precedent for this: the official HTML 3.0 specification was widely ignored by browser manufacturers.

The piecemeal way in which Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer have adopted CSS elements is holding CSS back from wider adoption within the Web authoring community. In many cases, CSS elements that are supported in Internet Explorer are not supported in Netscape Navigator, or they are not supported in either browser. Sometimes only certain values of a CSS element are supported, or they only work when associated with certain HTML tags. There are even cases where a CSS element has been adopted for use within a beta (or “preview”) version of a browser and then later dropped in the next beta release — presumably an oversight, but not exactly something to inspire confidence in CSS for a Web author.

There are also significant differences in the way CSS code works in the same browser operating under different operating systems.
In general, if a certain feature is already supported within one browser, you can most likely use a CSS element to set it, too. For example, the TEXTDECORATION element has a value called BLINK that flashes the text on and off repeatedly. It is supported within Netscape Navigator — where youcould use the tag to do much the same sort of thing — but not in Internet Explorer, which has never supported . On the other hand, there is a feature seen only in Internet Explorer called “watermarking” that allows the Web author to create a background image that remains fixed upon the page even when a user scrolls up or down. There is a CSS value ("BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: FIXED") that does the same thing.

Not surprisingly,this CSS element is supported within Internet Explorer, but not within Netscape Navigator. Knowing which CSS elements to use and which not to use is half the battle in constructing workable CSS code. It can only be hoped that over time all CSS elements will be supported equally well within the two major browsers.As time goes by and more Web authors become familiar with the details of CSS (and as more Web browsers fully implement and are able to display Web pages that use CSS), the demand and need for new HTML tags will be significantly diminished. Depending on how things turn out, CSS will either be a triumph or a resounding failure for the W3C, ultimately determining the evolution and development of HTML and of the relevancy of the W3C itself.
An understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a given browser will help you to choose which CSS elements will be most effective inyour Web pages.
.

Monday, November 17, 2008

HTML Basic Structure

HTML Basic Structure

by Noel Dundas

Hyper Text Markup Language, or HTML for short, is the language of the Web, and every Web developer should have a basic understanding of it yet many do not know the differences between versions or the importance of adhering to proper coding guidelines.

In this article we will discuss the importance of choosing the right version, using correct coding and validation.

HTML 4.01
HTML 4.01 is an important Web standard and very different from HTML 3.2. When tags like and color attributes were added to HTML 3.2, it started a developer's nightmare. Development of web sites where font information must be added to every single Web page is a long and expensive pain. With HTML 4.01 all formatting can be moved out of the HTML document and into a separate style sheet which, not only makes coding much simpler and clearer, can shorten the length of a page conserving bandwidth and speeding up the loading of the pages.

HTML 4.01 is also important because XHTML 1.0 (the latest HTML standard) is HTML 4.01 "reformulated" as an XML application. Using HTML 4.01 in your pages makes the future upgrade from HTML to XHTML a very simple process. Make sure you use the latest HTML 4.01 standard or, better yet, XHTML 1.0.

XHTML
XHTML 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation January 26, 2000. W3C defines XHTML as the latest version of HTML. XHTML will replace HTML. XHTML stands for EXtensible HyperText Markup Language XHTML is aimed to replace HTML XHTML is almost identical to HTML 4.01 XHTML is a stricter and cleaner version of HTML XHTML is HTML defined as an XML application.

When designing Web pages, try to use strict, formal and correct HTML (or XHTML). Strict and correct coding will always help a browser to display your pages as you intended them to look. If you elect for XHML, always validate it before publishing. XHTML is unforgiving, as we shall see later.

HTML 4.0.1 DOCUMENT DEFINITIONS.

There are 3 document type definitions in in HTML 4.0.1

The HTML 4.01 Strict DTD
Includes all elements and attributes that have not been depreciated or do not appear in frameset documents.


The HTML 4.01 Transitional DTD
Includes everything in the strict DTD plus depreciated elements and attributes (most of which concern visual presentation).


HTML 4.0.1 Frameset
Includes everything in the transitional DTD plus frames as well. Use this when you want to use HTML Frames to partition the browser window into two or more frames.


You could be using HTML 4.0.1 now, but have you defined it as strict? Consider the following code.

< !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" >
< html >
< head >
< title >This is bad HTML< /title >
< body >
< h1 >Bad HTML
< /body >

The two missing closure tags will be ignored by many browsers and the page will be displayed. However, if it was defined as STRICT, as below, the errors would become evident.

< html >
< head >
< title >This is bad HTML< /title >
< body >
< h1 >Bad HTML
< /body >

Does this seem to indicate the exact opposite? Avoiding STRICT in favour of TRANSITIONAL? Far from it.

XHTML will replace HTML; there is no doubt about this, it is called evolution, and the sooner you change your pages, to at least HTML 4.0.1 strict, the less trouble it will be to convert to XHTML.

WHY USE XHTML?

Web developers are often struggling with time-consuming double-coding to solve problems with different browsers versions. This is not helped with the addition of new hardware (like mobile telephones and other hand held devices) and new software (like micro-browsers).

To make the Web a better place, for both developers and end-users, it is of paramount importance that both browser vendors and site developers follow standards when they develop new applications.

With its tremendous growth, the Web needs standards to realize its full potential. Web standards ensure that everyone has access to the same information

Developers should not have to struggle with several versions of code to accomplish the same result. Does it make sense to limit your audience to only those with a particular browser? Standardization can increase the access to your site.

And lastly, a few words about often over-looked Issues.

USERS ARE SCANNERS.

Designing Web sites needs careful thinking and a lot of planning. The most important thing is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.

If you believe a typical user will read the entire content of your Web pages, you are wrong. No matter how much useful information you put into a Web page, a visitor will only spend a few seconds scanning it before they decide whether to leave or to stay. On average, you have around 30 seconds; there is no loyalty.

If you want a visitor to read your text, be sure to make your point in the very first sentence of the page. After that you should try to keep them occupied with short paragraphs and interesting new headers all the way down the page

KEEP SENTENCES SHORT.

Try to keep your paragraphs as short as possible. Try to keep your chapters as short as possible. Try to keep your pages as short as possible. Less is often More to a reader searching for information so break it up.

Use a lot of space between your paragraphs and chapters; pages overloaded with text will kill your audience.

DON'T PLACE TOO MUCH CONTENT ON A PAGE.

If you have a lot to say, try to break your information into smaller chunks and place it on different pages. Don't expect any visitor to scroll all the way down to the bottom of a page with thousands of words.

VALIDATE YOUR CODE BEFORE PUBLISHING.

We have all been guilty of publishing without first validating our code. Many web page editors have a validation option built in, or there are several on-line code validation tools, so there really is no excuse.


About the Author
Noel Dundas has been computing since the late 1960s and has written programs in assembly language, Forth, dBASE and web languages HTML, XHTML, XML, PHP and MySQL. Noel has also published several books, physical and electronic, and is the SEO for http://www.software4me.net/ and http://www.ask-noel.com/

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Source HTML Tips

Hot HTML Tips that Never Fail to Deliver

by Jim Wilson

When it comes to HTML, you can always count on accuracy and detail delivering your website's content in proper order to the search engines. If you are new to website building, or are struggling to understand why your website is not performing this article may be of tremendous value to you.

First, let's look at meta tags, these are the main points of interest to the search engines, they do not look at a webpage as humans do, so meta tags are the brail, if you will, to what they see. Meta tags should always be between the < head > and < /HEAD > tags, like so:

< html >

< title >(Your Website Title)< /title >

< meta name="description" content="(Your website's description) ">

< meta name="keywords" content="keyword,keyword,keyword,etc ">

< meta name="Author" content="www.your-website.com">

< meta name="owner" content="www.your-website.com">

< meta name="classification" content="(The main subject matter of your site) ">

< meta name="copyright" content="copyrighted 2006">

< meta name="rating" content="General">

< meta name="revisit-after" content="15 days">

< meta name="ROBOTS" content="ALL">

< /head >

The <> section is where all the content goes about your site, closed by < /BODY >

The next step is to have the search engines focus on your main points of interest. You can call attention to these words or phrases inside your content section using HEADING symbols;

< h1 > Making Money Online < /H1 >

< h2 >Top Paying Keywords< /H2 >

< h3 > Landscape Rock < /H3 >

Just encase these phrases with the < h1 >< /H1 > etc, wherever they fall within the content.

This draws special attention to the search engines and helps your site rank higher in the search engines. Do not use more than 3 tags or it will only distract from what the search engines consider important on your webpage.

In your keyword meta tags above, adding the right keywords is important. Use keywords that highlight your subject matter, but avoid using, a, and, the, more, less, again, those type of words are frowned upon by the search engines. Search engines don't actually read, they just want to know the relevant words in your content.

Using Top Paying Keywords is a way to increase your Adsense Ads revenue, if you use them to benefit from the content or subject matter of your webpage. This is a very valuable asset you can add to your site, if you apply the right keywords.

Alternate tags is another great way to align your website for optimum display for the search engines. Alternate tags are used with images or pictures on your webpage. They allow the search engines to recognize the picture with words you provide. For example;

A picture html description would look like this:

< img border="0" src="internet-traffic-2.gif">

By adding the alternate tag, you can add keywords that are relevant to the picture or the content of your page, like this:

< img border="0" alt="website traffic" >< /strong > src="internet-traffic-2.gif" >

Anchor Text is a way to focus on keywords that link to another page or website. Again, search engines really like this and it draws attention to the relationship of keywords and relevant webpages or other websites.

< a href="http://www.Your-website.com">Making Money Online < /a >

For more priceless information like this lesson article, visit http://wealthsmith.com and see what affiliate programs are great sellers and other valuable information that will improve your website's performance.

About the Author
Jim is an online writer,entrepreneur, and all round knowledgeable kind of guy, that enjoys sharing his discoveries both on and off the web. "Life is short, and whatever we find, we can't take with us, so why not leave a trail for others to follow."

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WEB DESIGNING TIPS

WEB DESIGNING TIPS FOR YOU

By: Softbean

A website's success is very much dependent on web pages you design. It's been seen that beginners are not much successful first time when it comes to website designing. New enthusiastic website designers generally design poor web pages and thinks they have done a good job. Just thinking those pages are ready to upload doesn’t make so. The reason they think they have done a good job generally because they are the one who have design that stuff, In most cases- ‘first time’. Like all areas of expertise, designing a webpage also requires a fair amount of practice. So guys never under estimate the power of practice, it does make perfect and the more time you design you will get better and better on your craft.

We are not trying to discourage you but it’s almost impossible to design a perfect website on your first attempt. Actually you can expect this miracle only if you are a very good observer and ready to follow the same path of experts. Of course, there are other ways to achieve this. Say, by using a user friendly templates or getting an experts help.
You can’t ignore this-Even by reading this article! It would not be a bad idea to follow our tips and advices to achieve great results while designing your web page

If you are from the group of people who still thinks more graphics and more colours will make a great website, we would like to discourage you. In a standard style of designing that would be a completely wrong advice for anyone. Please understand the value of space. When it comes to designing a web page, less is always better. Stay away from adding lot of strange fonts and thousands of colours; that will put your visitors off and will also give jarring effect on eyes. Think how much loading time it will increase for your web page. A general observation says that most people get distracted and bored after 10 seconds of uploading. Most people hate to wait and get impatient very easily.

Think about the most popular websites for a second. Take Google for an example. It has more plain background than any other website; still it is the most popular search engine in the world. Now take a look at its features:
• lots of empty space (white space)
• a beautiful logo
• few links in blue
• And a search box

That’s it! More people will agree on point of simplicity when it comes to design better web pages. We can give plenty of examples for this. eBay, hotornot.com and papal are just some of these websites following the same path.

Some thorough tips for making great looking WebPages:

• Using more frames and background music is never a good idea, follow the same rule when it comes to colour.
• Layout lines are desirable to be simple.
• Font colours should not exceed more than two or three max. Any kind of overuse is a strict no-no.
• Flaming taxes, animated GIF images will kill the beauty of your webpage.
• Be sensible while you apply a contrast between webpage background and colour of the text and vise versa.
• Deciding about the font size? Don’t overlook the thumb rule of balance, too big or too small fonts will not do any good to your website.
• Verdana and Arial are the widely used fonts because they look just right on your computer screen.
• Making very wide website is a mistake you should not do. Better test it on multiple sized screens and even on several screen resolutions

Keep the above points in mind while you are designing your webpage, remember that great design is not much better than better design but it’s always good to aim for better design because it is better than the average one. Don't forget, webpage designing is important but not more than content. It’s content of your website that is making your website famous and successful.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

How To Fix CSS Float Issues

How To Fix CSS Float Issues

By: Sameep Shah

CSS is great. On somedays I'd go so far as to say it's a lifesaver. But every now and then you'll encounter a CSS issue that will drive you crazy.

In this case we'll talk about two of the more common issues when using the float property to create your layout.

For those of you who're new to CSS, Float is a CSS property that allows you to align your elements, such as DIVs, to create website layouts. The values for Float include Left, Right and None. You can use Floats to align elements and if done properly you can do in such a way that it's dynamic -- almost fluid.

Let's say you need to create an image gallery. Your idea is to place 4 images on each line, but after you place the first image the second image goes to the next line.

I'll admit in the past I used to use negative values to align my images so that the second image would show up next to the first one using the margin-left, right, top, bottom property. I even considered using tables, but opted to use negative values instead. There's nothing wrong with using negative margin property, but not when there's a better solution for it, such as using floats.

If you apply Float to those images then they'll align in one row, then you can continue to add more images using the float property and you wouldn't have to worry about whether they'd line up or not because the float property will recognize that there's too many elements on this line and it will push the images to the next line.

But what if you're using Floats for your website layout, for your divs and not just the images.

There are 2 main issues that you'll face with Floats.

Let's say you have three elements. Parent1(website's main container), Child1(left navigation bar), and Child2(content area). Parent1 is the main div container and your goal is to float the child divs side by side sort of like having a left navigation area and a right content area. Sounds great.

You've set your parent1's height to auto, and you've set child1 and child2's height as auto. But once you open and view it in a webpage the parent element's height is only 1 or 2pixels in height, the child elements seem to look like they're floating above the parent container, and the parent container doesn't seem to recognize the div's height. (see test link 1 on website).

No worries, here is an easy solution for it.

Add overflow:auto; for the CSS of the parent container and it will automatically recognize the floats and will increase in height so that it appears that the floats are part of the parent container just as you wanted. Wow all that in one line.

But don't forget there's still one more Float issue.

The second issue is more of a cross browser compatibility issue with floats, but still as important. If you try to Float for ex: three images to the left and are using margin property, then sometimes the first container that floats will have double the margin in Internet Explorer.

Welcome to the Float Peekaboo Bug / IE Float Doubled Margin Bug.

That's right if you've tried to Float an element and use any kind of margin then you'll notice that it will double the margin in IE.

I'm sure there are some decent hacks, but there's an easy way to fix this in CSS. The Float Margin Killer. In the CSS for that container add display:inline I don't know why but for some reason this property seems to fix the double margin property.

That's it? Yes that's it. Now you can start using floats.

CSS Menu - (Part 2)

CSS Menus and 508 Accessibility Compliant

By: Ethan Kaufman

The Section 508 federal U.S. mandate requires web developers to create alternative means of viewing content on websites so that people with disabilities can also experience it. When compliant with 508, web content also becomes more available to all users including those using mobile devices, laptops, voice browsers etc. Therefore, while 508 compliance is something every company needs to be working towards by law, it also affords the same businesses certain benefits that are applicable to not only users with disabilities but to all potential users.

The use of certain types of content on a website makes it difficult or impossible for people without sight or the ability to read, for example, to comprehend the given content expressed.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Guidelines and Levels of Compliance

The W3C has been tasked with establishing levels of Section 508 compliance based on the regulations set forth in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

It is not always easy to retro-engineer existing software to comply with Section 508 regulations. The W3C - an impartial group of web and Internet authorities. To help companies work towards compliance sequentially rather than all at once, the W3C has broken the law into three priority levels: A, AA and AAA.

Levels of 508 Compliance:

Priority 1, Level A: Provide content that, when presented to the user, conveys essentially the same function or purpose as auditory or visual content. This guideline emphasizes the importance of providing text equivalents of non-text content (images, pre-recorded audio, video). (text from the mandate itself)

Priority 2, Level AA: Ensure that text and graphics are understandable when viewed without color and that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup. (text from the mandate itself)

Priority 3, Level AAA: Mark up documents with the proper structural elements. Control presentation with style sheets rather than with presentation elements and attributes. Use style sheets to control layout and presentation. (text from the mandate itself)

Validation of CSS Menu Compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

There are several validation tools available to software developers to determine if their products are compliant with 508 standards. Pluginlab employed several validation methodologies to ensure the highest level of 508 regulation compliance. These include:

Cynthia Says by Highsoftware is a premium validation tool for 508 compliance. The software detects inconsistencies between site content and Section 508 standards. Pluginlab passed this validation test with zero errors at levels A, AA, and AAA - validating that Pluginlab CSS menus comply with all accessibility ratings.

WAVE by WebAim is used to assist developers and designers in the creation of software with AAA level 508 compliance. All Pluginlab modules passed without error at level AAA compliance, putting it in a singular class of software.

Site Valet by WebThing provides diagnostics for forms, scripts, HTTP, mark-up analysis and processing, HTML, XML, EARL, Link Checking and spell checking. All Pluginlab modules passed validation with zero errors at levels A, AA and AAA. Once again, a third validation that Pluginlab CSS Menu Modules simplify compliance with 508 regulations.

CSS menus in particular are becoming a primary means of navigating a website's many pages and thus are a key component in 508 compliance. CSS menus that provide the necessary support should include such features as keyboard-only support, voice and text reader support and so on. In turn, this level of compliance will also help with search engine optimization of site pages containing CSS menus.

CSS Menu (Part 1)

CSS Menus - 5 Key Ingredients



By: Ethan Kaufman



CSS menus offer a greatly expanded range of creative options to site designers. But the benefits to using CSS menus only begins with more expansive design flexibility. There are numerous additional benefits to using CSS menu-based navigation - benefits that will save you time and money in the development and management of all of your client sites.



5 Ingredients for an ideal CSS Menu



Because CSS design separates design elements from site text, changes to the look of a site can be made by swapping out one CSS template for another without changing the text. In addition:



1. CSS Menus better be Recyclable. A CSS menu is a template. Once created it can be used over and over, amortizing development costs with each site you design and build.



With a file folder full of CSS templates, you can adapt existing design elements, give them a different look and employ them on another site without any re-coding. Consider how much that will cut down on site development time and expense.



2. CSS Menus need to be Easily Customizable. Pick and click saves hours of expensive hand-coding. Client requested re-dos can be completed in minutes instead of hours. Change the background color, change the type font, the size whatever the request, fixes are fast using CSS Menus.



And, as you build your client base, expect satisfied clients to come back for updates and upgrades to their sites. These updates are simple and cost effective. They also deliver great margins on work for hire assignments.



3. CSS Menus Must be 100% SEO friendly. That makes site navigation readable to bots and menu text is given high priority in search engine algorithms. Sites show up faster in SE indices when CSS complaint menu technology is deployed.



4. CSS Menus should be Section 508 Compliant. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires equal access to all non-classified information. There are also state regulations used by schools, public institutions, corporations, even restaurants and movie theaters.



5. CSS horizontal and CSS vertical flyouts and dropdown menus should be easily changeable for those with low vision, increasing font size and even background colors for easier accessibility. CSS menus are strongly advocated by the W3C in their site compliance rankings.



One other point. There's an active, robust support community for CSS menu design and development. This means there's plenty of access to good, reliable information from professionals who have already discovered the money-saving, money-making benefits of CSS menu modules.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

MultiMedia Flash Movie

MultiMedia Flash Movie

By: Christopher Angus

An attractive website is essential to draw traffic to your site.One needs to be creative and make it lively, after allwho wants to check out some boring lifeless page? Flash multimediahelps in creating eye popping sites.Flash movies can be embedded intoyour web site and really make your web site stand out. One of thewonderful things about Flash is that you can fully customize thepresentation of your content. But using video on the Web has alwaysbeen about compromises. There are many multimedia technologies today.Ultimately they are coming up with more and better offerings.Software like QuickTime, Real Player, and Windows Media areinvariably the most used software when it comes to videos on the web.The typical download for one of these players is anywhere from 5 to 10MB. Alternately, even if you encode your video using any of the abovesoftware encoding tools, you are only limited to one streaming formator you have to spend a bunch of time switching between tools to makesure your content is accessible. In order to have a better qualityvideo without having to download a huge player that hoards all oftheir MIME types, new software applications are aiming at deliveringhigh quality video to the .swf Flash format.

If your aim is to give your web site's visitors as much information aspossible using minimum site's space, Flash will definitely give you anexcellent design and content. Highlighting your page with Flashanimation would give the site a feeling of being alive and trulyinteractive. Using Flash videos in websites is getting more and morepopular. Normally, creating and embedding Flash Video into yourwebsite requires purchasing Macromedia Flash and their Flash VideoKit. However, with a little effort, you can embed simple progressivedownload Flash Video content with minimal fuss and without having topurchase any expensive tools. You will need two things to have a Flash Video experience on your website. First, you need a Flash file (.swf) that can be embedded into your page and made to playback a video. Second, you need a piece of encoded Flash Video (.flv) that goes inside your player and gets played. This .flv video file can also be combined as part of the .swf file so the browser loads it all as one package.

Luckily, there are simple freeware and shareware toolsavailable that will both encode your video into Flash Video format andcreate the Flash player. An estimated 98 percent of Web users alreadyhave the Flash plug-in installed on their computers, video deliveredin Flash is a great way to go. If you have Macromedia Dreamweaver, youcan use either the Macromedia Flash Video Component or a 3rd-partyextension to build your own Flash Video player. If you want to use amore sophisticated Flash Video player in your website, you can createyour own Flash Video player application in Macromedia Flash.Both Flash and QuickTime offer some very unique characteristics whichmake them uniquely qualified to serve as the multimedia platforms ofchoice. Both Flash and QuickTime offer the widest possible range ofchoices when it comes to how a site can deliver its message. They areubiquitous with hundreds of millions of computers having Flash andQuickTime. QuickTime is so good, it can play Flash movies, and vectorbased movies, sprite movies, mpeg movies and even mp4 movies. It useswhat's called progressive download. They also run equally well on bothMacintosh and Windows computers. Bottom line, you get the quick start of a streaming movie with the quality of a downloaded movie. Both technologies are amenable to both artistic sites and corporate sites if done correctly. And finally,both are free.

Since there is a lot of competition in web designing it is alwayssafer and better to use creativity. With the help of Flash you cancreate your own videos, flashing logos, small movie clips etc. Flashgives better opportunity to use animation and sound interactivity. Itgives excellent opportunity to use completed movies as presentationsand it is an excellent option for banner advertising. Flashy websiteswith animation or 3d effects are far much more appealing thanmotionless pictures. More websites these days are opting for acreative website with 3d effects, high quality sound and graphics.

Music to homepage?

Want to add some music to your homepage?

* Saving Music

* File Names

* Foreground Music

* Background Music

* User Play


* Automatic Play

* Continuous Play

* Small Console Control

* Hidden Music

* Real Audio










SAVING MUSIC




To use a music file, you must first save the file to your computer in the same way as you would
a graphics file.



  1. Right click on the link to the music.
  2. Select "Save link as" (Netscape) or "Save target as"
    (Internet Explorer) from the pop up menu.

  3. This will bring up the folders on your desktop. Select
    where you want to store the file.

  4. At this stage, you can also re-name the file. In the
    "Filename" box, type in the name you wish to use.

  5. Click "SAVE"
  6. Then upload the saved files to your homepage.



DO NOT link directly to the music file in the collection where you found it. This causes
problems for their site, as well as problems for you if they delete or rename the music.









FILE NAMES




Music file names are case sensitive. This means that when you enter the filename, you must
use the EXACT name of the music file. faraway.mid is NOT the same as Faraway.mid or
faraway.MID You must always use the filename correctly, otherwise your music will not play!










FOREGROUND MUSIC




To make a music file play when clicked, you simply link it using the following tag, where
"filename.mid" is the full name of the sound file you are using, for example, "midione.mid" or
"bvhcop.wav".
If your background music is a midi file (and most are), then you cannot get a
foreground midi file to play when requested, as your midi player will be busy playing your
background music. However, a foreground wav file can play over a background midi.




<a href="filename.mid"> Play this music!</a>




.mid file

This should begin to play automatically.

For example, <a href="midione.mid">Play this midi file!</a>





Play this midi file!





.wav file

This may take a little time do download and play. Don't worry, I've chosen a short one!

For example, <a href="bvhcop.wav">Play this wav file!</a>






Play this wav file!









BACKGROUND MUSIC




There can be a conflict between the tags needed for background music with Netscape and Internet
Explorer browsers. To make your music accessible to more people, it is wise to include both
Netscape and I.E tags.




Netscape Netscape supports
<embed> tags.

Internet Explorer I.E supports
<bgsound>
tags.




If you want the tags that will be supported by both Netscape and I.E, then use the
following, where "filename.mid" is the full name of the sound file you are using, for example,
"midione.mid" or "bvhcop.wav".









USER PLAY




<embed src="filename.mid" width=145 height=55>

<noembed>

<bgsound src="
filename.mid">

</noembed>





This will produce a music player which can be clicked to start and stop the music.







<bgsound src="music/yesterday.mid"><br />





For a smaller music player, change the size tags to width=145 height=35







<bgsound src="music/yesterday.mid"><br />




Internet Explorer IE4.0 does not
display the smaller player the same as the IE3.0 series. IE4.0 viewers will see no difference
between the players.










AUTOMATIC PLAY - ONCE ONLY




<embed src="filename.mid" width=145 height=55 autostart=true>

<noembed>

<bgsound src="
filename.mid">

</noembed>





This will produce a music player. The music will play automatically once your page has loaded.
It will play through once and then stop.











AUTOMATIC PLAY - CONTINUOUS




<embed src="filename.mid" width=145 height=55 autostart=true loop=true>

<noembed>

<bgsound src="
filename.mid" loop=infinite>

</noembed>




This will produce a music player. The music will play automatically once your page has loaded.
The music will play continuously.









SMALL CONSOLE CONTROLS




For all of your visible play options, you can substitute a small music control console, instead
of the larger music player.


Simply use the following code:




<embed src="filename.mid" width=51 height=15 controls="smallconsole">

<noembed>

<bgsound src="
filename.mid" controls="smallconsole">

</noembed>





This will produce a small console consisting of an "ON" and "OFF" button.



For a slightly larger version, change the size tags to width=144 height=15



IE4.0 does not
display the small console control the same as the IE3.0 series. It looks "part cut off", but is
still usable.




I have been told that viewers with Crescendo do not see the correct control console either.








HIDDEN BACKGROUND MUSIC




<embed src="filename.mid" hidden=true autostart=true loop=true>

<noembed>

<bgsound src="
filename.mid" loop=infinite>

</noembed>






NO music player will appear on your screen. The music will be hidden.


This coding will produce automatic start, continuous play music.




Continuous music that you cannot turn off can get very annoying, so ... for hidden background
music that starts automatically, but only plays through once and then stops, use this
coding:




<embed src="filename.mid" hidden=true autostart=true>

<noembed>

<bgsound src="
filename.mid">

</noembed>








REAL AUDIO




I get many requests for help with Real Audio. However, I know nothing about it!




To learn how to use Real Audio in your webpage, please visit my friend Jim!



Email Tag

* Basic Email Tag

* Email Icon

* Add a Subject Line

* Multiple Recipients






<a href="mailto:youremail@wherever.com">Email me!</a>




Email me!










EMAIL ICON




Want to use an email icon instead of words? Simple!!




<a href="mailto:youremail@wherever.com">

<img src="filename.gif"></a>


(but put the REAL name of your graphic instead of "filename.gif" !)





Email icon





What's that line around the icon?

Because the image is being used as a link to your email, a narrow "link line" appears around
your image. To get rid of it, simply add border=0 to the image tag:





<a href="mailto:youremail@wherever.com">

<img src="filename.gif" border=0></a>





Email icon











ADD A SUBJECT LINE





You can make it so that a subject automatically appears in the subject line of your
email. Simply add ?subject=whatever you want it to say at the end of your email address.

(Note: NO gap between the .com and the ?)




<a href="mailto:youremail@wherever.com?subject=whatever you want it to say">

<img src="filename.gif" border=0></a>






Email icon









MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS





You can code your email tag so that it automatically sends the email to several people. Simply
add the extra email addresses, separated by a ,




<a href="mailto:youremail@wherever.com, hisemail@thatplace.com, ouremail@home.net?subject=Whatever you want it to say">

<img src="filename.gif" border=0></a>






Email icon




NOTE: The multiple recipient option is not supported by all browsers.









Marquees Tag



* Basic Marquee

* Color

* Behavior

* Direction

* HTML Tags

* Scrolldelay

* Scrollamount

* Loop

* Blink





BASIC MARQUEE




<marquee>Then your text</marquee>

This is the basic tag for a marquee. You must always close with </marquee>.




This is the basic tag for a marquee, and it will scroll across the page from right to
left continuously.









COLOR




<marquee bgcolor="#xxxxxx">Then your text</marquee>

This sets a background color for your marquee. The #xxxxxx is the hexadecimal number for your
color. For some hex color codes, go to my Netscape Color Chart.




The bgcolor here is #FF99CC









WIDTH




<marquee width=n>Then your text</marquee>


This sets the width of the marquee. n is expressed in pixels or % of page width.





For this marquee, the
width="50%"











BEHAVIOR




NOTE: Beware of the spelling! If you use behaviour instead of behavior,
then it will not work.




<marquee behavior="alternate">Then your text</marquee>




The text will bounce backward and forwards
continuously.





<marquee behavior="slide">Then your text</marquee>




Note: With IE3.0 versions, the marquee will scroll across once and stop at the left side.
With IE4.0, the marquee will not stop, but will jump across and scroll again, instead of
scrolling off the page as the basic marquee does.




What happens here depends on which version of IE
views the marquee.










DIRECTION



<marquee>Then your text</marquee>


If you do not specify the direction, it will default to scrolling from right to left.



<marquee direction="right">Then your text</marquee>




The text will scroll from left to right.






<marquee direction="up">Then your text</marquee>




The text will scroll up.







<marquee direction="down">Then your text</marquee>




The text will scroll down.














HTML TAGS




HTML tags do not work between the marquee tags with IE3.0 versions, but they do
with IE4.0.

Therefore, if you wish to change the font size color or face of your marquee,
you must specify the font outside of the marquee tag. If you try to use it
between the tags ... the font changes might not work, depending on which version of IE is being
used to view your page!




<marquee>

<font face="Comic Sans MS" size=5color="#CC33FF">

The font MIGHT NOT change. </font>
</marquee>



The font MIGHT NOT change.





<font face="Comic Sans MS" size=5color="#CC33FF">

<marquee>The font changes WILL work!!! </marquee>
</font>


The font changes WILL work!!!




If you want to have several lines scrolling across your page, instead of one long line, then
you
will need to put each line in its own marquee tags. The <p> and <br>
tags might not work between the marquee tags. Be aware that the lines will scroll across
the page at slightly different speeds unless they are the exact same length.




<marquee>Here is the first line.........<br>

And here is the next.<br>

This third line is the last one! The line breaks MIGHT NOT work.</marquee>




Here is the first line.........
And here is the next.
This third line is the last
one! The line breaks MIGHT NOT work.





<marquee>Here is the first line.........</marquee>

<marquee>And here is the next.</marquee>

<marquee>This third line is the last one! The line breaks WILL
work.</marquee>




Here is the first line........
And here is the next.
This third line is the last one! The line breaks WILL work.








SCROLLDELAY




<marquee scrolldelay=n>Then your text</marquee>

This is supposed to set the number of milliseconds between each scroll of the marquee, where
n is the number required.





Scrolldelay="200"



Scrolldelay="100"



Scrolldelay="5"











SCROLLAMOUNT




<marquee scrollamount=n>Then your text</marquee>


The scrollamount is supposed to set the space, in pixels, between successive scrolls of the
marquee, where n is the number of pixels required. It also seems to affect the speed of
the marquee as well. The higher the scrollamount number, the faster!!




Scrollamount="1"

Scrollamount="5"

Scrollamount="10"

Scrollamount="50"

Scrollamount="100"









LOOP




<marquee loop=n>Then your text</marquee>

This sets the number of times that the marquee will loop, or scroll. If you do not specify, it
will loop continuously.






The loop=1 in this marquee.




The loop=3 in this marquee.




No loop specified in this marquee. It will loop
continuously.










COMBINING BLINK AND MARQUEE




Blink works in Netscape but not Internet Explorer.
Marquee works in Internet
Explorer but not Netscape.




So ... combine the two tags so that your text will do something in either browser!




<center><blink><marquee>Using marquee and blink tags together!
</marquee></blink></center>






Using marquee and blink tags together!