+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 2, Issue 28, January 1, 2004. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 28 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: DREAMWEAVER. 04: EVENTS. 05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: PHP. 07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 10: TOOLS. 11: USABILITY. 12: XML. SECTION TWO: 13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. I Do Not Use Accesskeys By Dave Shea "Over time, I've come to the conclusion that Accesskeys are more harmful than good. Until browsers allow a user to override a document's Accesskeys, I won't use them." http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/12/29/i_do_not_use/index.php Accessibility for All By Linda Weinman "Accessibility is one of the hottest new topics in web development - a result of increased awareness and recent legislation. In this article, New Riders author Lynda Weinman helps you follow government guidelines and practical guidelines to make your sites usable for everyone who visits." http://tinyurl.com/2t7ec +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. The new typography By Richard Rutter "There is no limit to the number of typefaces we can specify in the font-family cascade (often referred to as the font stack) yet so often designers stick to the same old choices just because they are on everyone's system. Why not make the list longer and get a bit more adventurous with type choices? If users haven't got your first, second, or even third choice, they'll end up with what you would have given them anyway." http://www.clagnut.com/blog/266/ CSS Crib sheet #1 Gaps Between Vertical Nav Elements in IE5 By Andy Budd "My first crib sheet problem is a simple one. When creating a typical 'Left Hand Menu' using Styled lists, whitespace appears between the nav elements in IE5. To fix this problem, simply set the containing li element to be inline..." http://www.andybudd.com/blog/archives/000128.html Liquid layouts - the easy way By Russ Weakley "This article explains one method of achieving a successful liquid layout as well as providing basic definitions of liquid, fixed-width and em-driven layouts." http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/liquid/ +03: DREAMWEAVER. Implementing User Authentication By Jeffrey Bardzell "In this tutorial, you'll create a complete registration and log-on system, taking into account both when things go right and when they go awry (for example, log-on fails or a username is already in use). You will work on eight pages, five of which are specifically related to registration and log-on, two of which are protected, and the last one is simply an index page. Once you have a system like this set up, you can add as many restricted pages as you like. You can even implement roles-based authorization, in which users can access only certain pages in the site, even after they have logged in." http://tinyurl.com/zn0p +04: EVENTS. Web Accessibility Best Practices Exchange Training February 9-10, 2004 Madrid, Spain "Shawn Lawton Henry and Shadi Abou-Zahra present several tutorials at the Web Accessibility Best Practices Exchange Training in Madrid, Spain. The event is sponsored by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative and hosted by Fundosa Teleservicios." http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2004/02/exchange.html CSUN, International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities March 15-20, 2004 Los Angeles, California U.S.A. http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/index.htm +05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Setting Up Web Site Categories By Lynda Weinman "The information architecture of your site is a process upon which many other processes hinge. At its most simple form, information architecture outlines the structure of your site - it's the process of developing categories and labels, and deciding where all the pieces of your web site belong. In this article, New Riders author Lynda Weinman excerpts a chapter from her new book Designing Web Graphics.4 to overview the first step in the information architecture process: setting up your categories." http://tinyurl.com/3yuge +06: JAVASCRIPT. Skinny JavaScript -- Fast! By Rick Renfrow "Rick's JavaScript library enables you to render large HTML and CSS constructs using extremely tight JavaScript code. From tags and properties to entities and attributes, if you've coded it, Rick's library supports it!" http://www.sitepoint.com/article.php/1256 Compact JavaScript DatePicker Control By Guyon Roche "One of the many types of data entered into web forms is the date. The three main problems when handling date fields are Garbage Data, Validating, and Formats. To address these issues, here is a customized DatePicker control." http://tinyurl.com/29kej +07: MISCELLANEOUS. W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee to be Knighted by Queen Elizabeth By W3C "Web Inventor recognized for contributions to Internet development..." http://www.w3.org/2003/12/timbl_knighted +08: PHP. Writing In PHP Files By marhen.com "PHP is almost like when you write in HTML files. PHP is one the most powerful scripts and easy to use." http://marhen.com/WritingPHPcode.html Pitfalls of Transactions with PHP By Kimberlee Jensen "Database transactions are important for data reliability and consistency. Used properly, they can prevent many types of errors. Used improperly, they can cause many other kinds of errors. Kimberlee Jensen demonstrates using transactions with PHP well." http://tinyurl.com/38ofe +09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Web Standards for Business By Francois Nonnenmacher "This article highlights the benefits of using Web standards for business sites (Internet, intranet and extranet sites). It is aimed at stakeholders from the marketing, communication and IT departments." http://tinyurl.com/z0lb Minimum Design By Christopher Hester "My point is this. With an increasing number of effects the user can apply to a page, how can you control a design anymore? The simple fact is - you can't! For years I lived under the false pretense that I could make a site almost identical in the main browsers. With new browsers coming out all the time, along with new internet devices, the truth is that creating just one design that everyone will see in the same way is impossible...The best we can achieve is therefore a minimum design. By this I mean something coherent that works for us, but with the use of proper code, will also work more or less for others." http://tinyurl.com/2rd6g +10: TOOLS. DW Exporter 1.0 By Jorg Schmalenberger "DW Exporter 1.0 recognizes installed versions 3, 4, UD4 and MX under Windows and saves selectively..." http://www.joexx.de/DW-Exporter/index_en.php +11: USABILITY. Usability four times more important than speed or branding By Optimum Web "In a series of controlled tests optimum.web found that usability was by far the most significant factor affecting site preference. It was four times more important than speed in determining perceptions of a website. Branding had little to no significance at all." http://www.optimum-web.co.uk/infoart_03.htm +12: XML. Basic (X)HTML Structure By Elizabeth Castro Learn how to build an HTML and XHTML conforming page step-by-step, with plenty of visuals to help. http://tinyurl.com/23uef Converting HTML to XHTML By Chris Minnick and Chelsea Valentine This is a good overview of how to convert HTML to XHTML and adhere to Web standards. http://tinyurl.com/2nwdq [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility Association Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations Book Listings. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books Cascading Style Sheets Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css Color Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color Dreamweaver Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver Evaluation & Testing Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing Event Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events Flash Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash Information Architecture Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture JavaScript Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript Miscellaneous Web Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc Navigation Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation PHP Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php Sites & Blogs Listing. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards Tool Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools Typography Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type Usability Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability XML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN) STANDARD. As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN Standard information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGNATURE. Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]