about
This site has been put together using Dreamweaver and hand coding. I have used a standards-based methodology so that changes to the whole website can be made quickly and efficiently. This approach involves the usage of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and adherence to the XHTML 1.0 Transitional standard (see the W3C logo at the foot of each page at this website).
css
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. A CSS file holds all the presentational markup that make the web page visually interesting. Meanwhile all the basic text and images (content) are held in the (X)HTML file. (Find out what this web page looks like without a style sheet here). Essentially, it’s all about separating content from presentation.
What are the advantages of style sheets for the web developer?
Separating content and presentation simplifies administration and speeds up development. Changes to presentation can be achieved across a whole website with a single change to one file. That’s much easier than changing each web page separately! Additionally, style sheet markup accesses more of the Document Object Model than standard (X)HTML. Search engines are likely to weight pages higher in relevance if web developers use the correct semantic markup; for example using <h1> in place of <b>.
What are the advantages for the surfer?
CSS is a standards based toolkit, so more browsers are likely to understand CSS markup. Also, if you’re browsing on a handheld, portable or mobile with a smaller than standard screen, CSS ensures the page is rendered in a readable format. If you happen to be visually impaired, then CSS is already pre-configured to help you. For example, the tags <strong> and <em> will ensure screen reading software correctly emphasise the words contained.
xhtml
Why do I use XHTML? What is it? Before my course I was uncertain what it was.
Well, (to try to summarize) it’s a recent standard agreed at the Word Wide Web Consortium. This body meets regularly, and lays down standards which are used by the browser manufacturers. All web designers and developers should keep to these standards too.
XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) is a convergence of technologies bringing HTML (HyperText Markup Language) closer to XML (Extensible Markup Language). With XML, there is no presentational markup - the structure directly reflects the contents. It’s used for the transfer of data, for example, RSS news feeds, across the internet. HTML used to allow all sorts of markup within the information that was being presented. In effect, it mixed up content and presentation in an unholy mess of markup. With XHTML, those days are over.
But why is this important? Well, because web browsers - or "user agents" (to use the W3C’s term) now include handheld devices, TVs and even mobile phones. Web pages are read on all these devices and it is essential that standards are maintained so that the information on the web page is presented in a readable fashion. For example, a browser has plenty of space for navigation bars, images and text. But a mobile phone may only have 80 pixels width to play with. Standards also helps to avoid the unthinkable alternative - a retreat into proprietary standards.
We had a taste of proprietary standards during the Browser Wars of the late 1990’s when Netscape and Internet Explorer both went their own ways with various presentational features. Suddenly web pages appeared completely differently depending on what browser was being used. And Javascript authors had to address two different browser technologies when attempting to write lines of code.
Now that everybody is singing from the same hymn sheet (theoretically), a host of exciting possibilities exist. For example, you only need to write one version of your web page, which can then be read by all devices. In addition to this, browser features like enlarging text for the visually impaired should work everywhere! (on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, go to View > Text Size).
It’s a whole new world out there Scotty!