Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Preformatted text, Cross-browsing, HTML Text & SEO
I've not written an entry for a bit because I've been caught up in ... stuff, heh. In my absence I've discovered a few new things:
PREFORMATTED TEXT
Late last month I posted a blog that required me to show you code that I used in another website. Through a little creative trickery I think I got the point across, but it was definitely hard to follow, I'm sure. Since that time I've learned about Preformatted Text.
The issue in the entry that required showing the viewer the HTML code that I used for a website was that when I tried to write the code in this blogger window, the blogger window wanted to read the code instead of show it. To fix this, what you have to do is use < in place of the < and > in place of the >.
The following text is code that I've enclosed in < and > so that you can see it as written code:
<head>This is a sentence.</head>
Another way to display your code for viewers is to use a textbox like the following one:
CROSS-BROWSING
In my last entry I was concerned with the fact that sometimes my coding shows up fine in Opera but Firefox makes it look slightly different. I have found these two websites that help you see what a webpage will look like on different browsers (again, the a href tag doesn't work for me on blogger and I have no idea why so you'll have to copy and paste the link into your address bar until I can figure out why it doesn't work):
http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/
http://browsershots.org/
In addition, I also found these two websites that will tell you if there are any errors in your (X)HTML code or your CSS, respectively:
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
HTML TEXT
Also in my last entry I wrote about my dismay when I discovered that when I visited the website from another computer the font defaulted to verdana and would not show up as the font I had used when designing the site, which was Boopee.
The reason other computers wouldn't show my chosen font is because the fonts are not embedded in the code but rather the code tells the computer system to search within itself to find the font. If the font is not installed on that particular computer system, the code tells it to resort to default fonts such as Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman.
Unfortunately the only way I can come up with to avoid this is to use images as the font instead of the font itself if you choose to use an off-the-wall font (like Boopee). However, if you use something like Verdana or Arial or Times New Roman it's highly unlikely you'll have this issue because most computers have these fonts installed.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. According to wikipedia (such a fun word to say!), meta tags used to be the way to go for getting your website to come up as the #1 site when using an internet browser.
Because web developers have misused this system a new system using new calculus algorithms has been established. Now I get to research algorithms because I have no idea what the crap that is...although I suspect it's got a lot to do with patterns in numbers and such. We'll see.
PREFORMATTED TEXT
Late last month I posted a blog that required me to show you code that I used in another website. Through a little creative trickery I think I got the point across, but it was definitely hard to follow, I'm sure. Since that time I've learned about Preformatted Text.
The issue in the entry that required showing the viewer the HTML code that I used for a website was that when I tried to write the code in this blogger window, the blogger window wanted to read the code instead of show it. To fix this, what you have to do is use < in place of the < and > in place of the >.
The following text is code that I've enclosed in < and > so that you can see it as written code:
<head>This is a sentence.</head>
Another way to display your code for viewers is to use a textbox like the following one:
CROSS-BROWSING
In my last entry I was concerned with the fact that sometimes my coding shows up fine in Opera but Firefox makes it look slightly different. I have found these two websites that help you see what a webpage will look like on different browsers (again, the a href tag doesn't work for me on blogger and I have no idea why so you'll have to copy and paste the link into your address bar until I can figure out why it doesn't work):
http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/
http://browsershots.org/
In addition, I also found these two websites that will tell you if there are any errors in your (X)HTML code or your CSS, respectively:
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
HTML TEXT
Also in my last entry I wrote about my dismay when I discovered that when I visited the website from another computer the font defaulted to verdana and would not show up as the font I had used when designing the site, which was Boopee.
The reason other computers wouldn't show my chosen font is because the fonts are not embedded in the code but rather the code tells the computer system to search within itself to find the font. If the font is not installed on that particular computer system, the code tells it to resort to default fonts such as Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman.
Unfortunately the only way I can come up with to avoid this is to use images as the font instead of the font itself if you choose to use an off-the-wall font (like Boopee). However, if you use something like Verdana or Arial or Times New Roman it's highly unlikely you'll have this issue because most computers have these fonts installed.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. According to wikipedia (such a fun word to say!), meta tags used to be the way to go for getting your website to come up as the #1 site when using an internet browser.
Because web developers have misused this system a new system using new calculus algorithms has been established. Now I get to research algorithms because I have no idea what the crap that is...although I suspect it's got a lot to do with patterns in numbers and such. We'll see.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Webby's To Do List
DESIGN ISSUE
My resume website found at http://www.wku.edu/~tabitha.holmes969 shows up perfectly fine in my Opera browser, however problems occur when viewed in the Firefox browser.
In Firefox my scrolling gallery does not show up. Also, when I visit the site on my parent's Gateway computer that has a 14'' screen I find that my content does not conform to that size but rather you have to scroll left and right and up and down more to see the whole page. The browser I use on that computer is IE, but the IE on my laptop shows the website fine as well.
So my current battle is a battle of the browsers and making my site look good on all browsers.
TO DO LIST
1. Find out how to make my website look good on all browsers.
2. Add a way for viewers to know when the website was last updated.
3. Edit video of Colby's parents.
4. Finish CF website design: Add contact form using php, Design a links page and a What is CF page as well as a CF Patients page. Add the rss feed into the new design.
5. Use CSS to make this blog match the Resume Website.
Building a Contact Form Using PHP in Dreamweaver CS3
I wanted to build a contact form to serve as a feedback and guestbook. I googled "contact form using php in Dreamweaver CS3" and found a great tutorial at the following website:
http://www.kirupa.com/web/php_contact_form.htm
A few things I found difficult and not dummy proof with this tutorial was:
1. When it prompts you to copy and paste the code to go into the html page it doesn't specify where in the code to put it. Paste it into the body section.
2. On page 2 you find the code for the php page. To create the php page open an html page, go to code view, delete all the code and replace it with the code you copied.
Other than that, the tutorial rox out. Happy contact page-making!
AutoRun
I was applying for an internship at ImageWest at Western Kentucky University and I wanted to copy my entire website onto a cd and turn it in that way.
I wanted it so that when the cd was inserted into a computer, the index.html page opened automatically instead of the viewer having to navigate through my folder that contained my entire website.
I googled, "copying a website to a cd" and eventually came across something that resembled what I wanted. The answer was to put an autorun code onto the cd.
After many failed attempts I discovered this website (let's see if the hyperlink function is working today...by the way I'm using Firefox today and it didn't change my Title into some funky language, yay!):
Boo...it didn't work. So it's obviously not a Opera browser thing, must be a blogger.com thing. Copy and Paste:
http://www.longtion.com/autorunpro/autorunpro.htm
Anywho who, I downloaded the trial version of autorunpro. Autorunpro is fairly simple to use.
Go to file-wizard and the autopro wizard walks you through the process step by step. A feature that I found very neat was that you can create a logo (the program calls it a splash page) and when you insert the cd the image is shown for a brief moment before proceeding onward to open your html page that you specified by the computer's default browser. However, the autorunpro program does not recognize .png so if your image is saved as a .png you gotta change it! Here's mine:
Testing the autorun feature on Vista proved difficult as you had to visit the settings for Vista's autorun and pretty much turn everything off...still not a big fan of Vista, although I do understand the idea behind this is to add security, but it's still a painus in my anus.
Moving forward...now if you're using Dreamweaver to create your html pages, you'll discover the four documents that autorunpro creates when you open your website in dreamweaver again. From that point forward when you copy the entire site to a cd it will contain code for autorun. Sweet, huh?
I wanted it so that when the cd was inserted into a computer, the index.html page opened automatically instead of the viewer having to navigate through my folder that contained my entire website.
I googled, "copying a website to a cd" and eventually came across something that resembled what I wanted. The answer was to put an autorun code onto the cd.
After many failed attempts I discovered this website (let's see if the hyperlink function is working today...by the way I'm using Firefox today and it didn't change my Title into some funky language, yay!):
Boo...it didn't work. So it's obviously not a Opera browser thing, must be a blogger.com thing. Copy and Paste:
http://www.longtion.com/autorunpro/autorunpro.htm
Anywho who, I downloaded the trial version of autorunpro. Autorunpro is fairly simple to use.
Go to file-wizard and the autopro wizard walks you through the process step by step. A feature that I found very neat was that you can create a logo (the program calls it a splash page) and when you insert the cd the image is shown for a brief moment before proceeding onward to open your html page that you specified by the computer's default browser. However, the autorunpro program does not recognize .png so if your image is saved as a .png you gotta change it! Here's mine:
Testing the autorun feature on Vista proved difficult as you had to visit the settings for Vista's autorun and pretty much turn everything off...still not a big fan of Vista, although I do understand the idea behind this is to add security, but it's still a painus in my anus.
Moving forward...now if you're using Dreamweaver to create your html pages, you'll discover the four documents that autorunpro creates when you open your website in dreamweaver again. From that point forward when you copy the entire site to a cd it will contain code for autorun. Sweet, huh?
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