CSS3 Support for Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8
Internet Explorer, the browser with the largest percentage of legacy users tends to lag far behind the other popular browsers in adopting new standards. This is like a double roundhouse kick to a web developer. There are a number of great JavaScript tools out there that help Internet Explorer 6 and even 7, and 8 [...]
How to Hide the Dotted Border Around Links in Firefox
Many of you may have noticed that Firefox adds a 1px dotted border around some active elements. From what I understand, this border is intended to indicate where the user’s focus is on the page. The unfortunate reality is, these borders are often unsightly for standard users. Many times, developers need to remove them from [...]
A Not so Nostalgic Look at Pixel GIF Spacers
If you’re new to web design you’re very lucky. You get to jump right into CSS based layouts. You have the ability to create clean, beautiful code. When I first started learning web design it was just prior to the birth of CSS and long before CSS was used as a layout tool. Back in [...]
Two CSS Background Images on a Single Website
Over the years I have tried several times to find a stable way to add two backgrounds to a site. It may be that I want a horizontal background that may have a gradient and a vertical background that is 100% tall and adds a slight shadow to the edges of the site. This is [...]
A Good Website Requires 1 3/4 Cups of XHTML
I recently spoke to a group of web design students at a local college. My talk primarily focused on content management and JavaScript frameworks but I also talked in broad terms about our philosophy when creating XHTML/CSS layouts. I would argue there is no perfect recipe for laying out a website. Everyone seems to have [...]
IE6 PNG Fix for Images and Backgrounds
I talked earlier this week about some of the shortcomings of IE6. One of the most frustrating shortcomings is the lack of PNG support in Internet Explorer 6. PNG files are incredibly useful and their usage opens many more transparency options allowing for more flexibility in design. All new browsers have full PNG support, the [...]
It Takes Lots of Water and Steroids to Grow a Web Developer
I had a conversation with a programmer friend yesterday morning that got me thinking about what it takes to be a successful programmer. Programming, whether it be for the web or software, is a unique and difficult business. The tough thing about being a programmer is that it is impossible to know everything you will [...]
Extend and Enhance your WordPress
WordPress is a fantastic blogging engine and many of my visitors are WordPress users and fans. Today I thought I would spend a little time cataloging some of my favorite posts on using and extending WordPress. Below are 7 posts you can use to help get the most out of your WordPress installation. 10 Killer [...]
A Great List of Web Safe/Friendly Fonts
Today I came across a great chart showing web safe fonts by operating system and I thought I would share it with all of you. Designing for the web is difficult and one of the primary differences between print design and web design is freedom with fonts. For years, fonts have been a major issue [...]
How to Make a Fixed Background Image Using CSS
This is just a simple bit of CSS but I thought I would probably need it again in the future. Adding a fixed background image to a website is something I do very rarely but every now and then there is cause for it. The code I have shown below demonstrates how to add a [...]