Web Master Tricks
Tips and Tricks of Quality Web Design

This section Web Magic - "Web Master Tricks" will contain various tips and resources to help you to design your site to be compatible with all browsers. You will find various design tips and secrets, HTML standards and tricks, and design resources. A great site for web masters whether experienced or just starting to design a web site.

I believe by sharing the knowledge that I have gained I will be helping to make the web a better place and helping those who are learning to gain a better knowledge of creating sites which will be viewable by the majority of Internet travelers. You will find valuable resources to help you design your site and learn how to implement various techniques.

Perhaps the biggest mistake made by people who claim to be a web designer is using a WYSIWYG program that uses proprietary coding. The majority of web site editors do not comply with HTML standards, and sites are not viewable in all browsers. When you state that it is necessary to download a specific browser to view your site it is like hanging up a sign saying " You are not welcome here!".

The same is true of using frames without having alternatives for those not capable of viewing framed pages. Then there are the many sites which use JAVA or Javascript extensively and fail to provide alternatives for those that choose not to take the security risks of using these features even if supported by their browsers, or the browsers that do not support these languages.

Before you decide to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) read Unsafe CSS Properties Chart

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Web Page Guidelines: (including both text and graphics)

10-20 K - - Well Optimized 20-40 K - - Adequate 40-60 K - - Dubious :( Over 60 K - - Unacceptable

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Email Tricks (also see Dealing with Spam)

 

How do I include a subject line with an email?

<A HREF="mailto:user@server?subject=Put your subject line here">

How do I send a carbon copy?

<A HREF="mailto:user@server.com&cc=user@server.com">

How do I send a blind carbon copy?

<A HREF="mailto:user@server.com&bcc=user@server.com">

How do I send to multiple recipients?

<A HREF="mailto:user@server.com,user2@server.com">

Using several commands in one email reference:

<A HREF="mailto:user@server?subject=Put your subject line here&cc=cc=user@server.com&bcc=user@server.com">

SiteUp Internet Promotions' mailto Encoder

Encode your email address within your site to stop spam robots from extracting your email address to use for Unsolicited Commercial Email.

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Redirecting Pages

This is very useful if you move a page or it's contents to a new site or area within your site.

Within the headers of your page you would insert the following command. This example will refresh your page after 5 seconds.:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="5; URL=http://www.newpage.com">

Please note that search some engines/robots consider redirected pages as spam. It's best to exclude them from being indexed (see META tags).

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Using Music on Your Site

If you choose to use music on your site, then please have the courtesy of letting the user decide whether to listen to your music or NOT! Setup your command so that the user have the options of turning on or off your sound clips!

This has always been considered one of the five basic elements of poor site design. I do not know of anyone who appreciates entering a site only to be blasted with music. Depending on the plugin used to listen to your music your page can be very slow to load if your sound file has to download onto the visitors computer before your page can load completely.

Since your sound clips do have to be cached on your visitor's computer it's a good idea to post the file size so that the user can decide if they want that file to take up the space in their cache. If they have been traveling to many sites during their session, their cache may be full of many files and graphics already.

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Using Font Faces

Although font faces do not conform to the standard being covered on this site I felt it necessary to bring up some points regarding their use. "Font face" is an extension of Netscape and not an authentic HTML element.

Font faces are best within your graphics and site masts as many users are limited to the fonts installed on their computer system. There are so many sites that use these off-the-wall font faces that ordinary users would just not have available to them.

Don't assume because you choose to use a fancy font face to display your site content that anyone other then yourself will be able to view the pages as intended.

If you want your site to be shown using various fonts, then create the graphic files to display these fonts as this will insure that all your visitors will see the fonts as you intended.

The safest font faces to use which would be available to most users is Arial, Geneva, and Helvetica. Your site will not pass true validation tests for compliance with HTML 3.2 when using the font face element.

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