wlls 102 class 8 4/02/2004 professor c. shilepsky wells college
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WLLS 102 Class 8
4/02/2004
Professor C. Shilepsky
Wells College
Web ProseA good place to start:
E.B. White, Rule 17 (Elements of Style):
Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
Web Prose - Krug Omit needless words
Rule of thumb: remove 50%
Krug: remove another 50%
Happy talk must dieExamples?
Instructions must dieWhy?
Web Prose -WSGWeb reading is unpleasant
(a screen is harder to read than paper)
Web reading is not stationary (Web readers pick their own path)
What to do?Make documents concise
Reorganize using lists, tables, and charts
Hyperlink to detail
Suggestions for the 3/19 text?
Other versions
Where are You? Project. You should have
• An objective, target audience, content
• Site architecture and navigation
• Preliminary page design
• Standalone documentation (separate from the site)
• Next two weeks: site progress reports.
Homework:
• I should see links to all past assignments.
• You are graded on completeness and punctuality.
• Please: make this your repository. Disks get lost and I need to review your work.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)Suppose:
Your site has 20 pagesThe background is yellow and the text is navyYou change your mind . . .
OrYou have 5 people working on the 20 pagesAmy likes magenta and graySue likes teal and oliveYour client thinks she wants pink and green.
CSS allow you to Separate content and stylePut all formatting decisions in one place
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)Associated with existing tags (inline):
<body style="font-size:12px;">
Defined as a class and applied to tags.footnote {font-size:12px; font-style:italic;}....<p class="footnote">Stuff</p>
<span> and <div>: a way to make a block of text to which you can apply a style.
<span class="footnote">Stuff<span><span> is inline<div> is on a line by itself.
Cascading?Refers to the rules of precedence:
(lowest) (highest)External style sheet->Embedded style->Inline style
External: in a separate file, e.g. styles.css<link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
Embedded:in the document head, e.g.<style> body {color: black}</style>
Inline:< body style="color: black">
My preference: external then embedded if a style applies only to one page.
CSS as an Alternative to Tables
Recall how complex nested tables becameHard to create and get rightHarder still to maintain
CSS allow blocks to be positioned on a pageE.g. dropdown menus in ccs
CSS Disadvantages
It seems harder at first
Browsers interpret CSS incompletely
CSS and HTML terminology differ bgcolor versus background
Anything you mistype is ignored
CSS Advantages
A uniform, more professional look for a site
More control than with HTML attributes (e.g. list styles)
Less work if deprecated attributes are phased out
More efficient to developmaintain
They are the coming technology
Goal Now
Introduce the conceptTry an external style sheet on your homepageUse it on your project