The Bells and Whistles Style
Well, you made it !! You've arrived at the bells and whistles tutorial !!! Please
whatever you do don't forget what I discussed in the first three Style and Content
Tutorials. The use of advanced HTML is very addictive and can cause some rather deadly
HTML diseases. I am in recovery after a near terminal case of animatedgifbackgrounditis
and to make matters worse I had a bad case of status bar scrollerosis too! After this
brush with bells and whistles I feel I am now an authority on the effects of these
doo-dadds.
It was skinners for a while, Dr. HTML wasn't sure if I was going to make it!! He said
it was one of the worse cases he'd ever seen. I actually had a banner that came in around
315 K!!! I used to start downloading my entry page and then go down and make myself a
coffee and it would be still streamin' when I came back up. Of coarse I didn't notice
because I was mesmerized by all the animatitis. Not to mention the ole statusbar
scrollerosis. I was running a java script that was to die for! It was in the
Netizens
status bar ( I knew everybody loved that!) and you could stop it, pause it by clicking a
button or doing a mouseover. It had three different messages and best of all you could use
it is a link! Navigation too!! I was in JavaScript heaven. This baby wasn't just any whistle it
was like the whistle on a steam locomotive!!!!
Only problem was you couldn't see my giant image map for all the Java script errors the
browsers were chokin on. Out of desperation I got a member on one of the HWG lists to see
if he could do anything with it. Last I heard he had passed it on to a Java list and it's
their baby now. The Java gods move in mysterious ways as this probably saved my life! I
had the sickness bad. Thanks Mike I'm sure you knew what you were doing for me!!
Yup for about six months I had a terminal case of this and it is worse than an
addiction!! No support groups (believe me I scoured the IRC Channels looking!!). My
girlfriend left me because in her words "You've got a new love it's that #$%
%$#@&* 486! That was the last I heard from her up until a week ago when she ran into a
mutual friend. He told her I was going cold turkey just a little java script for
navigation purposes. It's in the status bar but it only shows the url with a little
description and it isn't even scrolling!! So, I am quite proud of my recovery. She phoned
but the phone was busy. I was into one of my net cow moods and the grazing was excellent
so I kinda' got lost in the pasture you all call the internet for 8 or 9 hours.
I'm confessing all my HTML sins so I have one more thing to inform you about my work. I
have been stressing over and over how you should look at the source code of a document,
anyone notice anything strange about mine? Did you look? I haven't used 1 text font tag
through the whole 4 pages! (**Editor Update, Front Page is now keeping track of all this
for us**) Well, I do use a few strong tags for emphasis! I have mastered the font color
tags because color is an effective means of making keywords stand out on the page. That
was the purpose of the color tag on the first page to make the three Cs stand out .
I can see all the elitists going for that old view source in absolute horror. To me the
body tags and attributes as well as font size are not that important because in the end
the Netizen has the last say and you know the old saying about whoever speaks first loses
the sale. You'd have to be a salesman to get that one, sorry. I always win because I don't
even bother to try to force these issues. I usually set the body tags at default other
than that glorious white background! Besides old Homer Simpson is hoarse over at the
Kinder Gentler Validator from me trying to use the font tags!
All that really matters is what's between the tags and that's good content ! As I have
mentioned before "Build it and they will Come". I have found a
support group it's actually a number of groups and I have mentioned them before! The
HTML Writers Guild USE IT !! To finish I just want to give you this strong
warning. Watch those gif 89a's you start at say 5k and the next thing you know your
streamin' 315K!! For your Suggested Surfing I have a surprise!! All the sites I built
while under the influences of the disease are here in all their gaudy splendor!! The only
one that is missing is the original IWB site.
First off I suggest you go to the medicine cabinet and get the NO DOZE or
go and get that book you've been meaning to read. You may get through the first chapter
before some of it downloads. Please be patient it's worth it!! Warning anyone susceptible
to side effects from a lot of movement skip number 2. I have no insurance yet so I have to
protect myself on this one! Ditto if your operating machinery it has been known to cause
Drowsiness.
The download time has been cut from about 5 minutes to around 3 1/2
minutes but you'll get the idea quick .
Update
This document was written about three and a half years ago, however,
much of the information is still a good start for a newbie to web design.
Although the speed of the net has decreased the download time Netizens
expectations of sped have also changed so watch the file sizes and ALWAYS
compress images. The tools for image compression when this article was
written were crude to say the least. I now use WebRazor by Ulead.
One thing to remember, get peoples opinions and
thoughts about a site before you go live. You become rather biased during the process so
this gives you an idea of what a Netizens reactions are to your work. Don't take their
comments personally they aren't directed at you but at the page. Take their comments for
what they are, opinions, nothing more nothing less. Personally I just remember what my
GranDaddy used to say "Terry opinions are like ass#$%^&*$ everyone's got
one!!"
Suggested Surfing
- Original Entry Page Minus that wonderful java script I had to
purge that one the temptation was too great!*note many links are dead so
I opened it in a new browser if you want to continue just close the
browser.*
- Webmaster Ts World of Design For those that are wondering the
moniker Webmaster T was hung on me by Lidsville and it kind of stuck.
That's why I refer to
myself as The Guy Formerly Known as Webmaster T. I am very proud of this
site because it is the result of my recovery.
Phase 2:Choosing your Goals
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