Web Site Style and Content Tutorial

Advanced Design Styles

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!

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. For obvious reasons I am not too comfortable with it! Markus Gemstad is co-authoring and doing most of the graphics on this site with me because what I have in mind is just a little bit too much for 1 guy to look after alone. Especially when he is in recovery from scrollerosis. I am very proud of this site because it is the result of my recovery.

Phase 2:Choosing your Goals