Another small performance gain that designers and developers should employ is specifying their image width and height. This article explains why setting the dimensions of your images helps you and the theory behind it. See the best practice.

SolidlyStated’s various hardware, software, and design updates have been sparse lately. I wanted to make sure all my reader’s know that I haven’t been slacking. I have been working on a web property for another LLC I am part of and getting that off the ground. Read all about it.

Like most web developers who publish articles, I always preach about standards and best practices (which, incidentally, makes me wonder why we don’t see more loud-mouthed naysayers who try to get recognition by writing about how all that is a big joke.) This article will be no different, except this time no one can argue about whether it makes a real difference. Today, I will be talking about progressive enhancement. Enhance it!

Web development covers a lot of material, and even someone like myself who has done it for years can forget stuff many times before it sets in. We all have those *facepalm* moments. In this article, I will discuss what can and can’t be done with the id and name attributes, and why. (more…)

Welcome to another article on Building Better Web Pages. This article series comprehensively covers building an HTML document: easily learned, but rarely perfected.

This article is dedicated solely to the <table> tag. Tables are everywhere, and almost every single one is improperly implemented. This article will show the proper syntax for your tables. See the code.

Welcome to the Solidly Stated article series, “Building Better Web Pages”. This series comprehensively covers building an HTML document: easily learned, but rarely perfected.

The purpose of this series is to help designers build better web pages. I have been an artist since childhood, so perhaps that is why I see writing HTML as an art form. However, today’s development tools and content management systems make knowing whats under the hood all but obsolete. Understanding the foundations of HTML is what separates the wheat from the chaff, as far as designers go. See the Table of Contents.

Welcome to another article on Building Better Web Pages. This article series comprehensively covers building an HTML document: easily learned, but rarely perfected.

Today’s article covers Strict versus Transitional Doctype declarations. This is an extended discussion regarding the article about Doctype declarations. I always suggest XHTML Doctypes. There is some interesting debate over the HTML vs XHTML, but it is becoming less relevant as the web continues to mature. How Does Strict Benefit Me?

Welcome to another article on Building Better Web Pages. This article series comprehensively covers building an HTML document: easily learned, but rarely perfected.

Today’s article covers Doctype declarations. While there is a wealth of information on the internet already about Doctypes, I have always clicked away without really understanding what was really going on. Besides, we can’t completely cover “Building Better Web Pages” without it. The most basic questions are “Why do I need a Doctype?” or “Which Doctype should I use?” You might figure this would be easy to explain. I think can be, but I just never see it solidly stated.

Welcome to another article on Building Better Web Pages. This article series comprehensively covers building an HTML document: easily learned, but rarely perfected.

Today’s article covers Separation of Presentation and Content. It is a sister article to Unobtrusive Javascript, which covers separation of behaviors and content. I recommend reading both to get the whole picture. (more…)

Welcome to the first article in the series, Building Better Web Pages. This article series comprehensively covers building an HTML document: easily learned, but rarely perfected.

Today’s article covers Semantic HTML. The goal of this article is to show you how every HTML document should be planned. I say ‘planned’ because ‘started’ or ‘began’ suggests the top of a page, and that is not what this is about. Semantics refer to the meaning of something. In the case of html, its the meaning of the contents only. Presentation, through style or CSS file, is merely for human benefit. Therefore, when we talk about ‘planning’ an HTML document, we are talking only about a hierarchy of information.