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A site about Emil Johansson, a webdesigner, sketchartist and blogger.

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The 10 Commandments for New HTML Coders

August 30th, 2007 · 1 Comment

  1. Thou shalt never create a page without the full html structure.
    When you create a webpage, you must always make a head with the head tag and a body with the body tag and wrap them both in the html tag. All can be viewed here.
  2. Thou shalt always include an appropriate doctype
    This one is the most forgotten among  new webdesigners and it might also be one of the most important. The doctype tag is placed in the top of the page and tells the browser which kind of HTML the site makes use of along with the language. As this is a little complicated to explain in such little space, I have provided this link.
  3. Thou shalt read about HTML on the web before asking dumb questions
    Normally I’m a very calm person but one thing I don’t like is people who ask really dumb questions when they’ve set off to do a website on their own and then get angry when I give them a link to a website. Most things can be read about on the Internet and probably has the best answers. And if you read by yourself and try yourself you’ll learn more plus you wont take up my time.I usually end up helping those who asks for help anyway…
  4. Thou shalt not use ables when you can use divs
    This one might be hard understanding. Those tables, they’re just so neat. So I just want you to read this link and see for yourself.
  5. Thou shalt learn about and use CSS
    Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is the greatest tool for making websites look professional. Nowadays CSS is tightly integrated and almost always used with HTML. This is one of the basics in webdesigning an still I come across people who have not heard of it or thinks it sounds difficult. To  learn about the powers of CSS look at this page.
  6. Thou shalt develop crossbrowser websites
    With crossbrowser means a website that  work and look the same in every browser. That can be difficult and especially CSS render different in different browser. Here is a link to a page which explains crossbrowser CSS but it’s quite old so you should search Google for more information. Download all the browser you can get hold of - most common is Firefox, Opera, IE and Safari - and see if your site works in it.
  7. Thou shalt never copy copyrighted code
    As a webdesigner you might get curious when you come to a website and wonder “how did they do that?” . Then you just use the function to display the sourcecode. This is a great way to learn how to solve issues and do new things but it can also be used to copy large amounts of code. Usually the code is copyrighted and then you’re committing a crime when you use it. Copying entire webpages and then only make small changes is not the way to go.
  8. Thou shalt think about people with bad eyes
    I’m not talking about making webpages accessible for blind people but for those with bad eyesight. Don’t make your text to small to read for normal people and give the text a color that is easy to read against the background.
  9. Thou shalt have good structure on your code and end you tags
    Always have a good structure in your code so whenyou return to edit it after a month of vacation you’ll know where thing are. Also remember to close your tags, otherwise things might get messed up.
  10. Thou shalt not tare something apart when you realize IE is crap
    I believe this one is the hardest to follow. You see, IE 6 doesn’t display webpages as it is supposed to do and that makes things so much more difficult for us webdevelopers. When you discover the issues with this browser and also IE 7 you’ll get very destructive. That’s just a warning.
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Tags: Technology

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Emil Stenström // Aug 30, 2007 at 8:54 pm

    Damnit! The cross browser tutorial isn’t old! ;) Heh, well, the techniques in it at least isn’t, I use them in my everyday work still. Thanks for the mentioning.

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