valid xhtml – mccormicky

Pass the Test, Get the Job

It’s a good idea to know how tables work even if you never use them in a practical sense.
My tables resource is 456Bereastreet.
I never use them…Ok I did a few times last year but not for a layout or anything.

I was called into a recruiter’s office to test for a job that I totally could have done but was not given because I failed the HTML 4.0 test. That and perhaps also because after the interview I saw I was wearing my top backward. Which is supposed to be good luck. So it was probably because of the lousy 48% I got on the test. The test asked me loads of questions about tables and frames and I got all the frame questions wrong and only half of the tables questions right, making me look rather like a bag of hot air. In the questions and answers part of the interview I’d been asked about my web design experience and they seemed impressed that I’d built single handedly over 14 websites in the past 2 years. But in the end it came down to the test and my score–the only real evidence they had to go on (in their minds) that I was at all capable of doing the job.

Which is why I have tried to refresh my tables-making know-how.Though my heart is not in it and I may never have to use it on the job I don’t want to look so foolish again,the next time.if there ever is a next time.

Many Thanks to Open Publish

I couldn’t say it better-although I have been trying to explain why tables for layout is bad code practice-I usually just end up babbling about some technical side-issue and end up educating nobody.

The reason I go on(and on) about other designers who use invalid code
(tables for layout devotees always use invalid code! they can’t help it since invalidity is inherent in table layouts) is because I can’t get over the fact that 100% of the sites I’ve redone had tables for layout.
These are not old sites,either.Using tables for layout is still pretty much standard practice.
It’s obvious that we just have to keep saying it over and over until people stop doing it.

This is despite the fact that any Google search on Good+Web+Design
will turn up loads of advice/tutorials on how to use html and css.

So,I wonder…why the hold-out? Is it just because no one has told these people why it’s bad? Or do they think we are just making their lives harder by trying to force a new practice on them? Is it just easier to do what you have always done because it “works”? My confusion over why people still bang out these crappy pages(it’s 2007!) is the same as my confusion over why some people would throw their trash on the ground when they are just 2 feet away from a trash can!

The answer may well be all of the above or it may be that they do not know WHY they need to learn better coding-since all we meanies do is rant and turn red in the face or ridicule or whatever.So here is a site that actually explains it.Yay.

Tables to CSS

Stop it with the tables!

8 times out of ten when I commit to do a new project it’s usually an already built site that the client wants updated. Usually they think they don’t need or want a full redesign but invariably when I start reviewing the files and documents I find a rats nest of tables.I simply do not understand the designer working today who uses these outdated methods! I’m starting to think it’s sheer laziness on their part. Maybe it’s the use of outdated and discontinued designer software like Frontpage,who knows? Maybe they learned their skills in the mid ninetees when there wasn’t much use of CSS or much attention paid to standards.
I had to use tables for a job recently because the client specifically requested them.I probably could have recreated the same effect with some suave list styling and the client woulda been none the wiser.But I had given the project enough of my time and it was a last minute request and so I relented.I realised that even if I didn’t like to use them in this one particular case it was ok because it was tabular information.Tubular!

So this latest paying gig is for a site built in February 2007.Not 1997. It’s chockfull of tables and unvalidatable because there’s no doctype and even if there were there’s some crazy javascript blocking everything anyway. I had to upload a page to my own server just to make sure it was valid.
I’m very proud of myself for creating a layout for this site with CSS because it wasn’t easy to do. Each new page I have to make consists of 2-3 thumbnails on each side of one large pic. I’m fairly new to floats,I’ve only been using them for six months but I don’t know how I got along with out them. With this layout, to achieve the effect I wanted, I had to float one set of thumbnails to the right,place the large image in a margin 0 auto fixed width and fluid height div and the left set of thumbs div could just hang out. The right floated div had to go first in the source then the left thumbs div and then the center image div. I found this out just by experimenting.
This layout I designed is going to seriously help me design future sites,especially ones for e commerce because it is perfect for a catalog layout.

Using Dreamweaver May Stunt Your Growth

I strongly believe Dreamweaver keeps you ignorant of knowing what html and css are for,what they can do and how to solve problems with both.

I think it should only be used by experienced designers so they can cut down on the time it takes to design a new template,not by folks wanting to know how to make pages fast without knowing what goes into the design of a page.

Maybe you’ll think I just say this because I am threatened by folks having the ability to DIY.Nope.Because a noob will f up and make a total hash of things and end up having to hire someone anyway.

And I have nothing but respect for the person who wants to do it themselves.