Excuse the interruption to everyone's summer, but I thought folks would find this interesting:
Microsoft is close to finishing version 7 of Internet Explorer, and in fact a release candidate is now available. One of the developments many of us have been following is the CSS support in the new version. For the latest information on this topic, see the blog entry from Microsoft called IEBlog : Details on our CSS changes for IE7.
There is a pretty full list of changes and improvements shown there. And most encouraging is the working relationship between MSFT and the W3C.
Life just keep getting better!
August 28, 2006
June 11, 2006
June 2006 Meeting Report -- Navigation Menus
The June meeting of the PACS CSS Workshop was the last until September.
This month, we covered different techniques for using CSS to style navigation menus. We used a number of online resources to demonstrate different techniques for taking a set of links and styling them to display as interesting and functional navigation elements. The sites are below, and I encourage you to try their examples in order to develop your CSS abilities. (These links open into new browser windows.)
This month, we covered different techniques for using CSS to style navigation menus. We used a number of online resources to demonstrate different techniques for taking a set of links and styling them to display as interesting and functional navigation elements. The sites are below, and I encourage you to try their examples in order to develop your CSS abilities. (These links open into new browser windows.)
- 3D button effect
- Go to number 9 on this list of favorite tricks to see the 3D effect that we demonstrated. The rest of the tricks are worth your time as well.
- Menu tutorial
- We followed this tutorial from one of our favorite CSS sites to create a vertical menu from a simple line of links and then a horizontal menu from the same CSS by just adding a couple of properties.
- Tableless rollover navigation bars
- This simple CSS creates a nice horizontal menu bar with a rollover effect.
- List-u-Like CSS Generator
- Instead of writing your CSS and guessing how it will look, try this generator to just make your property and value selections and then preview the results.
- Tabbed menus
- This site has a whole collection of different tabbed menus using CSS. The site says they are free. Just look at the source for the techniques used.
June 04, 2006
June 10 Meeting Announcement
The next meeting of the PACS CSS Workshop will be this coming Saturday, June 10, at the usual 9-10 hour. This month's PACS meeting is on the second Saturday of the month due to the school schedule.
This month we will work some more on styling navigation menus. We started last month, and we will continue in June with vertical menus, then move on to horizontal menus. Depending on time, we may be able to look at some more advanced ideas.
This meeting is the last of the season. We will take the summer off, and if there is interest in continuing this workshop, we will pick up again in September. Please give me some feedback.
This month's PACS meeting is particularly rich with web-related topics. In addition to the usual workshops, the guest speaker at the main meeting will be Eric Pascarello, who will talk about AJAX and the new developments that are changing the way we use the internet. Eric will also be the speaker at the Web Design SIG at 1-2. These are sessions you don't want to miss. More information is available at the PACS website.
Finally, I have blogged an interesting new website called Vitamin (see below).
Hope to see you all Saturday.
This month we will work some more on styling navigation menus. We started last month, and we will continue in June with vertical menus, then move on to horizontal menus. Depending on time, we may be able to look at some more advanced ideas.
This meeting is the last of the season. We will take the summer off, and if there is interest in continuing this workshop, we will pick up again in September. Please give me some feedback.
This month's PACS meeting is particularly rich with web-related topics. In addition to the usual workshops, the guest speaker at the main meeting will be Eric Pascarello, who will talk about AJAX and the new developments that are changing the way we use the internet. Eric will also be the speaker at the Web Design SIG at 1-2. These are sessions you don't want to miss. More information is available at the PACS website.
Finally, I have blogged an interesting new website called Vitamin (see below).
Hope to see you all Saturday.
Vitamin - A resource for web developers, designers and entrepreneurs
A new online magazine called Vitamin - A resource for web developers, designers and entrepreneurs looks as though it will be an excellent source for information on all things web-related.
The site is the product of Carson Systems, a company I have seen mentioned as sponsoring some high-level web development seminars. The list of advisors to this new site is impressive and includes a lot of people whose names are easily recognizable.
I suggest checking out Vitamin and adding the RSS feed to your reader.
The site is the product of Carson Systems, a company I have seen mentioned as sponsoring some high-level web development seminars. The list of advisors to this new site is impressive and includes a lot of people whose names are easily recognizable.
I suggest checking out Vitamin and adding the RSS feed to your reader.
May 28, 2006
May 2006 Meeting Report--Navigation Menus
This month we finished up with the basics of the display: property. We then reviewed some of the styles that can be used with anchor (link) tags and reminded ourselves that context-sensitive styling will let you define different styles for links on the same page depending on how they are identified in your HTML.
We went on to navigation menus by taking a list of links and styling it to display as a vertical, sidebar-type menu. I used the menu that Reed Gustow drafted for the PACS Web Design SIG site as an example and stripped out the navigation HTML and CSS into a separate file. This file is now in our Samples section. The code is annotated so that you can play with the styles and try out some new ideas. Note that Bob Morgan has beaten everyone to the punch--he used the menu as the basis for a new sidebar for the HTML Workshop page. Sincere flattery.
Our June meeting is the second Saturday, June 10, due to the school calendar. This meeting is the last until September. We will continue with styling menus and get into more complex ideas. See you then.
We went on to navigation menus by taking a list of links and styling it to display as a vertical, sidebar-type menu. I used the menu that Reed Gustow drafted for the PACS Web Design SIG site as an example and stripped out the navigation HTML and CSS into a separate file. This file is now in our Samples section. The code is annotated so that you can play with the styles and try out some new ideas. Note that Bob Morgan has beaten everyone to the punch--he used the menu as the basis for a new sidebar for the HTML Workshop page. Sincere flattery.
Our June meeting is the second Saturday, June 10, due to the school calendar. This meeting is the last until September. We will continue with styling menus and get into more complex ideas. See you then.
May 17, 2006
May 20 Meeting Announcement
The next meeting of the PACS CSS Workshop will be this Saturday, May 20, at the usual 9-10 hour.
At this session, we will begin putting together some of the elements we have covered in the last few months and use those elements to style navigation menus. This topic might take us through the final two sessions this year, and there should be a lot of interesting ideas that you can play with over the summer, at least on cloudy days.
This month's PACS meeting will be end-to-end with presentations of interest to web designers. After CSS, we will have the regular workshops for Javascript and Flash in the morning. The Web Design SIG at 1:00 will be about installing a forum on a website--Reed Gustow will show how he did it for the Web Design SIG site. And in between, Reed will be the presenter at the main PACS meeting at noon discussing free tools for making websites.
There is so much going on, it will be tough to take a break for those cafeteria hot dogs, but that's OK--there will be a lot of good information to take away from the meeting. Check the PACS website for the schedule of events and for more details.
See you Saturday.
At this session, we will begin putting together some of the elements we have covered in the last few months and use those elements to style navigation menus. This topic might take us through the final two sessions this year, and there should be a lot of interesting ideas that you can play with over the summer, at least on cloudy days.
This month's PACS meeting will be end-to-end with presentations of interest to web designers. After CSS, we will have the regular workshops for Javascript and Flash in the morning. The Web Design SIG at 1:00 will be about installing a forum on a website--Reed Gustow will show how he did it for the Web Design SIG site. And in between, Reed will be the presenter at the main PACS meeting at noon discussing free tools for making websites.
There is so much going on, it will be tough to take a break for those cafeteria hot dogs, but that's OK--there will be a lot of good information to take away from the meeting. Check the PACS website for the schedule of events and for more details.
See you Saturday.
May 04, 2006
stu nicholls | CSS PLaY | experiments with cascading style sheets
This website called stu nicholls | CSS PLaY | experiments with cascading style sheets is getting a lot of attention lately. Rich Sias sent it to me, and Frank Stepanski has noted it.
The site is all about CSS and stretching its limits. Some of the examples are interactive items that one might usually associate with scripting. And it appears so far that the cross browser support is excellent.
I hope to be using some of these examples in upcoming CSS workshops.
The site is all about CSS and stretching its limits. Some of the examples are interactive items that one might usually associate with scripting. And it appears so far that the cross browser support is excellent.
I hope to be using some of these examples in upcoming CSS workshops.
April 23, 2006
April 2006 Meeting Report--Display: Inline and Block
At our April meeting, we discussed the opacity: property that can be used to alter the appearance of images. We showed how opacity: can be used, e.g., to alter the transparency of an image when the cursor hovers over it. Unfortunately, opacity: is not supported in IE through version 6.
We then continued from last month with the display: property. We reviewed display: none, and the demonstration document is on our Samples page.
The bulk of the meeting was on display:inline and :block. We discussed how these values can be put to use, and the demonstration page that we used is in our Samples section.
We also briefly touched on display:inline-block. The only browser I have found that uses that value correctly is Opera 9 beta, so we did not spend much time on that subject.
We then continued from last month with the display: property. We reviewed display: none, and the demonstration document is on our Samples page.
The bulk of the meeting was on display:inline and :block. We discussed how these values can be put to use, and the demonstration page that we used is in our Samples section.
We also briefly touched on display:inline-block. The only browser I have found that uses that value correctly is Opera 9 beta, so we did not spend much time on that subject.
April 16, 2006
April 22 Meeting Announcement
The next meeting of the PACS CSS Workshop will be this Saturday, April 22, at the usual 9-10 hour. We are meeting on the fourth Saturday this month due to the school's schedule. I hope everyone used the extra weekend to get their taxes done.
This month we will start with a question that came up last month--can CSS be used to alter the transparency of an image? There is an answer, and we will have it.
Then we will continue discussing the display: property. We started last month by discussing display:none (which is what got us into images). This month, we will look at three other display: values, and this discussion will lead us into designing navigation styles.
We will also have a giveaway courtesy of member Frank Stepanski: A copy of the book Designing CSS Web Pages.
Also, if you are not yet aware, Reed has opened a forum on the Web Design site. A number of members have registered already, and it should be a good resource for sharing information and for getting advice. We have a discussion going on now about how to redesign the PACS website. Your participation would be welcome.
This month we will start with a question that came up last month--can CSS be used to alter the transparency of an image? There is an answer, and we will have it.
Then we will continue discussing the display: property. We started last month by discussing display:none (which is what got us into images). This month, we will look at three other display: values, and this discussion will lead us into designing navigation styles.
We will also have a giveaway courtesy of member Frank Stepanski: A copy of the book Designing CSS Web Pages.
Also, if you are not yet aware, Reed has opened a forum on the Web Design site. A number of members have registered already, and it should be a good resource for sharing information and for getting advice. We have a discussion going on now about how to redesign the PACS website. Your participation would be welcome.
March 23, 2006
IEBlog : Layout Complete Announced at MIX06
If you are interested in news about Internet Explorer version 7, this entry from the IEBlog is interesting: IEBlog : Layout Complete Announced at MIX06. I noted the point about :hover on all elements. We recently talked about that at one of our meetings.
I also saw an article today that said that with Vista, Microsoft will end its practice of tying its internet browser together with Windows browser. You will be able to install version 7 as a standalone browser. (Isn't that what they said was not possible when Netscape dragged them into court?) The move should improve security.
I also saw an article today that said that with Vista, Microsoft will end its practice of tying its internet browser together with Windows browser. You will be able to install version 7 as a standalone browser. (Isn't that what they said was not possible when Netscape dragged them into court?) The move should improve security.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)