((((((((((((((((( WEBREFERENCE UPDATE NEWSLETTER ))))))))))))))))) November 15, 2001
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This week the prolific one Meryl Evans reviews O'Reilly's latest, "Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Ed." Expanded and updated this is one book that covers it all. In other news Peter Moreville waxes poetic on the speed of info architecture, and the harm of "take- no-prisoners" redesigns. New virtual keyboards shown at Comdex let you type without touching any keys, Yahoo joins the paid search placement bandwagon and some high-tech gift ideas. Speaking of gift ideas, see my blurb on the new ARC-AAA LED Key Chain Flashlight. This is one cool little gizmo. Makes a great stocking stuffer.
Popouts are the latest technique advertisers are using to catch your attention. Yahoo and others are now using these DHTML-enabled ads, that expand when rolled over. With ever-declining click- throughs advertisers are trying larger formats to capture your attention. Some of the larger "CNET" box ads take up so much space, the content flows into a skinny column, making things difficult to read. What's next, half-page ads, full-page ads? A site of all ads? Stay tuned.
In related news, Goto.com has become profitable. Yes, you may have scoffed at Goto's auction search engine placement model when it first came out, but Goto's having the last laugh. One of the few pure Internet plays that's profitable. Even Yahoo is on board.
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New this week on WebReference.com and the Web:
1. FEATURE: BOOK REVIEW: Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Ed. 2. OTHER VOICES: * The Speed of Information Architecture * Using XSL-FO to create printable documents 3. NET NEWS: * Virtual Keyboards Let You Type in Air * Yahoo plays Overture's paid search listings, * Gadgets, gizmos top techies' holiday lists
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. BOOK REVIEW: Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Ed.
Jennifer Niederst follows her recently released "Learning Web Design," a book for those just starting Web design, with an updated "Web Design in a Nutshell" that takes novice to intermediate designers to the next level and is also useful as a desktop quick reference.
Many buy such books and end up never opening them or maybe a few times before it's outdated. I admit I'm one of those people, but not when it comes to the Weasel (picture on the cover) book. This is the book the professor assigned for one of my first Web design classes and it is responsible for my learning tables, CSS, and knowing when to make a graphics file .gif or .jpg.
It's the most well worn Web design book I have in my collection and the only HTML book I ever bought. Thankfully, there is little that's changed in the format of the book because it wasn't broken. Niederst takes the appropriate steps to update it and expand the sections that are more relevant today such as HTML 4.01 and new versions of browsers including Netscape 6 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.
Expect an entire orchestra of instruments relevant to Web design, along with the specific details and tricks you should know. It may seem a bit much that Niederst covers HTML, CSS, SSI, graphics, multimedia, JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, WAP, and WML. However, she appropriately magnifies essential things while the advanced or "you may want to explore" topics are touched upon to give an idea of how it works with suggestions for further reading
The book starts off by addressing the biggest challenge of designing a site that looks good in every browser and version. "Designing for a Variety of Browsers" has a two-page chart of various browsers and versions for the Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX environments, showing what each supports and doesn't support.
The next chapter covers another source of frustration for designers, "Designing for a Variety of Displays." If you monitor your Web visitor stats, then you'll probably notice that no size leads the majority especially with WebTV, handheld, and cellular devices accessing the Internet. There are screen shots of browser and system measurements and tips for designing for various displays.
Chapter 26, "Flash and Shockwave" explains what it is, advantages and disadvantages, introduces you to the Flash interface, adding a Flash file to a Web page, and integrating it with other technologies. Flash is a whole different animal and the book gives you the big picture of how it fits with designing Web pages. The following chapter on SMIL covers the same basics.
Part V addresses the advanced technologies including JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, and WAP and WML. It's useful to have these all close together at the end of the book to help you figure out which you may want to use for a Web project.
As useful as special characters can be, I never remember what to type to make the symbol appear, though I know these now: " &mdash. Finding the special character chart is the only complaint I had from the original edition and not even the index helped me find it, so I had to tab the page. This has now been remedied with one of the best improvements of moving the special character reference chart to the appendix for speedy access. Other appendices in the book are listings of HTML tags, attributes, deprecated tags, proprietary tags, and CSS compatibility and support.
As your design skills and knowledge grow, there is always a question that prompts you to open the book and get your answer. It holds true today as I retire the worn out book with a loose page thanks to a certain child and happily replace it with its new younger sibling.
Highly recommended.
Take a peek: Read the Table of Contents and sample chapter (Chapter 13: Tables) to get a taste of the book at O'Reilly ( http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wdnut2/chapter/ch13.html ).
Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Ed. By Jennifer Niederst O'Reilly & Associates, $29.95 ISBN: 0596001967
# # # About the author: Meryl K. Evans ( http://www.meryl.net ) has written articles covering Web design, processes, handhelds and other grab bag topics for A List Apart, The Dallas Morning News, WebReview, AbsoluteWrite.com, Geek.com, and PalmPower.com. She is working on a book in which she hopes will get rave reviews from WebReference (nudge, nudge) and other review resources so you can buy a copy for yourself and all your Web buddies. Feel free to send howdies to her at meryl@onramp.net or read her almost daily yaddas-yaddas at http://www.Meryl.net/blog .
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. OTHER VOICES: The Speed of Information Architecture, Using XSL-FO to create printable documents
>The Speed of Information Architecture
Peter Moreville says that info architects and Web designers should slow down and get some perspective. People are committing to take- no-prisoners redesigns that obliterate all elements of prior sites. In the worst cases, an entirely new team is assigned to "do the job right this time," assuring no organizational learning whatsoever. http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/speed.html Semantic Studios, LLC, Nov. 14, 2001
>Using XSL-FO to create printable documents
Not as widely publicized as its transformation relative, XSL-FO is the one to use when you want to merge data and presentation information in the same document. http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-xslfo/index.html IBM's Developerworks, Nov. 2001
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. NET NEWS: Virtual Keyboards Let You Type in Air, Yahoo plays Overture's paid search listings, Gadgets, gizmos top techies' holiday lists
>Virtual Keyboards Let You Type in Air Two firms at Comdex, Samsung and Senseboard, are showing off gizmos that attach to your hands and track your finger movements so you can type without a keyboard to input data into a personal digital assistant or other handheld device. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,70568,00.asp PCWorld.com, Nov. 14, 2001
>Yahoo plays Overture's paid search listings
Yahoo has partnered with Overture (Goto.com) to incorporate paid search engine listings to increase revenues. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7866475.html News.com, Nov. 14, 2001
>Gadgets, gizmos top techies' holiday lists
A new survey by CNET shows IT folks like techie gifts. What a surprise! The type of gift is related to what type of job they have. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-7875364.html News.com, Nov. 14, 2001
BTW, if you are looking for techie gift ideas I found the perfect one for techies and non-techies alike. The ARC-AAA LED Key Chain Flashlight. It is small, bright, and durable. It takes normal inexpensive AAA batteries (not lithium) and through its sophisticated step-up inverter is the brightest AAA flashlight you can buy. I've used mine for the last few months, and it has never failed me. Perfect for keychains and stuffing those holiday stockings. Comes in nine festive LED colors. http://www.arcflashlight.com
That's it for this week, see you next time.
Andrew King Newsletter Editor, WebReference.com aking@internet.com
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