TIPS

If you are an accomplished 'web master/mistress' then this is not the page for you ... because you already know all this stuff. But if you are new to html and web page design, here are a few tips that could improve the look and feel of your site.

In no particular order ....

Learn HTML

Following is a real quotation from a recent e-mail I received:

With name withheld software, you can create and publish a professional-looking Web page -- complete with pictures, photos, buttons, hyperlinks and more-- in less than 60 minutes... even if you know absolutely *nothing* about designing Web pages ....Yeah, right! We also have prime real estate available at unbelievably low prices.

'Drop and drag' page composers and 'no html needed' editors are fine ... unless you want to do something a little different - like do exactly what you want. Sooner or later, you'll want to do more than just 'paste' stuff. Then you really do need to learn HTML - and it's pretty simple. Find a good web tutorial, and study for a few evenings ... look at other people's web pages and see how they did it. It's well worth the effort and far more creative!

To see 'real' HTML, all you have to do is right-click the page and choose the 'view source' option. But if your page was created by an 'easy, no-HTML, editor', don't be surprised if it looks like this rubbish which is completely incomprehensible and near-impossible to edit sensibly.

For a good basic HTML primer on another web site .....

Splash page

Make your 'home page' small. Just tell everyone who or what you are, and invite us to enter your site. There's nothing quite like waiting for a home page that takes five minutes to load all those *great* graphics, midis, applets, etc. and then finding out you didn't want to be there anyway!!

Personal worst experiences so far (aren't you glad I forgot these home page URLs!!):

• a 1.2 megabyte image of somewhere in space that was 2400 pixels WIDE!!
• a 450 kilobyte wav file that said 'welcome to my site'
• a 350 kilobyte animated 'e-mail me' image

Backgrounds

What some people forget is that the most important thing about backgrounds is that they are backgrounds - not the most important thing on the page!!

You can do some really interesting things with the right background.

One useful tip is always set your page background colour the same as the predominant colour in your background. Then when your text appears it will be readable before the background image loads, and when the background image 'finally' appears, your visitors won't be shocked :)

For more .....

Best viewed with!

Sez who?? If your page really is best viewed with a particular browser, it must be because you are writing browser-specific code ... like that awful BLINK from older versions of Netscape. Make your page an experience for everyone -- write it so that whatever browser your visitors use, it looks the same and does the same things. Then test it on various browsers to be sure!

For more .....

Use lots of 'small' pages, not one huge one

Break up the content of your site into several (or many) pages. Small pages load faster than large pages. Small pages help keep similar content together. Small pages let your visitors only load the information they want from your site.

Got a lot of information that belongs together? Break it into several pages and use NEXT PAGE/PREVIOUS PAGE links.

For more .....

Build your site for speed

Nothing spoils the Internet experience quite as much as waiting and waiting ..... and waiting. There's nothing you can do about the speed of 'net connections, but you can do a number of simple things to speed up your own web site and make it more enjoyable for your visitors.

For more .....

Fonts

Allow for fonts other than the font you designed your page with. Not everybody has that *killer* font on their computer, and then they see the absolutely horrid Times Roman.

For more .....

... and do remember to make your font colour one that stands out on your background!

Image size - and attributes

Not everybody has a Cray computer at home connected with a cable modem, so DO think about the unfortunate visitor who only has a 28.8 modem connected to a 150 MHz machine. Make your image file sizes small - scanned images at 72 dpi are perfect for web sites even though you have a scanner that can do 600 dpi. Use a good image compression utility to make your picture file sizes smaller.

Always use the width and height attributes for your images. That way, your page layout will look the same with or without the images loaded (some people surf with image loading off), and your page will not 'jump about' as it loads. Use the alt attribute as well, so that visitors can tell what the image is.

For more .....

Make navigating your site easy

Make life easy for your visitors -- they don't know where anything is on your site. Have a menu easily accessible from every page (like the HOME link at the top of each page on this site). That way they are usually only two mouse clicks away from anything. Make it easy for them to CONTACT you - have plenty of links to your e-mail or mail form/feedback form, etc. Make the purpose of the link obvious .... Information about fonts is a lot more helpful than more great stuff.

Learn how to use tables!!

Tables allow you to have control over where the elements of your page appear - regardless of which browser is being used, or what screen resolution the viewer has. You may have a page that you developed and looks absolutely awesome at 1024 pixels wide, but it looks awful when it's seen at 640 pixels wide, etc.

P.S. every page on this site is in 'tables' so that they appear in the centre of the page, no matter what your browser window size is.

For more .....

Uniformity

Have a consistent look to all of the pages on your site. Establish your personal look.

• Choose one or two fonts for the text on your pages.
• Choose two or three graphic fonts for your pages.
• Choose just a few colours for the text.
• Adopt the same background for all your pages.

Things to stay away from!

There are thousands of javascripts 'effects' out there - most are tired old tricks that add nothing except overhead to your page, and often annoy your visitors. Avoid them. Examples, an ALERT every time you enter a page; scrolling messages in the status window; or telling me which browser I am using!!

There are thousands of java applets out there as well - mostly large, slow-loading, graphic effects that also add overhead to your page and will annoy some of your visitors.

background music - well thanks for making me wait another two minutes to listen to your choice of music, but I have a perfectly good stereo that plays exactly the kind of music I want. Many of your web site visitors may not like your choice of background music. OK if your site is music oriented, but otherwise - ask yourself why.

Do you really need that counter? Who really cares what it shows??

Take a long hard look at any of these things before you add them to your page. Do they really enhance the experience of visiting your site??

None of those helped at all!!

Sorry, I'm doing my best. Maybe another of my help sites will help? Click the 'help home' link below to try.