A few days ago I posted a tweet remarking an issue I get a lot when testing my own/works websites in Opera. I was subsequently asked if I could share a screenshot, it’s been a bit hectic recently but I have finally got round to it. I’m not positive on the causes of the problem but I assume it is related to the way I code and build websites.

As I’ve previously stated I code websites to be content prominent rather than using a traditional top down approach. This effectively moves my header elements to the base of the code and through a mix of positioning techniques, margins and padding I move the website around to position the header back at the top of the page.

The problems itself appears to be a doubling of the space I make available for the header to be positioned into, with all elements, header included, moving down the page by this number. The issue becomes more confusing as refreshing the website can at times correct the issue, inexplicably. Continue reading “Opera Issues” »

To see a new conference launch that brings together like minded individuals in one space to learn and make contacts is something I always like to see, especially if the cost can be covered without remortgaging your house. However upon hearing about the Women on the Web conference my reaction wasn’t so positive.

After reading a tweet from Zoe Piper today I was led on a bit of a reading exercise firstly of Zoe’s post and then Dom Hodgson’s post of which Zoe referenced. Both posts centred on the Women on the Web conference and the minority of women in the web industry. Continue reading “Women on the Web” »

In the web community there are many people that have a very elitist view and see the actions of some as second-rate or blatant whoring for traffic. One such example of this is the reaction Paul Boag (of the Boagworld podcast) received recently when starting to post articles in a ‘top ten’ format.

Although I myself am not perfect when it comes to viewing the actions of others I feel Paul has no need to justify himself as these articles make online content more accessible by breaking the content down into manageable chunks under descriptive headings.

So with this in mind I thought I’d post my own top ten, but to take it into the realm of the ridiculous I thought my top ten would be of other top ten lists essentially listing 100 web related tips and tricks. Continue reading “Top ten lists” »

This week saw the launch of Safari 4 beta and as a PC user this would normally pass me by without much thought. However with Safari 3 making the transition to Windows the browser is securing its place as a major player in the browser market irrespective of operating system.

Within the web community Safari has always been a popular choice due to its quick adoption of web technologies and of course being preinstalled on Apple computers which are the ultimate fashion statement for any web geek. As a PC user though I have rarely used the desktop version of the browser outside of testing purposes but must admit version 4 has some nice additions.

Most of Safari 4’s new features are workflow and UI improvements, with the native Windows chrome getting the most coverage, but the feature I have been most interested in is the Developer Tools. Now fully integrated into the browser the Developer Tools are essentially Firebug for Safari with many features present that it’s Firefox cousin boasts but with some nice extras that require extra plugins in Firefox. The presence of this feature will make browser testing and optimisation much easier but having to open the Web Inspector and then dock it to the main window every time you open Safari could get tiresome. Hopefully as Safari moves towards its full release the option to do this as default may appear.

Although the browser is certainly a step in the right direction and may arguably be the best available I will be sticking to Firefox as my main browser. This isn’t because Firefox or its plugins are any better than what is available elsewhere but it’s the fact that it’s all in one place. I have a browser set to my preferences, with the right plugins, settings and bookmarks as well as the knowledge of how to use the browser that all together gives me what I need to do my job quickly and effectively.

In the last few weeks I’ve been getting that itch that a lot of website designers get to redesign my own website. It was back in May 2008 that I last redesigned my website, creating something I was finally pleased with as pretty much all previous versions of the website had problems in design, content and construction.

Unlike every previous time I’ve wanted to redesign I’m actually still pretty happy with what I have; it works in the most part and still looks good. For this reason I don’t want to throw everything out and completely redesign the site but I do want to make some changes and streamline some of the site. Some might say I want to realign the site, although what I have in mind may sit somewhere between the two. Continue reading “To design or not to design” »

About a week ago I got the email about FeedBurner becoming fully integrated into Google and to be honest I didn’t read it in much depth but I did see the part where if I did nothing my feeds would become inactive by the end of February, not something I wanted to happen.

Given that I haven’t used FeedBurner in months and remembering the hassle involved in integrating it the last time I thought I’d just drop it and go back to the standard setup. However naively I thought after the couple of changes required that my feeds would continue to work as normal, however this may not be the case for everyone.

Unfortunately some people’s feed will no longer be working; apologies. I’ve looked into a couple of solutions to try and resurrect the old feed in the short term while people move across to the new feed but after a couple of attempts nothing appeared to be working. For this reason I have to ask that anyone wishing to keep up to date with the feed update their reader with the URL below:

http://www.keanrichmond.com/feed

I know how frustrating it can be to have to update feeds when sites decide to change them on a whim and although I have no crystal ball to see into the future I hope that this won’t happen again in the future.

Apologies,
Kean

Something that I’ve always hated in some of the website’s I build is the lack of visual interest in the internal pages of a website. These pages tend to follow a standard layout with a long trail of visually boring content running down the page. To solve this problem I’ve started using Photoshop more to create composite images of the internal pages of a website to ensure they have more visual interest than what would occur when styling the internal of a site based predominantly on the style of the home page.

The problem this created is that with more unique layouts and styles from page to page I would have to write more CSS for more id’s and classes. That was until I started using page specific body id’s. Continue reading “Page specific design made easy with body id’s” »

As freelance projects go I thought building a website for my Mother would be fairly easy, with most decisions easily signed off because my Mother is less likely to disagree with my choices than a normal client. Although this is true it puts a weight on your shoulders to ensure you make the correct decisions to start with. These days I’m confident of my design skills so knew I could design something beautiful but I also had to make sure it suited its target audience and subject matter.

When looking at sites that ranked for Book Keeping many were directory sites or corporate looking sites with heavy use of straight lines and white backgrounds as you’d expect for that industry. However with a much reduced amount of content than these sites I needed to take a different approach. Continue reading “Portfolio Website: hazelrichmond.co.uk” »

Spam email is the evitable consequence of owning an email address, but as a necessary requirement to using the Internet these days your email is distributed far and wide. Although we can do little to control how another website uses our email address once we have provided it we can control how we utilise our email on our own websites.

Many websites utilise their email address in one of three ways:

• As simple text
• As a mailto link
• Within a contact form

All the above allow spammers to send you email either by collecting your email address to add to a database or spam you directly using your own contact form. There are different solutions to the first two examples above such as displaying your email in a non standard format e.g. john[at]smith[.com] or using JavaScript to display the email, both of which most automated bots cannot interpret. Continue reading “A better alternative for the Captcha spam filter” »

Over the past five years blogs have become a massive force on the web as even the non web savvy have been able to add content to the Internet. For those in the industry however blogs have been a way of promoting new ideas, technologies and as a form of self promotion. But has 2008 seen the start of the end for blogging as we know it?

Over the last year I’ve personally seen a decline in the amount of fresh content many experts in the industry have been posting to their blogs. Previously these would be the go to guys and gals to quench the thirst for new information, but recently these people have posted less frequently, written less, and posted more personal or off-topic information. Of course for many these are personal blogs and they do with them as they wish but in the industry as a whole this has limited the flow of information that many beginners may have depended upon. Continue reading “Is the blog dead?” »