1. Home
  2. Computing & Technology
  3. Web Design / HTML
Jennifer Kyrnin
Jennifer's Web Design / HTML Blog

By Jennifer Kyrnin, About.com Guide to Web Design / HTML

What should I write about?

Tuesday May 27, 2008
Comments
July 8, 2008 at 9:35 am
(1) Victor F. Rodriguez says:

I appreciate your useful comments and related links. It’s great! I would like to know more about opening, displaying and editing FREE TABLES from Visual Foxpro over the Internet. Those tables ending with .DBF using any operating system like LINUX, WINDOWS, LINUX…

July 25, 2008 at 10:56 am
(2) Anne says:

I would like to see a little bit of your thoughts about iWeb from Apple.

July 25, 2008 at 3:59 pm
(3) Ginny says:

I would like to understand how to design “vector” web graphics to use on a webpage. It seems that my PC will not display them as vector, they appear just as though they are .jpg files with jagged edges. I don’t understand this and how to over come this limitation. I use Photoshop Elements and Dreamweaver. Are there inexpensive programs for creating and displaying fast loading vector graphics?

July 26, 2008 at 5:32 pm
(4) Jawann says:

I would like to learn more about setting up a membership side to a website and all that goes along with that; i.e. cookies, password protection, databases, etc.

July 26, 2008 at 11:59 pm
(5) Sharon says:

I have been reading all the articles on CSS that I can find, and I think I understand many of the individual tags. However, I am having trouble getting started. When I learned HTML the instructor started by telling us the basic layout for a page, which we built, then helped us learn different ways to fill out the page.
I would like to see you do a tutorial using that type of visual learning. e.g. Set up a basic page, add a set of tags to show how to do something, add another set to do something more….
I learn best a step at a time and being able to see the effect.
Thanks.

August 4, 2008 at 11:58 am
(6) Jeff says:

I’ve noticed that favicon has changed since I started using it. Clearly I’ve missed the bus on this one and would love to learn more about the new W3C standard and about how to implement the site name with the icon as I noticed Vanguard doing (https://personal.vanguard.com/us/home). Maybe a more general topic on tricks that have changed implementations that us old-timers may have not noticed changing.

August 10, 2008 at 2:02 am
(7) Bryan says:

It seems that everyone these days is using Joomla, Dot Net Nuke or Wordpress as the basis of their websites. Unless I’ve missed it, how about a comparison?
I’m not a programmer but it seems that with all of them although initially simple you very quickly have to start delving into the programming to get what you want.

August 10, 2008 at 2:22 pm
(8) Frank says:

Hi There,
I would like a printable guide for a bunch of Geriatric Technophobes on “HOW TO” send photographs via email or disk. They send all their photos (Bless Them) BUT half of them I cannot publish.
Regards
Frank

August 10, 2008 at 3:43 pm
(9) LaurieD says:

I would like an update of what type of script to use to process a simple form and email results. Which features have been targets of email hijacking/spamming?

Thanks for all you do!

August 11, 2008 at 6:38 am
(10) Stu Henderson says:

First, thanks for a wonderful job of a wonderful service. Second, I’d love to see more on how to debug javascript and html, for example when page elements won’t center, or won’t pick up the attributes I think they should (if I understood the box model better, it would probably help me). Thanks again, Stu

August 12, 2008 at 7:16 am
(11) Marilyn says:

Hi Jen,

First, let me express my appreciation for taking the time and effort to write such informative, valuable posts, articles, and instruction. I always eagerly anticipate receiving a Jennifer Kyrnin’s Web Design email!

Today I was researching options to using same-old, same-old, safe cross-platform fonts in my designs. The two options that seem most promising are sIRF and web fonts. Will you please write of these and any other web typographical solutions that will inspire creativity instead of stifle it, yet still retain site accessibility and W3C compliancy.

Regards,
Marilyn

August 12, 2008 at 6:17 pm
(12) ETCulling says:

The worst thing that is happening to the internet right now is that getting pages to open is slowed down by how many other sites the URL has to go through to get counted and analyzed etc. Even this one stopped along the way for at least 6 other sites to count it or whatever.Huge long URLs are a problem also for copy and paste.

August 14, 2008 at 7:01 am
(13) Gaynor Tilley says:

As I am picking up web maintenance projects I have noticed an increasing number have been designed using background urls where I would normally have put an image. I can understand background urls when it is literally a background picture and you may want to place content over it but is there any advantage to using background urls in any other context? Or is there an advantage in placing an image on the page so that the screen readers can pick up the alt text? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

August 15, 2008 at 2:09 pm
(14) Leo LeMat says:

I am one of the baby boomer generation, you know the people who stil have trouble figuring out how to program their V.C.R’s???
I am learning a lot about building web design from your site, but one of the issues that are so basic and so fundemental that web design professionals are not looking at from the prospective of a beginer has to do with using note pad instead of those fancy and expenssive wed desigh editing suites that are so expenssive and have a learing curve that is so steep that by the time some one like Me finaially figures out how to use them, they are obsolete??? It would be really nice to see some information on how to create your own web page using note pad and your own computer… I mean in My case for example, I understnad that I have to save the documents I create with relative extenssions like .html or .gif. or .css. The problem is that when I create these documents they don’t seem to be able to find each other on My computer.
I create a project folder on My desk top and I save everything in individual subfolders with in the project folder. But for some reason My web page can’t find My gifs or My external style sheets when I try to just use My computer and note pad??? I am sure the problem is such a simple and basic issue that for a profesional web designer it is sub consious, but to many of us baby boomes who are trying to keep up with a rapidly changing techonology based world it would be nice to see some one write an article that was directed at our basic level of understanding… Tell us how to create a project folder and how to organize and lable sub folders so that our web pages can find the photos and css external css pages. Because I know I am not the only beginner out here that is pulling hair over this…
And when we become dicouraged and give up because we think we are just to stupid to do this stuff, the web design community looses a lot of sales oppertunitties because if we had become successful we would have bought the more advanced tutorials and the web design suites as our skill levels increased to that point.. So leaving us behind is a loss for us and for the web design comunity to…
help us to help our selves so we can share in the 21st century and you suddenly discover a whole customer base that every one else is over looking

August 16, 2008 at 10:27 am
(15) Avis Huley says:

I would like to see a template that relates to navigation, showing the sequence of where to put link tags. Do you put them all together in one place? Do you put a link tag followed by the content for that element?

August 26, 2008 at 5:03 pm
(16) Eucalypta says:

I am very happy with about.com – and especially the web design part. Hurray for Jenny!
It would be handy to know the workarounds to get IE and Mozzilla to display css the same way. It is most frustrating that your perfect and validated css is spoilt by IE and that you have to surf the web to find decent hacks.

Furthermore design gets more important (eg grunge-sites); so a how-to for using images (in css) for navigation would be appreciated. (like image replacement)

keep up the good work ;)

August 27, 2008 at 1:11 am
(17) Joe S. Watson says:

I am writing this e-mail as a plea for help.

As a newbie to code writing and web page building I am certainly having My share of problems trying to figure out the elegant intricacies of making documents work together in a local folder on My computer… And one of the problems that is keeping me awake at nights these days is trying to get My html pages to link to the external style sheets on My computer desk top…
I have created a project folder on my desk top which I call “mywebsite”.
And in the folder I have My welcome page which is saved as index.html.
Also in the same folder I have an external style sheet document which I have saved as style.css
and on My index.html or “welcome page”, in the head section I have a link code
.
The problem is that when I click on the index page to view My index page in My browser on My computer, the index page is not finding the external style sheet…
I am seeing the content of the index page but I am not seeing the styles being applied.

I tried making the link tag self closing by adding the space and slash like

That didn’t work ..

I have tried adding a closing tag to the link in the head section so that is looks like
. but that didn’t solve the problem.

I even tried putting the style.css document in a sub folder which I called “stylesheets” and then changed the link url to “stylesheets/style.css”
when that didn’t work I tried putting a slash in front of it thinking it would direct the url to look for a sub folder like this
“/stylesheets/style.css”
I even went so far as to add the double dot in front of the slash like
“../stylesheets/style.css”
Obviously that didn’t resolve the situation or I would not be writing this e-mail to you now.

I am certain that is is something really simple that I am over looking. But I am equally sure that I am not making any syntax errors in My coding, I checked and double checked and then checked again…
Any help you or your staff may be able to offer me on this simple situation would add years to My life…

Thanks in advance.
Your loyal reader and most devoted student.
Joe S. Watson

September 1, 2008 at 4:06 pm
(18) Stu Henderson says:

What you do here is a wonderful way to help other people. Thanks.

I’m having trouble getting a line in a new website to have one part left justified, and the other to be right justified (for example like a page number). I try putting them in separate spans, but the right justify doesn’t take.

Then I try putting them in separate paras, but that introduces a line break.

Should I put them in separate divs, positioning each one in the left or right half of the page?

Or am I missing something obvious? Thanks for any help you have. Best regards, Stu

September 12, 2008 at 7:17 pm
(19) yvonne says:

I would like to know more about how to use/write includes in websites with multiple pages. How it works and the nest way to use this function. Thank you.

September 23, 2008 at 9:47 am
(20) Norman McNamara says:

How do we make a larger image and descriptions [ad] popup when the cursor hovers over the image/ad?
I have been soaking up all of the great info that you and your colleagues put out there for students and old f23ts like me. Thanx again.

October 2, 2008 at 1:15 pm
(21) Bakari says:

How about the pros and cons of using Dreamweaver over coding from scratch.

October 9, 2008 at 9:06 am
(22) RB says:

How to set up a shopping cart would be very helpful.

October 14, 2008 at 5:50 am
(23) Mohammed Emad ElDin says:

What about the staff neede for WEB page/portals designing and running?
Who are the personnel and their specialities needed for establishing a company/a department in a company or enterprise or a government departmaent whatever to build a web ite and to keep it running?
and what is the time frame for these personnel to launch such a site?
and then to keep it running

October 28, 2008 at 2:39 pm
(24) Deb says:

I’d love to see an article on finding a copywriter, and what you can expect to pay at different levels of a budget. Seeing that C/W’s know how to write, they ALL sound good, but how to choose?

Love your about.com!

November 5, 2008 at 2:07 pm
(25) Dan Hardie says:

I’d like some discussion on why browsers display fonts so differently from one to another. ie – IE5, 6 seem to render Verdana in almost a pixelized state even when the font is present on the system. And why does IE stretch the info on a page vertically?

November 6, 2008 at 7:11 am
(26) Pedro says:

Everyone seems to be talking about social networking; what are the best open source social networking software out there?

November 9, 2008 at 8:17 pm
(27) smassey123 says:

I thank that web design is a wonderful class but I would like to see how to create a search engine in xhmtl how to get the copywrites to it.

thanks

November 25, 2008 at 8:04 am
(28) Steven says:

I’ve been building websites for years, and i am now trying to learn how to do it right. I am learning alot from your writings and it is helping me turn my website around.

I guess my biggest issues are creating and using graphics, animations and flash effectively, so more articles on those topics would help me a great deal. I also probobly should get a graphic design course.

December 4, 2008 at 8:35 pm
(29) David says:

How about using Classic ASP with mySQL? PHP is typically used rather than ASP and there are ASP objects [command] that don’t work well with mySQL.

December 11, 2008 at 9:30 am
(30) Web_N_Gra_Des says:

I’d like to see some tutorial in creating a mobile-web.

December 12, 2008 at 11:57 am
(31) Marie says:

I need to put a Search feature on websites I design. What do you recommend?

I have an article on that topic here: Adding Search to Your Site
–Jennifer

December 16, 2008 at 11:21 am
(32) Shelley McNeil says:

I would like to know for information about what scripts are available to use in submit forms – work web forms that have some kind of security without having to use captcha. Thanks,

December 16, 2008 at 11:42 am
(33) Jeannie says:

Jennifer,
I am using PowerPoint to showcase my children’s stories. They are not for sale. I share stories with elementary children to influence them to graduate. What programs support clip art story board templetes or, creative pages for PowerPoint? Is PowerPoint my best option? At risk children need to believe in their higher self.

Thank you,

Jeannie
Graduation Coach
Woodland High School

December 16, 2008 at 1:14 pm
(34) Hal says:

I’d like to know the code in JavaScript to enable one to update the date on their website automatically.
Thanks!

I don’t really cover JavaScript. You’d probably find this code on the About.com JavaScript site: http://javascript.about.com/ Thanks for the suggestion, however.
–Jennifer

December 30, 2008 at 5:49 am
(35) Michael Searles says:

Hi
I’m interested to hear your comments about the use and placement of graphics – specially animated GIF graphics.
Am I right in thinking that these were in vogue ten years ago and that today text links are more favored?
Any stats on click-through-rates on graphics vs text links?
Sorry if this is a bit off topic.
Aussie Mike

December 31, 2008 at 4:34 pm
(36) Dave Vermont says:

I’ve been volunteering as a web designer and web master for non-profits for a few years now, and I’d like to move into more freelance work.

I’d love to see some articles on marketing my services. While I’m comfortable with Dreamweaver, I’m really uncomfortable with customers!

Some articles on getting my work out in the public, and how to deal with the folks who may be interested in a site (especially how to gather and collect the necessary information to build a personal site for a customer) would be really helpful!

Thanks Jennifer! I look forward to your updates in my Email and save every one!

January 1, 2009 at 12:27 pm
(37) Klarissa says:

I would like to know how a reader can type in a comment on a form and send it to me, without creating a security hazard.
I saw the word “postcard” somewhere on here, that might be what I amd looking for.

January 1, 2009 at 12:32 pm
(38) Maria says:

I would like some advice on what software would be good for developing a website that needs to be accessible for updates by a few people in a non-profit organization?

To give you some background, there is an existing website for this organization (from here on known as PCVA). It was set up by a group of individuals who are friends of the head of the Web Committee of PCVA at the time. This group of friends put the site for PCVA together on a volunteer basis. Whenever PCVA needed updates to the site, PCVA would go through the head of the Web Committee to have these changes put into place. When the head of the Web Committee left the organization, she offered to continue to be the liaison between PCVA and the web developers, however, since she no longer works for the system that supports this organization, contacting her and having her request the updates has become a cumbersome process because of the way the website was set up.

Now in order to access the website for updates to pages other than the calendar (PCVA members have access to the calendar update function), PCVA needs to go through a lengthy process that involves contacting the former head of the Web Committee so that she, in turn, can contact the people that put the website together.

Needless to say, this is causing a lot of frustration at PCVA. They [PCVA] have tried contacting the web development group directly but have had no success. PCVA has decided that they need to look in a different direction and start a website that will be accessible to a core group of people should anyone else leave the group.

I am familiar with websites since I’ve done work (on a volunteer basis) on two non-profit websites using FrontPage to edit and maintain the sites. I work with XHTML and CSS to keep the web pages updated and fresh. I happened to mention that I have some knowledge of websites and was willing to help out in any way I could. To my dismay, the group took it as an offer to do the redesign.

I would be up for the challenge but need some direction as to what we need in terms of software in order to make this redesign such that others can have access to updates when needed.

As I mentioned before, I am comfortable with FrontPage but do not want to limit the redesign of the PCVA website to that software if there is another application that better serves the needs of the group. I want to make sure that I have the best choices available in a software application package that is easy to learn and teach to a core group of people so that they can make the changes themselves should the need arise.

For the redesign of the web for this organization, we would like the setup to be such that a core group of people have access to areas that need to be updated so that should any one of the people with access should leave the organization, or be unable to continue providing support, this core group can have access to any parts of the website that need to be updated and the process can transition flawlessly and without hassles.

Whatever software we decide on, will need to be fairly simple to work with so that we don’t have to train people in complex updates that half of the group will not understand.

I have a programming background and understand technology pretty well, we just need to make sure that we can get this group to understand what they need to do to make simple changes. Any ideas will be gratefully welcome and appreciated.

January 6, 2009 at 7:08 am
(39) Kiki says:

I love your column – it’s been extremely helpful as I’ve transitioned from print design to fulltime web design over the past few years! I’ve swung towards mostly Actionscript 3 development lately, and I’d love to see more discussion of that, and Flex/AIR. I’d also like to see more about Ajax, SEO, Web Standards, and integrating things like social media, blogs, and RSS into websites.

January 6, 2009 at 7:18 am
(40) brett says:

Iwould love to hear about how to get rid of the logo in the url bar. I got some templates and I don’t want their logo in the url bar on the lefthandside. I would call it what it is called but I don’t know the name of it is.

January 15, 2009 at 6:36 am
(41) Jon L. Slate says:

Hello there from almost freezing cold Winston, Georgia 30187!

These questions don’t necessarily come from problems with MY website listed above.

#1.) Since I’m getting forgetful in Middle Age (44), I never can keep straight when/where the best/proper time/place is to use , , , and the “hardly ever mentioned” . If you could either use all 4 nested or so, that would help me LOTS!

#2.) What is the best, most modern/acceptable CSS/(X)HTML way to have a paragraph that’s left justified with respect to itself, but, given a width of, say, 50% is centered on the page, like having left and right margins of 25%, possibly without setting margin-left and margin-right?

#3.) How do you deal with the visual inconsistencies between browsers? I’ve used CSS hacks & filters, but you have to be careful to comment them out from the browsers that are working.

#4.) What do you and “the Industry” consider the best degree or certificate to have in Web Design and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

#5.) Which of these is the best term to describe the person: SEOer, SEO, Search Engine Optimizer, or Search Engine Optimization Specialist in Keyword Research & Placement? I know — the last one’s pretty long, huh! Do you get more respect or StreetCred(TM) for the longer job title?

Examples with explanation would make me eternally grateful!

ThanX a mi||ion,
jon

January 19, 2009 at 2:00 pm
(42) G Stacy says:

Jennifer, I absolutely so appreciate the work you are doing. I need to learn how to set up ecommerce sites. Can I build this myself? If that is impractical then is there software out there that is not intimidating? I started with Oscommerce and it’s a pretty steep learning curve. Thanks for your help. G

January 22, 2009 at 7:24 am
(43) Thomas says:

I am currently using geocities to build my web site. The question is when I am ready how do I post the site for others to see?

January 23, 2009 at 12:17 pm
(44) christine robinson says:

I am confused on how a website becomes number one on a search engine. Do you have to pay to be on top, or is there a way to move up on the list?

January 26, 2009 at 8:33 am
(45) Aarthi says:

Ma’am please write for us more about the payment form that I should use for my website.

I am a content writer and I wish to develop a Content Writing Business. If someone wants to subscribe for my services then how should I ask them to pay and how can I undertake the money transaction. Please help! It is very important for me. Please teach me how I can achieve the above goal.

Thank You.

January 29, 2009 at 2:54 pm
(46) Ron Durham says:

Just wanted to thank you for your hard work. I am just getting started and wouldn’t be nearly as far along as I am. Again thanks

February 18, 2009 at 4:10 pm
(47) gecko123 says:

What do you think about designing a web site where the home page does not have a navigation bar? The navigation displays once an item such as an icon, image or some advertising is clicked.

February 24, 2009 at 12:27 am
(48) Marie says:

I’m trying to move away from using pixels for my font-size but when I try to use ems and % in my CSS styles, I’m getting a lot of strange things happening. For example, I use a .85 em for my main content and .8 for my footer but the footer shrinks down to some tiny font that’s almost unreadable. Is there some type of inheritance going on that is doubling the reduction? I’m not seeing too much detail on the About.com web pages…could you write more about the tips and tricks of using ems?

February 24, 2009 at 9:57 am
(49) Phil Sidel says:

The good folks at Experts Exchange recently had an editorial piece in their periodic email newsletter. It enumerated the editor’s frustration with some sites when he was doing on-line comparative shopping. Things like failure to post prices on products (forcing potential customers to go to “checkout” to find price). Check with and credit Experts Exchange, but write about how sales sites can make their products sell by providing good information (including customer reviews) about their products, prices, and services – in an easy-to-find manner. Let them know that at least some of us potential customers are quickly turned off by their failure to do that well.

March 10, 2009 at 7:41 pm
(50) Craig Willford says:

It is a little thing, but many websites now display (in my Firefox browser) an icon to the left of the web address in the address bar. What codes get that done?

March 12, 2009 at 4:05 pm
(51) Lelani says:

To start with, I love your site. I’ve spent the past 3hrs. at least looking for one item, that doesn’t seem to be here. The information I need is, how are the different tags arranged on the webpage? For instance, after the H1, I want to put in the background, page content, with an overlay of an opening theatre curtain. What would be the progression of tags to accomplish that? When the user clicks on the enter button, I want the curtain to open first, but slowly, with music. I have no idea where to put that sequence. I can look up the tags needed, that’s not problem. I just don’t know where something like that would go, and how to attach music to it as well. I’ll probably build a module out of it, so I can just change the info, but the code will already be set. I think a lot of people if they would see how the progression of things like background, graphics, sounds, text color, text centering etc. flow in sequence, it would be easier for them to understand. Then they can look up the tags to learn what they are and how they are used. Where they are used are as important as well. A visual of the sequence is very helpful. I would like someday to be a website designer, but I have to learn more than I know right now.

March 18, 2009 at 6:13 am
(52) V.A. says:

I’d like to learn more about interactive web design – like using video, blogs, web polls, etc.

March 26, 2009 at 6:43 am
(53) Raymond Lam says:

I am a beginner of learning html/xhtml & css. I know that the webpage displayed on the monitor is not supposed to be printable. I’ve read some articles about making webpages printable. But I still find it hard to understand how it is done properly. I was wondering whether or not you could give me good links showing how to make webpages printable. Thanks, Ray

March 26, 2009 at 9:11 am
(54) Mary Olson says:

I’m wondering how to learn more about templates and html in blogs. It just doesn’t seem to operate the same as on a website, which doesn’t make sense. I struggle to get my photos to align where I want them, to not have to keep telling it the font I want on every post. to get te text block to run wider. I’m afraid of messing too much with the code since it does seem to be different.

March 31, 2009 at 9:16 am
(55) Jodie says:

Hi Jennifer! Love your web design guide! I would like to learn how to create an html newsletter. Any advice would be appreciated!

April 2, 2009 at 3:42 pm
(56) Shelley says:

I would love to hear some instruction on the effect that Internet Explorer 8 is having on websites. I just started using it and it has me redesigning sites I created for better viewing. There is an option for “compatability viewing” but how many users are going to figure that out to view sites properly. Even your site has its glitches when viewed in IE8. Some advide please.

April 7, 2009 at 7:02 am
(57) Betty Wagner says:

I would like to learn how to make an iframe while not knowing any HTML. I need to use one on the website I made with CoffeeCup VSD in which to place a photo gallery I made with XARA Web Designer. Is there a way I can understand how to do this?

April 7, 2009 at 8:53 pm
(58) Kathy Martin says:

I think I have a good basic understanding of HTML and CSS and would like to attempt my first actual website. My problem is that I am not very creative, and I cannot figure out what I want my site to be about because everything I think of has already been done so many times. Could you suggest possible site development ideas.
Thank you

April 16, 2009 at 11:27 am
(59) Ray 'bay says:

Congratulations on getting them to change your photograph after only four years. You look a lot better now.

April 21, 2009 at 1:55 pm
(60) fred says:

Hello Jennifer! thank you for your lovely tutorials i hv learned a lot from your classes. i hv a little problem of connecting my page with a database using dreamweaver, i hope you ‘ll help me with a tutorial or something.

April 23, 2009 at 10:23 am
(61) GouriB says:

Hi Jennifer,

Wonderful website..I love all the topics mentioned in webdesign.about.com but in perticular I would like to know about dropdown menus created using CSS which are getting popular today.

April 30, 2009 at 2:21 pm
(62) Ron says:

I just signed on about and yours is the first thing read from this company. I am surprised that this site dose not have a live chat area. Anyway your mail on web designs Lines and Underlines. I hate to say something dumb here but since I have read your mail all of the icon lettering on my desktop are now underlined and they were not before. I was wondering if you might have a thought as to how or why.

May 28, 2009 at 11:08 pm
(63) bluewaterbob says:

INCORPORATING PDFs INTO A WEBSITE:

I’m finding many businesses want to incorporate PDF’s into their website, especially with catalogs, white papers, docs that they want to be sure will print correctly (compared to web pages – never sure what you are going to get). Some problems are they tend to repeatedly download every time they are clicked on and this can take a while, making surfing between the pdf and other parts of the site a messy operation. Opening zoom sizes, losing the specific pdf page they were at if they go back to the site, browser window size holding the pdf.

I did find some nice ways to make all this work by using a framed page with the website in the top frane, pdf site menu in middle bar frame, and pdf in the bottom frame. When the site opens the size of the 3 frames are ‘*,0,0′ and the pdf loads in the background. When the pdf is clicked on the only thing that happens is a javascript call to change the frame sizes (rows) to ‘0,40,*’ which instantly displays the pdf with the site menu just above it. When browsing the pdf, clicking any of the non-pdf menu items in the middle frame 40 pixel in height menu, would change the frame sizes back to ‘*,0,0′ and href to the selected page targeted to the top frame. It allows the user to very quickly go back and forth between the pdf and any of the site pages without losing their place in the pdf. It appears to look like the catalog is minimized. There is the unavoidable time needed to download the pdf the first time, and that it uses frames!!! I’d love to hear some ideas to do this without frames, for better SEO (maybe an iframe inside a div and controlling the size of the div??) You can see the framed pdf site at FinleySpindles.com By the way, the owner is seeing pdfs showing up more and more on Google and is now just using the pdf to show product info. Not sure how a pdf in a frame will rank, but we’ll see.

I’d love to see an article on handling PDFs in a website.

And I’d love to hear if anyone knows of a pdf to html converter that puts each pdf page into a separate html page, and does it correctly. And a dream converter would also SEO analyze the page to create appropriate keyword and desc. meta-tags, and use the pages header or other SEO results to create an appropriate title and ‘keyworded’ html page name. The page name could start with pdf page, like 001keyword, 002keyword, 003keyword, etc., for easy identification which could be renamed later as its place in the menu is set. And if it could save images used on more than one page in a shared image folder that would be great too. Just some ideas for whoever might be listening.

May 29, 2009 at 4:08 am
(64) terencce arnold says:

Hi

I did your html course which got me off to an excellent start – thanks alot for producing such great resources. I will be following along with css etc now. I have just got dreamweaver cs4 and was wondering whether there is likely to be a course on it here?

June 6, 2009 at 9:14 am
(65) Vernitta Hobson says:

Hello there:

How are you? You have an excellent website that covers a lot of relevant topics in web design and I thank you so much for it.The one topic I would like to see more information on is a step by step plan for setting the homepage before adding additional webpages. Please help me. I thank for what you have done thus far.

Vernitta

June 18, 2009 at 2:36 pm
(66) Pat says:

I have seen webpages with rounded corners. How do you make the corners round?

June 22, 2009 at 4:09 am
(67) Nicola says:

The topic I would like to see covered is image sprites – how they can be used/how to build them.

June 23, 2009 at 7:04 am
(68) Peterinth says:

I want to build an e-learning site onto a learning gateway. This would be built from web parts on a sharepoint server.

I hope this makes sense?

June 23, 2009 at 12:16 pm
(69) ProfCookSez says:

If I wanted to add a search engine to my web site what are the options, (global vs local)? How do I go and do it?

July 7, 2009 at 10:27 pm
(70) carol says:

i recently got a flat screen, wide, 21″, everything looks so different than on my old screen, i will have to redesign. However, I don’t want to leave those with older displays behind. How do I best display for both. I did try BrowserCam but received nothing but error messages
Carol

July 8, 2009 at 3:53 am
(71) ABAHO ELLY. says:

The services are good. my request is to know web designing, especially dealing with advertisements and office document presentation such as online forms. If technology didnt come, i wonder how the world could look. I love you all.

August 13, 2009 at 3:49 pm
(72) Ted Feely says:

Jennifer,
I’d like to know more about how to incorporate external content into web pages; for example RSS (I know I can incorporate links, but how about the actual content?, etc.)

Thanks.

Ted

August 25, 2009 at 8:16 am
(73) Dee says:

I would like to know more about web-content-management systems (WCMS or Web CMS). Best ones up there. Cheaper and easyness for client use purposes. My customers want full control over their site. Also, I’ll like to know about flash intros. I had more than 6 requests for this over the past 2 months. Thanks!

September 1, 2009 at 4:38 am
(74) Beatrice says:

It’s a very interesting site and I’d like to learn more about style of constrution of web page.
Thanks a lot for your answer.

Beatrice

October 2, 2009 at 3:29 am
(75) James says:

Wanted:
Navigation/sliding doors/dropdown links etc.
A simple,css/html source without the fancy texts to frustrate a person.Horizontal and vertical with a background-color in hover.Sorry if it’s not your thing!

October 8, 2009 at 7:24 am
(76) Sylvester Otieno says:

I would like to learn more about setting up a membership side to a website and all that goes along with that; i.e. cookies, password protection, and how to create a website databases, etc.

December 22, 2009 at 9:28 am
(77) Janet Sue says:

I agree with #73 – Dee. We are moving to a CMS (DotNetNuke) and I’m having trouble deciding where to begin. We have a lot of bloat on our current site and plan to use this as an opportunity to consolidate the site. Any tips on how to proceed would be helpful. I’ve looked all over and can’t seem to even find a forum that discusses it.

Thanks for the great job you do with your blog. I value it tremendously!

January 4, 2010 at 9:06 am
(78) Peter says:

I want to send people from particular countries to their own versions of the web site – i.e. US people to a US site (imperial units etc.) and Europeans to a European site (in their language). Is there any way to identify them (perhaps by IP) and send them straight to the right page rather than have a cumbersome global index page?

January 4, 2010 at 10:52 am
(79) Gordon Kennedy says:

I would like to know more about:
Designing web sites for hand held devices such as the Blackberry/Iphone etc.

January 5, 2010 at 12:38 pm
(80) Roy Batterman says:

I would like less of a rabbit-trail when using classes. It was hard to know what step I was on with links taking me forward and backward. (ie., maybe Topic I, Step 1; Topic I, Step 2, etc….)

January 19, 2010 at 11:19 am
(81) sharon says:

I’d like to know your thoughts on using blog technology -vs- build it from the ground up site design using XHTML and CSS.

Maybe a how-to build a WordPress theme lesson series.

January 21, 2010 at 11:15 am
(82) thenbman says:

I would like to see the setting up of a simple shopping cart for someone else (eg client/friend etc), using Paypal buttons.

You never ever see this in books or tutorials and I think it would put Jennifer’s HTML/CSS tuts ahead of the rest.

January 26, 2010 at 6:20 am
(83) A J says:

I think it would be helpful if there was a good comparison of the various open source CMS like Joomla and Drupal. I know you recently mentioned a book about learnring Drupal in 24 hrs. How does Drupal compare to other CMS.

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Explore Web Design / HTML
About.com Special Features

Vote in the Reader's Choice Awards

What are the best instant messengers, apps, and editors? You decide, in our 2010 technology awards program. More >

iPad Central

Is Apple's new tablet computer impractical, a must-have -- or both? We'll help you figure it out. More >

  1. Home
  2. Computing & Technology
  3. Web Design / HTML

©2010 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.