1. Home
  2. Computing & Technology
  3. Web Design / HTML
WebTV HTML
Part 1: Write HTML for the Television
 More of this Feature
• Part 1: WebTV HTML
• Part 2: WebTV Tags
 
 Related Resources
• WebTV Tags List
• WebTV HTML Links
 
 Elsewhere on the Web
• WebTV Viewer
 
 Stay Up-to-Date
  with Web Design
  Email:
  

By Jennifer Kyrnin

WebTV is gaining popularity with Web users, and there are some tricks to creating pages that work well on it. There are also two special tags and several attributes for HTML tags that are only supported by WebTV or have interesting effects. The advantage to using these tags is that WebTV tags will be ignored by other browsers, but will enhance your pages for TV viewers.

WebTV Tricks

  • Remember that WebTV viewers are viewing your page on a TV, usually from across a room. This means that while there is less resolution, you really don't need it.
  • Pages look best when they are rendered in white text on a black background. This is the opposite of most Web pages on the Internet right now.
  • Make sure your page displays in less than 544 pixels. There is no horizontal scrolling in WebTV, and anything larger will be modified by the WebTV browser to display in that width.
  • Only 12 characters are visible of the title in the "Recent" panel. To make your site more relevant, focus on keeping the first 12 characters clear and distinctive.
  • Links are marked as "clickable" by an orange box highlighting them. This is especially important to remember when your links are important to the look of your page.
  • Because they are not using a computer, they cannot download things. So, if your site relies on PDF files to be viewed, it will be inaccessible to WebTV viewers.
  • Some of the newer versions of WebTV support some download file types, such as ZIP, but I don't recommend relying on that availability of you're planning a WebTV compatible page.

The Key to WebTV
If you want WebTV users to be among your readers, then you need to test out your pages on a WebTV box or viewer. WebTV offers a "viewer" for Mac and PC users to download and get an idea of what the WebTV system is like. http://developer.msntv.com/Tools/WebTVVwr.asp But the best way to check out WebTV is on a WebTV system. If you don't have one, you can go to a store that sells them and look at your page from there.

Next Page > Specific Tags for WebTV > Page 1, 2

Previous Features

Explore Web Design / HTML
About.com Special Features

Holiday Central

What to eat, where to go, fun things to do and how to save money on the perfect gifts. More >

Family Tech Center

Stay connected and entertained with reviews on tips on the latest HDTVs, cellphones and more. More >

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

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.