Safari released for Windows

Going along with the post from yesterday, there has been big news that Apple has released a version of Safari that will work on Windows. To date there have been several million downloads of the product. However, there have been several security risks found for the product as well.

What this means to you, as a developer of a Web site, is that there could be a serious play for a new browser in the market. I.E. still corners the market at 78% but FireFox is steadily gaining ground at 15%. Safari was never really a contender because it would only run on a Macintosh computer. However, that has now changed. With the announcement of Safari on Windows combined with the popularity of the iTunes application, Safari could grab market share from I.E. Of course, you wouldn't hear me complaining about that. However, what you will hear me complaining about is how Safari may or may not stick to the HTML standards.

Right now it is difficult to write a really good Web site because you have to make a choice about if you want the site to look really good or if you want the site to work the same across all browsers. And, inevitably, you must make changes to your site to get it to render correctly in I.E. Sometimes you can get it to work, there are still times that I.E.'s lack of sticking to the standard makes it almost impossible and a Web designer finds themselves reaching back to the days of HTML before tables and using hacks to get things too look right. This shouldn't be but it is.

Safari does not have a great reputation for sticking to the standard. The only major browser that does is FireFox. This could make companies start to choose more who their consumers are with multimedia companies leaning toward having a Safari-friendly site while online merchants go with I.E. because that is what their sites are already designed for.

However, for someone in the Web design business is this really fair. The standard exists for a reason: so that everyone, regardless of computer platform or browser can see the same sites in the same manner. It would be fantastic if the large companies, who say they are doing everything possible for the consumer, would realize this and start coding their work not to their own internal standards but to the standards that are public and have been accepted by the rest of the computing community.

Test in all browsers

There are many different browsers out in cyberspace. We all have our favorite browser. However, to design a good Web site you need to be able to test your site in at least the major browsers.

HTML is an interpreted language. That means that each browser is free to interpret the tags however they like. While they are free to do this, there is a set of standards that they are supposed to stick to. However, I.E. is infamous for not coding to the standards. Therefore, a page that looks OK in I.E. may look really bad in a browser such as FireFox.

And even if you simply code everything to the standards that doesn't guarantee it is going to look correct either.

The simple message here is to test your page in as many different browsers as you can.

Angie

Don't use your address in plain sight.

Many people don't realize that a major source of spammers getting an email address is from the Web. It is helpful to be able to put an email address on your site for users to email you. How do you do it in such a way that spammers have to do more work in order to get it?

Nechtan Design has made available the method that we use to encode our client's email addresses for their Web pages. This method is not foolproof but it does help. The page is available for anyone who wants to use it.

This is a simple method used by many different people. It utilizes javascript to encrypt the string. When the page is interpreted the javascript causes the string to be printed as part of the document.

Copy the code exactly from the Final HTML section and put it exactly where you want your mailto link to appear in your page.

Hopefully this will help you to receive less spam.

Angie

Character References

This may be a very mundane topic but one of importance to new designers. There are times when you will need to print characters on your page that are reserved for the markup language such as the greater than and less than signs. So how do you do this? You utilize character encodings.

There is a list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_XML_and_HTML_character_entity_references

It is quite simple. In this list you find the character you wish to use. You place the entity reference in your code where the character would be. If you want:

6 < 9

...
body tag
6 < 9
close body tag
...

This is just a simple example. You will see there are also references for many languages including Greek and Latin as well as many mathematical symbols. There is probably a way to print the character you need and this list will tell you how to do it.

How did you learn to do that?

It is a simple question really but one that I hear often. A lot of people will ask how and where I learned to code Web pages. Some just want to strike up a conversation while others want to be able to code a site themselves. Because of the Internet boom a few years ago, many people have a simplified view of writing a Web site. They don't realize that it can get very complicated very fast. It is a source of amazement to a few when I point out that I actually hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. While it is true that many competent Web designers do not have this level of training, it has allowed for my company to handle some projects that others cannot.

Before you decide that you are going to undertake writing your own site, I would highly recommend that you do some research into the amount of work that the site could take. It may, in the end, be more cost effective for you to purchase the site.

But, how can you learn HTML for the site that you are working on? There are several good resources available. The first is to search the Internet. If you are technically savvy and can read the specs for HTML then the best resource would be the W3C. The World Wide Web Consortium is the group that develops and maintains the standards for just about anything dealing with the Web. Check out their Web site at http://www.w3.org/.

There are many tutorial sites that are available as well. A Google search for HTML tutorials will give you a list long enough to keep you busy for a while. Note that the first group that comes up is w3schools. While they may have a good product, I do not believe that they are affiliated with the W3C. The name is a bit confusing. Nechtan Design does not explicitly endorse any of these tutorials.

Another place to look that may seem strange to you is your local library. Nechtan Design is involved with teaching a class at our local library and many other libraries across the country offer a similar service. While this class may not be free, it will not be as expensive as your typical college course. This is of course the last route that I would recommend: taking a college course of the subject. If you want just a personal Web site to post pictures of your family or something similar then taking a full semester class may be much more than you wish to invest. However, if you are looking to develop a Web site for a small business a college class is just about the only way to get all the information that you need these days. You may be better off hiring someone to do the job.

While you are at the library you can also look for one of the many books that have been published on HTML and they will be a great help as well.

The resources for learning how to code a Web site are almost endless as more are developed every day. In a sense that is what I am doing here. I am developing yet another resource on how to code an HTML site. Hopefully it will help you to achieve your dreams of having your own home on the Web.

There is no time like today.

For weeks I have been waiting for the "right" time to start my blog. I haven't found it. Finally, I decided that this was going to be my first topic for all those who want to start their own Web page. There is no time like today!

Creating a personal Web page can be a source of fun and enjoyment, a creative outlet where your imagination can flow. Don't worry that your material is not good enough. Start small if you need to and allow your home on the Web to grow. Use the free resources that are out there in cyberspace. Utilize sites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. Links to your information on these sites can help make the work that you need to do on your own page a lot easier as well as make you easier to be found.

You will want a plan on how you want your site to look. Put some thought into the links and content. Decide if you want to link to videos, music or pictures. Ensure the legality of any of the links you provide to keep yourself safe.

Do all of this and remember there is no time like today to start!