What are some HTML tricks?
- These are some of my personal tricks, hints and tips:
- Don't use 16 million color jpgs, most people to this day can
only display 256 colors!
- Don't use 256 colors if there are only 16 or less colors
in the image, this can really reduce the image size.
- Save as both .jpg and .gif, and use whichever is smallest
(usually it's .jpg).
- As a general rule of thumb, use gif for line-art and
pictures, use jpg for photograph and high resolution
graphics.
- Keep in mind roughly 85% of the people surfing on the web
are doing so with 14.4k and 28.8k modems, don't have a page
that is massive in size unless you warn them first!
- Total up the graphic and html sizes in K. Adjust the size
if needed and estimate how long the page takes to load at
14.4k and 28.8k speeds.
- The #1 thing that keeps people coming back to your site
is content, not looks, not graphics, not anything but
content.
- Lots of small images display faster than one big graphic?
Technically this isn't true, but the small images get
loaded at the same time as the text, which allows people
to start reading while the images are still loading.
- Keep a big contrast between your background, and text and
images. If people find it hard to read your page (thus
the term hard on the eyes), they won't stick around too
long.
- 99.9% of web sites are constantly under construction,
it's no big deal. Don't go out of your way or waste page
space and images by advertising the fact.
- Use interlaced .gifs, they are displayed interlaced, as
opposed to line by line. Interlaced .gifs are displayed,
and then "clean" themselves up by becoming
clearer and clearer until the image is finished
displaying. This is a little trick that lets people watch
something, and be occupied, while your page is loading.
- Experiment with the .jpg compression, the lower
resolution, the smaller the .jpg will be.
- Have something to say in your site. This is the most
common downfall of web sites. Don't just setup a home
page for the heck of it and expect people to keep coming
back.
- A note on Tables- Netscape loads everything inside the
table before outputting the result. For example, a table
full of images totaling 100k will have to load all the
table data including the text inside the table tags and
the 100k, before outputting anything to the screen.
- Have a friend really go over your site. You'll be
suprised how much someone else finds wrong. After all,
what you meant to say and how you typed it in can be two
entirely different things.
- Keep in mind not everyone is going to be browsing your
page like you intended. They can be using different
browsers, different screen widths, and different
resolutions than you intended. Try grabbing a few other
browsers and at least look at your site at another
location with it.
- Keep the tags and text of your HTML source separate for
legibility and easy updating.
- The best way to learn about HTML is to look at the source
of a web site. I'm gonna start a few wars with THAT
statement, but it's true.
- If you have some extra cash around, invest in a good HTML
editor, graphic editing/creation program, HTML book, and
possibly a multimedia or 3rd party package (in that
order), especially if your business is considering Net
exposure. A good Book is the best as opposed to editors.
- Keep your eyes open in the HTML related newsgroups and
other sources for new information.
- Set aside some time, for an hour daily if possible, to
simply surf the web. You'll be surprised how much and how
quickly you'll learn and develop style.
- Make your site 100% bulletproof before going public,
verifying all links, checking grammar, checking spelling,
studying the layout, etc.. You wouldn't want be receiving
e-mail complementing you on your lack of spelling ability
instead of the content of your page.
- Put an e-mail tag on your page so people can provide feedback
directly to you about your page and whatever else you may desire.
Like this: (of course you are not jdoe)
<a href="mailto:jdoe@surfari.net">jdoe@surfari.net</a>
Would look like this:
jdoe@surfari.net Note how the
jdoe@surfari.net between the actual reference call and closing </a>
tag is what will be the underlined or "hotlinked" text.
- Make sure to keep up-to-date on any URL or link you may have posted
on your pages. The Internet changes so much that URL's can be located
in one location today and another next week. It's tough to keep up on
a large amount of URL's, so keep it simple.
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