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It was a good hour of information, with probably the most intriguing aspects relating to Dreamweaver and Illustrator. I’m working strictly from memory here, but I’ll try to summarize some of the features that were mentioned.

Dreamweaver will now be including a preview window that displays web content based on the webkit rendering engine (used by Safari and Google Chrome). So, for example, AJAX-generated dynamic content can be displayed in the preview window directly inside Dreamweaver. Also, Dreamweaver will have the ability to recognize all files associated with a particular (X)HTML document, and will have links to those files in tabs next to the open (X)HTML file. CSS files, server-side include files, and external JavaScript files will all be easily accessible instantly from tab-like links. This doesn’t mean the related files are actually open — just easier to access.

Also impressive was the capability to link an Illustrator file with Flash. I can’t remember all the details on this one, but it definitely looks interesting. One of the things that was mentioned was that Illustrator and/or Flash would allow easy editing of Flash animations similar to Adobe AfterEffects. This seems like a nice step forward, however it could easily become similar to previous features inside Flash that later were one-upped by developers who found cleaner and more customizible solutions to the exact same problems that the aforementioned features were attempting to solve.

And finally, Photoshop will have a new feature that allows an image to be scaled while the image’s most important parts would not be distorted. Thus, Photoshop figures out what pixels are important, and which ones are negligible, and it scales the image from landscape to portrait without making it look distorted. A very interesting feature, but not necessarily something that would be used very often.

It was a nice preview to another powerful developer suite (soon to be?) released by Adobe. At the time of writing this entry, Adobe still seemed to be replaying the webcast here. I’ll be researching the new features in the coming weeks, and hopefully be able to use some of the new tools in the not-too-distant future.

You would probably immediately conclude that this piece of software was/is a huge success. But once I told you that I was talking about Internet Explorer Version 6, you would immediately conclude that I was out of my mind (as you already concluded when you saw the headline for this article).

But let’s be honest with ourselves. Success is not necessarily dependent on quality and feature-richness. IE6 has done exactly what Microsoft intended for it to do: Help users browse the internet with minimal supervision via a clean, easy-to-use interface.

Web developers need to face up to the fact that the average web user today wants to read, shop, and browse. And all of that can be done quite easily without Firefox, Opera, Safari, or even IE7. The overused motto “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” certainly applies here — and this is especially true when you factor in Microsoft’s poor history when it comes to software upgrades. People know that Microsoft has a habit of releasing unnecessarily complicated and bloated software upgrades, so why should the users bother to upgrade a perfectly functional browser?

I know what you’re thinking: It’s not perfectly functional! It’s buggy, it does not adhere to standards, it doesn’t display web pages properly… I could go on. But that is evident from the perspective of a web developer, not a novice computer user that has no clue what CSS stands for. And 98% of the time, the user is not even going to notice the bugs and incompatibility issues. Even if IE6 crashes twice a day (which is probably a very high estimate), that still would not be enough reason to upgrade if the only thing you use a browser for is reading email, facebooking, and shopping online.

And if you still don’t believe that IE6 is the greatest browser ever made, go back and read the first release of  Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman. At the time that book was released, IE6 was viewed as the most standards-compliant browser, and Zeldman talks about it throughout the book.

I don’t like IE6 — I never use it, except to ensure cross-browser compatibility for sites I code — and I think anyone who uses it should upgrade immediately, or else switch to Firefox (any version). But my opinion means nothing to Microsoft, and it certainly means nothing to the facts of the past 7 years, in which IE6 has virtually dominated the Web Browser market despite incredible amounts of competition, and constant (often web developer-biased) criticism.

* Note: I made an error, which I’ve corrected. IE6 holds about 25%, and IE7 is at around 50%.

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7 Principles Of Clean And Optimized CSS Code

1. Bad Location
While a “bricks and mortar” outfit will have trouble in certain areas depending on competition and other factors, the same problem can occur if a website is not properly “located” when it comes to search engine findability, domain name, and hosting.

It’s sad to see that many businesses today still need to be reminded that free hosting packages, bad keyword density and poor choice in domain name can all have an effect on whether or not people stumble in during their online shopping. So website owners should invest the time, effort and money necessary to ensure their “location” on the web is suitable to staying competitive in their market.

2. High Prices
Due to the nature of the web, and an increase in online competition, it is harder for companies to markup prices exorbitantly. But sometimes overhead costs force prices to stay relatively high. Website owners should try to battle this by offering online promotions, coupons, returning-customer deals and other sales techniques that will make the high prices not seem so high in the long run.

3. Dirty Store
Yes, a website needs to be clean just as a brick and mortar store does. Make the investment to ensure your website’s code is standards-compliant, cross-browser friendly, and accessible to users with disabilities. Also, ensure your online business has easy-to-use site navigation by means of site maps, site search, and breadcrumb-friendly page structure.

4. Pushy Salespeople
Your web page’s content can be just as intimidating as a pushy in-person sales person. So hire a good copywriter and keep your pages friendly and informative. Don’t make the users feel that they are stupid if they don’t buy your product, and certainly don’t insult their intelligence. You can still tell them how important your product or service is by being tactful and insightful, and by displaying a good knowledge of the industry.

5. Poor Customer Service
Your website’s forms and shopping cart functionality should not alienate the user from your company. Site visitors should always feel that you or your representatives are available to help them at all times in case there is any problem, or if they have any questions. So make sure you provide a good FAQ page, a help section, a toll free number to call, and an easy to use contact form — and follow this up with a fast turn-around on all customer service and sales inquiries.

Bricks and Mortar or Online — the principles are the same
So, if you have a standard “bricks and mortar” business complemented with an online store or brochure website, follow the advice found in the original article for your bricks and mortar, and apply some of these tips mentioned above for your online business and you’ll be sure to reap the benefits.

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The Key — The columns are not *really* equal
The only way to do this without using a very complex CSS layout is to essentially create the illusion that you have equal columns. But don’t worry — although the result is not really equal columns, it looks and acts exactly as an equal column layout would.

How to mimic the columns
To describe the method, I’ll just use a simple example: Two DIVs side by side representing the two columns; and one DIV containing the two. From there, it’s quite simple — just wrap your containing DIV with another DIV then apply ”overflow: hidden” on that outer DIV to ensure it doesn’t collapse in Firefox. Then, add a background image that repeats on the Y-axis (vertically). So, if you have a drop shadowed border, or even a simple 1 pixel border, you would create the image in your image editing program (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) and then just adjust the background-position of the image in your CSS to place it exactly where you want it. Since this DIV is essentially behind your two columns, holding both of them, you cannot have a background color on your columns, as it would block the image from showing up.

Keep in mind
You might think this could be done with a one pixel-border on one of the columns, but remember, one of the columns is not going to extend to the bottom, so the border method won’t work without some serious CSS hacks and workarounds. You’re creating the illusion that the short column is extending to the bottom by positioning the background image in a place where it mimics the short column’s border. Except, unlike the short column, your outer container (the container holding the container, if you will) is always going to extend to the bottom, thus creating the illusion of a two column layout where the columns are always equal, regardless of content. And best of all, either of the two columns could extend larger than the other, and the illusion would still work.

Overall, a very easy solution with limited drawbacks
This really is an easy to implement solution that can work on many CSS layouts, and doesn’t have too many drawbacks, other than adding some non-semantic code to your markup and (somewhat) complicating your DIV structure.

So if you’re in need of a hack-free quick fix to a two-column layout, this is a good solution and will work in virtually every browser and platform.

View the demo page, to see this simple, yet effective, solution in action.

Fewer attributes further enhance clean code
Often because we want to easily identify our styles in our stylesheet, when we code an HTML tag, our first instinct is to add a “class” or “id” attribute. At times I do it without thinking. But think of how much cleaner the code would be with no class or ID on that tag? That’s right — just a plain ol’ tag. And when you combine this with the avoidance of divitis, you can easily see the contrast:

With divitis and attributitis…

<div class=”my_ul_holder”>
<ul class=”my_ul”>
<li class=”my_list_item”>Example Text<li>
</ul>
</div>

And Without…

<ul>
<li>Example Text<li>
</ul>

I know what you’re thinking: It’s not always that easy — sometimes you have to apply classes and attributes in order to differentiate. But, to some degree, it can be avoided.

Have site-wide defaults for commonly used tags
By now you should be using a CSS reset to revert all your site’s styles to the bare minimum. If you’re not, do yourself a favor and research the topic and start using a reset. It’s extremely helpful for cross-browser compatibility. But further down in your style sheet, you should have a section of code that contains the site’s custom default styles for various HTML tags like H1, H2, P, UL, and others.

For example, if you know you’re going to have about a dozen unordered lists on the site, styled exactly the same way, there is no need to put class=”my_unordered_list” on every one of them. Just leave the class attribute off completely, and style your UL element to reflect this in your style sheet.

Even if you want to apply a different style to one of them, you can simply do so through the DIV hierarchy that you’ve already likely created in your XHTML. So instead of of adding

class=”other_unordered_style”

to your UL tag, you can leave the UL naked and use something like this in your CSS:

#footer ul {
// enter styles here
}

to declare a different set of styles on the single unordered list that appears in your footer.

Cleaner markup and better site performance
This will leave your HTML code clean, semantic, and (somewhat) attribute-free. True, this will likely add a few kilobytes to your CSS file. But since CSS is cached by your browser, it will work out better overall for your site’s performance. With a little careful forethought, XHTML and CSS can easily be stripped down to its bare bones — or close to it — and your site will still look as beautiful as it was intended from a visual perspective, and will no doubt be easier to maintain in the future.

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Why lists of “rules” can often fail in the long run
It is often said that behind every rule there is an underlying principle. Let’s illustrate this with an example. When a blog post tells a user to use H1 tags for headings instead of something clunky like

<div class=”header_main”>My Example Heading</div>

then the whole reason behind the necessity of the H1 may become lost on the reader, especially a reader that is new to web development, or is picking it up simply as a hobby. In such a case, the reader needs to understand why such an approach to markup is necessary — not just that it is necessary. Simply stated, websites are more findable, search engine friendly, and faster loading when the markup is semantic. Now, I’m not going to go into the details of defining “semantic markup” here. That is a topic for another post. But I’m emphasizing that the rules can easily be forgotten over the long run if the readers are not understanding the reasons behind certain SEO techniques, best practice coding, and other standards-based ideas.

Online writers and readers both play a role
So writers should be more aware of the effect their content will have on the future of web development, SEO, and the internet in general. We as writers should strive to teach others based on strong foundations and concepts that are clearly understood. Likewise, we as readers need to strive to read and learn from others based on strong foundations and concepts that are clearly explained. Both sides have a significant role to play in what the web will be like down the road.

Readers and writers, aim for a stronger foundation of learning
Therefore, in conclusion, while the typical bulleted lists and point-form rule-sets have their place and can be very useful, the more important “reasons behind the rules” are what will truly enhance a reader’s development as a web site professional, and will, by extension, make the web a better place for all.