Markup and Style

Everything You Need to Know About !important CSS Declarations

By Louis Lazaris / June 1, 2009 / 32 Comments

Recently I came across a few articles that mentioned CSS !important declarations, and there was a little bit of confusion over what they actually did, and how they could be used, as expressed in the user comments on those articles.

So I thought I would research this unique CSS property/value appendage and do a comprehensive write-up on it that would go through essentially all the information developers should have before considering its use in their style sheets.

This article will discuss what !important is, how it’s used, some practical uses for it, and drawbacks that need to be considered before implementing it.

25 Classic Web Design Articles That Significantly Impacted the Way We Code

By Louis Lazaris / May 27, 2009 / 9 Comments

Over the years there have been hundreds, if not thousands of articles published online that have each had a tremendous impact on the world of web development and design. Some have been truly memorable, and have remained quite relevant for years, and remain so today. Others have outlived their usefulness, but we remember them because of the impact they had on our code and on the way we think about web design.

Occassionally, while reading or doing research, I still stumble upon “classic” web design articles. So I thought it would be a great idea to list what I feel are some of the most important articles that have been published in the relatively short history of the web development industry.

Originally, I had started with the idea of listing 10 articles — but when I began the research, I slowly started to realize that was not going to do justice to this list. So I settled on 25. I think this is a good collection of some of the more significant articles that have been produced over the past 13 years or so.

10 Useful CSS Properties Not Supported By Internet Explorer

By Louis Lazaris / May 13, 2009 / 27 Comments

In a previous article I described 10 useful, cross-browser, CSS properties that might often be forgotten, but can really come in handy in specific situations where a solution is needed.

But not all CSS property names are that friendly. In this post, I’ll describe 10 properties that can be quite useful but have little or no support in Internet Explorer.

(NOTE: This list does not take into consideration IE8, which I have not yet used or studied for its capabilities.)

10 Cross-Browser CSS Properties You’ve Probably Forgotten

By Louis Lazaris / May 3, 2009 / 20 Comments

Humans are creatures of habit, and web developers are naturally no different. We develop certain techniques that work, and we stick with them — because, well, they work. But once in a while it’s good to refresh our minds and recall some aspects of development that we’ve probably forgotten. In this article I’ll go through 10 CSS properties that accomplish very specific, practical tasks, that are often overlooked.

JavaScript-Powered HTML Table Code Generator

By Louis Lazaris / April 13, 2009 / 14 Comments

Recently I searched Google to try to find an HTML table code generator that would let me easily create an HTML table quickly and efficiently, similar to how Dreamweaver does it — but with more customization options that are in line with the the latest in web standards and best practices. I also wanted to be able to enter my data right inside the code generator itself, and not have to copy the code with empty cells, then tediously cut and paste all the data into the individual cells. I found a few options that were reasonably good, but I decided instead to build my own HTML table code generator using pure, (sort of) unobtrusive JavaScript. The entire table and data insertion would take place on the client side and be fully customizable and easy to use.

Well, after about 5 or 6 hours of blood sweat and tears (not really, it was fun), I’ve completed what I feel is one of the most efficient and useful table code generators available on the web. I know what you’re thinking: tables aren’t used very often these days by top web developers, and all HTML editors provide good support for table code generation. But the customization I’ve added and the ease with which the data can be inserted I think is worth giving it a try.

Why IE6 is the Greatest Browser Ever Made

By Louis Lazaris / September 8, 2008 / 18 Comments

How would you react if I told you that I had released a piece of software on August 27, 2001 that was deemed (at the time) to be of high standards and quality by its users and reviewers, and that, although it is unstable and buggy by today’s standards, currently holds a 25% market share […]

Equal Columns with CSS

By Louis Lazaris / August 7, 2008 / 4 Comments

In a previous article I described (in principle) a method using JavaScript to get equal columns in a two-column layout. Of course, that’s not always the most elegant solution. Another solution, which is much easier to implement is completely CSS based. I’ll describe briefly how this is done and what possible effects it could have on your site’s layout and code. Here is the demo page, if you want to jump ahead.

Cleaner HTML by Avoiding ‘Attributitis’

By Louis Lazaris / July 25, 2008 / 1 Comment

Did I just invent that word? Most developers using CSS layouts have likely heard of “divitis” (using far too many DIVs in your markup). But what about “attributitis” (or, Attribute-itis, if you will) — the distant cousin of divitis? I didn’t bother googling that word to see if anyone else has used it; I’m hoping I’ve coined it! I thought of it this morning while helping a coworker debug a CSS problem. It struck me that the class and ID attributes that are commonly added to HTML tags can really get out of hand if they aren’t controlled properly. Let’s discuss a few points that will ensure cleaner code and better future development time through the practice of avoiding attributitis.

SEO Rules vs. SEO Concepts

By Louis Lazaris / July 18, 2008 / 1 Comment

Often times, web development blog posts recite easy to understand, step-by-step instructions on how to optimize XHTML code for SEO. Generally, I think this is good. The fact is, web users have low attention spans, and usually the best way to get a message across is to state it simply in point form. But in order for developers and internet marketers to enhance their abilities over the long haul, more is necessary, as we’ll discuss. With this article I’ll show how online writers and readers alike can become part of a long-term commitment to making the web a better place to surf.

5 Tips for Better CSS Files

By Louis Lazaris / July 3, 2008 / 1 Comment

While working on medium to fairly large websites, I’ve recently found it helpful to apply certain coding practices in my CSS files to help readability, and to ensure that any future developers (including me) will have little difficulty editing the CSS code. Since my main CSS files nowadays often end up being anywhere from 1000 to 2000 lines long, here are some quick tips that I think help CSS code to be more readable and web developer-friendly.