Css Layouts Vs. Table Layouts: Which One Is Better?

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sanjay kumar Said:

A debate arises on which is better to use in web designing. One side seems to prefer table layouts because of its browser compatibility and quicker web lay outs. On the other side some still think that using tables for layouts doesn’t conform to the standards set by the web as well as its accessibility. To shed light on these matters let us take a look how it all started with HTML and layouts.

In the past years, protagonist of HTML never saw the use of tables to manage the web pages’ visual format. The table in itself was only used to show data with columns and rows. There was no device in place that the table could attend in a more advance layout setting, but some creative web designers figured out a way to utilize tables in making different layouts.

From then on, web designers exploited the HTML language when needed. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) began the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in the late 1990’s. The CSS language made it possible to add styles on HTML documents. Browsers also adapted to CSS, and as a result, web designers applied CSS to improve the styles, font type, colors and background images, among others. But such fad in the use of CSS for layouts (particularly columns) did not peaked until the later period.

As the debate continues, it was seen that a new standard code is needed for website. This standard will address the web ease of access for text-readers, bots and mobile devices to name a few. The standard deals with XHTML which provides a sound structure for the content and the CSS which is used to manage different visual layout and design.

Listed are some causes why it is better to use CSS in HTML layouts than tables:

* It conforms to the standard set by W3C

* Current browsers are already integrated with CSS for layout controls ( in some cases Internet Explorer necessitates CSS hacks)

* CSS, when used properly, offers ease in making global revisions in a layout.

* Correct use XTHML documents for content and CSS for style and layout, provides website access for persons with disabilities

* XTHML and CSS when used offers lesser codes

Some web designer’s still finds table useful because they have been contented with it, for them it is still simple and manageable to use. Tables may be convenient to use in some instances. Creation of an Internet Explorer can be a tough job because it does not conform to web standards, but CSS can still find its way through it if done correctly. Thus, web designers are encouraged to reduce the use of tables in their layouts.

* CSS vs. Table based layouts: little reward

* Quicker loading of pages

* Hosting is cost efficient

* Efficiency in restructuring

* Good for Search Engine Optimization

* Convenience

* Faster website revision

* Usability

* Availability of multifaceted layouts and design

Web Design Bangalore is one of the leading companies in the field of web design and development based in Bangalore, India. Visit www.WebDesign-Bangalore.com for web design and development, search engine optimization and internet marketing services.

Web Design November 29th 2009

Web Design Atlanta Has Provided Web Design Services in Atlanta

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john Said:

of Atlanta Georgia has been experiencing accelerated economic growth in recent years. Currently, the city is home to numerous software companies and hundreds of other companies, which make the city the business hub of the State of Georgia.

NRM creative marketing is an Atlantean company specializing in web design. We design websites using state-of-the-art technology. The use of web design and HTML are what is needed to create a good website. You can discover what good design templates are all about when you view bad web pages. Websites that force their customers work hard to read the information on them are not going to do a lot of business.

Tiny typefaces, content printed in colors which blend into the background, and overlapping lines are all problems which are eminently solvable. Web designer much like any other artists, can find they are suddenly lacking in inspiration. However, there are techniques for dealing with that and completing the project at hand. The internet can provide you with a wealth of web design tutorials.

Think about your intended viewers. Even if they are a group of adolescent girls searching for new shoes, it’s never a good idea to use minute type. It doesn’t have to be huge, but up to a point, larger type is better. Modify the style sheet and your entire site is rationalized. It makes life a lot simpler.

Regardless of how fine your writing is your readers won’t want to pore over endless pages of it. It will be much more readable if you insert summarizing headlines before some of the paragraphs, and your audience will be able to locate the parts they particularly want to read. Another alternative is to use bullet points or lists with preceding numerals to vary the pace and flow.

As a reputed web design firm we offer numerous web services inclusive of website design, web page design etc. NRM creative marketing is a foremost web design company, offering world class web designing services at most competitive prices.

The NRM creative marketing offered empower individuals, teams and organizations in most efficient manner possible. We provide a full range of services, including flash development, print design and online marketing and we are certain to be able to produce the innovative designs to satisfy your needs.

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Web Design November 28th 2009

Advantages of using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – Good for Search Engines

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vspwebdesign Said:

Before using CSS it’s really important to have a better understanding about CSS, based on the advantages mentioned below:

Cascading Style Sheets helps to reduce overall amount of coding on your web page, by removing HTML pages and including them into a style sheet,  (.css file).

This sort of page layout helps in building a web page with smaller file sizes having less code and more flexibility that facilitates easy crawl for search engines.

Search Engines prefer pages with less file size, though it’s not specified by search engines but logically analyzing it really makes easy access to crawl the pages that is always advantageous.

CSS also helps to hide the content from browser, for eg. You may have some content that needs to appear on the print rather than show up on the web browser or vice versa. This is where CSS helps you to make that difference.

From Search engine vies, they still crawl and index all of the content and so you need not have to compromise on the advantages the content brings.

So before beginning, try to understand CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and have a perfect idea to build your web page that is more effective for search engine crawl.

Well structured pages are always rewarded by search engines,  by using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) designers can create search engine friendly pages with our compromising in on the look and feel features.

Search Engines prefer pages with less file size, though it’s not specified by search engines but logically analyzing it really makes easy access to crawl the pages that is always advantageous.

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Web Design November 27th 2009

Website Design – Online Tutorials

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Sullivan Pau Said:

To create an eye catching website that draws attention of a visitor is not something every designer on the street can do. A great web designer needs to be well conversant with all web technologies involved. This art involves a lot of research, learning and practice to perfect just like in any other profession.

There however exist lots of books, websites and web forums that claim to offer all this information but only a few have what it takes to comprehensively cover the topic of web design into its depth. With limited or no time to go through all these resources, a one stop shop where one can get information on web design tutorials would be a better choice for many web programmers.

There are plenty of online sites aimed at providing web design tutorials and web design software reviews. The busy web developer do not have the time to surf through each of these sites to find the information they are seeking. The best choice is a one stop shop for every bit of information the online designer needs.

A good online tutorial should have relevant information on web design and technologies with new topics and articles being added and updated from time to time. A site with outdated content is likely to add no value to a web designer who is eager to learn new tricks in his trade.

An online web design tutorial should cater for both new inexperienced learners to advanced designers who want to delve in to the depth of new web development technologies. A web design that tries meeting this basic requirement is worth your time.

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Web Design November 27th 2009

Six Tips Steps To Choosing A Web Design Company

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Jasneen Said:

I am going to assume that you are like most people I know in business (and life!) and are therefore faced with the challenge of making the right decisions, relatively quickly, and in an informed manner. When it comes to choosing a web design company to design or re-design your website, you might not have time for lots of meetings, but in an ideal world you should probably try to meet with two or three different web design companies. Use the six steps below to guide you in making an informed decision that is right for your business:

1. Make a shortlist of web design companies with potential

2. Spend some time looking at their portfolios

3. Meet them and see if you like them

4. Make sure they understand business (not just how to build a website)

5. Do they understand how to target customers?

6. Make your final assessment of their proposal and costs

1. Make a shortlist of web design companies with potential.

We suggest you first ask around for recommendations, (fire off a quick email to all your contacts!) and Yell.com for web design companies within your area. fore visit to:-www.thedesignbuild.comThink about how far are you prepared to travel if you want to go to their office for a meeting. (NB. A couple of our clients take a 3 hour round trip – but they say it’s worth it to be working with us!) When searching on Google, you might try searching for “web design company Surrey” or try to narrow your search with adjectives that are important to you, i.e. “beautiful web design Surrey” or “florist web design Guildford”. In any case, you will have many to choose from, so you may have to simply go through the results one-by-one, until you have two or three that look like they could be the right web design company for you. How do you do this?

2. Spend some time looking at their portfolios.

Any web design company worth dealing with should have on their own website, a well-presented portfolio of their clients’ websites. Spend some time browsing through these. Ask yourself if you find those websites appealing, easy to navigate and that they guide you to important information easily. Is there good use of colour, fonts, images etc? Do you think they have done a good job for their previous/existing clients, and have they worked for any clients in a similar market to you?

Once you have a shortlist based on the best portfolios, choosing the right web design company for your business can be approached swiftly and intelligently using these key points to guide you:

3. Meet them and see if you like them!

We have more than one client who came to us after bad experiences with their previous web design company, bringing me swiftly on to a very important point: Don’t work with someone you have never met. Some web designers work by communicating only by email. It just doesn’t work. Establishing a good face-to-face rapport, which can be continued by telephone (and email as well of course!), is essential to building a productive and enjoyable business relationship. You need to have good, open, honest communication with your web design company so that you get exactly what you want, and maybe even have some fun along the way.

4. Make sure they understand business (not just how to build a website)

Modern, successful web design, (be it by one person or a big agency), will encompass the following three disciplines: 1. Business, 2. Creative and 3. Technical expertise. These are the Magic 3 – look out for them! You need to be able to talk business with your web design company, and for them to understand and make suggestions based on their experience. Their graphic design and technical ability should be clearly visible on their portfolio – you need to make sure all three boxes are ticked.

5. Do they understand how to target customers?

Although some web design companies specialise in designing for certain types of business, you will probably benefit from working with a company whose client-base is varied. Their experience working with such differing briefs and target audiences can bring a lot to the table (I’m talking clever ideas here – not a plate of biscuits).

6. Make your final assessment of their proposal and costs

Having met with the web design companies you should already have a good idea who is going to deliver what you need and be good to work with, but there is a last stage in this process. Following your meeting, you will receive the written proposal (a final chance to be sure that this company understands your needs and is able to meet them), along with a quote. The quote should be detailed (for example, more visit to:-www.my-early-days-on-the-net.com

 so you can clearly see how much time is allocated to the design, and coding the site). How to make the final decision? If you can afford it, simply go with the web design company that best meets your needs (based on all of the suggestions in this blog post).

In these uncertain times, where the internet is becoming more important than ever for purchasing decisions, your business needs to be represented by an attractive, usable, informative website that appeals to your target audience. So why not get started today? Or you could put it off ’til later – you have nothing to lose but customers…!

Web Design November 26th 2009

Get Info On Web Design Artist And Drawing Lesson

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Risi Said:

Web design combines traditional arts with technical skills. A Web site is a collection of Web pages that are linked with each other to form one single body of information. A Web site can offer information about the object that it aims to describe using text, graphics, and audio or maybe in some cases video. Basically web site content can be almost anything. It all depends on the developer’s creativity and design. Anyone can start a website, but, can anyone design a website? Obviously not, it is the only work of the web designer or web design artist.

The web designer works with images and words to create the perfect web layout. To create unique websites, the kind of websites that really add value to the World Wide Web, skilled web designers use various tools. Web designers uses beautiful pictures and graphics or create fabulous images using programs such as Photoshop, Coral Draw, Illustrator, Basic Paint, Photo Impact and so on. They also design dramatic layouts by using 3D software or Flash which may take the visitors into another world. Business and informational websites must me pointed on the proper subject and it should not be artistic, they need to inspire.

Corporate websites need clear designs, simple layouts so that any visitor could access the information fast and understand the purpose of the website. Website should convey proper and original information and also develop brand awareness in a positive manner. A good website can sell a service or products, but this doesn’t mean that its appearance should fade. Web design artist has full power to rework on the site and also can modify images by day to day basis to attract the visitors for their sites. Good realistic designs could add a lot of glamour and attraction to your website. They create sort of natural beauty.

Drawing provides the basis for other creative activities – like painting, sculpture and printmaking – but it also provides a direct link with reading, writing and especially mathematics. The connection between drawing and geometric shapes and measurements simply cannot be denied. The basic function of drawing is to make marks onto a surface to communicate ideas and information. When you see specialized techniques for preparing good drawing, what comes to mind first? Most people think that it’s a god’s gift filled with skills. However, it is not necessary that you need to be born with the ability to draw or paint. Like any other means of communication, drawing is a skill that almost anybody can learn. It is very easy to be drawn. You can use a variety of tools to begin learning to draw, such as the lead pencil, charcoal, color pencils, wax crayons, pen and ink, and these days even digitally. Once you learn the basics, you can use creativity by going on to experiment with variety of styles like cartooning, sketching, caricature, illustration, and also abstract and representational rendering.

There are few steps you can follow to begin your drawing lesson:

Observation:- Observation is an important factor of the technique of drawing. Unless you learn how to see, it will be difficult for you to draw the objects around you successfully.

The Lines:- Once you learn to see the various shapes of objects, start by learning to draw lines, which are any drawing’s basic building blocks. Lines can either be rendered visually or just implied by using spaces. There are three basic types of lines that you will use to render any object, these are – the straight line, the curved line, or angled lines.

Perspective Right :- Perspective, as far as drawing is concerned, is about using the rules of geometry to represent objects on paper as they appear in reality, which is that they seem to become smaller and bunch together the further they are from your observation point.

The Right Shade:- Shading is the key to making the objects you draw appear 3-dimensional. Before you begin shading, you need to determine where the source of light is in your drawing. For example, if the source of light is on the left of the object, the right side will get the darkest shading, while the left will get the lightest.

A Shadow:- The final step of giving form to your 3-dimensional object is to add a shadow. Whenever there is a source of light falling on an object, it creates the shadow of the object on the opposite side.

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Web Design November 26th 2009

Designing Using Css, Cascading Style Sheet Website Designs

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Jeff Smith Said:

Many website development companies, in earlier times used simple HTML to design websites. However, when certain design needed to be changed, it became very tedious to carry out those changes across all the pages of the website. Cascading Style Sheets, also popularly known as CSS, solved this tiresome task of making changes to every web page or the HTML document

Website development companies started using CSS to make their work easy of formatting the HTML document. Before CSS was introduced HTML tags were used to characterize fonts, tables, headers, paragraphs, and so on. The browser would then read these tags and present a formatted HTML page to the user. Tags for various formatting structures were embedded within the HTML and the content of the website. With more HTML tags getting introduced it became a little difficult for the website development company to manage the content and the presentation of the website. Introduction of cascading style sheets made it possible to separate content from the style of the website. One of the significant advantages of CSS was that it allowed the developers to organize the formatting and content of more than one page at one time

CSS has been evolving for quite some time now and web development companies have been adapting to the latest versions. After scaling out CSS1 and CSS2 versions, CSS3 is currently being developed and is being modularized. There are various ways in which the CSS can be sourced for the HTML page in the browser.

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Web Design November 25th 2009

How to enhance the speed of your website

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Shilpa Singh (Wilson) Said:

A website must be simple in navigation and structure, pleasant, functional, have a good page rank, but most of all, it should be fast. A fast website is the key to increase the user experience and this brings you returning and happy visitors to your website. By following the following simple tricks we can optimize your website for speed with almost no cost at all. 

Optimize the images in your website 

It is well known fact that loading time of any website directly affects the user’s response to a website; viewers hate to wait for long to get the website to be fully loaded.

Images play a vital role on the loading of a website so it’s very important to take optimal size of the image in order to load the webpage faster. Photoshop and similar image editing software include a feature called “Save for the web”. Always use this feature since it will reduce the image size and load time substantially.

Image formats

In order to optimize the images it is very important to choose the right format. There are different formats based on the type and size of the image, which can be used effectively by following these rules:

JPEG: Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This format was created for photographs and fine art-work. You should use JPEG images whenever you are displaying a photo or a true-color image. Use a 50% compression rate for optimal results with these images.

GIF: Stands for Graphics Interchange Format. The GIF is most favorable format for internet, mainly because of its small size. GIF is also used for animated images. JPEG images support millions of colors while GIF ones will integrate a maximum of 256 colors. You should use this format for flat-color images like logos, buttons or text images.

PNG: Stands for Portable Network Graphics. This format was specifically made to replace GIF images on the internet. The main advantage of PNG images over GIF ones is that they support 24-bit colors and alpha transparency. That said not all the browsers recognize some of its features. You should use the PNG format for simple images that require more than 256 colors.

Use the height and width tags

When you use images or tables on your pages you should always include the height and width tags. If the browser does not see those tags it will need to figure the size of the image, then load the image and then load the rest of the page. Here is an example of code containing those tags:

When the height and width tags are included the browser will automatically know the size of the image. As a consequence it will be able to hold a place for the image and load the rest of the page contemporaneously. Apart from the improvement on the load time of the page this method is also more user friendly since the visitor can start reading the text or other information while the image is being downloaded.

Don’t scale images in HTML

Don’t use a bigger image than you need just because you can set the width and height in HTML. If you need

banner

then your image (banner.jpg) should be 100×100px rather than a scaled down 500×500px image.

Reduce cookie size

HTTP cookies are used for a variety of reasons such as authentication and personalization. Information about cookies is exchanged in the HTTP headers between web servers and browsers. It’s important to

Keep the size of cookies as low as possible to minimize the impact on the user’s response time. Eliminate unnecessary cookies Be mindful of setting cookies at the appropriate domain level so other sub-domains are not affected Set an Expires date appropriately. An earlier Expires date or none removes the cookie sooner, improving the user response time.

Flush the Buffer early

When users request a page, it can take anywhere from 200 to 500ms for the backend server to stitch together the HTML page. During this time, the browser is idle as it waits for the data to arrive. In PHP you have the function flush(). It allows you to send your partially ready HTML response to the browser so that the browser can start fetching components while your backend is busy with the rest of the HTML page. The benefit is mainly seen on busy backends or light frontends.

A good place to consider flushing is right after the HEAD because the HTML for the head is usually easier to produce and it allows you to include any CSS and JavaScript files for the browser to start fetching in parallel while the backend is still processing.

Remove duplicate java scripts

Duplicate scripts hurt performance by creating unnecessary HTTP requests and wasted JavaScript execution.

In addition to generating wasteful HTTP requests, time is wasted evaluating the script multiple times.

One way to avoid accidentally including the same script twice is to implement a script management module in your templating system. The typical way to include a script is to use the SCRIPT tag in your HTML page.

     

An alternative in PHP would be to create a function called insertScript.

     

In addition to preventing the same script from being inserted multiple times, this function could handle other issues with scripts, such as dependency checking and adding version numbers to script filenames to support far future Expires headers

Put Stylesheets at the Top

Moving stylesheets to the document HEAD makes pages appear to be loading faster. This is because putting stylesheets in the HEAD allows the page to render progressively.

This is especially important for pages with a lot of content and for users on slower Internet connections. The importance of giving users visual feedback, such as progress indicators, has been well researched and documented. In our case the HTML page is the progress indicator! When the browser loads the page progressively the header, the navigation bar, the logo at the top, etc. all serve as visual feedback for the user who is waiting for the page. This improves the overall user experience.

The problem with putting stylesheets near the bottom of the document is that it prohibits progressive rendering in many browsers, including Internet Explorer. These browsers block rendering to avoid having to redraw elements of the page if their styles change. The user is stuck viewing a blank white page.

Put Scripts at the Bottom

The problem caused by scripts is that they block parallel downloads. If you serve your images from multiple hostnames, you can get more than two downloads to occur in parallel. While a script is downloading, however, the browser won’t start any other downloads, even on different hostnames.

In some situations it’s not easy to move scripts to the bottom. If, for example, the script uses [removed] to insert part of the page’s content, it can’t be moved lower in the page. There might also be scoping issues. In many cases, there are ways to workaround these situations.

Flush the Buffer Early

When users request a page, it can take anywhere from 200 to 500ms for the backend server to stitch together the HTML page. During this time, the browser is idle as it waits for the data to arrive. In PHP you have the function flush(). It allows you to send your partially ready HTML response to the browser so that the browser can start fetching components while your backend is busy with the rest of the HTML page. The benefit is mainly seen on busy backends or light frontends.

A good place to consider flushing is right after the HEAD because the HTML for the head is usually easier to produce and it allows you to include any CSS and JavaScript files for the browser to start fetching in parallel while the backend is still processing.

Example:

      …  

  

   

    

Make favicon.ico small and cacheable

The favicon.ico is an image that stays in the root of your server. It’s a necessary evil the browser will always request it, even if you don’t care about it, so make sure that this  file is always present in the server. This image also interferes with the download sequence, so if you are using a favicon in your website make sure that it’s small, preferably under 1K.

Optimizing CSS

Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) make websites much more structured because they allow the browsers to cache style-related information from the .css file directly, eliminating the need to read that information every time a single page is loaded. Even if Style Sheets are naturally more efficient than HTML tables you can still optimize the CSS code to make your website cleaner and faster. Remove whitespaces as and when possible. Avoid repetition of the code wherever possible to make your style-sheets lighter. Use Shorthand Properties, Take Advantage of Your Inheritance, Use Grouping, Cut the Comments, Apply Styles Wisely.

Use a slash to display a directory

When a server opens a link in the form of “http://www.himshilp.com/seo-articles” it will need to figure what kind of file or webpage is contained on that address, wasting time on the process. If instead of using that link you include a slash (”/”) at the end like “http://www.himshilp.com/seo-articles/” the web server will already know that the link points to a directory, reducing the time to load the page.

Reduce the HTTP Requests

When a user is opening your website every object on the page (e.g. images or scripts) will require a visit to the server. Those HTTP requests will delay the response time of your site, and if you are loading number of objects this delay can add up to several seconds.

By reducing the number of objects on your website, we can reduce the delay from HTTP requests. Delete unnecessary images, headers, styling features and the like. If possible you can also combine 2 or more adjacent images into a single one.

Secondly make sure that your requests for external files or scripts are combined in a single location.

Add an Expires or a Cache-Control Header

We should refer the following as a rule:

For static components: implement “Never expire” policy by setting far future Expires header. For dynamic components: use an appropriate Cache-Control header to help the browser with conditional requests .

Web page designs are getting richer and richer, which means more scripts, stylesheets, images, and Flash in the page. A first-time visitor to your page may have to make several HTTP requests, but by using the Expires header you make those components cacheable. This avoids unnecessary HTTP requests on subsequent page views. Expires headers are most often used with images, but they should be used on all components including scripts, stylesheets, and Flash components.

 

Avoid too many banner ads

Don’t waste your valuable website real estate on flashing banner ads, as they are most of the time ignored by the visitors, and they make your webpage heavy to be loaded. Provide more valuable content instead. Then mix in some relevant affiliate links within your website’s body content, this helps your website visitors feel that they want to buy instead of feeling like they are being pushed into buying.

Avoid background music

If you really want your visitors to remain long on your web site, reading your content, the very least you should do is ensure that they aren’t put off by annoying background music looping on your website. Not only this type of music will bother the visitor but delay your webpage’s loading time. If you really feel you must use background music at least make sure visitors have some control over it – give them the option of volume or muting controls at the very least.

Minify Javascript and CSS

Minification is the practice of removing unnecessary characters from code to reduce its size thereby improving load times. When code is minified all comments are removed, as well as unneeded white space characters (space, newline, and tab). In the case of JavaScript, this improves response time performance because the size of the downloaded file is reduced. Two popular tools for minifying JavaScript code are JSMin and YUI Compressor. The YUI compressor can also minify CSS.

Obfuscation is an alternative optimization that can be applied to source code. It’s more complex than minification and thus more likely to generate bugs as a result of the obfuscation step itself.

Avoid redirects

Redirects slow down the user experience. Inserting a redirect between the user and the HTML document delays everything in the page since nothing in the page can be rendered and no components can start being downloaded until the HTML document has arrived.

Webserver Log Analysis:

The logs that your webserver keep are an open book to teach where and when errors occur. The most important part in the logs are the 404 and 500 errors that represent a missing page. It means that a visitor or a web crawler requested that page and it’s missing. This again does not have so much of an effect when it comes to speed but it’s a good idea to try and repair the bottlenecks at least for the sake of user experience. Almost any web hosting provider offer a log analizer such as awstats

Surely there can be many other methods also like avoid using flash as much as possible because, usually, flash loads harder due to their sizes. Remove the HTML comments from your pages, because comments can slow your website down. Big or small, comments have something to say when it comes to page size. Actually you should remove everything from your website which you don’t really require. Avoid nested tables, it effects browser’s reading time. Avoid full page tables for fast rendering. The browser won’t show anything until it’s read the whole thing that way. For a faster loading webpage, either use multiple tables (not nested) or put some content above the main table to make your content in the first table show up faster. In this way you can provide something to read to your visitors while the rest of your page loads.

I think by reading this article you must have got a nice idea of restructuring your website in a way so that it takes less time to get displayed and in turn it will also increase the traffic to your website, which is truly essential in today’s age.

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Web Design November 24th 2009

How To Get The Most Out Of PSD-to-HTML Slicing Services

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Natalia Savchenko Said:

In web development projects when it comes to turn .psd, .ai, etc designs into xHTML/CSS code, a common option will be to use PSD-to-HTML slicing services. And a natural question raising here is: How to get the most out of them?

PSD-to-HTML services are quite easy to deal with: you send or upload image files on a provider website, select conversion and layout options, pay through an online payment system (PayPal, Google Checkout, etc), and get a resulting markup coded. But in order to make the most of it and avoid unnecessary troubles it is better to follow some simple rules.

Properly prepare designs for uploading

1. If you have several files to convert, archive them and give that archive an understandable name, for example, “AnnSmith23June2009.zip” (i.e. “YourNameDate.zip” or “ProjectNameDate.zip”). It can be convenient for you as well, especially in case you need to check your previous orders.

2. If there are files additional to your main .psd image (e.g., custom fonts), don’t forget to send or upload them too.

3. Make sure you send or upload right files. PSD-to-HTML services are very fast, and by the moment you notice the problem with your files your markup may be ready. As a result, it could cost you some money to correct a mistake.

Design slicing, xHTML/CSS conversion requirements

1. Try to explain as accurate as possible what you want to get. Usually an order form on PSD-to-HTML websites has special subsections and items to help you with this task.

2. Nevertheless, if your requirements cannot be described in this way or you don’t have time to use it, don’t hesitate to write down your requirements in a field named like “Notes” or use other communication channels convenient for you: live chat or email.

3. If you are confused with something (”Is that option included? What is the delivery time?” etc), ASK! Sometimes even friends and relatives see things differently. So it is better to ask and to be sure that you and your provider get everything right and in the same manner. 

Communication

1. DOUBLE check your email address which you mention in the order form.  

2. Make sure that your anti-spam filters and email servers are not too overzealous and allow the provider’s emails reach you.

3. It depends on the provider but usually they send you an order confirmation (as well as your login and password to access a client zone on their website). If you don’t receive such an email during several minutes, contact the provider through the order form or live chat — the reason may be a misprint in your email address.

4. Just in case give the provider’s team an alternative communication channel (mobile telephone number, instant messenger (Skype, MSN, ICQ), etc).

5. If time is crucial for you, specify the PSD-to-xHTML/CSS provider’s time zone.

If there are any doubts

1. If it is your first PSD-to-HTML project or you select a provider for long-term cooperation, start from a relatively small pilot project to test the waters.

2. Check the provider’s Returns Policy, e.g., whether they provide a money-back guarantee.

3. If it is important for you, don’t hesitate to ask for NDA (non-disclosure agreement).

4. Specify whether they offer after-sale support and what it means. If the provider is confident of their work, usually the technical support is free.

Change management

1. A small addition to .psd designs may lead to large modifications in xHTML/CSS code. If the process of PSD-to-HTML conversion is in progress or finished and you change your design, be objective while estimating changes to be made in the markup.

2. Small changes are usually free.

3. But if changes are large then it is like an additional page in your order and should be paid accordingly (note: usually prices on secondary pages are up to 50% discounted).

4. If you are not sure, talk to the provider — together you will find a reasonable and mutually beneficial solution faster.

Project completion

1. Check the finished xHTML/CSS markup how it corresponds to your design and conversion requirements. If there are some remarks or defects, ask the provider to fix them.

2. Change access rights to your servers (passwords, logins) if you gave it to the provider’s team.

3. If you think the provider has deserved your testimonial, give it. You will support a qualified and diligent PSD-to-xHTML/CSS provider in the market and help other users to get to know them.

PSD-to-HTML services are just a tool to slice and convert designs into website markups, Wordpress themes or Drupal templates. The better you know how to work with them the more you get.

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Web Design November 24th 2009

Way To An In-Demand Career Through Web Design Schools?

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RAMESH Said:

It’s no secret that the Web is where the work is. Anyone and everyone wants a Web site, and those with Web design degrees can make that happen. That’s because Web designers are the ones who determine and develop the look and feel for sites, and they’re responsible for site navigation design and visual execution. Ready to point and click your Learn

Before you upload your resume, realize that a bachelor’s degree is required for most entry-level and advanced design positions. fore visit to:- www.html-branders.com That’s where Web design schools come in.

The National Association of Schools of Art and Design accredits about 250 schools with programs in art and design. These accredited Web design degrees equip you with the design, e-commerce, scripting, and authoring skills necessary to advance in the field. You’ll learn how to develop cutting-edge Web sites that blend interactive media with consumer-targeted information. You’ll explore the nuts and bolts of Web page design using HTML scripting as well as page edit software, Web graphics and animation, video production for Web, and JavaScript. Web design colleges may also provide the opportunity to study the various site design models used in personal, commercial, and government Web sites, and to try your hand at designing your own Web pages and sites.

Once you’ve completed your Web design courses, the learning doesn’t end. You’ll need to keep your training up-to-date with certifications such as Certified Web Designer, Dreamweaver 8 Developer, Flash MX 2004 Designer, and ColdFusion MX 7 Developer, to name a few.

Yearn

Of course, all these Web design courses will be worth your while. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, graphic designers with Web site design and animation experience will especially be needed as demand for interactive media projects increase. Demand for graphic designers will also increase as advertising firms create Web marketing and promotional materials for more products and services. It’s no surprise, then, that those with design and animation experience from Web design schools will have the best job opportunities in the field.

Earn

Not only is the need great, the compensation isn’t too shabby, either. According to the 2006 AIGA/Aquent Survey of Design Salaries, the median total cash compensation for Web designers in 2006 was $48,000. Boston, for visit to:-www.killer-mini-site.com Washington/Baltimore, and Los Angeles reportedly paid the top salaries for Web designers, and educational institutions, design studios/consultancies, and Web development firms were the organization types topping the wage chart.

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Web Design November 24th 2009