maxdesign articles and presentations
Articles and presentation on aspects of CSS, accessiblity and web standards. Topics include CSS page layout tutorials, CSS layout samples, liquid layouts, styling lists, definition lists, centering with CSS, source order, skip links, web standards checklists, web standards workshops and "Ten Question" interviews.
Internet Explorer and column collapse
23-Mar-07 - Russ Weakley - Article
So, you have built a beautiful CSS layout. Suddenly, in Internet Explorer, columns are now wider. In some cases the entire layout breaks and the column drops below the rest of the content.
Inline elements and padding
19-Nov-06 - Russ Weakley - Article
Have you ever tried to add padding to <li> elements that have been set to "display: inline"? Did you find that the padding seemed to be rendering in an unusual way?
Styling abbreviations and acronyms
25-Jul-06 - Russ Weakley - Article
Discusses types of abbreviations, abbreviations, initialisms, contractions and acronyms. also discusses confusion between elements and attributes and how to style the various options.
- Ten questions for David Storey - 21-Jul-05
- Ten questions for Laura Carlson - 15-Jul-05
- Ten questions for Gian Sampson Wild - 5-Jul-05
Let go and allow users to control their own experience
26-May-06 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
Slides from a presentation at Webstock 2006. Also available in mpg format and mp3 format
Simple, accessible external links
11-Dec-05 - Russ Weakley - Article
Is there a way to add descriptive text to all external links and then replace this text with a small icon for CSS supporting browsers?
Page Source Order & Accessibility
11-Dec-05 - Roger Hodson and Russ Weakley - Presentation
Presentation at OzeWAI 2005 - Is source order important for screen reader users?
Replicating a Tree table
1-Oct-05 - Russ Weakley - Article
Demonstrates how to replicate a graphic table tree using HTML.
Liquid layouts using CSS - the joy, the pain, the tears
30-Sep-05 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
A presentation on liquid layouts for Web Essentials 05.
Simple, accessible "more" links
28-Jul-05 - Russ Weakley - Article
"More" links are not very informative for screen reader users - but CSS can be used to solve the problem.
Open Publish - From tables to full CSS
27-Jul-05 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
Slides from Open Publish workshop.
Accessible Data Tables
30-Jun-05 - Roger Hudson and Russ Weakley - Article
An article that explains how the accessibility of data tables can be improved.
Creating a graph using percentage background images
27-Jun-05 - Russ Weakley - Article
A quick graph example using a list and percentage background images.
Building a page template - a step by step tutorial
2-Jun-05 - Russ Weakley - Tutorial
A quick step-by-step demonstration of how the Web Essentials template was built using CSS. A presentation to students of Blue Mountains College of TAFE.
A basic Web Standards workshop
22-Mar-05 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
Notes from a step by step workshop covering standards, XHTML, semantic markup, accessibility, CSS, floats and bugs.
- Ten questions for Russ Weakley - 4-Jun-05
- Ten questions for Derek Featherstone - 23-May-05
- Ten questions for Joe Clark - 12-May-05
- Ten questions for Jason Santa Maria - 6-May-05
- Ten questions for Tommy Olsson - 26-Apr-05
Developing sites for users with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties
30-Jan-05 - Roger Hudson, Russ Weakley and Peter Firminger - Article
Practical suggestions on how to develop websites that are inclusive for people with cognitive impairments and learning difficulties.
An Accessibility Frontier: Cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties
30-Jan-05 - Roger Hudson, Russ Weakley and Peter Firminger - Article
Some ideas on how websites might more effectively meet the needs of people with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties. From a paper presented at OzeWAI2004.
Remote control CSS
1-Dec-04 - Russ Weakley - Article
Are styled lists better than Flash or Javascript for menu's?
A quick and dirty introduction to accessibility
25-Oct-04 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
Presentation to the Web Standards Group, Melbourne
Changing page appearance using body id
14-Oct-04 - Russ Weakley - Article
How can you change the appearance of individual pages without changing the code structure on each page?
- Ten questions for Cameron Adams - 22-Nov-04
- Ten questions for Roger Johansson - 15-Nov-04
- Ten questions for John Allsopp - 8-Nov-04
- Ten questions for Jon Hicks - 19-Sep-04
- Ten questions for John Gallant - 13-Sep-04
A web standards checklist
13-Aug-04 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
A guide that can be used to show the breadth of web standards or as a handy tool for developers during the production phase of websites.
- Ten questions for Richard Rutter - 1-Jul-04
- Ten questions for Molly Holzschlag - 22-Jun-04
- Ten questions for Dan Cederholm - 7-Jun-04
- Ten questions for Simon Willison - 25-May-04
- Ten questions for Patrick Griffiths - 25-May-04
- Ten questions for Andy Budd - 18-May-04
- Ten questions for Nick Finck - 11-May-04
- Ten questions for Anne van Kesteren - 04-May-04
- Ten questions for Keith Robinson - 27-Apr-04
- Ten questions for Eric Meyer - 21-Apr-04
The benefits of Web Standards to your visitors, your clients and you!
23-Feb-04 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
Presentation to the Web Standards Group, Macromedia User Group and Cold Fusion User Group - MXDU2004: Day Zero.
Definition lists - misused or misunderstood?
27-Jan-04 - Russ Weakley - Article
What are definition lists? When are they appropriate? And how to style them to look like tables, image galleries, calendar of events and more.
Colored boxes - one method of building full CSS layouts
13-Jan-04 - Russ Weakley - Tutorial
How do you go about building a full CSS layout? Is there an overall method that can be used for any layout?
Floating items inside containers
06-Jan-04 - Russ Weakley - Article
Simple explanation of how floats work inside a container.
Liquid layouts - the easy way
30-Dec-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
Explains one method of achieving a successful liquid layout as well as providing basic definitions of liquid, fixed-width and em-driven layouts.
Two columns with color
10-Dec-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
How do you make a two column CSS layout with color in either column that spreads to the full height of the page?
Selectutorial - CSS selectors
1-Dec-03 - Russ Weakley - Tutorial
Find out about selectors including the structure of rules, the document tree and types of selectors. Also a step-by-step tutorial showing selectors in action.
CSS Centering - fun for all!
8-Nov-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
How do you center a container on a page using CSS?
Float like a butterfly
23-Oct-03 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
A presentation on the basics of the float property, for Sydney Web Standards Group meeting.
Floatutorial - a step by step tutorial on CSS layouts
14-Oct-03 - Russ Weakley - Tutorial
Floatutorial takes you through the basics of floating elements such as images, drop caps, next and back buttons, image galleries, inline lists and multi-column layouts.
Body padding and margin
2-Oct-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
A simple explanation of the ways that browsers render body margin and padding.
List inheritance and Descendant Selectors
28-Sep-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
This is a simple step-by-step demonstration to show how inheritance affects nested list items.
Listamatic2 - nested lists
24-Sep-03 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
You asked for them... Listamatic2, a range of nested lists. You can also submit one of your own.
Listutorial - a step by step CSS list tutorial
13-Sep-03 - Russ Weakley - Tutorial
Listutorial takes you through the basics of building CSS lists with "background images for bullets" and "simple rollovers" with a few variations along the way.
Listamatic - one list, many options
05-Sep-03 - Russ Weakley - Presentation
Can you take a simple list and use different Cascading Style Sheets to create radically different list options? The Listamatic shows the power of CSS when applied to one simple list.
Taming the "Taming List" model
05-Sep-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
I have been using the "Taming List" model for navigation lists for a while, but have noticed some rendering inconsistencies.
Headings as images - the Lindsay method
01-Aug-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
So, you want to use images for your headings? It gives you greater control over typefaces, positioning and style.
Ideal line length for content
03-May-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
I'd like to design a site that uses optimal line lengths. I also want the line length to stay within the optimal range no matter what default font size the user has set in their browser. Is it possible?
Validating Australian Museum Online
15-Feb-03 - Russ Weakley - Article
How do you go about validating approximately 10,000 pages? The Australian Museum web team decided it was possible, and worthwhile.
Styling and font family names that contain whitespace
25-Nov-02 - Russ Weakley - Article
How do you style your font family names that contain whitespace? To quote or not to quote?
Styling the <hr> element
23-Nov-02 - Russ Weakley - Article
The <hr> element is self-closing, which means that there is no end tag. It causes a horizontal rule to be displayed by browsers.
CSS page layouts
01-Nov-02 - Russ Weakley - Article
Here is a wide range of sample CSS page layouts - no tables. Everything from single column centred layouts to the dreaded three column monsters.
