Archived posts, August 2004
sIFR - Flash replacement
The latest technique for replacing HTML text with Flash.
Web development mistakes, redux
There have been a lot of comments on my recent post about common web development mistakes, and that’s great. Not…
Column swapping
A CSS technique for creating two columns with equal height.
CSS Directory
A collection of links to CSS resources.
Anti Standards
A closer look at some of the claims made in comments to my recent post about web development mistakes.
Standards resources for beginners
Dave Shea is looking for resources for people new to web standards.
Microsoft.com towards standards?
Is the new microsoft.com design a move towards web standards or not?
SEO the best way
Providing quality content is the key to good search engine rankings.
A bit of transparency
How to use transparent PNG images in modern browsers, and GIFs in others.
Web development mistakes
When I visit a website, especially if it’s the site of a competitor or a prospective client, I like viewing…
Why your client cares about web standards
How to explain web standards to clients in a language they understand.
A good about page
Things to consider when making an about page for a website.
This page should be banned
Information that should have been left in the 20th century.
Text-only versions
Not the best way of making a website accessible.
When newer is not better
Redesigns don’t necessarily make a site better or more useful.
Web sites agree to be accessible
Online travel services make their sites accessible.
Browse Happy
Why many have stopped using Internet Explorer. You should, too.
HTML - not so simple
Note: This is a repost of something I first published in December 2003. Since this site gets a lot more…
Quick guide to XHTML
The HTML or XHTML debate continues.
Sveriges bästa webbplatser inte så bra
Note: this article is in Swedish. An English translation will be available later. Tidigare i år publicerade svenska Internetworld Sveriges…
Netscape 7.2
Just released: Netscape 7.2, based on Mozilla 1.7.
Real world web design
Some thoughts on what characterises quality web design in the real world.
Web standards makeovers
Accessible, web standards based makeovers of inaccessible sites.
Client guide to web standards
A client-friendly explanation of the benefits of web standards.
Screenreader visibility
CSS techniques for hiding elements from graphical browsers, but not from screen readers.
Boosting your search ranking: it’s no trick
Make a good website, and your search rankings will improve.
This Year’s Document Object Model
Use unobtrusive, DOM-based JavaScript to add behaviour to well-structured markup.
8 Quick Ways to Fix Your Search Engine
Make your site’s search engine more usable.
A Web Design Horror Story
A site based on Web Standards gets butchered by clueless web designers.
Punctuation details
Some typographical details that are often overlooked on the web.
Search engine spam techniques
A look at recent techniques for spamming search engines.
The future of accesskeys
XHTML 2.0 replaces the accesskey attribute with the access attribute.
Sizing monospaced fonts
Something that’s been bothering me for a while is how difficult it seems to be to make text set in…
About screen reader users
Three useful things learned from observing screen reader users.
XHTML media type test
Check which media types different browsers recognise.
CSS 101
A CSS tutorial for beginners and intermediates.
How to be creative
Some tips on how to be creative in whatever it is you do.
A Matter of Styles
How to produce and maintain quality CSS when working in a team.
Learning CSS
Recommendations on articles, tutorials and books for learning about CSS and Web standards.
CSS optimizer
An online tool for optimising style sheets.
The perfect weblog system
A long and very detailed outline of what would make a great weblog system.
Designing a CSS based template - part V
The fifth part of Veerle Pieters’ CSS tutorial.
URI (IRI) design
Some thoughts on what makes a good URI.
XMLHttpRequest
How to dynamically update a document’s content by using XMLHttpRequest and innerHTML.
SEO and Your Web Site
SEO best practices that will help your site rank well in search engine results.
Developing with web standards, refreshed
Developing with web standards, my (long) article on web standards and accessibility, turned out to be more popular than I…
Virtual Hosts for Dummies
A tutorial on enabling virtual hosts in your local Apache web server.
What is the flow?
A CSS tutorial on positioning, floats and display models.
How to properly format dates
Learn how to format dates so that everybody can understand them.
DOCTYPES and MIME types
DOCTYPEs matter. MIME types matter. Both are important.
Compression
Using efficient markup will help keep bandwidth usage down, and make pages load faster. If that isn’t enough, and you…
IE whitespace bug
Several solutions to the IE unordered list whitespace bug.
Elements or attributes?
A discussion on metadata and content attributes.
HTML, XHTML and semantics
A presentation on XHTML and the transition to Web Standards.
CSS - Auto-height and margin-collapsing
A thorough explanation of vertical margin-collapsing.
Tag transformations
A bunch of clever ways of using PHP to replace custom tags with HTML tags.
Web standards checklist
A list of checkpoints for web standards compliance.
Web Standards and money
Examples of how using Web Standards can save money.
Content negotiation
Note: There is a follow-up to this article: Content negotiation, AdSense, and comments. As most of you probably know, XHTML…
3 pixels of frustration
An extremely frustrating bug in Internet Explorer for Windows.
Web design details
A list of questions to be considered when building a website.
Drop the lost Explorer
Reasons to stop using Internet Explorer and switch to Firefox.
Writing effective link text
Six guidelines for writing better link text.
Consensus and dissidence
A comparative survey of ten high profile websites.
Back online
Before my vacation started, I told myself I needed to take a break from this site as well as from…
Free Menu Designs
Simple and ready-to-use CSS menu designs.
Reading Online Text
A study of how margins and leading affect online reading performance.
Defensive Design, Part 1
Designing defensively by using elastic design.
New XHTML 2 working draft
The next generation markup language.
Designing Data
A two-part article on styling tables with CSS.
Vertical centering using CSS
Several methods for vertical centering with CSS.
Joe Does the Movies
Accessible movie reviews and an example of an advanced, accessible table.
Most Common CSS Problems
A discussion on common problems, frustrations and misunderstandings with CSS-based layout.
SimpleQuiz Part XVII: Addresses
A discussion on the best way of marking up an address.
:hover Considered Harmful
Does :hover really belong in CSS?
ASP.NET Hall of Fame
A directory of standards compliant sites developed in ASP or ASP.NET.
Headings and document structure
Discussions on the use of XHTML heading elements.
Serif vs sans serif
Are serif or sans serif fonts best for body copy on the web?
Seven Deadly Markup Sins
Common markup mistakes, why they can cause problems, and how to fix them.
IA and CSS
A presentation held at Web Visions 2004.
The title attribute
A discussion on when to use the title attribute.
Stop IE flicker
A way of preventing annoying flicker in IE.
Adapting print design skills for the Web
Some things to consider for print designers moving to the web.
Web accessibility in the EU
An assessment of accessibility and standards conformance in four EU countries.
Document Outline Panel
A Firefox extension that displays an outline of the current document.
Clickable Link Backgrounds
A nice way of making background images in lists clickable.
Competent Classing
Some tips on using classes and IDs efficiently.
Speed up your web pages
Ten ways to speed up the download time of your web pages.
Information, sponsorship, and externals
About the author
Roger Johansson is a Swedish web professional specialising in web standards, accessibility, and usability. More about me and this site.
Latest articles
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