Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with html

HTML Email Best Practices

alan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:38:57 -0800

I've been coerced by a client/employer to start using HTML email messages for communications with our customers. Please help me do this in the most net-responsible way possible (or tell me to burn in the special hell reserved for people who put markup on the SMTP wire) I'm looking for advice on "How to be Good" as opposed to "how to sneak around the canned meat filters"

These five things come to mind ...

1. SPF records for all our domains/servers we'll be sending from

2. Multipart email, providing both a text and HTML version

3. Host the images on our servers so we're not wasting their bandwidth

4. Unsubscribe link in the body of the message allowing people to opt out

5. Email indicating who sent the message with a physical address

Are these steps still considered standard best practices? Are there other steps I can/should take? Custom email headers that should be set outside of of "From", "To", "Reply-To"? Is there unsub info that should be put in the headers?

Any help or a nudge in the direction of a good resource on this would be appreciated.

Finally, Yes. I know. I use mutt and Mailsmith for my personal email. I'm not a fan of HTML email. That battle was lost a long time ago.

Html on Gchat

lunit — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:01:53 -0800

How do I type small on gchat? Is there a listing of html codes for gchat in general? Thanks!

How can I fix my weirdly rendering navigation tabs?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:30:19 -0800

What's wrong with my CSS that makes top the nav render like this or this on some browsers, and how can I fix it? This is an example of a desired rendering, and here's is the CSS. Thanks in advance, guys & gals!

Are there any other coding nerds out there?

[insert clever name here] — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:27:26 -0800

Are there any good html and css forums that focus on writing semantic markup? Specifically, I'm looking for places to bounce ideas off of when I'm trying to write code to come up with the best ways of doing it. Sometimes things aren't as straight forward as "this is a paragraph, here goes the p tag!" A place where people live, eat and breath html and css! There are lot of forums out there for web design and coding, but I don't seem to be finding any that fit into this specific area. Kind of like if a list apart had its own forum/discussion area beyond comments.

Have you had a graphic converted to html and css?

davebush — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:15:14 -0800

I'm curious about companies like this one that convert Photoshop files to working HTML/CSS. If you've had an experience with one (good or bad), I'd like to hear how it went.

Bring us (back) onto the web!

Big_B — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:50:41 -0800

I want to share pictures and videos on the web with family. Is a website my best bet? Where do I start? We have a lot of family spread across the country, and a new baby we want to share with them. My web design experience consists of two very simple pages that my wife and I made in college (~10 years ago) using Claris Homepage. We have comcast for internet service, but their hosting seems to suck pretty hard.

I am picturing a blog-esque page/site with picture galleries and embedded video. So I need a domain, a host (dreamhost?), and then something to put together the site with (right?). From searching askme it looks like Wordpress is a promising route. I have very little html knowledge. Can anyone point me in some directions? Tell me things to avoid?

After an hour or so's research I am feeling a little overwhelmed.

Podcast CMS needed

arniec — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:52:31 -0800

What CMS would you recommend for my podcast company? I've searched the previous Asks and not found a solution that fits my needs, so here goes:

I run a start-up company with 5 regularly published podcasts and we need a CMS. I have tried phpNuke and I am currently using, and very unhappy with, Joomla.

Here are the requirements I must have:
--VERY customizable look and feel so that while all 5 of our sites will be on the same CMS, they shouldn't feel like the same site. I have a graphic designer who has come up with some tremendous site layouts, but I need them implemented.
--EASY to customize templates (I know php, HTML, CSS, SQL... but still Joomla templates are a nightmare for me).
--Must be able to store the Podcast RSS feed in its database, while still handling non-podcast items, such as news articles, etc.
--Must be PHP based with a MySQL back-end
--Must have image gallery functionality
--Must have a fairly easy to use (blog or forum like) "Article add/update" feature so my podcast hosts can add content themselves without need for web design help.
--Site statistic logging (number of views, banner rotation, etc)

Features I would like:
--Blog integration
--Topic database search (with possibly thousands of topics)

After looking at solutions such as Drupal and Joomla and none of which do what I want without heavy modding and customization I am on the verge of starting my own Podcast-specific open source CMS (I have several experienced programmers on staff with me who can do this), but I have absolutely no desire to reinvent the wheel if the perfect CMS is out there for me and I'm just missing it.

Suggestions?

Just like the neighbor's cat in your kids' sandbox...

bonobo — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:06:04 -0800

What am I doing to my links pointing to images in a private directory that prevents me from seeing the pics in Dreamweaver CS3 Design mode? Searching Adobe's Knowlegebase and Google yields a flood of others' issues with setting up passworded sites or Dreamweaver forgetting FTP login info and I can't narrow the results to the problem I'm having.

I just started building a web site and I'm rusty in HTML and am learning CSS. After I edit the code, I do like to check it out in Design view. Currently, I'm uploading things to a private directory (passworded .htaccess on a Zeus server not managed by me) so my business partner can see pages before the site goes "live." Viewing the site through a browser, one is prompted to enter the name and password to see this directory's content. No problems there. I have no troubles with file management in DW's FTP prog or in FileZilla, either.

Suppose the page I'm working on is located at http://www.[mydumbsite].com/public_html/sandbox/mydumbpage.htm . "Sandbox" is the passworded directory. My stylesheet for CSS is located in the same directory and the page refers directly to mydumbstylesheet.css . The pics reside below "sandbox" in folders "dumbimages" and "dumbimages/dumbthumbs." The stylesheet's effects on my .html pages show up in Design mode. The images do not. When it's all said and done, the images ARE there on the site and appear in the final product. I would just like to know what I'm doing or not doing that keeps me from being able to preview.

How do I refer to the image locations the short way (vs. "http://www.[mydumbsite].com/public_html/sandbox/images/dumbpic.jpg") so DW is not blocked access? Or Is there a way to tell DW to prompt me to get into pw'd dirs in preview mode?

Any other methods/advice (other than "OMG don't use THAT program, I write code with Sith blood on tree bark") are welcome.

Thanks!

Should I bother learning Dreamweaver CS3?

camcgee — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:32:29 -0800

What workflow advantages have you found with Dreamweaver CS3? I got the Design Premium version of Adobe CS3 a while ago and in addition to the programs that I actually know and use (i.e. InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, and Illustrator), I have been wondering whether Dreamweaver CS3 might offer some advantage over my current web workflow.

Currently, I generally do mock-ups in Photoshop then create the site code (HTML/CSS/PHP/JS) using EditPad Pro. I test sites on a dev server running on my local machine and then upload files to the actual servers using FileZilla, since I'm not fond of EPP's built-in FTP functionality.

Has anyone migrated from a similar setup to using Dreamweaver and found real advantages in time saved or ease of use?

My first impression of DW was that it seemed bloated with stuff I don't need and won't use, though I realize that's partly because I'm just not used to using anything other than a text editor.

I'm curious about integrating it with my Photoshop mock-ups as wells as replacing the need for a separate FTP program to actually transfer and manage the files.

I have no interest in the WYSIWYG editor or any of the prefab layouts. The code completion felt intrusive but I wonder if I should just be patient and once I get used to it, I will learn to appreciate it. I'm also wondering about other things that DW can do -- error checking, browser compatibility testing, etc. that might make it more useful as far as consolidating my tools.

One other potential issue is that I'm about to start working on some Perl-centric sites, for which DW doesn't seem to have much in the way of advantages -- syntax highlighting, code completion, etc.

Suggest a basic html editor for XP, please!

Cantdosleepy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:14:47 -0800

Anyone know a good basic html editor for Windows XP that will install on a computer for which you don't have admin privileges? I just want something like JuJuedit (http://www.jujusoft.com/software/edit/), a Notepad substitute that has syntax highlighting etc.

I want to use it on a work PC for which I don't have admin privileges. I've installed Filezilla in My Documents and that runs perfectly well, but JuJu's installer says I need admin rights to install.

How to get / view WWW stylesheets?

Meatbomb — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:33:03 -0800

How to quickly and easily view the CSS Stylesheet for a site on the Internet for home analysis and tinkering? I am trying to learn more about CSS, and would like to be able to examine the stylesheet for websites I like. I am hoping there is some easy plugin for Firefox, or some option I am not aware of.

Please help me?

How can I give these Wordpress images room to breathe?

miniminimarket — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:05:59 -0800

The images on the front page of my Wordpress blog are all squashed up against the text, while the single-post images are not. Why is this? Front page.

Single post view of same post.

I've searched through the CSS and templates, but my tiny bit of CSS cut-and-paste knowledge isn't helping. Last time I posted to wordpress.org, I didn't get an answer. Any ideas? Thanks!

wordpress template is screwed up

clockworkjoe — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:47:28 -0800

Wordpress/web design problem-my custom template is screwed up and I can't figure out how to fix it. Please help. I just started a wordpress site for my blog. I created a custom template for the page. However, while the code is right, the design is screwed up. The sidebar is at the bottom instead of being at the side. You can see it at raillery.tv/blog

What am I doing wrong?

You can see the code here http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2718078&pagenumber=26#post344233403

Web Design Sans Style Sheets

echo target — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:43:05 -0800

Any tips on web design WITHOUT style sheets? Yes, I know that's crazy talk. I work for a state government agency, and I'm in charge of trying to make our website usable and worth using, neither of which it is now. I'll be working under strict bureaucratic requirements. Essentially, I have nothing to work with but HTML. There is a style sheet, but it does nothing but set a few text properties, and I don't have the ability to change it or add on to it. It's guarded like a Grail.

I know people built pages with nothing more than HTML in the Dark Ages, but that was before I got into web design. I don't know the tricks and techniques of the era.

Does anyone remember their old tricks?

Can I run a local wiki?

tomble — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:39:00 -0800

How do I run a wiki on my PC? I have been doing some procedure manuals in HTML for use on a couple of office computers, and I'd really like them to be in a wiki format so that others can easily read and edit them.

I tried a couple of wikis, including PMWiki, but they need to run off a server. I'd rather have this working out of a directory on my XP office computer. It seems that it can be done because I used such a thing briefly a couple of years ago (and forgot what it was called).

In short, is there a Wiki designed for this purpose? How can I make a wiki run locally? It doesn't need to do anything fancy, just display some editable html with a few images. Should I be using some other tool to do this?

My knowledge of html and computers is pretty good, but if the comment is something like `install Apache!' without any further explanation, I will be more confused! Thanks all!

Disagreement with co-web developer about speed difference of height and width specified in image tags as opposed to in the css

semidivine — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:36:28 -0800

I am having a disagreement with a co-web developer I'm working with. He's insisting that having image width and height specified for images in the image tags is going to make an enormous difference in how fast this database driven site will render, while I feel that having the height and width called in the css for these images is enough. The site is very fast. Let me clarify... I'm only talking about the thumbnails of images on the site (the data), all other images used for design etc. have image heights and widths specified. I feel that even if we lose a nano-second in speed (we have dedicated servers and enough bandwidth to land us on the moon) we gain so much in ease of updating the site. The client changes their mind all the time and if we need to change the thumbnail size, I can do it in 2 second in the global css file, as opposed to much longer to track down all the instances of img tags in the code. I also feel we'll gain a nanosecond from slightly less code bloat.

I see a lot of older articles on the web that mention adding image height and width tags as a help to optimize one's site, but if we're doing EVERYTHING else in the name of speed, is this issue really relevant today with users having faster and faster internet connections?

We can't seem to come to any agreement on this... anybody have any enlightened and educated opinions about this, circa 2008?

What are the alternatives to pandoc

caek — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:55:14 -0800

What are the alternatives to pandoc? I'm looking for tools that will allow me to maintain a large document in a simple plain text format such as markdown and compile it to PDF and HTML. Bonus points will be awarded to PDF that is properly typeset (ideally by TeX) and HTML that allows customization via stylesheets, headers, footers, etc. There's nothing particularly wrong with pandoc, apart from the requirement of a Haskell compiler, which is a pain but not a showstopper; I'm just curious about the alternatives. Maintaining in LaTeX and compiling to PDF and HTML is not an option. The "source" must be something less markup-heavy, such as markdown or textile. GUIs are not necessary but must be available on OS X if their use is required.

Comments about their unique capabilities, favourite features, and their particular strengths and weaknesses are very welcome, as are links to documents that are available online (HTML or PDF) so I can see them in action.

Finally, is there a name for this kind of tool?

How to make spreadsheet dynamically sortable web table?

Malad — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:01:35 -0800

I want to take an Excel spreadsheet and just make it a dynamically sortable table I can put in a webpage or blog. I want people to be able to click a column, and have the table be sorted by that column. Best solutions? Also, if the table included locations, is it possible to make them selectable, and have the selected locations display on Google maps? Thanks.

Lots of white space before HTML table

Joleta — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:08:09 -0800

How do I get rid of lots of extra white space before a table (in Internet Explorer). I set up a web site for a friend's nonprofit. This page looks fine in Firefox, but there's a lot of white space above the table in Internet Explorer (6 & 7). I used a free template to set up the site, and I'm still exploring the mysteries of CSS, however I'm using a table for actual tabular data here, not for layout. There's nothing between the closing /P tag of the paragraph above and the TABLE tag, and there's no extra space at the top of the table. If I put a border around the table, I can clearly see that the white space is above the table, not within it. I did try this without the closing /P tag before the table, and that didn't make any difference. Following some hints I found by Googling "space before tables," I removed all the line breaks from the HTML table code, which didn't make any difference. Is there some intrinisic difference between how Firefox and IE handle the space before tables? And what, if anything can I do about this?

how to get title and description in Google organic search results

mamessner — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:48:04 -0800

What am I doing wrong in my HTML that the description in Google's organic search just says "Untitled Document?" Check out the HTML for our photography site by going to View:Source at www.vantagephotography.com. I can't copy and paste the HTML here - it doesn't appear. The page has a title that shows in the title bar, and a meta description. When I find it in organic search results in Google (#1 when you search for "vantage photography") it just says "Untitled Document" with no description. Our other site - www.weddingsbyvantage.com - has the same problem. Help! What are we doing wrong? It should have been indexed and cached many times by this point.

Custom header row in .NET datagrid?

TimeTravelSpeed — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:39:31 -0800

How do I insert a row of identical drop-down lists into the top of my .NET datagrid? I have a DataGrid whose source is an excel spreadsheet. My GUI needs to allow a user to select an option from a drop-down above each column. I'd like this row to be a part of the grid so that everything lines up all pretty-like.

The best option I've found is to manually create all the rows and columns and bind that to the grid. Another option was to use a repeater of datalists instead. Is there a simpler or better way? (I'm using C#)

CSS help is needed

joelf — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:25:30 -0800

Can I make this work in IE the same as it does in Firefox? Here is the example i need some CSS help with. This works properly in Firefox, but needs some help in IE. Any suggestions?

An easy-to-change video embed?

johngoren — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:48:25 -0800

Designed a web site for a guy. Short of going whole-hog blog, is there an easy way I can make it so he can log in and change one little YouTube embed (or other bit of HTML) at his convenience? What I mean is, without setting up a blog-style diary or any kind of chronological format...whether there's some tool...almost like Twitter but supporting embedded video...so that he could go in and change a "Video of the Day," without much trouble or without knowing much about HTML.

How in the flash is this going to work?

B(oYo)BIES — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:58:31 -0800

[ Flash Filter ] Ok. So after sketching out my client's site, they have informed me that they want the white cross (with the blue gradient) to basically fade, from the outside in to the center, and perhaps have a little sparkle and 'ding' noise as the animation completes. As far as I can come up with, flash is the only way this is going to happen. My question is, how am I going to make this work? The animation would basically stretch the whole page (I really don't want a huge flash file - but as far as I can tell, that is going to be inevitable). Everything else is going to be straight HTML and images. Can I use z-index to make this work possibly? The only other way I can come up with is 3 separate flash files (1 logo, one left, one under menu), but can I be sure that they will all play in unison?

Any other ideas you guys have for me? All feedback is welcome and appreciated.