Posts Tagged ‘html css’
October 11th, 2009 | 
Author: Website design has slowly become in the last couple of years or so, an important aspect that drives online visibility. Now if you are starting a new business then you will require a website because it acts as your visiting or business card over the internet. A website is also considered to be an online portfolio or catalogue of services, products and other valuable information for visitors who scan the internet to suffice their requirements.
Now there are two types of web design that you can choose from. You can either visit websites to download already designed template or get custom website design Chicago. You are probably asking what difference it will make. If you download templates from external websites then you will get only the homepage or index page and another internal page with HTML or any basic code. But what about the rest of the pages? If you need to make a website that has more than 100 pages, a shopping cart, a forum, an administrator console, and a CMS system then how can you get it done? This is where custom website design Chicago comes in.
For custom website design Chicago, you can either hire a website design company or an independent website designer. The fact of the matter is that customized website design will include all your requirements and even concepts. There are 5 factors that play an important role in custom website design Chicago and they are:
Layout: The layout of the website should be based on the W3C standard and can follow the web 1.0 or web 2.0 formats. Web 1.0 format is considered to be a thing of the past but it is still as effective.
Design Elements: There are hundreds of design elements that can be incorporated into a website but only a few of high importance. You can design your website in flash or keep it simple textual-image based. Flash means that your website will not get indexed by search engines and hence have a low ranking but will look impressive. On the other hand, simple HTML-CSS or PhP website will fulfill the SEO prerequisites and help your website to get a high rank. Another important design element is the navigation. The navigation should be clean and simple. Avoid extensive drop down lists or secondary navigations. If you have one primary navigation then that will be good enough.
Branding: Branding is an important aspect and this normally refers to use of the logo. How and where on the layout you display your company logo matters. How simple and artistic your logo is will define how meaningful it is. One of the important things is that your logo should be in-sync with the company’s vision or what the company is all about and is always preferred to an abstract design.
Images and content: How you display images and content is an important aspect of custom website design Chicago. The best option is to have minimum images and maximum content unless you want a travel website or a merchant website.
For further information, please visit Custom Website Design Chicago
Article Source: Custom Website Design Chicago
Photoshop design is popularly known as PSD. These are design files created by the web designers for websites. Even though the pages are created, they lack usability and movement. It is the web developers to add life to the pictures making them functional and usable. The coding which are mostly used for the navigation process of the site are mostly done in HTML, CSS and XHTML mark ups. In case of the coding of a site, it must be done very carefully. Are you keen to know how to convert psd to Xhtml? Then read on…
Most web developers previously used to code the designs with the help of table forms. But now the whole process has become more sophisticated and now it is known as divisions or divs. There is a particular design. In order to make it functional, the web developers will first slice the design into several divisions. After they are divided into specific divisions, the coding process will start. Previously tables were used for the designs and then the whole thing would be coded. This was a strenuous job as it required more time and energy. One could not even inspect the coding method even if they wanted to.
Now with improvement of technology, the whole conversion process takes less time. The conversion providers offer a number of important services. Like in case of formatting the source files, the hand coded images like AI, PNG or the PSD are converted into XHTML. There should be cross browser compatibility. This means that the XHTML conversion will be friendly for most of the browsers like Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox and Safari. There should not be any mismatch; otherwise the whole conversion process will be futile.
There should be a strict XHTML mark-up for hand coded conversion. This means that the codes will be written manually. There will be no use of any automated tools. Most automated tools are mainly used for highly optimized codes. Slicing will not take much time. If you hire a conversion provider, the whole procedure will be complete within two days. The internal pages will be complete within two days. Often it is the length of the page or other complexities which actually take time. With W3C validation, the mark-up validity of web documents is checked carefully. The conversion should be done in such a manner so that the original design remains intact.
Most conversion providers offer the abovementioned services as part of their packages. However quality of work and professionalism will vary from one provider to the other. One can judge them only when they avail their services. A good word from a friend can help you to decide on a provider. You can check forums, or blogs or special forums if you want to get the reviews about the conversion providers.
Michael Dave is author of this article on Psd to Wordpress.
Find more information about motivational speakers here.
Article Source: Important Information about PSD
Before you start fiddling around with HTML editors, FTP clients, and Domain registrations, it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of how all this works. This Website creation overview gives you an easy to understand look at what the process of building your own Website really involves.
A website is a collection of files that work together to form a unified whole. These various files, from images to HTML documents and PHP scripts, or instructional software, are organized by a Web browser and displayed appropriately on a computer monitor.
Website creation is essentially the process arranging information in a way that can be translated by Web browsing software, such as Internet Explorer, and presented to human viewers. To do this correctly you’ll need to gain a basic understanding of coding languages like HTML, CSS, and possibly PHP.
The process of coding your site is literally the activity of entering numerous individual lines of alphanumeric code that tell the Web browser how to format and display your Web page. While seemingly complex at first, the truth is learning the most basic Web development code – HTML – is less complicated than learning to use the English alphabet.
Once you learn what the various command codes actually do, your next step is to practice organizing them in a structured manner within an HTML document. This is not unlike the process of creating a word processing document and saving it; the only difference is that instead of sentences and paragraphs you’ll be entering HTML tags and attributes.
Once your files are complete, they’ll need to be added to your Web host so other Internet users can access them. The Web host, or server, is a powerful computer that operates around the clock.
It is here that all the files and data that make up your Website will be stored. And you’ll need to register a domain name and synchronize this domain with your host machine so people can type an easily remembered Web address into their browser and literally navigate to your Website by establishing a connection with your host server.
In addition to learning how to create and save basic HTML documents, Website creation requires some level of proficiency in transferring files between your computer and a Web server. This is called File Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short.
To do this, you’ll need a software tool called an FTP client. This utility is installed on your desktop and can instantly form a connection with your Web host, allowing you to upload files to the Web or download them to your machine.
It is also recommended that you become familiar with the directory structure and hosting control panel your Web host provides. This will make it easier for you to manage your Website.
This sounds like a lot of work. But the truth is the average Internet user can become basically versed in all of this within 30 days or less if he or she puts forth an effort to learn.
It’s beyond the scope of this article to delve into the specifics of any particular technique. But I hope at this point you at least have an understanding of what is involved in learning the Website Creation process.
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Article Source: Website Creation Simplified Brief Overview of the Nuts and Bolts
PSD to HTML services emerged around the year 2004 when people started blogging on Wordress, Joomla (Mambo then) & Drupal and wanted unique designs as theme or a template in HTML/CSS. The basic reason why a huge demand rose for PSD to HTML service was that blogging & changing designs using Wordress, Joomla or Drupal was easy for everyone. People started with a small website & basic or default templates and soon when their blog was popular they got it designed and converted to HTML/CSS. It was the start of Web 2.0.
Today free designs are available for almost every blogging platform – Blogger, Drupal, Joomla, Pligg & Wordpress – or even for Cube Cart, CMS Made Simple, Magento, Movable Type & X-Cart and people create a simple website in the very beginning phase and fill it with content. The reason for going with these CMSs or blogging platforms is that they are simple, free to download & use and have more features than are required for a general website. Once their website becomes popular they get their own template designed exclusively for them which is later sliced to a theme, template or skin as it’s popularly called and used with these FREE content management systems.
And today when the web has graduated to Web 2.0 HTML/CSS has been replaced by XHTML, which is basically HTML that conforms to XML, and has taken the shape of a necessity as more people have turned geek today and want to have a blog or website owned by them. With such a large number of people having their designs converted to XHTML/CSS, the PSD to XHTML services is slowly taking the shape of an industry.
Earlier, there were no such companies who offered PSD to HTML or PSD to XHTML services but today PSD to HTML/XHTML/CSS conversion services are sought-after and growing at a rapid pace.
The idea of a PSD to XHTML service is quite simple. Using Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or other software packages, graphic & web designers create digital images files with AI, JPG, PNG or PSD extensions. To convert them into a webpage template or blog theme, you need to develop XHTML code. PSD to XHTML companies are those who provide such a transformation.
So, the emergence of PSD to XHTML services is not just by a chance but by a growing need.
Xhtmlslicing is the leading web 2.0 design firm that slices your design from PSD to XHTML, HTML and CSS.
Article Source: PSD to XHTML – An evolving market or just a fad?
Establishing a strong online presence is not an easy task. That is why businesses seek the services of a professional web development company to create their web presence and promote it further. But is it not as easy as it sounds. The success of a web development projects highly depends upon your choice of the service provider. That is why it is very important to devote quality time to research about service providers.
What is the Level of Technical Knowledge for a web development company?
Ask them is they are familiar with HTML, CSS or XHTML. HTML is the basic root of web development. If they do not understand and are not proficient in HTML, there is no way they can even build a website let alone build a good one.
Do they follow SEO Considerations?
Search engine optimization is a post-development procedure. However, if you want your website to be search engine friendly, you need to keep some SEO considerations during the development phase.
Would the website be Cross Browser Compatible?
XHTML and CSS are vital to ensure the cross browser compatibility of websites. Cross browser compatibility is a very important consideration. This is because your visitors may use various browsers to access your website and to cater to all of them, you need to make sure that your website functions well on all the major browsers. If your website looks great on IE but is a mess on Firefox, you will end up losing all your Firefox visitors.
What is the Average Load Time of their websites?
Slow loading websites are a major turn-off for Internet users. And people don’t usually visit a website again if it has made them wait the first time. This is why it is very important to optimize your website so that it loads faster and performs well. Check with the potential web development team if they have expertise of employing optimization tools and strategies that help fasten the load time of your website by optimizing the images and the underlying code. Faster websites equal to high visitor retention rate. Go through their portfolio page and check out the websites they have designed in the past. See how much time they take to load. This would give you a hint about how good the company makes websites.
What Server Side Programming Language do they use?
When you want a professional website for your business, it is but obvious that you would incorporate interactive features like Comments Box, Sign Up for Newsletters and so on. The potential web development team should be familiar with one of the other common server side programming language and know how to use it efficiently. Some of the common web programming languages are Adobe, ASP and ASP.NET, JSP, PHP and Perl.
Charles Alfred
Article Source: Establish a strong online presence
Whenever you will go to design a website you must have some basic knowledge or ideas generally used in this field. It may be called the base of website designing. There are lots of terms we have seen in the field of web design like HTML, DHTML CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, VB Script, ASP, XML, and PHP etc. here we will discuss the above terms broadly.
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language which seen behind a webpage. It consists of series of codes or tags putted into the text file by the designer and save it in .htm or .html format. A web page starts and with HTML tag. That basic structure of a html file should be look like this
DHTML or Dynamic HTML is generally not a language like HTML. it is combination of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CSS and DOM. The term DHTML is an art which gives your web page a dynamic feature. There are some features of DHTML
• Date binding
• Dynamic fonts
• Changing the tags and properties
• Real-time positioning
Today CSS/ Cascading Style Sheet is a very powerful weapon for a web designer as well as the developer. After the invention of CSS in the year of 1997, it became a necessary part of web site designing. There are the tree parts including in CSS, the first one called styles which defines how to display. The next part is the placement or storing of style sheets. And the third part is cascading the multiple style definitions into one.
The foremost advantage of CSS is browser compatibility.
Extensible Hypertext Markup Language or XHTML is also a markup language like HTML. It included in the family of present and future document types and modules that replicate, subset and extend HTML4. The documents types of XHTML family are generally XML based designed to work in conjunction with XML based user agents.
JavaScript is a simple scripting language used to make a website more interactive. It was invented to validate the fields contain in a form before its submission. Basically it’s made to warn the users whenever they mistaken or enter the wrong value in the form field. JavaScript also used in making popup window in a defined shape, changing the images according to mouse cursor ups and downs. You can add different effects like while loops, if statements, switch statements, etc
VBScript stands for Visual Basic Scripting Edition developed by Microsoft. It is an interpreted scripting language. It can be used in intranets if there is any restriction to use internet explorer to access the intranet. It can create active server pages generally which use server-side scripts that create content to sent to the user’ browser.
ASP or Active Server Pages is a technology that helps to make a dynamic and interactive website. Basically this script is parsed and executed by the server. When a user requesting a web page which contains .asp, then the web server will parse the codes and send the output to the user. It works as opposite of JavaScript.
XML was implemented to structure, store and the transportation of the data.
Travis is contributing author of San Diego Web Design Company, provides all kinds for website designing, web development and Internet Marketing services. To know more about this website design firm and their various services visit www.ibluewave.com
Article Source: The basics in Web Design
The software ‘Photoshop’ is used all over the world. It is used by web designers, professional photographers and even by amateurs. Photoshop is an editing program which also helps to create bitmaps. All Photoshop files are made up of high quality and hence, people have difficulty in converting the PSD files to HTML, XHTML, CSS, Word press. The conversions show an inferior quality of bitmaps and the respective photographs in concern. Hence, it becomes a matter of concern for the professionals to obtain quality and superior prints from the PSD to word press, PSD to CSS or any other conversions.
Some softwares provide superior quality prints while converting PSD files to HTML, XHTML, CSS and Word press. The same quality which is seen on the Photoshop files (PSD files) is available when PSD files are converted to CSS, HTML, XHTML and Word press. These quality conversions prove beneficial to the professions who can carry on their work without any problems. It helps them to save time and also get quality work converted from the PSD files to HTML, CSS and other file formats.
It plays a major role while working on web designs, bloggers who want to code their designs and many unlimited advantages which prove advantageous for the design and art professionals. Not many organizations provide these unique benefits to the professional industry.
The software companies make these conversions available to the customers at an economical price. The price is comparatively low, keeping in mind the added benefits which it provides. The clients do not bother about the cost since it proves successful for their business and also assures them of the quality of the conversions.
Since HTML, CSS and a few other software format files occupy less space, they are considered ideal for converting PSD files to CSS, HTML, XHTML or Word press, which helps to ease the work for the professionals so that they can upload their respective designs at a faster pace and save time. It also enables to attract business deals for the professionals.
The unique services provided by these firms are popular among the professional web and photography industry. However, one has to be careful in order to choose the right source, in other words, the right organization to approach to get all the conversions done successfully and also obtain high quality results from them while converting the PSD files to CSS, HTML, XHTML or Word press. Converting files may seem a small issue but gives out rich dividends for its potential clients as well as its dedicated customers.
Siddhesh is author of this article on Psd to html.
Find more information about Psd to Wordpress here.
Article Source: Quality conversions of Photoshop files
In building up a website, the first thing that you must think of is the name of that website. This name, in the realm of Information Technology, is called a domain name. A domain name must be easy to remember in order to be more accessible to online users. It can be bought in a lot of domain registrar websites in less than 10 minutes. Next to registering a domain name, you need to conceptualize the content of your website. What is it all about? Are you making it for business or personal purposes? If you already know what your website will contain, then you are good to memorize the mantra: “seo hosting web design”. This mantra contains the essential tools that you will use to establish a great site.
Seo, Hosting, Web design. SEO refers to search engine optimization. Search engine optimization ensures that your website is easily tracked in all search engine websites. This is done by submitting the sites to these engines, and manipulating the website content by using keywords or terms that mimic how online users will search things. For instance, if you’re selling shoes, most customers will type in “cheap shoes,” “shoes sale”, “expensive shoes sale,” etc. In order for your site to appear in the search engines, your website must contain these terms.
Web design in self-explanatory. You can do it yourself or hire a professional web designer. If you’re doing it yourself, you need to study the basics of HTML, CSS, and design software.
Your website surely has a dozen of pictures, written articles, videos, and other files. Where do you think these files are stored, and how do these web pages appear once you go online? Hosting refers to the system that stores and shows your web pages on the Internet. Hosting ranges from free to affordable to expensive, and basically the more files you will put in your website, the more expensive hosting service you need to avail.
For more great information on SEO Hosting Web Design visit our new website www.myecommercecenter.com.
Article Source: Seo, Hosting, and Web Design
A couple of years ago you spent quite bit of money on your website and now you desperately need to update it. It’s easier than you think. I am here to help you. There are many ways to get your website updated. I will go over them step by step. This information will be especially useful to site owners of static websites. When we speak about static websites we are mainly talking about websites that are not database driven. So, how do you find out if your site is database driven or not? Well, if it’s a huge site with over 50 pages there is a big chance that your website is database driven. One sure way to find out is get in touch with your web designer.
The next thing that you need to determine is the programming language that was used to build your website. I hear you saying “Aren’t all websites built with HTML?” The answer to that is yes and no, yes they can be fully built with HTML but most contemporary websites are built using a mix of HTML, CSS (which stands for Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript and sometimes server side scripts such as PHP or ASP. How to determine the language used to build your site? Go to the destination website that needs to be updated and click on a random link notice the file extension in your Browser URL bar. You’ll notice for example that your URL either ends on “.HTML”, “.PHP” or “ASP”. There are a few more extensions. You can find a list of these extensions on w3schools.com By the way a great website that actually offers free online lessons and code samples for many programming languages. Definitely worth a visit.
Back to our main topic. Again focusing on static websites, you’ll need some tools to update/expand your website. Here are the 2 tools you’ll need: 1. An HTML editor such as Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe Dreamweaver or GoLive. The list is long and there are many HTML editing tools out there. But my suggestion is go with the pro tools and download a 30 day free trial of Adobe’s Dreamweaver found on the website of www.adobe.com Dreamweaver is the industry leading web development tool. 2. You’ll also need a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. The FTP tool allows you to connect to a remote server (This is where your website resides on) and modify data. Again there are a lot of FTP tools available, but the most workable ones are from CuteFTP, WSFTP, and FlashFXP. They all have one purpose upload to or download from your web server. My suggestion is go with this one: “Ipswitch WS_FTP Home 2007″ you can try it for free.
You can find and download this tool at downloads.com To get your FTP tool to work and connect to your web server you’ll need the following information: 1 Your FTP server address (you can obtain that from your hosting provider) 2. FTP Username (if you don’t know your username and password combination, contact your hosting provider) 3. Password (if you don’t know your username and password combination, contact your hosting provider). With these tools you’ll be able to connect to your webserver and make modifications to your website.
If you rather would like us to take care of your websites updates we’ll be more than happy to. Here at VividWebGraphics San Diego we have 5+ years of web development experience ranging from small personals sites to major corporation websites to content managements systems and e-commerce solutions. With many happy clients in our client portfolio we continue to develop websites that build your business.
San Diego web Design company offers affordable reliable web design and development solutions for your business.. specialized in Joomla content management websites, e-commerce websites and property and real estate websites. Furthermore we offer website redesign and upgrades, flash audio video as well as wordpress blog installation and customizations.
Article Source: How to Update Your Website ?
A couple of years ago you spent quite bit of money on your website and now you desperately need to update it. It’s easier than you think. I am here to help you. There are many ways to get your website updated. I will go over them step by step. This information will be especially useful to site owners of static websites. When we speak about static websites we are mainly talking about websites that are not database driven. So, how do you find out if your site is database driven or not? Well, if it’s a huge site with over 50 pages there is a big chance that your website is database driven. One sure way to find out is get in touch with your web designer.
The next thing that you need to determine is the programming language that was used to build your website. I hear you saying “Aren’t all websites built with HTML?” The answer to that is yes and no, yes they can be fully built with HTML but most contemporary websites are built using a mix of HTML, CSS (which stands for Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript and sometimes server side scripts such as PHP or ASP. How to determine the language used to build your site? Go to the destination website that needs to be updated and click on a random link notice the file extension in your Browser URL bar. You’ll notice for example that your URL either ends on “.HTML”, “.PHP” or “ASP”. There are a few more extensions. You can find a list of these extensions on w3schools.com By the way a great website that actually offers free online lessons and code samples for many programming languages. Definitely worth a visit.
Back to our main topic. Again focusing on static websites, you’ll need some tools to update/expand your website. Here are the 2 tools you’ll need: 1. An HTML editor such as Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe Dreamweaver or GoLive. The list is long and there are many HTML editing tools out there. But my suggestion is go with the pro tools and download a 30 day free trial of Adobe’s Dreamweaver found on the website of www.adobe.com Dreamweaver is the industry leading web development tool. 2. You’ll also need a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. The FTP tool allows you to connect to a remote server (This is where your website resides on) and modify data. Again there are a lot of FTP tools available, but the most workable ones are from CuteFTP, WSFTP, and FlashFXP. They all have one purpose upload to or download from your web server. My suggestion is go with this one: “Ipswitch WS_FTP Home 2007″ you can try it for free.
You can find and download this tool at downloads.com To get your FTP tool to work and connect to your web server you’ll need the following information: 1 Your FTP server address (you can obtain that from your hosting provider) 2. FTP Username (if you don’t know your username and password combination, contact your hosting provider) 3. Password (if you don’t know your username and password combination, contact your hosting provider). With these tools you’ll be able to connect to your webserver and make modifications to your website.
If you rather would like us to take care of your websites updates we’ll be more than happy to. Here at VividWebGraphics San Diego we have 5+ years of web development experience ranging from small personals sites to major corporation websites to content managements systems and e-commerce solutions. With many happy clients in our client portfolio we continue to develop websites that build your business.
San Diego web Design company offers affordable reliable web design and development solutions for your business.. specialized in Joomla content management websites, e-commerce websites and property and real estate websites. Furthermore we offer website redesign and upgrades, flash audio video as well as wordpress blog installation and customizations.
Article Source: How to Update Your Website ?
Many people think that if they have designed a good website with a striking layout, then they have won the battle of developing a website. But they are not aware that a great looking website is of no use, if no one visits it. There are a lot of things which should be kept in mind while creating a website. Your website should be streamlined, search engine optimized and it should have a well coded XHTML version. This is where we realize the importance of PSD to XHTML conversion.
PSD is a design file which is prepared by the web designer to make a website. These files are just pictures or stills without any movement. These pictures are assigned specific functionalities by the web developers. The navigation of the website is done by the coding in XHTML/HTML/CSS mark ups. Proper care must be taken while coding the website as the assessment of the site depends on how well the coding is done and how user-friendly the site is. Make sure the XHTML markup has a clean coding which helps in getting the webpage loaded easily.
The importance of PSD to XHTML/html conversion cannot be ignored. It has become an essential part of website designing. This task is not easy; it consists of some defined rules as well as coding standards. An HTML coder who performs this conversion should have thorough knowledge and proficiency in coding.
The backgrounds, body, header and footer should be taken into utmost consideration while designing a website. These should blend with the content. The XHTML codes should be optimized to get good rankings on all popular search engines. Your website should be compatible with all browsers, including Fire fox, Netscape, Opera, etc., which helps in reaching out wider audience.
You need to have a unique domain name and think where to host your website. Get information on how you can make your site come on the first page of Google. Research and analyze the trends to get maximum results and have a better knowledge of how to convert image to xhtml and png to xhtml, xhtml slicing and table-less html.
Our Company leading writers of India, who writes on website content, news articles, technical articles in the field of web design and development (convert image to xhtml and png to xhtml and table-less html) based in India. Our services include Web design and development, Flash web design, Search engine optimization, Link building, etc.
Article Source: Optimize your Website with PSD to XHTML Conversion
“I speak HTML, CSS, and Javascript.” Resumes containing such phrases are not rare in the Internet. But what to do if your “native” language is colors and lines? In other words, if you are a designer and need to translate your works (e.g., *.psd designs) into HTML/CSS code?
There are three main options to solve this problem:
1) Code it yourself,
2) Use automated tools, and
3) Hire a provider of PSD-to-HTML/CSS conversion services.
And here comes another question: Which option is the best?
In fact, there is no all-purpose choice to suit every situation. Really, people and circumstances are different.
To convert yourself or not yourself – Is that a question?
Some of my friends-designers agree with marketing guru Tom Peters: nowadays design is one of the most essential competitive differences that can set products (and websites) apart from other commoditized rivals. A designer is becoming a central figure in website success. And she/he should be completely concentrated on design because very few people can be a universal genius like Leonardo da Vinci.
Others say that web designers should know not only the color theory or graphic techniques but also PSD slicing, HTML coding, content writing, SEO, and marketing. Only in this case designers will create something really effective in the present-day Internet.
For me every website element should be well-designed: website concept, its structure, graphics, layout, HTML/CSS markup, and content. The deeper designers know respective phases and website development operations the better, because she/he can see and control the process in whole. But it doesn’t mean that designers should do all the work themselves.
Which of PSD-to-HTML options is the best when…
… HTML/CSS is easy for you or when it looks like mumbo-jumbo? When there is a long line of clients or only few orders? When you design an experimental site for yourself or an important custom work? When there is a large budget or tough times?
These situations obviously require different solutions.
So what is the recipe?
To be effective, we should be flexible. It is difficult to be a universal genius but it is possible to have a universal (or almost universal) knowledge base and manage the process.
1. Collect information: Design-to-XHTML/CSS tutorials, reviews of automated conversion tools, and lists of PSD-to-HTML services providers.
To keep track of new developments, Google Alert can be of very useful assistance or just regularly visit such sites as designfloat.com, designm.ag, noupe.com, tripwiremagazine.com, csstea.com, just to name a few.
Speaking of tutorials, gather not only the newest techniques and CSS tricks but older materials too, because they may contain gold nuggets of information.
2. Try them and make your own lists. Select tutorials, automated tools, and providers that are the most useful, efficient, and comfortable just for YOU. It takes time but it pays off. Moreover, one day you can publish your own lists named “Practical Collection of PSD-to-XHTML Tutorials” or “My Favorite Design-to-HTML Services.”
Select several (2 or 3) providers because of:
1). Risk management considerations: if you urgently need to convert your design and the primary provider is overloaded, you will have a reserve option.
2). Providers can have strengths in different fields, e.g., one is more proficient in PSD to WordPress themes conversion, others — in design-to-Drupal or Joomla templates development and implementation.
3). Services and your requirements to them (as well as functionality of automated tools or perceived importance of tutorials) change with time.
Check out selected providers yourself. It is not out of place because what was the best for someone may be not so good for you.
3. Evaluate project circumstances: volume of works, urgency, project requirements (including W3C standards compliance, browser compatibility, semantic coding), project importance, budget, your level of HTML/CSS knowledge, and so on. Then take your lists and choose an option or their combination that is the most effective for you in this concrete situation.
Each of these options — Do it yourself, Use automated tools or Service providers — can be a good solution to convert PSD into HTML. But no less important is that there are different alternatives available for choice. Really, to be flexible and succeed — that is the best option.
About The Author
Natalia Savchenko is a proficient web designer and the CEO of HTMLcut.com, a PSD to HTML conversion and XHTML/CSS coding services company.
Article Source: How To Convert PSD To HTML – The Best Option
If creating designs and layouts on computers interests you, then you must consider taking up a website design training course. Such a course is different from the usual. Once you gain the skills of a professional website designer you will enjoy a rewarding career ahead.
Focus Of Web Design Training
Website design training primarily focuses on the fields of electronic media and graphic art. The training helps one familiarize with the latest web design software like GoLive, FrontPage and DreamWeaver. These computer based design and illustration software helps to create WebPages and sites that are good to look and easily navigable.
The training module teaches several features like how to use HTML, CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. Aspects like internet marketing, e-commerce, scripting and authoring are also dealt with.
A good website training design program would ensure that you receive education that is current and updated in accordance with the evolving field of website designing. So before you choose a training course, make sure that your chosen program has the capacity of teaching the latest techniques with the help of thorough professional website designers.
Website Designing Basics
Website design training enables one to learn several skills that would benefit him for several years to come. And it’s not difficult either. One can easily give his web designing career a start by trying something simple and then slowly move to the more complex designs. But before you go ahead and choose a program for yourself you need to understand what web designing is all about. Here are some tips that would help you understand your web course better:
- Learn the basics of HTML as it is the foundation for all web languages. It might seem confusing at first, but once you cross the beginner’s level it would get easier.
- Do not rely entirely on the ‘what you see is what you get’ programs. Though you can take some help from them, you would ultimately need the basic HTML skills to develop the website and add on more features.
- Browse the Net to get more ideas. The more you surf, the better you would be able to understand the styles utilized for site layout, menus and graphics.
- Don’t stop at the basics. Never stop learning after completing a single website design training course. There are always several more skills that need to be explored and learnt. And with newer technology coming up everyday it is very important to remain updated too.
Website Designing- Certified Courses
Besides ensuring that the web design course chosen by you is current and updated, it is also very important to go through the certification that you would receive on completion of the training. Once you have covered several aspects of web designing like Graphic Art, Visual Art, Computer Aided Designing or CAD and Web designing you would be awarded an Associate degree.
An associate degree is sufficient to gain entry into the beginner’s position in a web designing company. However, for better employment opportunities you should consider increasing your web designing skills and knowledge by taking up an advanced degree. Website design training is also available in colleges and universities wherein you would come across four year training programs that are awarded with a Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s degree.
James Copper is a writer for http://www.twwebdesign.co.uk where you can find information on web design services
Article Source: All About Website Design Training
Establishing a strong online presence is not an easy task. That is why businesses seek the services of a professional web development team to create their web presence and promote it further. But is it not as easy as it sounds. The success of a web development projects highly depends upon your choice of the service provider. While a experienced team can provide you great deliverables, a wrong choice can land your online endeavor in a total mess.
That is why it is very important to devote quality time to research about service providers and once you have a good amount of options, interview them just as diligently like you would any in-house employee. Here are some things that you need to ask them before signing on the dotted line.
What is the Level of Technical Knowledge?
Ask them is they are familiar with HTML, CSS or XHTML. HTML is the basic root of web development. If they do not understand and are not proficient in HTML, there is no way they can even build a website let alone build a good one.
Do they follow SEO Considerations?
Search engine optimization may be a post-development procedure. However, if you want your website to be search engine friendly, you need to keep some SEO considerations during the development phase itself.
Would the website be Cross Browser Compatible?
XHTML and CSS are vital to ensure the cross browser compatibility of websites. Cross browser compatibility is a very important consideration. This is because your visitors may use various browsers to access your website and to cater to all of them, you need to make sure that your website functions well on all the major browsers. If your website looks great on IE but is a mess on Firefox, you will end up losing all your Firefox visitors.
What is the Average Load Time of their websites?
Slow loading websites are a major turn-off for internet users. And people don’t usually visit a website again if it has made them wait the first time. This is why it is very important to optimize your website so that it loads faster and performs well. Check with the potential web development team if they have expertise of employing optimization tools and strategies that help fasten the load time of your website by optimizing the images and the underlying code. Faster websites equal to high visitor retention rate.
Go through their portfolio page and check out the websites they have designed in the past. See how much time they take to load. This would give you a hint about how good the company makes websites.
What Server Side Programming Language do they use?
When you want a professional website for your business, it is but obvious that you would incorporate interactive features like Comments Box, Sign Up for Newsletters and so on. The potential web development team should be familiar with one of the other common server side programming language and know how to use it efficiently.
Some of the common web programming languages are Adobe, ASP and ASP.NET, JSP, PHP and Perl.
What type of Database do they use?
Databases are used to store important website information like articles blog posts, email addresses and all. Popular databases include Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, MySQL, and Oracle. These databases are generally supported by major web programming languages.
Kabir Bedi is a senior web consultant working with LeXolution IT Services, a reputed offshore web development company based in India. He has over 10 years of experience in the web industry and has successfully delivered several web design India projects to international clients.
Article Source: What Do You Need To Know About Your Web Development Company?
It has long been debated that the use of style sheet languages such as CSS is said to be much more efficient than the use of ordinary HTML tables. Ever since the growth of the world wide web, professionals of the industry have sought ways on how to improve the presentation of their websites both efficiently and effectively. Style sheet languages such as CSS have perfected this need and became the universal language for designers and developers alike. The question is, what are the reasons why CSS is much more useful than the use of HTML tables?
Several advantages has been cited on the use of CSS in web design. Some of those advantages are as follows:
* Faster loading of pages
* Efficient and easy
* Consistency
* SEO friendly
* Accessibility
* Maintainability
* Usability
* Sophisticated layouts and designs
* Bandwidth efficient
Faster Loading of Pages
One common problem of using tables for web layout is the slow loading process. This is usually caused by using too much markup tags in one HTML file such as “td align”, “td width”, “bgcolor”, “width”, “height”, “br”, “font face”, “font color”, “cellpadding”, “cellspacing”, “border”, etc along with the content of the HTML. CSS makes up for this by separating the content of the web page which is text and images into the HTML file and the visual presentation such as the web design, positioning, and text sizes into a CSS file. In a CSS-based layout, table tags or markups are replaced by using its own language such as the popular “div”. This replacements includes:
* Instead of the usual table tags such as td align or td width, CSS have replaced this by using “divs”.
* Removed all layout editing markups such as height, width, cellpadding, cellspacing, border, bgcolor, font tags from the HTML. All layouts are found in the CSS file.
* header tags such as h1 or h2 are used for font tags headings.
* Breakline tags (br) is not used.
Because CSS have cut the use of too much markups, websites can load a lot faster than using tables which is good when attracting visitors to a website. Visit an online Web design Philippines site to learn more about CSS and its use in web design.
Efficient and Easy
As mentioned above, by using CSS, the layout of the HTML is separated from the content thus allowing a quicker, efficient, and easier redesign. Tables would require more time as the HTML content and layout tags are in the same file. By simply editing the CSS file, designers could easily rearrange the size or the color of an element found in a website.
Consistency
In relation with the above statements, web designers can easily redesign the whole website by just editing the CSS file. Unlike the use of table in which a designer would have to open every HTML file just to edit a simple element found in every page such as a header, CSS can offer an easy way to edit it all in one CSS file. All it takes is opening the CSS file, edit the elements found in the header (such as width, height, etc), and re-upload it.
SEO Friendly
There are several reasons to this. This reasons are:
* Because CSS is much faster to load than tables, search engine spiders could easily crawl through the website.
* Because CSS doesn’t require too much markup which makes it easier for search engine spiders to crawl the website.
* The use of header tags such as h1, h2, or h3 makes it easier for the search engine spiders to determine the information in a website.
* The use of Javascripts for visual effects are replaced by CSS’ own effect engine which makes it more SEO friendly.
Accessibility
Because of the Internet’s rapid growth, disability discrimination legislation, and the increasing use of mobile phones and PDAs, it is necessary for Web content to be made accessible to users operating a wide variety of devices. Tableless Web design considerably improves Web accessibility in this respect. Screen readers and braille devices have fewer problems with tableless designs because they follow a logical structure.
As a result of the separation of design (CSS) and structure (HTML), it is also possible to provide different layouts for different devices, e.g. handhelds, mobile phones, etc. It is also possible to specify a different style sheet for print, e.g. to hide or modify the appearance of advertisements or navigation elements that are irrelevant and a nuisance in the printable version of the page. For more web design and development solutions, then visit an online Web design Philippines site.
Maintainability
Under table-based layout, the layout is part of the HTML itself. As such, without the aid of template-based visual editors such as HTML editors, changing the positional layout of elements on a whole site may require a great deal of effort, depending on the amount of repetitive changes required. Even employing sed or similar global find-and-replace utilities cannot alleviate the problem entirely.
By use of CSS, virtually all of the layout information resides in one place. Because the layout information is centralized, these changes can be made quickly and globally by default. The HTML files themselves do not, usually, need to be adjusted when making layout changes. If they do, it is usually to add class-tags to specific markup elements or to change the grouping of various sections with respect to one another.
Usability
By combining CSS with the functionality of a Content Management System, a considerable amount of flexibility can be programmed into content submission forms. This allows a contributor, who may not be familiar or able to understand or edit CSS or HTML code to select the layout of an article or other page they are submitting on-the-fly, in the same form.
Sophisticated Layouts and Designs
Unlike the use of tables, CSS offers freedom in designing. Because of the rigid, inflexible, and grid based form of tables, designers cannot utilize their potential in designing. CSS offers absolute positioning of elements paired with the z-index property allows CSS-based designs to position elements on top of one another (like layers in Photoshop), allowing for more unique, complex, and beautiful layouts.
Bandwidth Efficient
A stylesheet will usually be stored in the browser cache, and can therefore be used on multiple pages without being reloaded, increasing download speeds and reducing data transfer over a network. Visit a Web design Philippines site to get the solution you needed with your website.
Optimind Technology Solutions is an internet marketing company with operations in the Philippines offering SEO Philippines, web design and development smo interactive cd development, flash games development, flash 2d animation and mobile application development.
Article Source: Top 10 Reasons Why CSS is Better than HTML Tables
Before you start fiddling around with HTML editors, FTP clients, and Domain registrations, its important to have at least a basic understanding of how all this works. This Website creation overview gives you an easy to understand look at what the process of building your own Website really involves.
A website is a collection of files that work together to form a unified whole. These various files, from images to HTML documents and PHP scripts, or instructional software, are organized by a Web browser and displayed appropriately on a computer monitor.
Website creation is essentially the process arranging information in a way that can be translated by Web browsing software, such as Internet Explorer, and presented to human viewers. To do this correctly youll need to gain a basic understanding of coding languages like HTML, CSS, and possibly PHP.
The process of coding your site is literally the activity of entering numerous individual lines of alphanumeric code that tell the Web browser how to format and display your Web page. While seemingly complex at first, the truth is learning the most basic Web development code (HTML) is less complicated than learning to use the English alphabet.
Once you learn what the various command codes actually do, your next step is to practice organizing them in a structured manner within an HTML document. This is not unlike the process of creating a word processing document and saving it; the only difference is that instead of sentences and paragraphs youll be entering HTML tags and attributes.
Once your files are complete, theyll need to be added to your Web host so other Internet users can access them. The Web host, or server, is a powerful computer that operates around the clock.
It is here that all the files and data that make up your Website will be stored. And youll need to register a domain name and synchronize this domain with your host machine so people can type an easily remembered Web address into their browser and literally navigate to your Website by establishing a connection with your host server.
In addition to learning how to create and save basic HTML documents, Website creation requires some level of proficiency in transferring files between your computer and a Web server. This is called File Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short.
To do this, youll need a software tool called an FTP client. This utility is installed on your desktop and can instantly form a connection with your Web host, allowing you to upload files to the Web or download them to your machine.
It is also recommended that you become familiar with the directory structure and hosting control panel your Web host provides. This will make it easier for you to manage your Website.
This sounds like a lot of work. But the truth is the average Internet user can become basically versed in all of this within 30 days or less if he or she puts forth an effort to learn.
Its beyond the scope of this article to delve into the specifics of any particular technique. But I hope at this point you at least have an understanding of what is involved in learning the Website Creation process.
Download your free Website Wizard software plus get loads of free Internet marketing information by visiting the author’s site now: http://www.realtimeinternetmarketing.com Visit Website Creation Simplified: Brief Overview Of The Nuts And Bolts.
Article Source: Website Creation Simplified: Brief Overview Of The Nuts And Bolts
One of the key factors that influences the success of your website on the World Wide Web is the performance of your web pages. All it requires is to make some tweaks at your end and you can make your web pages perform well.
The front end performance is a crucial area where you can work on to improvise the website performance. Front end includes your HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images on the website that can be accessed easily. Here are some tips to speed up your web pages and make them perform better.
Identify Heavy Components
Large images or components have huge file sizes that makes the web page heavy and further increases its page loading time. As a result, the website takes a long time to load and get displayed on the user screen. Thus it is important to identify these heavy components and optimize them accordingly.
Profile your web pages and key in on unduly heavy components that can either be done away with completely or can be optimized to suit your requirements. It will help you analyze its size and how long it takes to load. Ideally, you should aim to restrict page components under 25 KB.
Use Appropriate Image Formats
The best way to optimize images is to store them properly. Some of the most common file formats to save images are JPEG, GIF and PNG.
JPEG – It is used to save realistic photographs that have multiples shades of colors and smooth gradients.
GIF and PNG – They are used for images, primarily graphics that have solid colors. Though both of them are quite similar. PNG produces a relatively lower file size.
Compress CSS and JavaScript Documents
Compressing CSS and JavaScript documents involves removal of unnecessary characters like tabs, spaces, comments etc. from the source code in order to reduce the file size.
There are a number of free tools available on the internet that help to reformat your code and compress the CSS and JavaScript documents. However, do make sure that you are using good quality online applications that also give you the ability to reverse the formatting through the development process.
Merge CSS and JavaScript Files
By combining the CSS and JavaScript files, you can reduce the number of HTTP requests to the server. This is because an individual HTTP request is created to the server for all the components required to render a web page. Therefore, for each CSS file that you have, a separate HTTP gets requests for the web page. When you combine all the files, only one HTTP request is required to generate a web page.
Use CSS Sprites
CSS Sprites are combinations of smaller images into one big image. For this image to be displayed correctly, you need to adjust the background position CSS attribute. This is a great way to reduce HTTP requests by compiling several images and bulking them together as one. This way the HTTP requests are reduced and the web pages are able to load faster.
Though you can do this manually, there are also several web based tools that offers the option to upload images to be combined into one single CSS sprite and then delivers the CSS code to render the images.
Kabir Bedi is a Indian web designer who works as a senior web consultant with LeXolution IT Services. The company is an industry leader in Outsource website maintenance services and he contributes his in depth knowledge about the web industry in order to formulate effctive web solutions for clients.
Article Source: How To Enhance The Online Performance Of Your Website?
Your website is the online face of your business – so it’s important to look your best. However, it’s not enough just to look nice. Business websites, particularly e-commerce driven sites, need solid, reliable and secure coding and development under the hood.
It’s easy for anyone to claim they’re a designer these days. WYSIWYG editors such as Microsoft FrontPage, free hosting and design packages, free website templates and pre-made blog skins mean that it’s possible to look semi-decent without any knowledge of coding or design principles.
However, for business critical websites you need an agency that understands design, e-commerce, HTML, CSS, dynamic scripts and languages, application development, web standards and search engine optimisation.
What to look for first?
First of all, any designer or web agency that you work with should be able to demonstrate a strong portfolio of previous work. There’s no better way to judge the quality and experience of an agency than by seeing their work for yourself.
Of course, if a web design agency has been established for a long period of time, with a good selection of ongoing clients, this suggests that they offer a reliable, quality service.
What should an agency offer?
Web design is both a creative and technical skill. However, many people are baffled by the coding expertise and services a web design company offers. The best agencies offer a full range of business website services, but you should at least ensure they offer the following:
– Bespoke manual HTML and CSS coding (not from an editor or template)
– JavaScript, PHP, Flash and other dynamic scripts and languages
– Basic search engine optimisation (such as creating meta tags, titles, effective headers etc.)
– W3C-compliant code
– e-commerce solutions (such as shopping carts and secure online payments)
– Bespoke content management systems
– Offer social media functions, such as forums, blogs, comments and linking
Of course, you may not need every one of these areas for your website. However, if your designer can demonstrate ability in each skill it’s a good sign that they’re professional and competent.
Briefs and processes
When requesting a brief, the design agency should ask clear, insightful questions and answer any concerns or issues that you bring up. Similarly, they should make it clear how the project will progress.
For example, they may provide estimated time scales, details of key stages when draft designs can be approved, instructions for design amendments etc. Of course, all quotes and project details should be laid out clearly and leave nothing to chance. It should also be agreed in advance who will own the copyright of the design and coding upon completion. It’s a common misconception that it automatically transfers to the client upon purchase.
How much?
Of course it’s tempting to go for the cheapest option – but there is some truth in the maxim that you always get what you pay for. No respectable (and successful) web design agency should charge extortionate amounts. However, if you want a professional looking e-commerce site with expert functionality and a unique look, then expect to pay more than a few hundred pounds.
Oliver Pluckrose is the Head of Development for Online Business Solutions UK Limited (OBS Group) – one of the most experienced team of website developers in London. Formed in 1998, OBS Group’s ethos has always been to provide simple, end user-driven web design and e-commerce solutions for a sensible, fixed price.
Article Source: Website design supplier selection criteria
What to choose? The easiest way to come to an end with that predicament is outlining what you want your website to deliver and then outlining the pros and cons of both Flash and HTML websites.
Flash Websites
Advantages:
No Design Limitation
Ever since the advent of web design, designers have been waiting for a miracle technology using which they would not have to worry about browser compatibility, tables, divs, layers, absolute/relative placement of objects and place their design elements anywhere on the screen.
You can embed any font of your choice without having to worry about the fonts the visitor has on his machine. No need to convert them to images anymore.
You can integrate any file format into your website, e.g. jpeg, gif, png, tif, vector files, mp3, wav, mpeg, avi etc.
Expandable/Contractible Design
The size of the display will adjust according to the browser window. This would become more evident when more users will access websites from cell phones, PDAs, car displays or any medium other than the desktop computers.
Interactivity
Flash gives great interactivity options for a more eye-catching multimedia experience. It allows you to add sound, i.e. speech or music, digital videos, 3d animations which allow you to demonstrate products and services in a more exciting manner. Including digital videos or 3d animations using flash permits more accessibility as compared to Media Player, Real Player and QuickTime.
Preloading
You can preload the whole flash website while making coffee and view the website without having to reload/refresh the page every time you want to see a new page.
Disadvantages:
Longer download time
Flash websites may take longer to download on the client browser as they are heavier than HTML/CSS websites. It can be frustrating for those who just need to get contact information off of the website while have low internet connection speed.
Plugin Download
Running a flash website on your browser requires you to download the latest flash player and with a lot of networks not allowing downloads on their user’s computers.
Search Engine Access
Search Engines cannot access the content within flash animations, therefore making it hard for flash websites to get indexed by Search Engines.
Printing website content
It’s easier to print content from html websites, if the crucial content in your flash website is animated, it would be nearly impossible for the user to print it for later use.
HTML/CSS Websites:
Advantages:
Search Engine Friendly
Search engines were originally built to index and list text-rich HTML documents, therefore this is the most search engine friendly document type available thus far.
Cost Effectiveness
HTML websites are more cost effective as compared to flash websites. Designing and updating a website in HTML takes far less time and cost than Flash websites.
Low Maintenance
HTML/CSS websites require minimal maintenance. If you need to change the website layout, you can do so by simply editing the CSS without having to touch the content of the website, while on the other hand in Flash the whole website would have to be republished.
Disadvantages:
Design Limitation
You may not be able to blow away the visitor with the animated, interactive design of your website.
Browser compatibility
There are browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Safari, Opera etc. A lot of people use different versions of these browsers with all of them supporting different features. Designers have to put in extra effort to make the website appear same in all browsers. This might often mean rewriting code to make it appear the same in all browsers.
With that being said, we must add that with the technology changing at the split of a second, Flash too will change. CSS and HTML have reached the peak and they still cannot do things that Flash can.
We, along with a lot of other web design professionals foresee the content in flash websites becoming more search engine friendly in the future, till then, if you’re looking for an interactivity rich impressive website, go for Flash and if you need a search engine friendly website, use HTML/CSS.
Flash often allow features that will enable your visitors to interact with the various applications on your website such as games, which of course will be, bring more visitors. In most cases, all browsers support flash so you will not have to worry if your website design is compatible. Every item created in flash will look exactly the same on all browsers.
About the Author:
Design Box is full-service advertising agency specializing in Branding, Interactive, and Print services. For more information, visit Design Box under Flash Website Kuwait , Kuwait Website Design and Multimedia Presentation Kuwait.
Article Source: Flash or No Flash
You must be thinking that why I am tucked with XHTML or designing only. In my last article I had talked about the evolution or birth of the language and its miracles. The effect and reach of this particular language is basically due to its predecessor HTML which was and still is very much live into memory of web developers, may be few designers too. These lines must be giving you the taste of my last article titled “Glimpse From: HTML to XHTML” .
But in this one I am making it different. I always love to write about the newbie sin the industry so that they can understand the whole concept. For experts of these languages there are many online tutorials and videos, but no attention is being given for new born.
XHTML refers to the Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language, mainly used for designing websites. W3C is an organization which has set some parameters and strict rules to use this language. All the coding of the respective website must be done according to the rules set by it. These rules are made to bring a consistency among all web pages on the internet. The coding of the pages is a big criterion for pages to run properly in different browsers.
A page coded in XHTML from any image format must run successfully in all popular browsers, at least. The coding of an image into XHTML/HTML/CSS markup is called slicing in web designing industry. These coding are done manually by most of the service providers. There must not be any use of softwares in converting the image format into XHTML or any other, other wise the quality of the image can corrupt. Almost all the service providers in the web designing industry claim to do coding manually and I believe, they do it as well. Manual coding gives a set of neat and clean code, which can be read by other if, wish to do so.
XHTML being a light weighted code loads a website faster and delivers better speed. So those who are browsing in low bandwidth can also surf your website without any loading problem. So ultimately XHTML makes your website more friendly with the end user.
Xhtml.pixelcrayons.com converts your design files from various common image formats (PSD, JPG, GIF, PNG, AI) into best quality cross-browser compatible W3C validated XHTML/CSS markup. Check xhtml.pixelcrayons for our PSD to XHTML Conversion and PSD slicing services.
Article Source: Why XHTML is a necessity?