Stephanie Leary

Writer and WordPress consultant

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Designing With Web Standards

June 10, 2003 Stephanie Leary

I’ve been reading Jeffrey Zeldman’s new book, Designing With Web Standards, in my spare moments at work. It’s delightful (as tech books go). It makes me giggle at least once per chapter.

If you’re already a convert to CSS/XHTML design, this book might not do you much good, unless you want to be an evangelist and give it to all your friends. It doesn’t get into the technical stuff until chapter 10 or so—everything prior to that is about why standards matter, how browsers (and then designers) got everything wrong, and the basics of CSS-based design.

Flip to p. 195 for an entertaining assessment of Microsoft.com‘s source code. (The phrases “toilet junk” and “tragic effort” make an appearance.)

Don’t miss the chicken dinner discussion on p. 307.

Seriously, Zeldman does an amazing job of covering the ins and outs of standards-based, accessible design. The one thing I think he missed in his discussion of accesskeys is the brute-force method of letting people know they’re there, the accessibility statement. I’ll let that one slide, though, because he’s the first author who’s been able to write about Javascript in a way that makes sense to me. In fact, based on the examples, I’m going to run right out and build a couple of sortable tables for work. (Saves me building a couple of databases, it will.)

He devotes chapter 13 to the ridiculously difficult subject of text sizing. An appropriate chapter for that subject, methinks. Here’s the closing:

This has been Chapter 13. Now, in the words of Clint Eastwood, “Do you feel lucky?”

Who would, faced with esoteric subjects like 16px/96ppi default browser settings?

Someone who has this book, that’s who.

Books

Fascism Watch

The Fascism Watch is a daily(ish) news roundup. View all the previous Fascism Watch posts »

Latest WordPress Book

Content Strategy for WordPress

A short book for content strategists and managers on implementing a complete content strategy in WordPress: evaluation, analysis, content modeling, editing and workflows, and long-term planning and maintenance.

Read the sample chapter

Kindle Nook iBooks Kobo Smashwords

WordPress for Web Developers

WordPress for Web Developers (9781430258667)

This is a book for professional web designers and developers who already know HTML and CSS, and want to learn to build sites with WordPress. The book begins with a detailed tour of the administration screens and settings, then digs into server-side topics like performance and security. The second half of the book is devoted to development: learning to build WordPress themes and plugins.

This is the second, much-revised and updated edition of Beginning WordPress 3, with a more accurate title. Everything’s been updated for WordPress 3.6.

WordPress for Web Developers is out now. See what's inside...

The best WordPress features you’ve never noticed

  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Screen Options
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Bulk Edit
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Private Status
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Dashboard Feed Readers
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Options.php

Content Modeling for WordPress series

  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 1: analyze content
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 2: functional and organizational requirements
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 3: a sample content model

This is an excerpt from Content Strategy for WordPress.My latest books are Content Strategy for WordPress (2015) and WordPress for Web Developers (2013). Sign up to be notified when I have a new book for you.

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