Archive for html
Static HTML Pages vs CMS Generated Sites
Posted by: | CommentsWeb development is an essential aspect of the internet industry, being directly responsible for the origin of user-friendly interfaces that we enjoy on a daily basis. There are many ways to design a site, from advanced programming platforms to simple site builders that are included with eCommerce hosting plans, each one accommodating the needs of various webmaster skill levels. A type of web development that has become incredibly popular in the last few years has been CMS site creation.
A CMS (Content Management System) is essentially a web based application included with most hosting plans that let you design, organize, and manage your web sites with ease. In essence, webmasters that use CMS to create their sites are considered new school, while those that still utilize static HTML pages are considered to be old school. In this articles we’ll discuss some of the differences between the two so that you can make an informed decision for your own web sites.
Simplicity
As a developer, using static HTML pages gives you limited functionality unless you’re highly proficient with various programming languages that can be utilized within certain frameworks. Basically, it is much more difficult to express yourself as a developer using static HTML pages because it requires a great amount of skill to match the quality of a CMS generated page. With a CMS you can utilize templates that give you a head start in the development process, and you can also add, delete, or edit content on your pages through the convenient user interface. Creating a web site consisting of HTML pages requires you to create each page individually, whereas CMS templates apply to the entire web site.
Functionality
Content management systems can be improved and expanded upon infinitely because they are open source software. As a result, there are hundreds of plugins available for popular CMS like WordPress, all of which enhance the functionality of the software allowing you to perform tasks that were previously impossible, or simplifying tasks that are currently mundane. Some content management systems even have SEO plugins that will improve your search engine ranking. Instead of designing a page from scratch you use predesigned templates, and then simply edit the CSS/Style sheet of the template to change colors, font, borders, and various other aspects of the site’s formatting.
Conclusion
If you want to continuously maintain your page without having to edit HTML coding repeatedly then you should strongly considered the superior functionality of a good content management system. On the other hand, if you want to improve your skills as a developer and create completely original pages from scratch then it may be advantageous to learn some HTML. Learning HTML is certainly beneficial for most web developers, as it enhances their ability to edit or even create new CMS themes. However, if you decide to use content management system templates then the only programming language that you really need to understand is CSS.
19 Links to Help Stimulate Your Inner Designer
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Finding design inspiration, for any webmaster, can sometimes be tough. We have searched the Web, far and wide, for some of the most inspirational design web sites out there – to help you find your creative muse. From art galleries to tutorials, there is a little something here for both design newbies to advanced design professionals.
Here are our top picks when it comes to finding the best ideas and inspirations for designs of all natures.
DeviantArt.com
Where ART meets application!
Design Solutions on Flickr
A great collection of site parts and ideas, for design inspiration.
BrowserShots.org
Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers.
PatternTap.com
Interface collection for design inspiration!
Getting Started with HTML
Great six part series, to help introduce you to the world of HTML.
Tagul.com
Awesome looking tag cloud designs!
ScrnShots.com
ScrnShots is the best way to take, find, and share screenshots of web and screen based design.
Toondoo.com
ToonDoo is a unique way to get creative and expressive with comic strips.
99designs.com
Designer Marketplace for Logo Designs and More…
Webdosanddonts.com
Snack-sized web design tips and tricks!
IconBuffet.com
Free Icons, Stock Icons, Custom Icon Design.
img4me.com
A free text to image service.
So, what do you do?
Really funny web designer flow chart!
WooThemes.com
Great quality premium WordPress themes!
fontstruct.fontshop.com
Build, share and download tons of custom fonts!
DesignFloat.com
A Digg-like social news web site for designers!
Flash-Template-Design.com
Great professional looking flash and non-flash templates for web sites!
RedBubble.com
RedBubble is an online art gallery and creative community that makes it easy to buy and sell art as high-quality framed prints, greeting cards, posters, designer T-Shirts and more.
TV.Adobe.com
Your online source for expert insight and inspiration.
So there are our picks, now which web sites would you add to the list? Let us know your favorite design web sites in the comments!
How to Change Links with CSS
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Links, like just about any other part of a web page, can also be made to look different with some CSS code. Using a CSS, you can easily change the color of link, the size, the background and much more.
Before we get started though, there are four different link states that you may want modify. They are:
- a:link – just your run-of-the-mill regular link
- a:visited – a link that somebody has visited
- a:hover – the effect to the link when somebody mouses over it
- a:active – how a link looks the moment it is clicked
Now that you know the four different link states, how can you modify them?
When adding CSS code to modify the way your links look in a page, you can use just about any CSS property out there. Here are some common link styles you may want to play with.
Take Away the Underline for Links with CSS
If you want to take away the underline from links, try setting the text-decoration CSS property to “none”.
a:link {text-decoration:none;}
a:visited {text-decoration:none;}
a:hover {text-decoration:underline;}
a:active {text-decoration:underline;}
Change the Colors of Links with CSS
Another quick and easy styling tip would be to change the background color or the color of the links themselves. You can do that by using the “color” and “background-color” link properties. Here is an example:
a:link {color:#336699; background-color:#B2FF99;}
a:visited {color:#336699; background-color:#FFFF85;}
a:hover {color:#003366; background-color:#FF704D;}
a:active {color:#003366; background-color:#FF704D;}
Using More Than One Link Style on the Same Page
As an example, let us say you want the box on the left to have blue links, and the box on the right to have red links, all on the same web page. You can do that by using context dependent selectors. The thing to remember is to put the section’s id, class, or span name before the link code like so:
.box1 a:link {color:#336699;}
.box2 a:link {color:#335544;}
I hope that serves a a good introduction into the basics of styling links using cascading style sheet code. This will help you make your links on your web sites more unique to the look and feel that you want your own web site to have.
Tip: When setting the style for several link states, there are some order rules:
- a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited
- a:active MUST come after a:hover
Lunarpages November Newsletter
Posted by: | CommentsFall is here in full swing, but do not let that get you down. The only thing falling at Lunarpages, is our prices! Both the Business hosting plan and Quicksite have received price cuts for new customers - but that is not all. We have an entire series of tutorials, articles, news topics and more to share with you this November.
Here is what we have lined up for you this month:
What big news is going on in the month of November? From web hosting plan savings, to how you can stay up to date with everything we publish; there is a little something for everybody. Get up to date with the latest web hosting news to come out of the Lunarpages headquarters.
A few issues back, we introduced you to the great web site error checker, DeepTrawl. Well, now we are happy to announce that we are giving to you the full featured DeepTrawl Lunarpages Edition, totally free of charge!
How to Setup Anti-Spam Controls in LPCP
We have spoken before about the great features that come included with the new LPCP control panel. This time around, we are going to share with you how to easy it is to set up your anti-spam controls so you can keep the unsolicited e-mails out of your inbox, for good.
Getting More Visitors with Google AdWords
Lunarpages has teamed up with Google AdWords to give all first time advertisers an easy way to get their web sites out there to the public. Depending on the hosting plan you have, you could be eligible for up to $100 worth of free Google AdWords credit. We are here to help you get your Google AdWords advertising account started off on the right foot.
In an effort to help webmasters of every skill level, we have put together one of the most comprehensive guides to getting started with HTML. Created exclusively for Lunarpages customers in mind, we have put together a six part tutorial series that will educate you about the hyper text markup language.
Lunar Picks – What Gadget Are You Thankful For?
It is November, which means that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. To put a geeky spin on this favorite holiday of ours, we decided to ask the Lunarpages crew what their favorite gadgets are, and why are they thankful for them.
Setup Your Own “Share on Facebook” Button
One of the most popular social networks out there, by a big margin, is Facebook. You can now easily jump onto this social bandwagon by adding a “Share on Facebook” button to your own web site layout. This way, people can instantly share your web site with all their friends, family members and followers.
How to Password Protect Your Hosted Folders
Password protection is a good way to keep people out of a folder, or let a select group of people in. To give you more control and functionality, we recently added this feature to our LPCP powered hosting accounts. In this guide, we will walk you through the steps you need to take to password protect your own folders.
3 Fool Proof Ways to Advertise Any Web Site
Driving traffic to your web site is not always an easy thing to do. One of the most popular questions we get asked is, “how can I get more web site visitors?” This month, we have come up with three excellent and cost effective ways to get your web site known to the public at large.
View Your Page in Multiple Browsers Online!
With the help of Adobe’s BrowserLab, you can check to see how your web site looks on several different browsers and operating systems, virtually. This tool provides you a quick and easy way to check out your domain without having to install numerous browsers.
Over 20 Links for Statistical Stats
You can not mention web sites without mentioning statistics. Many of us webmasters love checking our web site traffic every day. This month, in our look at the best links from around the Web, we are focusing on the 20 best links for statistical and analytical statistics.
That is it for this month’s edition of the Lunarpages Newsletter. We hope you enjoy this collection of articles, tutorials, tips and more we have created especially for you, the Lunarpages clients and customers. We always enjoy hearing your feedback, so please feel free to leave a comment or send your opinions to affiliate@lunarpages.com.
Getting Started with HTML
Posted by: | CommentsHere at Lunarpages, we like to share with our customers and clients all the different ways they can use their web hosting accounts. Often lost in all the geeky talk, is the fact that there are lots of people out there who may not be HTML experts. There is nothing wrong with that, and in fact we would love to help. That is what inspired me to create this six part tutorial on learning the basics about the hypertext markup language (HTML for short).
Hyper Text Markup Language, or as you know it HTML, is the markup language for most web pages on the Internet. Now, it is not exactly a language like English or Spanish, which we communicate with orally. A markup language is a system for editing text in a way that changes how the text looks or how you interact with it. Where you use funny looking code to make one section of text look different from the other, the code in question is not seen by the end user. The server the web page is coming from, and the user’s browser come together to help mesh it together as something that is seen as visually appealing to the end user.
Tutorial #2 – Parts of a Web Page, Explained
Before you learn how to create your own web page, you need to learn what all the parts of the web site do, and what they are there for. We covered some of these in the Basics of HTML tutorial, but I am going to mention those again and a few more you need for a basic HTML web page. All web pages are written with a mix of content and code, and you must learn how to mix these elements correctly for your web site to come out looking correctly.
Tutorial #3 – Web Site Navigation
The navigation section of your web site is one of the most important factors to a web site. Why? The navigation is what allows you to move from one section of the web site to the next, linking web pages to web pages, and in all making a web site work. Here I hope to explain why web site navigation is important, along with a few other key factors you should remember when creating your web site.
Tutorial #4 – Body Tag Modifiers
There are several HTML tags that can act as modifiers to how the web page looks visually. First, let us re-visit the body tags. The body tags are there to tell the browser what part of the document is going to be visible to the end user when viewing the web page. This is marked up in your HTML code by putting a <body> where your web page’s content begins and a </body> tags where it ends.
Tutorial #5 – HTML Formatting Tags
When it comes to formatting a web page using HTML code, you can think of it (kind of) in the same way you would look at formatting a document formatted by a word processor. You have your headlines to show you where one section starts and stops. You have your paragraphs to break up blocks of text, and you have line breaks to show where there should be a new line started. Now I am going to show you how to get some of these things done using HTML.
Tutorial #6 – More HTML Formatting Tags
We have already covered some basic HTML tags you will use when writing your web page code. Here are a few more that you might find come in handy, when designing your own web page.
That is it for this tutorial round up – hope it is something you can all enjoy and get a lot of use out of. If there is another series of tutorials you would like to see – let us know in the comments. There is nothing I like more than making sure you all know what to do with your hosting account, after you get it.
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View Your Page in Multiple Browsers Online!
Posted by: | CommentsWant quickly to test your web site’s design in a number of different browsers? Adobe’s BrowserLab will get the job done.
While hardcore designers may rather test the real browsers in real running environments, this tool provides you a quick and easy way to check out your domain without having to install numerous browsers. It does it all from the Web. Right now you can test in:
- Firefox 2.0 – Windows XP or OS X
- Firefox 3.0 – Windows XP or OS X
- Internet Explorer 6.0 – Windows XP
- Internet Explorer 7.0 – Windows XP
- Internet Explorer 8.0 – Windows XP
- Safari 3.0 – OS X
- Safari 4.0 OS X
Another cool feature is the Onion Skin view, which will lay one browser preview over on top of another one, to give you a real side by side comparison between the two, to help you fix and glitches there might be.
So sign up and give it a shot at browserlab.adobe.com.
Bonus: Looking for an alternative? Check out BrowserShots.org!