Andy Boyd

I spent about an hour looking for a pre-made 3 faux-column css template and couldn’t find one.. Finally, I found this site.  This is the ultimate css layout repository…  Well, ultimate in my mind:

http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/ 

Check out this great article on CSS Positioning…

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/web_design_101_positioning/

It’s been a while since I’ve read much about CSS, although I do need to work on my standards compliance..  However, this is a great “refresher” on how to write better XHTML/CSS.

http://www.search-this.com/2007/03/26/10-quick-tips-for-an-easier-css-life/

Just when you thought you ran out of reasons to curse the name of Microsoft… another reason rears it’s ugly head

“Well it looks as if Microsoft has screwed up royally with Outlook 2007, at least insofar as the way HTML emails are rendered. Instead of using the not-too-shabby Internet Explorer 7 rendering engine to display HTML emails, Microsoft opted to use a customized version of the Word 2007 rendering engine. That’s right, from now on your beautifully constructed HTML newsletters are going to be rendered by the crime against layout known as Microsoft Word. That fact alone was enough to send shivers down my spine, but when I dug a little deeper I discovered just how dire the situation really is.” - http://f6design.com/journal/2007/01/10/microsoft-drops-the-ball-with-outlook-2007/

When I’m trying to design a site, I often need a little inspiration to get the ball rolling…  I’ve found that a lot of the ‘css’ showcase sites have EXCELLENT designs.  I found this list of ‘css’ showcase sites on http://tanyamerone.com/.  Enjoy….

• Best Web Gallery
• CSS Beauty
• CSS Blast
• CSS Bloom
• CSS Clip
• CSS Drive
• CSS Elite
• CSS Galleries
• CSS Hazard
• CSS Heaven
• CSS Import
• CSS Love
• CSS Mania
• CSS Princess
• CSS Reboot
• CSS Remix
• CSS Thesis
• CSS Tux
• CSS Vault
• CSS Website
• The Daily Slurp
• Dark Eye
• Inspiration King
• Netcocktail
• One Pixel Army
• Perfection
• Refresh
• Screenalicio.us
• Screenfluent
• Styleboost
• Style Crunch
• Submit CSS
• Unmatched Style
• W3C Sites
• Web Creme

It is estimated that around 12.7 websites are in need of ‘re-working’ with the release of IE 7.  Why… because IE 7 fixed some css bugs which web developers were using to ensure proper display across browsers.

For more information about outdated hacks/IE 7 issues, read this article:
http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/wake-up-and-smell-the-ie7

The suggested workaround is to use the Micorsoft proprietary conditional comments to ‘test’ for the version of the browser.  These conditional comments are supported as valid XHTML markup, but ignored by browsers other than IE.  You can use these to supply IE7 with one set of styles, and older versions of IE with another.

There are so many CSS navigation tutorials and techniques.  This is a great ‘library’ of some popular CSS navigation techniques.  There’s nothing new under the sun… so instead of trying to create your own from scratch, use this:

http://alvit.de/css-showcase/css-navigation-techniques-showcase.php