Archive for November, 2007
Sunday Design Resource - Issue 2
For the second issue of the Sunday Design Resource, we’ll be pointing out some HTML Tutorial websites. These websites cover all aspects of web design, beginning with the basics and going through hints, tricks and optimizing your code to make it W3C Compliant.
W3C Website. Probably the first, most complete and up-to-date HTML tutorials website. W3C is the abbreviation to World Wide Web Consortium, and it’s an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C’s goal is :
To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.
On this website you’ll find everything you need to know about HTML, and not only HTML. There are extensive resources about CSS, also. The downside is accessing that information. The site’s navigation is pretty basic, being organized just like the contents of a book (organized by chapters). Getting to the HTML part requires some dose of intuition, but once you get there all your questions will be answered. The information database is vast containing everything you need to know about HTML, including the latest developments in this field (HTML5). As a conclusion, navigation aside this is the website you wanna visit if you want to learn all about HTML.
If you’re looking for web design and other services for your company, our site can help promote your online business with business checks and magnets as well.
W3Schools is a website containing information about all aspects of web development, from basic HTML training to advanced .NET tutorials.
The website’s navigation is very good and intuitive, consisting of a left column with the topic you want to learn about (HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, ASP etc). The HTML part is excellently organized using the same navigation style as stated before. It’s divided into 2 main chapters (Basic and Advanced). After reading the basic and advanced tutorials you have the opportunity to check you knowledges by taking a quiz, or even by taking an exam (for about 60$) which will grant you the title of Certified HTML Developer at the end. What we liked about this website were the HTML examples. The example database is quite extensive and covers all the aspects of HTML. As a conclusion W3Schools in an excellent website with tons of information, but a bit hard to read because each page is a bit too “loaded”.
HTML Code Tutorial. This website is not as complete as the other two. It’s build as a beginners guide to HTML and CSS.
Although not as complex as W3C and W3Schools, the website has an excellent navigation system. The content is organized by topics. An interesting thing is that the website offers a Popular Articles Section. A big minus is the site’s search system. It’s not self implemented, it’s a Google Search Box. What we really loved about this website is the forum. It’s pretty big, with lots of helpful users and topics. You find here answers to any problem you may have. Concluding, HTML Code Tutorial is a good website with a decent amount of information, an excellent navigation system (needed as the search function is pretty basic) a great forum with lots of helpful members, but with a bit too much advertising.
Additional HTML resources :
zaBox.net - Social Networking with style
We believe that the future of the Internet will be focused on social interaction between users. Social communities are just starting to come into our lives, entertain us, “un-bore” us and connect us with people half-way around the world. We believe there’s still much to be said in the field of social networking. That’s why we launched zaBox.
It’s an online social networking website built around the individual. The main focus is you, the member, what you like to do, what you like to listen to, what events you like to go to, what defines you.
Here’s a list of some of the features :
- Audio / Video Messenger with text formatting, smilesets and file sharing
- Audio Video Chat
- Music Player
- Internet Radio organized by music genre
- Video Player
- zaBox Boards, a new way to express yourself
- Web Presence
- phpBB community forum
- Customizable profile view
- Invite / tell a friend with Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, MSN and Hotmail automated import funtion.
- New members (auto-displaying of photos of latest registered users on the main page)
- “Online/Offline” user status
- Personal Media Gallery (audio, video and pictures albums and categories)
- Personal Blog
- Friends List
- Guestbook
- Events
- Classifieds
- Gmail Like Mailbox Conversations Archive
- Speed dating events subscription
- Top-rated profiles lookup
- Newsletter
- Automatic photos upload system
- Password-protected members’ photos
- Messenger with storing system
- Media (video and audio support for profiles)
- Configurable Flash-based online live-chat system
- HotList (buddies, favorites)
- Block members (members can block all correspondence from certain members)
- Support of A/V Instant Messenger and A/V Chat by Ray Web Multimedia Software
Probably the most important feature is that is spam-free, and 100% safe (a member doesn’t have direct access to your email address).
We hope to see you on zaBox.
Cool CSS animated menu - MacOS style
Ever wondered how they made that cool MacOS bottom menu, with icons that become larger when the cursor is on top of them? Well .. with some neat tricks.
This CSS Animated Menu does exactly that. It’s based on JQuery Java script library and Fisheye component from Interface. It’s 100% compatible with IE 6, IE 7, Opera 9, Firefox 2, and Safari 2. You may see a demo here and you can download and find out how to implement it in your HTML page here.
