To FootI am only considering text-based informative pages, free of any form of "Art".
IMHO, your web text pages will be better appreciated if you bear in mind the suggestions on these pages.
There is a ZIPped snapshot including these and other pages related to Web programming (562kB+), taken on or after 2010-02-19; unZIP it in an empty directory.
The Acceptable Usage Policies of my service provider (Demon, U.K.) can be found via another page; formally, of course, they only apply to Demon customers, but their guidance should in part be generally applicable.
See also Abuse, and be warned.
Considerate Web authors will ensure that the number of bytes transmitted is not significantly more than necessary. Many readers are connected by a line of limited speed; many pay for connection time.
Program BWUGraph will plot (old screen-shot, in new window), on screen or paper, a local copy of a Demon bwusage.txt file; also (differentially) a counts.txt file.
2007-06- : Demon migrated the Homepages system. count.txt continues but with $ suffixed to numbers. bwusage.txt is continued.
My page Plot Web Site Statistics plots files of count and the new Quota Usage.
For efficiency :-
Note that a page which has no hot-link to it will not normally be found by an automaton; but it can still be made accessible to those who read your pages. See how easily you can copy'n'paste http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/notthere.htm into your browser window.
Using a plain text editor, the following will do for a start; replace "Title" and "Header" :-
<HTML> <HEAD lang="en"> <TITLE>Title</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <h1>Page Header</h1> <h2>Section Header 1</h2> <p>Para 1 ... <p>Para 2 ... <h2>Section Header 2</h2> <p>Para 1 ... <p>Para 2 ... <hr>Tailpiece <hr> </BODY> </HTML>
Here, "<p>" gives a paragraph break and "<hr>" is a simple line to show an intended end. Headers go from H1=Mighty to H6=Tiny. Until one starts putting in tables and links, all else is mere decoration. One's first pages should be simple; one's entry page (generally index.htm or index.html) should be short and simple.
Validation calls for prepending an appropriate DOCTYPE.
It is easy to start with a WYSIWYG editor, but these often generate bad and/or bloated HTML.
A new user might do well to start with a familiar word processor, save in HTML, view with a browser, and get the page or site started; then to look at it with Tidy from W3 (see in my On Web Page Tools) as a checker, use TIDY as a tidier, compare files, and work thereafter on the tidied version using a good but simple plain-text editor such as PFE.
There is a free HTML editing system, HTML-Kit (Win32; more?), via that page, incorporating TIDY (as checker/tidier); I have used it.
There is a Web design tutorial by jbarta.
There's always RFC1866, from your friendly local FTP site... For Demon users, look in this directory for RFC1866 or similar (URLs unchecked). I keep a copy of the directory on my computer, where I can read it - go and do thou likewise!
A RoW site said to have most RFCs : ietf, rfc.html, fyi28/rfc1855.
I liked V3.0 of the HTML Reference Library by Stephen Le Hunte - an excellent Windows help file with quick reference - the URL leads to V4.0, which I have yet to try. Or see at Garbo.
The HTML 3.2 Reference Spec.
Mathematical, Greek and Symbolic characters for HTML. Other references via my Some Unicode Characters.
WDG FAQ - good.
Mark of the Web - Microsoft
If the aim is to be informative, then it is much better to mark up the text only as much as is required to show its structure, without otherwise attempting to "improve" its appearance. This makes it more likely to be readable by those with limitations in their computer display or in their vision. It is wise to allow for users with a 640×480 screen and a browser not quite filling it. AIUI, WebTV is smaller, ?×?). Any form of patterned or coloured background is likely to cause difficulties to some potential readers. Remember some displays are 16-colour or monochrome; remember the needs of the blind - URL?.
Those wishing to display prowess as artists (their own or that of others) must accept that their material will be imperfectly accessible to some users.
Make your "entry" page moderately short and with little graphics; use "ALT" with all graphics; never send a large file to an unprepared user.
If a page is all Tables, nothing shows until the first one is loaded; so put some plain text first, even if only a line, to show that download has started.
Consider the implications of the UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA), and its foreign equivalents such as the USA's ADA & S.508 - for some sites, compliance is mandatory. See also in my JavaScript General.
A browser is set up with the reader's preferred font faces and sizes, etc., and in a window sized by the reader. Overriding these is going against the user's preferences. In particular, where font sizes do need to be changed, use <big> & <small> or CSS percentages, rather than specifying an absolute point size. In and around text, spacings should be in printers' units (em, ex, etc.) rather than in pixels.
See W3 on style sheets.
Cascading Style Sheets are useful to give a site a uniform appearance specified in one place; they can be misused to make a site unreadable.
An external CSS file is used on this site (page js-tests.htm uses two); it gives pages a body background coloured like this one (assuming that your system uses the CSS provided). Otherwise, the defaults are assumed compatible with black-on-white.
Some CSS links are in JavaScript Index & Introduction.
This paragraph has probably been styled in CSS fashion but using in-line JavaScript.
Some computers cannot run frames browsers; some vision-impaired people cannot use frames browsers. Only use frames if you can add real value to your pages by doing so; and provide an alternative, tested path for non-frames users. Frames are now reader-optional on my site - to see how, fetch the Home Page frames-1.htm, and view the sources. There is no duplication of information, except for TOC, which is a slimmed Merlyn Home Page and TIC , a slimmed TOC.
Much as for frames; moreover, some users prefer not to have such features enabled, for security.
Unauthenticated quote :-
"Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network."
-- Tim Berners-Lee
In URLs, always use '/', never '\'. Deceptively, browsers themselves accept either for local references; but you should not expect servers to do so. Also in URLs - use short name-components, no spaces, no funny characters, lower case - it makes life easier. Don't use '...' references.
For an informative, textual page, never override the user's chosen default text and background with undesirable choices of font, colour or pattern.
If a different appearance is needed, use italic, or a generic font name.
| Generic name : | serif | sans-serif | cursive | fantasy | monospace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Possible setting : | Times | Helvetica | Lucida Handwriting | Western | Courier |
| Demonstration : | serif | sans-serif | cursive | fantasy | monospace |
| Note : Browser default may not be generic | |||||
Font Verdana looks about 25% bigger than most others do, for the same settings; avoid it, except where the effect is needed. Example :- Verdana, sans-serif, default.
In some systems, such as MSIE4 which I had for several years, the Symbol font needed to be used : Symbol-p gave p = pi and Symbol-Ö gave Ö = root.
In recent systems, character entity references such as ß = ß and numerical character references such as ß = ß can be used instead and are preferred.
There is a reserved HTML Character for "pi", π -> π, π -> π - but older browsers do not recognise it. Likewise √ -> √ for square root. Try the htmlhelp site.
Avoid using #128 to #159, either as "extended ASCII bytes" or in the form € to Ÿ they are not compatible with all systems.
Character   is equivalent to - a non-breaking space.
See also About News-Posting; and JavaScript General for inter- / multi- nationalisation.
If it lies within your powers, write in normal English with proper spelling and layout; it makes it so much easier to read. On the other hand, if English is not your mother tongue, don't worry about it and just do your best. However, should you feel that more people will properly understand what you want to say if you use another language, then do so; but indicate it in the Title and links.
Avoid colloquialisms, which are often not understood internationally.
A reference to Google Translate, AltaVista Babel Fish, etc, may help foreigners.
READ your pages before you upload them, preferably more than once.
For all-figure dates, use the international standard YYYY-MM-DD, or YYYY/MM/DD. Forms YY/MM/DD, DD/MM/YY, and MM/DD/YY are generally ambiguous.
Dates, and other items, using '-', may be split in some browsers, by line-wrapping and by justification, which can be ugly; one might prefer '/' as a separator.
When using a fixed format such as in <pre>...</pre>, try to confine your text to about 70-75 characters/line, so that it may be properly seen in a non-full-screen viewer. Some users may wish to access your source using general computing tools, so there is sometimes some benefit in keeping HTML source line lengths no more than 255, or 79, bytes (which I generally do). For printing on A4, don't have the fixed-pitch font too big!
Use shortish paragraphs. Don't force text to display more than about 70 characters per line; there is a reason why newspapers use columns.
Within one's own Web site, have all internal links relative, in other words without http://<site>/. Then, it is possible to have a local version of the site operative on a PC (ignoring CGIs) and tested offline with one's local browser; and to FTP files unchanged onto the Web site. See reference to CHEKLINX.
Further bother can be saved if, before naming all one's potential files, one test-FTPs a bit to the Web site, and then chooses to use casing for filenames that will operate on both local and remote sites without alteration on upload. Example : this site, earlier locally maintained and tested with DiDa and MSIE 4.
Subject to that, it's much better to use lower-case throughout, as it's easier for all to type. And it's safer to keep file and directory names down to 8.3 format; and I prefer 8 characters, without spaces, for ease and compatibility.
My FINDANKA.BAT will produce
ANKALIST.HTM containing a list of links to all anchors found in the
wildcard files given, using the hypertext; it requires a DOS prompt,
and MiniTrue.
dosprompt>FINDANKA j*.htm
searches in all files j*.htm.
When recommending a program, it is useful to give a Garbo or Simtel URL whenever possible, because these are effective sites and have been widely mirrored. In particular, Demon users will generally find it much more efficient to use the Demon mirrors of these, via this (unchecked:) directory.
Unless there is good reason for confidentiality, give your true name and your organisation (your own, maybe "Home"; not that of your service provider); otherwise, many of us will tend to disregard what you may have to say. Don't assume that we're all in your own country. It can be useful to give a brief but adequate corporate postal address, but it could be unwise to give a full home address; likewise telephone number.
For the benefit of those who bookmark, include your name (personal or company) in the <title> of your "entry" page[s].
It helps if you include a link to your E-mail address, and a link to or towards your own Home Page, on every page.