BUDBLOG

BudBlog is my space to write of things that fascinate me - and maybe you too - about web design.

I am Bud Kraus, Your Friendly Instructor. I write of things that support what you'll learn in the online workshop, Joy Of Code: Introduction To XHTML And CSS. I write about things for which there never seems to be time to discuss during the workshop.

BudBlog is also my archive for articles that I email every other Friday to subscribers of my Joy Gems Newsletter. The newsletter, which includes these articles and a bit more, is designed for beginners and people who are moving beyond that stage. It's also good for people who've forgotten what they once knew - or should have known. :-)

Whenever you see the Joy Gems Newsletter icon (yup, it's floating there over on the left), you'll know that the article previously appeared in an issue of Joy Gems.

BudBlog has two types of writings - presentations and articles. Both of these deal with the general topic of the best ways to create web content using widely supported web standards. These are the things that I think about, talk about, teach, read,eat for breakfast and listen to others about for most of my waking hours.

Here Are The Current Presentations And Articles In BudBlog

• Presentations

• The Electronic Canvas: Designer Beware!!
  Forget Paper - Design For The Screen

• Accessibility Unplugged
  Some Practical Advice About Making Web Content Work For Everyone, Everywhere

• The Great Cascade
  Just Where Are The Style Sheets In A Web Page?

• Articles

• 2007

• What Is It? A Link Or An Underline?
  Don't you feel foolish when you click on underlined text thinking it was a link. Here's a remedy for the problem.

• Turning Users Into People
  Better quit calling the people who use your web site "users" because they're not users. They're people,

• Dreamweaver Revisited
  When Adobe too over Macromedia what did they do to assist web designers and content creators in creating web pages that follow web page design standards? Not much.

• Just The Opposite Is True
  Do you think that by following web page design standards you'll be unable to create visually engaging web sites? Think again!!

• It's The Navigation, Stupid
  After you've killed yourself getting visitors to your site what's the thing that is most likely to drive them away?

• That Bright Line - Part 1 of 2
  The more I understand web design standards the easier it gets for me to see the difference between the separation of web document structure from style.

• That Bright Line - Part 2 of 2
  One of my students also understands the separation of structure from style. And why that is useful.

• What Means Work?
  How do you define an hour of work in the Digital Age?

• Font Tester
  An online tool that let's you easily test out your ideas about which font to use.

• Serving All The Masters - Part 1 of 2
  Use web page design standards and you'll make everything - and everyone - happy.

• Serving All The Masters - Part 2 of 2
  More of the same but with an example.

• What It's All About
  Web page design is a process by which informed (let us hope) decisions are made.

• 2006

• 2006 Year In Review - The Best Of Joy Gems
  I picked out a few of the best Joy Gems of 2006. At least I thought these were the best.

A Little Of This, A Little Of That
A short collection of interesting resources that generally lead to the same place: web design standards.

• Buy These Books
  A short selection of great web design books, mostly for newbies, from a Friendly Web Design Instructor.

• White Open Spaces
  Frequently forgotten and most important in web page design is the space where nothing is said or done.

• A Useful Microsoft Tool (really) Hidden From View (naturally)
  What's free, in front of your face and can FTP files from your (Windows only) computer to a server?

• Tools Of The Trade
  What programs do you use to make web sites? Here are a few long trusted and worthy friends.

• Think Before You Code
  Don't just dive into making web pages when you start putting your site together.

• The Holy Grail Of Web Page Design: Look Ma' No Tables
  To use layout tables or not to use layout tables - that's the question.

• MySpace Is Not My Space
  The popular online teen community is teaching kids a few bad things about web design.

• The Funer Side Of Web Design
  A few sites that poke fun at web design - and where you can learn a thing or two.

• Where's The Cascade In Cascading Style Sheets? 1 of 2
  How the 3 Style Sheets work together to influence web design.

• Where's The Cascade In Cascading Style Sheets? 2 of 2
  More on how the 3 Style Sheets work together to influence web design.

• Are We Ever Going To See IE7.0?
  What That 800lb. Redmond Gorilla Is Doing To Their New Browser

• What Style Is Your Parachute?
  Where does one's sense of style used in web design come from?

• A Writer's Medium
  After you strip away all the fluff of a web page you're left with the naked truth.

• Sometimes You Have To Hide
  Yes Virginia, There Is A Way To Hide Your Web Site From Pryin' Eyes.

• Why Bother To Learn XHTML?
  The case is made.

• Fonts Fonts Fonts
  A Fontophile takes an overview of something too frequently overlooked.

• Navigation Tips - Moving About In Infospace
  Some things to keep in mind when making a web site. (Don't forget your visitors!!)

• 2005 Year In Review - The Best Of Joy Gems
  I picked out a few of the best Joy Gems of 2005 -- the ones you liked and so did I.

• 2005

• Web Accessibility Toolbar - A Good Friend For Webmasters
  Put this baby in your browser to easily evaluate how others make their pages - and your pages too.

• Beginners' Guides To Cascading Style Sheets
  Some places to start if you're new to CSS -- or even if you're not so new.

• The Other Side Of CSS And Web Standards
  Other perspectives about Cascading Style Sheets and Web Standards -- Be Practical

• Color My World With Great Online Tools
  A few well worn online color tools for web designers, developers and content creators.

• So, You Want To Know About HTML Goodies, Huh?
  The well known site where you can get HTML tutorials and much more.

• A Well Formed Document Is A Beautiful Thing
  This is more important than beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

• Writing Hints For The Web
  Learn To Write In Hyper Text

• 5 Design Principles
  Do These And You'll Be Ahead Of The Game

• Old World, New World
  I Was Thinking Out Loud When I Discovered Daoism

• SearchDay, Every Day
  A Newsletter That's A Must For Anyone Who Needs To Know Everything About Search

• SEO: Giving Your Site A Chance To Be Found
  Meet Jill Whalen - A Giant In The Search Engine Optimization Biz

• Speed Thrills: A Way To Optimize Your Pages So They'll Download Faster
  Meet Andy King - A Web Page Speed Freak

• Check It Out - W3C's HTML And CSS Validators 1 of 2
  If You Don't Know What Validation Is It's Time To Learn

• Check It Out - W3C's HTML And CSS Validators 2 of 2
  Couldn't Fit It On One Page

• Image Depots - Where To License Royalty Free Images
  Meet Corbis And Getty

• Top Style - An Awesome Tool To Help You Make Cascading Style Sheets
  Sorry Mac Users. The Best Of The Breed Was Made Only For Win Users

• A Few Thoughts From The Past And Present On Site Development
  Some Things I Wrote Years Ago Still Hold Up

• Color Help - Two Tools That Check For Color Blindness And Contrast Issues
  Color Matters

• A Method Of Building A Small Web Site 1 of 2
  Step 1 - Charting, Step 2 - Wire Framing

• A Method Of Building A Small Web Site 2 of 2
  Step 3 - Templating, Step 4 - Building

• Listamatic - The Magic Of Working With Lists And Links
  One Of The Classic Works Of Art On How To Make List Markup Work In Unbelievable Ways

• Tidy GUI: Fixing Up Code And Converting To XHTML
  It Doesn't Look Like Much But It's Handy To Keep It Around In Your Web Designer Tool Box

• CSS Zen Garden - The Power Of CSS
  Want Some Inspiration About What You Can Do With Cascading Style Sheets?

• Bobby And Cynthia - Two Tools To Test Your Pages For Accessibility
  Bobby's Been Taken Over By WebXACT But Still Doing The Job On Accessibility Testing

• The History Of The Web
  We've Come A Long Way, Baby

• The Granddaddy Of Browser Archives
  You Won't Believe How Many Web Browsers Have Been Developed

• Things I Hate About The Web 1 of 2
  Pop Ups, Underlined Text, Poor Multimedia Controls And More

• Things I Hate About The Web Part 2 of 2
  Too Much For One Page