Learning Web Design Third Edition- P2 potx

Contents
x
Chapter 16
Page Layout with CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Page Layout Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Fixed Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Elastic Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Page Layout Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Centering a Fixed Width Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
CSS Layouts in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Test Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Chapter 17
CSS Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Style Properties for Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Changing List Bullets and Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Using Lists for Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Image Replacement Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
CSS Rollovers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Wrapping Up Style Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Test Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Review: Table and List Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Part IV
Creating Web Graphics
Chapter 18
Web Graphics Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Image Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Meet the Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Image Size and Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Working with Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Web Graphics 101 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Test Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Contents
xi
Chapter 19
Lean and Mean Web Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Why Optimize? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
General Optimization Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Optimizing GIFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Optimizing JPEGs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Optimizing PNGs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Optimize to File Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Optimization in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Test Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Part V
From Start to Finish
Chapter 20
The Site Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
1. Conceptualize and Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
2. Create and Organize Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
3. Develop the “Look and Feel” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
4. Produce a Working Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
5. Test It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
6. Launch the Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
7. Maintain the Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
The Development Process in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Test Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Chapter 21
Getting Your Pages on the Web. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
www.“YOU”.com! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Finding Server Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
The Publishing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Transferring Files with FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Test Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Contents
xii
Appendix A
Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Appendix B
CSS 2.1 Selectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
xiii
Hello and welcome to the third edition of Learning Web Design! When I first
started writing it, I figured, “It’s just an update I’ll just make a few tweaks
and it will be done in a jiffy.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. As it turns out,
pretty much everything about web design changed since I wrote the second
edition four years ago. Most significantly, web designers as well as browser
developers are finally abiding by the standards for writing and styling web
pages set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). You’ll learn a lot
more about these standards throughout the book.
What it means is that using HTML markup for visual effects is out—HTML
for describing the meaning and structure of content is in. Table-based layouts
are out—style sheet-driven layouts are in. And the font element, spacer GIFs,
and other clever hacks of the past forget about it! They’re all history.
This edition has been completely rewritten to be in compliance with the
standards and modern web design practices. The markup chapters emphasize
using HTML to describe your content accurately, not as a tool for formatting
the appearance of text. And now you will find seven chapters on Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS), where the second edition had just one.
But like the first two editions, this book addresses the specific needs and con-
cerns of beginners of all backgrounds, including seasoned graphic designers,
programmers looking for a more creative outlet, office assistants, recent col-

lege graduates, work-at-home moms, and anyone else wanting to learn how
to design web sites. I’ve done my best to put the experience of sitting in my
beginner web design class into a book, with exercises and tests along the way,
so you get hands-on experience and can check your progress.
I start at square one, with answers to common beginner questions and an
explanation of how the Web works. By the end of the book, you’ll have the
skills necessary to create multicolumn CSS layouts with optimized graphic
files, and you’ll know how to get them on the Web. You can start at the very
beginning, or feel free to jump in at any point.
The Companion
Web Site
Be sure to visit the companion
web site for this book at
learningwebdesign.com
. It
features materials for the exercises,
downloadable articles, lists of links
from the book, updates, and other
good stuff.
The Companion
Web Site
Be sure to visit the companion
web site for this book at
learningwebdesign.com
. It
features materials for the exercises,
downloadable articles, lists of links
from the book, updates, and other
good stuff.
PREFACE

Preface
xiv
Acknowledgments
Whether you are reading this book on your own or using it as a companion
to a web design course, I hope it gives you a good head start and that you
have fun in the process.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank my editors, Brian Sawyer, Chuck Toporek, Linda Laflamme,
and Steve Weiss, for their valuable input to this new edition. A special thank
you goes to my technical reviewer, Aaron Gustafson, for his expert guidance,
generosity, and for keeping on the straight and narrow when it comes to
standards compliance.
Thanks also to the others who contributed hands-on time to the creation of
this book: Ron Bilodeau for the updated interior design, Rob Romano for the
figure production, Chris Reilley for helping me envision some of the more
complex figures, Sohaila Abdulali for copyediting, Reg Aubry for writing the
index, and everyone else who helped with the project.
Finally, I want to thank my Mom, Dad, brother Liam, and the whole Robbins
clan for their inspiration and continued support while I labored to crank
out this edition. And it pleases me greatly, Jeff and Arlo, to tell you that I am
finally done writing. Thanks for putting up with me being half there.
O’Reilly Would Like to Hear From You
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Conventions Used
in This Book
The following typographic
conventions are used in this book:
Italic
Used to indicate URLs, email
addresses, filenames, and
directory names, as well as for
emphasis
Colored roman text
Used for special terms that are
being defined and for cross-
reference.
Constant width
Used to indicate code examples
and keyboard commands
Colored constant width
Used to indicate (X)HTML tags
and attributes, and used for
emphasis in code examples.
Constant width italic
Used to indicate placeholders for
attribute and style sheet property
values.

Conventions Used
in This Book
The following typographic
conventions are used in this book:
Italic
Used to indicate URLs, email
addresses, filenames, and
directory names, as well as for
emphasis
Colored roman text
Used for special terms that are
being defined and for cross-
reference.
Constant width
Used to indicate code examples
and keyboard commands
Colored constant width
Used to indicate (X)HTML tags
and attributes, and used for
emphasis in code examples.
Constant width italic
Used to indicate placeholders for
attribute and style sheet property
values.
IN THIS PART
Chapter 1
Where Do I Start?
Chapter 2
How the Web Works
Chapter 3

The Nature of Web Design
GETTING STARTED
PART
I

3
IN THIS CHAPTER
Am I too late?
Where do I start?
What do I need to learn?
Do I need to learn Java?
What other languages do
I need to know?
What software
and equipment do I
need to buy?
The Web has been around for well over a decade now, experiencing euphoric
early expansion, an economic-driven bust, an innovation-driven rebirth, and
constant evolution along the way. One thing is certain: the Web as a com-
munication and commercial medium is here to stay.
For many people, it’s a call to action—a new career opportunity, an incentive
to keep up with competitors, or just a chance to get stuff out there for the
world to see. But the world of web design can also seem overwhelming.
Through my experience teaching web design courses and workshops, I’ve
had the opportunity to meet people of all backgrounds who are inter ested in
learning how to build web pages. Allow me to introduce you to just a few:
“I’ve been a print designer for 17 years, and now all my clients want web
sites.”
“I work as a secretary in a small office. My boss has asked me to put
together a small internal web site to share company information among

employees.”
“I’ve been a programmer for years, but I want to try my hand at more
visual design. I feel like the Web is a good opportunity to explore new
skills.”
“I am an artist and I want to know how to get samples of my paintings
and sculpture online.”
“I’m a designer who has watched all my colleagues switch to web design
in the last few years. I’m curious about it, but I feel like I may be too
late.”
Whatever the motivation, the first question is always the same: “Where do I
start?” It may seem like there is an overwhelming amount of stuff to learn and
it’s not easy to know where to jump in. But you have to start somewhere.
This chapter attempts to put the learning curve in perspective by answering
the most common questions I get asked by people ready to make the leap. It
provides an introduction to the disciplines, technologies, and tools associated
with web design.
WHERE DO I
START?
CHAPTER
1
Part I: Getting Started
4
Am I Too Late?
Am I Too Late?
That’s an easy one—absolutely not! Although it may seem that everyone in
the whole world has a personal web page, or that your colleagues are all light-
years ahead of you in web experience, I can assure you that you’re not late.
The Web has become an essential part of standard business practice. We’re at
the point where we just assume that a business, regardless of its size, will have
a useful web site. It also remains a uniquely powerful tool for self-publishing,

whether to a small circle of friends or to a worldwide audience. We can be
certain that there will be a steady need for web designers and developers.
Where Do I Start?
Your particular starting point will no doubt depend on your background and
goals. However, a good first step for everyone is to get a basic understanding
of how the Web and web pages work. That you are reading this book now
shows that you are already on the right track. Once you learn the fundamen-
tals, there are plenty of resources on the Web and in bookstores for you to
further your learning in specific areas. One way to get up to speed quickly
is to take an introductory web design class. If you don’t have the luxury of a
full-semester course, even a weekend or one-day seminar can be extremely
useful in getting over that first hump.
You’ll learn that the term “web design” has come to encompass many skills,
and you don’t necessarily need to learn all of them (most people don’t). This
chapter introduces the various disciplines and paths you may take.
Similarly, there are many levels of involvement in web design, from just build-
ing a site for yourself to making it a full-blown career. You may enjoy being
a full-service web site developer or just specializing in one skill, like Flash
development. There are a lot of ways you can go.
If your involvement in web design is purely at the hobbyist level, or if you
have just one or two web projects you’d like to publish, you may find that a
combination of personal research (like reading this book), taking advantage
of available templates, and perhaps even investing in solid web design tools
(such as Dreamweaver from Adobe) may be all you need to accomplish the
task at hand.
If you are interested in pursuing web design as a career, you’ll need to bring
your skills up to a professional level. Employers may not require a web
design degree, but they will expect to see sample web sites that demonstrate
your skills and experience. These sites can be the result of class assignments,
personal projects, or a simple site for a small business. What’s important is

that they look professional and have clean, working HTML and style sheets
behind the scenes. Getting an entry-level job and working as part of a team is
The first step is
understanding the
fundamentals of how the
Web works.
I Just Want a Blog!
You don’t necessarily need to
become a web designer to start
publishing your words and pictures
on the Web. You can start your own
“blog” or personal journal site using
one of the free or inexpensive blog
hosting services. These services
provide templates that spare you
the need to learn HTML (although it
still doesn’t hurt). These are three of
the most popular as of this writing:
Blogger (
www.blogger.com
)
TypePad (
www.typepad.com
)
LiveJournal (
www.livejournal.
com
)
If you use a Mac, Apple’s iWeb
software makes it simple to publish

blogs (including video) using one of
several stylish templates.



What Do I Need to Learn?
Chapter 1, Where Do I Start
5
a great way to learn how larger sites are constructed and can help you decide
which aspects of web design you would like to pursue.
What Do I Need to Learn?
This one’s a big question. The short answer is “not everything.” A more accu-
rate answer depends on where you are starting and what you want to do.
As mentioned earlier, the term “web design” has become a catch-all for a
process that actually encompasses a number of different disciplines, from
graphic design to serious programming. We’ll take a look at each of them.
If you are designing a small web site on your own, you will need to wear
many hats. The good news is that you probably won’t notice. Consider that
the day-to-day upkeep of your household requires you to be part-time chef,
housecleaner, accountant, diplomat, gardener, and construction worker—but
to you it’s just the stuff you do around the house. In the same way, as a solo
web designer, you’ll be part-time graphic designer, writer, producer, and infor-
mation architect, but to you, it’ll just feel like “making web pages.” Nothing
to worry about.
There are also specialists out there whom you can hire to fill in the skills you
don’t have. For example, I have been creating web sites for more than a decade
and I still hire programmers and multimedia developers when my clients
require those features. That allows me to focus on the parts I do well.
Large-scale web sites are almost always created by a team of people, number-
ing from a handful to hundreds. In this scenario, each member of the team

focuses on just one facet of the site building process. If that is the case, you
may be able to simply adapt your current set of skills and interests to the
new medium.
The following are some of the core disciplines involved in the web design
process, along with brief descriptions of the skills required in each area.
Graphic design
Because the Web is a visual medium, web pages require attention to presenta-
tion and design. The graphic designer makes decisions regarding everything
you see on a web page: graphics, type, colors, layout, etc. As in the print
world, graphic designers play an important role in the success of the final
product. If you work as a graphic designer in the web design process, you may
never need to learn any backend programming languages. (I didn’t.)
If you are interested in doing the visual design of commercial sites profes-
sionally, I strongly recommend graphic design training as well as a strong
proficiency in Adobe Photoshop (the industry standard). If you are already
a graphic designer, you will be able to adapt your skills to the Web easily.
If you are not interested
in becoming a jack-of-all-
trades solo web designer,
you may choose to
specialize and work as part
of a team or as a freelance
contractor.
If you are not interested
in becoming a jack-of-all-
trades solo web designer,
you may choose to
specialize and work as part
of a team or as a freelance
contractor.

“Web design” actually combines a
number of disciplines, including:
Graphic design
Information design
Interface design
HTML, style sheet, and graphic
production
Scripting and programming
Multimedia
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A t A G l A n c e