CSS Help Pile » Web-Related Articles.

Digital Web Magazine - Better Web Forms: Redesigning eBay's Registration is a detailed walkthrough of simple changes that have a dramatic positive impact.

via CSS Beauty

Oh this is so good on so many levels! Beginner's guide from a seasoned CSS designer should be read by everyone, not just beginners because it's so chock-full of excellent information and links.

Become a better Standardista takes you through simple, straightforward steps that will make you a better standards-based web developer. This is a good article for anyone who is familiar enough with web standards to use them, but new enough to make some all too common mistakes.

In search of the One True Layout has been around the block and back for good reason, it's an awesome resource for achieving your layout goals without sacrificing on the separation between content and presentation. But don't take my word for it, though, take Eric Meyer's.

Excellent work Alex Robinson!

Access matters has a must-read piece on Screen Readers and CSS Layout. Using the CSS Zen Garden as an example, you can clearly see how the site is interpreted by the screen reader and in what order.

Originally I was going to call the CSS Help Pile the CSS Hack Pile because, well, I like the word "hack". As a developer I don't really associate it with any negative connotations but shortly after I created the Pile, however, I realized that in the CSS world, hacks are less than ideal.

The use of hacks, however, is still occasionally a necessary evil. But what if you could just avoid hacks altogether and provide clean, hack-free, browser-specific styles every time? Well, if you are familiar with PHP then you're in luck because No More CSS Hacks will tell you exactly how to do just that.

If you're looking for a good spot for information on what the best way to keep on top of your complex style guides, fiftyfoureleven.com has the article for you: Applied CSS Management and Optimization.

There is also a related post titled: Discussing CSS Management and Optimization, another worthwhile read.

When you're done reading the Going to Print article at A List Apart, you may want to then check out Printing XML: Why CSS Is Better than XSL over at XML.com for further reading. There's also an example for you to look at if you want to cut to the quick and peek at some CSS.

via slashdot

Molly Holzschlag has written an excellent article on some very powerful, albeit underused, aspects of CSS can greatly improve your CSS skill set.

From the article: "Three untold CSS mysteries you might not know about include the universal selector, !important keywords, and multi-classes. Molly Holzschlag looks behind the curtain to show you how these under-described aspects of CSS can be put to use to assist with diagnostics during development, savvy global styling, out-and-out hacks, better design flexibility, and accessibility."

I'm not sure this article I wrote lives up to its title, but what the hell? "Building Side Job Track: Deconstructing A Standards-Based Web Application" is the first ~16K essay I've written since college and it could contain a few nuggets of helpful information if you're currently on the verge of starting any new web applications. I would greatly appreciate feedback -- feel free to let me know where I should either expand or -- more likely -- contract my descriptions. Or if there are any other questions about that site you'd like me to answer.

If you're interested in using the Side Job site it will officially launch as version 0.9rc November 1st.

Eric Meyer takes time out of his busy day to share some information about what he calls Competent Classing, using class and ID's effectively. This helps explain quite a bit that's been bothering me on my latest side-project -- extraordinarily useful and eye-opening.

For those who remain unconvinced about the benefits of web-standards, who've already read the excellent Adaptive Path write-up on the business value of web standards and who question what the real return on investment is, check out: Web Standards ROI over at Asterisk *. This article gives some real-world $$ perspective to the standards-based design debate.

A recent post at fiftyfoureleven.com's weblog gives a quick look at some examples of different methods of style sheet organization. Inspired by the recent Digital Web redesign, the post is brief but it still manages to provide some well-rounded insight into what can become a very nuanced topic.

Douglas Bowman takes the time to give insight into the recent redesign of blogger.com. Adaptive Path (home to one of my all-time favorite website designs) was also in on the action helping to create a very striking, intuitive and attractive design. The blogs themselves get some help too, from templates created by a who's-who of standards-focused designers including: Dan Cederholm, Todd Dominey, Jeffrey Zeldman, Dave Shea and Dan Rubin.

For more blogger-specific information, check out Blogger Knowledge.

WebReference.com has an interesting article: Advanced CSS Layouts: Step by Step. The article deals with recreating the web reference homepage using web standards. I really appreciate the step-by-step, example-by-example demonstration-like tone of the article. One could read this article and get clues about what to anticipate when redesigning a table-based layout and moving forward with your own standards-based design.

via glish.com

456bereastreet.com presents "Developing With Web Standards: Recommendations and best practices". Beginners, intermediate -- even those well versed in the world of web-standards benefit from this spectacular compilation of information.

This is why I love the web.

A link found in the comments of an Asterisk * thread (that was mentioned earlier on the pile) to andybudd.com's post about margin collapsing points out several examples of this peculiar margin behavior and may save you some headaches. Be sure and read the comments of that thread too, since, as seems to happen quite often, the comments are as equally valuable as the original post.

bobbyvandersluis.com has a great article on what to be aware of when transitioning to standards-based design. It lays a solid foundation that any developer can build upon before jumping into the code. In my opinion, the next must read would be mezzoblue's awesome crib sheet (mentioned on the pile previously).

via Rodent Regatta