[WEB4LIB] web page help

[Thomas Dowling]

> I am really brand new to web page design and would appreciate help with
the
> page http://www.orcaslibrary.org/fs_history.html

You're new--I'll be gentle.  :-)

The pages you copied show a number of problems, which I'm sure were
present in the site you copied them from.

First, I encourage you to consider why you're using frames.  There is
legitimate dispute in the area, but most developers will tell you that
frames are usually not a good solution, and some (myself included) will
say that they are never a good solution.  If you're determined to use
frames, there are good reasons to include complete <noframes> elements.

Second, both the frames in your home page use CSS absolute positioning
like there's no tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they do so in a way that
entirely disregards what might happen to the page under high screen
resolutions.  As a result, some users will see lines of text overwriting
each other.

Third, a lot of smaller-scale problems will be cleared up when you
validate your pages.  The HTML Tidy utility from
<URL:http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/> will help you get there, and
the WDG Validator at <URL:http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/> will
get you the rest of the way.

Before you start designing framesets and working on rollovers, I recommend
a solid grounding in HTML structural markup and CSS basics.  I'd recommend
the guides at http://www.htmlhelp.com/.


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu