CSS and the vendor

[Karen G. Schneider]

"however, converting the pages completely to CSS will take quite a bit of
work."

Oooh, Don, my blood pressure just went up.  You gave the vendor
specifications, which they agreed to; they proceeded to pull web design out
of their fannies as they saw fit; and now they are bossing you around?  If
they wanted to convince you that their way was better, the time to do that
was before the work performance.  After that, it's time to put up or shut
up.  You are the customer--you are right.  You had good reasons to request
specific work performance, and the vendor had the choice to do the job or
decline it.

Tom Dowling's points about style sheets are important.  Style sheets are not
perfect--they bring their own issues to the table--but they are part of an
accepted, vendor-neutral standard.  You didn't ask for something absurd or
unworkable, and your specifications were built on reliability issues you
have with delivering products.  The vendor is off-base in assuming that web
work takes place in a vacuum untouched by other considerations.  What if you
had plunked down money for a text-to-voice reader that relied on
stylesheets?  What if part of the community you serve was underserved by
this vendor's lone-cowboy style decisions?

Don, you are probably spending someone else's money for this work.  Remind
the vendor that you are accountable to others and that is why you specified
what you wanted, and how you wanted it done.  Anything less is not
acceptable.

Karen G. Schneider kgs at bluehighways.com
Assistant Director of Technology
Shenendehowa Public Library, Clifton Park, NY
http://www.shenpublib.org