[Web4lib] Re: Gracefully degrades to...?

[Diana Myers Hyatt]

> Jennifer Heise writes:
>  > Can you recommend a good book on using CSS for
> positioning that
>  > DOES degrade gracefully? I've really avoided
> using CSS-based layout
>  > myself because I've seen it degrade horribly so
> many times, and I
>  > don't want to take a chance on my users seeing
> all the text piled
>  > on top of each other.

Jennifer, I've just been handed a city-mandated web
template that contains tables within tables to the
point of absurdity, and I've decided there's no way
we're going to try to maintain such a beast. Every
paragraph sits in its own table cell, I kid you not. 

I'm teaching myself CSS layout as fast as I can so I
can single-handedly redesign the site using pure CSS
and still keep the spirit of the original template
(but  a lot more user-friendly). Why a city would do a
redesign at this point that is table-based is beyond
me (and still has a 30-page-long style sheet!).

I recommend Zeldman (his book and A List Apart site)
and Cederholm's Bulletproof Design. Read Zeldman's
book just to understand why standards and separating
content from structure are so important. He's also a
damn good tech writer. There are also many good web
resources when you get stuck on a particular layout
issue.

I'm hoping to launch our new site by July 1st. Wish me
luck!

Diana Myers Hyatt
Riverside Public Library

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