One of the main reasons for going to XHTML way back in 1999 when it came out was separating the content of the page from the style. The "extra" code for the style that was in HTML 4.0 was making the pages hard to universally update. It wasn't too bad if you had a site with 25 pages, but if you had several hundred or more it was difficult and mind numbingly boring to find them all. Now, it is simple - "You want the font changed to this color blue and the background of the pages in white? No problem."
Clients like to change things, that is the reason for a designer to think modularly and XHTML and CSS help greatly in that effort. Trying to convince a client why they should design or redesign their site to take advantage of the standards is part of the education process for our clients. Usually I ask my clients if they would like to get everyone possible to view their site. "Of Course I want everyone to see what I have" is the obvious answer. Then I explain that if you code the page in such a way that it works with only one browser, you are leaving some people out of your business. Keeping with the standards allows everyone to see what you have to offer. Whether they have a pc running Internet Explorer, a PDA running Opera, a Mac running Safari or a Linux box running Firefox they all see what you want them to see, and everyone is invited into your store. Seeing that you are accessible to everyone, you are also following the rules for other things, such as 508 rules. And there are many reward to this: Everyone is happy. Your customers are because they can see your pages with anything they are using, the search engines are because they can index your pages faster, and you can make changes faster because your designer can find things easier. Everyone wins! Yes, you may get some that don't care about valid code, but if you couch your argument by asking if they want everyone to see their pages the same way it be easier for you to do the right thing code wise and help them too. Alan Dunbar _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 4:05 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WSG] Tissue (valid code) vs shirt sleeves (wysiwyg editors and those who use them and also refuse to use tissues) hmmmmmmm, sorry if off topic and uncouth. I've a rather simple question or two if you please. 1. On a scale of 1-10, how important is W3C validation? 2. How does one convince folks that it is important? 3. Is valid code important to SE? 4. Does it follow, that those who don't care about validation also don't consider accessibility? I've decided that telling people it is important is like telling my 5 year old granddaughter that a tissue is better then her shirt sleeves. Yes the honey, the shirt is convenient, it works and you don't have to go about looking for a tissue. On the other hand, if you use your shirt it's nasty. If I were google had to crawl nasty shirt sleeves, I certainly would think twice before trying it again. Happy Holidays Everyone ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
