Re: [WSG] Server-side includes?

2005-12-18 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
then server-side includes that have been implemented using directives for Apache or IIS will not work. (A PHP or ASP include directive will need to be used instead.) More on SSI: http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/ssi.php HTH, -- Andy Kirkwood Motive: net communication -- with intent http

Re: [WSG] Standards and Aesthetics

2005-12-01 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi John, Many standards websites have subtle gradients in backgrounds -- is this because designers are confident in using PNG files which do gradients better for smaller file sizes? My opinion is that gradients and textures are introduced to recreate the textures of real world surfaces not

Re: [WSG] Good practice of CSS styled forms

2005-11-17 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi Goran, Our glossary provides a few form references, including usability, accessibility, styling, etc. Have reviewed the references up to a point. As per usual with the web, caveat emptor. http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/forms.php Best regards, -- Andy Kirkwood | Creative Director

[WSG] Screen reader users: Label text for search field?

2005-11-15 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi, (Apologies for the re-post, thought this might have been buried under the flurry of CSS queries.) Currently there seem to be a few different approaches (with regional variation) to marking up a simple search form. -Search for [Input field] [Button: Go] -[Input field: Text: Search

Re: [WSG] Wild metadata

2005-11-14 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi Jonathan, ** The problem ** On the Web, DC.description and DC.subject are not very effective finding aids when the full text is indexed. I'm unclear as to the purpose of your enquiry. My take on what you have outlined is that you're seeking a method of generating metadata records without

Re: [WSG] Accessibility: Default placeholders

2005-11-14 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi Geoff, (To pick up on Patrick's point.) Have you come across a scenario on a website where it seems appropriate to use an input element to indicate that an option exists but cannot be edited by the user? Perhaps it's preferable to show such content as text rather than as an input?

[WSG] Label text for search input

2005-11-14 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi, Currently there seem to be a few different approaches (with regional variation) to marking up a simple search form. -Search for [Input field] [Button: Go] -[Input field: Text: Search for...] [Button: Go] -[Input field] [Button: Search] The above approaches seem ok for sighted users. The

RE: [WSG] Accessibility: Default placeholders

2005-11-14 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi Rebecca, For example, if you wanted to show that a field was editable content (within the whole application), but not on the particular screen you are on right now (especially if the user knew that by clicking on edit or some other option they would be able to edit those particular fields.)

Re: [WSG] Accessibility: Default placeholders

2005-11-14 Thread Andy Kirkwood, Motive
Hi Kevin, Nice example, top marks ;). Sometimes these discussions can get a little abstract and one (real world) example can help make the discussion less murky. Geoff, I understand your pain with regard to traditional (print) designers and the often rocky transition to screen-based design.

Re: [WSG] Naked metadata - RDF in HTML

2005-11-10 Thread Andy Kirkwood|Motive
Title: Re: [WSG] Naked metadata - RDF in HTML Hi Terrence, It feels like we're talking at cross-purposes? I'm approaching the subject with the idea that metadata is important in order for people to find (related) information at some later time. Interesting and valid point, unfortunately not

Re: [WSG] Naked metadata - RDF in HTML

2005-11-09 Thread Andy Kirkwood|Motive
Hi Jonathan, An interesting application of the technology, although I'm not sure that is addresses how to make it *easier* for administrators to maintain metadata records. ISSUES (Assuming the ideal solution would be a wysiwyg editing environment for non-technical content authors.)

Re: [WSG] Naked metadata

2005-11-05 Thread Andy Kirkwood|Motive
Hi Jonathan, I second Patrick's comment that 'pointing' the DC records to content on the page is not the solution. Although, from a maintenance perspective, this may appear to be a work-around for not completing the metadata records (questionable), metadata harvesting tools are unlikely to

Re: [WSG] css title styles

2005-11-05 Thread Andy Kirkwood|Motive
Hi Sarah, I was just looking for a way to give the user immediate feedback about each reference, and thought the title may be useful. The problem with linking back and forth is that there are *so* many references on each page, sometimes two or three to each quote, so it gets a bit messy.

Re: [WSG] css title styles

2005-11-05 Thread Andy Kirkwood|Motive
Hi Sarah, Unfortunately the exact wording of the content (in this client's case) is legally required, and so the possibility of editing it, or the references, in any way is out of the question. Moving the title of the reference to the fore of the title attribute value wouldn't be changing the

Re: [WSG] Help needed with IE drama...

2005-11-03 Thread Andy Kirkwood|Motive
Hi Darren, I haven't reviewed the bug, however if its anything like the issue we've come across with comments [1] then you could try an alternative method of commenting the code. (This goes somewhat to the concept of semantic markup also.) Rather than: !-- begin footer -- div id=footer ...

Re: [WSG] advices for using headings more correctly

2005-11-02 Thread Andy Kirkwood|Motive
Hi Julián, SEMANTICS EXTRACTOR Sometimes a view that approximates the semantics of the content can be useful. Fortunately the W3C have just such a tool: http://www.w3.org/2003/12/semantic-extractor.html . This will likely affirm Paul's point regarding an h3 as a 'parent' to an h2 element

Re: [WSG] Text choices on our own sites

2005-10-30 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Joe, Our clients don't care as long as it works. They do care that we care enough to make them the best, most accessible site we can, but they could care less how. It's more of an issue when a website is maintained by the client. If they're not aware of the distinction between accessible

Re: [WSG] Text choices on our own sites

2005-10-30 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Richard, To play the devil's advocate... Certainly humanist developers aim to remove the barriers that technology might place between users and content. However, difficulty arises when determining what constitutes 'technical' literacy. This could range from 'What's a link' through to 'How

Re: [WSG] File sizes in links: kb KB mb MB etc.

2005-10-26 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Dan, Data storage units are a bit of a can of worms. The problem lies in common-usage vs. international standards. There are also 'old' and 'new' standards for unit abbreviations. METRIC vs BINARY UNIT GUIDE Essential reading before continuing...

Re: [WSG] Radio New Zealand site relaunch

2005-10-25 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Mike, I'm curious as to how the decision regarding browser support came about. What did the client perceive the 'benefits' of excluding a particular user-base to be? Why not cater to IE5 Mac if the work had already been done? no, that was an informed client choice! We had orginally done the

Re: [WSG] Radio New Zealand site relaunch

2005-10-25 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Terrence, My interest in Mike's post is in the client-developer relationship. What swayed the client toward excluding Mac IE from stylesheet support could be beneficial when considering the merits of such an approach with other standards-aware clients. Perhaps the RNZ decision means that

Re: [WSG] Firefox mystery space bug?

2005-10-20 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Joe, Extra space between divs is often caused by a bottom margin overhang on the content of the top div. For example, say the p element has a bottom margin .of .6em. If this is the last element in the top div you may get a space of approx .6em between the top and bottom divs. The solution

Re: [WSG] Couple of question - Image Map etc.

2005-10-16 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Taco, SINGLE IMAGE vs MULTIPLE IMAGES A single image loads faster than the same cut into separate images. HTTP requires a new connection to be made to the server for each file (i.e. image). Even when the single image filesize is the same as the sum of the individual files, reconnecting to

RE: [WSG] Footer Navigation

2005-10-14 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Sarah, COLD WAR AND NAVIGATION CRITIQUE A usability consideration with link duplication is the potential for 'navigational confusion'. This becomes more pronounced if there are *apparent* differences either in presentation or wording of the navigation. To polarise the issue, it can be

Re: [WSG] Dublin Core metadata

2005-10-07 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Paul, The main advantages of the Dublin Core metadata is that it represents the efforts of a group of information and library science experts to translate the cataloguing conventions previously associated with real world libraries into metadata equivalents. This translation includes details

Re: [WSG] Zoom Layouts

2005-10-05 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Mike, Seems that making user's aware of what 'zoom', 'single column', 'high/low contrast', 'low graphics' or any of the other alternatives is another issue like that of educating new users about browser 'Text size' options. From personal experience, when first stumbling upon issues of

Re: [WSG] Zoom Layouts

2005-10-05 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
That's what makes selecting a suitable representation difficult. With a 'T' and magnifying-glass icon, would the user expect to have their layout transformed from 2 or 3 columns to a single column or a high/low contrast layout? Perhaps the type size, layout and contrast options should be

Re: [WSG] avoid Verdana - I cant get the whole point.

2005-10-03 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Julián, There's no reason to avoid Verdana. In the example webpage you referenced, the author's chief concern seems to be with what happens to copy legibility if Verdana is *not* installed. As Verdana comes bundled with a significant number of Microsoft products and the Windows

[WSG] H1 content

2005-10-03 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Damien, We recommend reserving the h1 to describe the page content. Perhaps on the homepage and the 'About us' page this might be the same as the website name. Should you want to include the site name on the page, we recommend appending it to title text instead. For example, if the page is

Re: [WSG] Width defaulting to 100%?

2005-10-03 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi Kara, Unlike a td, a div will expand to fill the available space (and not the content it contains), if a width is not specified. To achieve the layout you describe, you will need to: -set widths on the divs, and/or -set left or right margins to accommodate both divs, for example if div [A]

Re: [WSG] tabbing through links

2005-08-21 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Watch out for IE keyboard navigation bug. Depending on your method for setting the destination anchor, things can go a little awry. For details, see: http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/anchor.php Cheers, -- Andy Kirkwood | Creative Director Motive | web.design.integrity

Re: [WSG] accessibility - opening new windows philosophy

2005-08-15 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Title: Re: [WSG] accessibility - opening new windows philosophy Hi there, Could be that this discussion has drifted toward usability rather than accessibility. Accessibility considerations would be ensuring that users are advised of what will happened when they activate the link, either than

Re: [WSG] 'strong' as class name

2005-06-26 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi tee, .strong { font: 1em bold #369 Arial, San Serif text-transform: uppercase; text-decoration: none;} The font shorthand doesn't include a color property. Your rule should look like this: .strong { color: #369; font: bold 1em Arial, sans-serif; text-transform:

[WSG] Lynx current navigation state presentation

2005-06-25 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Title: Lynx current navigation state presentation Hi there, LYNX CURRENT NAV STATE PRESENTATION Regarding feedback provided by ¸ukasz, to the use of em vs i elements in Lynx... I *use* i and b. CSS has nothing to do with it. Does anyone have a preference/recommendation for how the currently

[WSG] New Zealand Government Web Guidelines

2005-04-21 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Hi, NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT WEB GUIDELINES I posted to the group late last year regarding formal implementation guidelines that refer to web standards. Mostly these are created by public sector (government) or government-related organisations. For those interested, we've just added a developer's

Re: [WSG] Actual Page Dimensions[revised]

2005-04-13 Thread Andy Kirkwood | Motive
Cheers, -- Andy Kirkwood Motive | web.design.integrity http://www.motive.co.nz ** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list getting help **

Re: [WSG] empty named anchors

2005-01-19 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
moused-over (although not a link). From an interface perspective this can be quite confusing. (A feedback cue that suggests interaction is possible when it is not). Cheers -- Andy Kirkwood Motive | web.design.integrity http://www.motive.co.nz

[WSG] Semantic markup for object dimensions/units

2004-12-29 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
Hi list, Any thoughts on semantic markup for object dimensions? For example works of art; height x width x depth 400mm x 800mm x 200mm Could be two parts to this, markup to indicate dimensions (that the 'x' is mathematical: 'by'), and that 'mm' is an abbreviation of a standard unit. (aside

[WSG] e-Government Implementation Guidelines

2004-12-21 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
Morning list, *Please respond to this request off-list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), once we've compiled the results we'll get Russ to add a link to the Resources section of the WSG website.* E-GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES We're attempting to compile a list of international e-government web

Re: [WSG] The Holy Grail ... CSS Liquid Three-Column Layout

2004-12-16 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
Title: Re: [WSG] The Holy Grail ... CSS Liquid Three-Column Layou I think I may have found the Holy Grail Š that 3-column css liquid layout What I need help with is this: I have checked this out on Mozilla, FireFox, Netscape, and IE all on the pc. Can anyone who is interested please check it out

[WSG] Semantic markup for publication titles

2004-12-16 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
SEMANTIC MARKUP FOR PUBLICATION TITLES In print the name of a publication is typically type-set in an oblique or italic font. A similar *visual* effect can be achieved either through the use of: - an italic font-tag iPublication/i (probably deprecated) - an emphasis tag emPublication/em -

Re: [WSG] Semantic markup for publication titles

2004-12-16 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
Maybe I'm not fully understanding your question, but what about having a class (call it pub or whatever) and then defining font-style: italic in the CSS? Creating a custom class will yield the desired visual effect, however the class pub has no semantic value. Compare this to text marked-up

Re: [WSG] Semantic markup for publication titles

2004-12-16 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
Title: Re: [WSG] Semantic markup for publication titles CITE: Contains a citation or a reference to other sources So you are not referencing a source, just mentioning a publication. Seems that the intended use is stretched to include marking-up a publication title using the cite tag (when not

Re: [WSG] question - follow, index meta tag

2004-12-13 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
If I have the following on my index page, do I need to repeat it on every page at my site? Doesn't this tag appearing once send the robots forward to all the other pages? meta name=robots content=index, follow / A robots.txt file is a better option for controlling site-wide search engine

Re: [WSG] question - follow, index meta tag

2004-12-13 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
I know I should read about Robots from the Robot FAQ web site. However, I am a little pressed for time right now. What do I need to web sites to stop Robots reading my web sites I maintain? Thank you. Create a text file and name it 'robots.txt' Paste the following code, save and upload to the root

Re: [WSG] Semantic Breadcrumbs

2004-12-07 Thread Andy Kirkwood | MOTIVE
Been following the breadcrumb (BC) discussion, and think it may come down to defining the *purpose* of the BC. Through a process of distillation I've arrived at the following conclusions; The ('correct') semantic markup of a BC should be based on what the BC primarily 'means'. There is the