RE: [WSG] Space-saving Form Select vs Space-hungry HTML List

2005-05-16 Thread Nick Cowie

Dan wrote:


 What is the 'official' word on the use of form selects as an alternative to 
 space hungry HTML lists?


I would not even go think about using a form select for a menu, my experience 
has shown that most people ignore form selects.

I inherited a web site many years ago that the main nav was in a form select. 
Over 50% of all users went from the home page straight to search.

Replacing the form select with a list had dramatic results, basically an 75% 
reduction in the number of people who went to search straight after landing on 
the home page (ie just over 10% went home page  search page, the remaining 90% 
went to other pages, and number of pages per visit increase).  One surprise was 
the number of searches (it was a poor search engine) dropped from an average of 
3 to 2 per visit to the search page.

Nick

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Re: [WSG] Space-saving Form Select vs Space-hungry HTML List

2005-05-16 Thread Rimantas Liubertas
On 5/16/05, Nick Cowie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
 Dan wrote:
  What is the 'official' word on the use of form selects as an alternative to 
  space hungry HTML lists?
 
 I would not even go think about using a form select for a menu, my experience 
 has shown that most people ignore form selects.
 

...

I can only second that. Use it only if list is reasonably big _and_
contains _known set_ of items (e.g. list of states, or months etc.)


Regards,
Rimantas
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Re: [WSG] Space-saving Form Select vs Space-hungry HTML List

2005-05-16 Thread Kay Smoljak
 Dan wrote:
  What is the 'official' word on the use of form selects as an alternative to 
  space hungry HTML lists?

I would avoid doing this for any kind of significant navigation as
search engine spiders would not follow the navigation. I'm not sure
how it would fare accessibility-wise either.

-- 
Kay Smoljak
http://kay.smoljak.com/
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[WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kvnmcwebn
Hello,
Do spiders crawl links in external javascript files, like the ones found in
some dhtml menus?
-kvnmcwebn

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kornel Lesinski
On Mon, 16 May 2005 01:58:23 +0100, Kvnmcwebn [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:

Do spiders crawl links in external javascript files, like the ones found  
in some dhtml menus?
No.
You have to use good, accessible menu that uses links in HTML.
See son of suckerfish dropdowns.
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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kvnmcwebn
would those suckerfish dropdowns interfere with divs below them, ie push
them down or anything.

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kornel Lesinski
On Mon, 16 May 2005 02:59:32 +0100, Kvnmcwebn [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:

would those suckerfish dropdowns interfere with divs below them, ie push
them down or anything.
No.
Typical DHTML menus are HTML+CSS created and controlled by JS.
Suckerfish dropdowns is HTML+CSS created by HTML and controlled by CSS.
You get the same thing, but without need for JS support.
Suckerfish actually uses a bit of JS to work around IE bug, but that's  
only for IE and other browsers and search engines don't need it.

--
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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Thierry Koblentz
Kornel Lesinski wrote:
 You have to use good, accessible menu that uses links in HTML.
 See son of suckerfish dropdowns.

I'm not sure if CSS menus are really accessible. IMHO, they lack a
timer, browser support is weak and most of them do not allow keyboard
navigation. On top of that, if not well implemented, they can be totally
inaccessible to IE users if scripts are disabled.
FWIW, I'd go with a DHTML solution that degrades nicely.

Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kvnmcwebn
I guess theres pros and cons to both methods, Im leaning towards a dhtml
menu that supports ns and ie 4+. but the links are in an external file,
ugghh, I dont think it would degrade well but i suppose it woulnd have to
with its browser support.

I know what kornel is emphasizing is important as well...especially for us
wsg people.

heres the menu

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/hvmenu/horizon.htm


on 5/16/05 4:11 PM, Thierry Koblentz at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Kornel Lesinski wrote:
 You have to use good, accessible menu that uses links in HTML.
 See son of suckerfish dropdowns.
 
 I'm not sure if CSS menus are really accessible. IMHO, they lack a
 timer, browser support is weak and most of them do not allow keyboard
 navigation. On top of that, if not well implemented, they can be totally
 inaccessible to IE users if scripts are disabled.
 FWIW, I'd go with a DHTML solution that degrades nicely.
 
 Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com
 
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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Thierry Koblentz
Kvnmcwebn wrote:
 heres the menu

 http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/hvmenu/horizon.htm

Nice, but totally inaccessible without JS support.
Check www.projectseven.com I believe most of their menus are fully
accessible. It is important that without client script, the navigation fully
expands.
BTW, keeping this in mind, it may be better to go with a *vertical* flyout
menu.

Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Thierry Koblentz
Kvnmcwebn wrote:
 heres the menu
 http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/hvmenu/horizon.htm

This link is to show you that I'm not biased when I say you should favor a
DHTML solution:
http://www.tjkdesign.com/articles/dropdown/demo.asp

;-)

Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kornel Lesinski
On Mon, 16 May 2005 16:11:26 +0100, Thierry Koblentz [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:

You have to use good, accessible menu that uses links in HTML.
See son of suckerfish dropdowns.
I'm not sure if CSS menus are really accessible. IMHO, they lack a
timer, browser support is weak and most of them do not allow keyboard
navigation.
That's the same problem most JS menus have as well.
On top of that, if not well implemented, they can be totally
inaccessible to IE users if scripts are disabled.
JS-based menu will fail as well, and not only in IE, but in other browsers.
Having working, styled top-level items are IMHO best way such menu can  
degrade.
Otherwise you may get something like few pages of unordered lists or  
spaghetti of links, which breaks page layout and isn't more usable.

FWIW, I'd go with a DHTML solution that degrades nicely.
But suckerfish dropdowns is DHTML solution that degrades nicely.
You can get best of both worlds - extend CSS menu to have features of best  
JS menu.

Add class to menu and make :hover work only on menu with that class.
Then using JS remove that class and add mouseover/mouseout/focus handlers  
that implement closing delay, keyboard navigation, etc.

--
regards, Kornel Lesiski
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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kornel Lesinski
On Mon, 16 May 2005 04:01:09 +0100, Kvnmcwebn [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
I guess theres pros and cons to both methods, Im leaning towards a dhtml
menu that supports ns and ie 4+.
I'd avoid any non-trivial script that supports 4.x browsers.
Scripts designed for those browsers often rely on browser sniffing
and use outdated, non-standard DOMs and methods.
When you write for modern browsers only, you may design your scripts much  
better.

--
regards, Kornel Lesiski
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RE: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Townson, Chris
You may also be interested in this: http://udm4.com/

1 html list (no excessively long, non-accessible navigation lists at top of
page) + dhtml submenus.
Without Javascript, you just get the top list. Appearance controlled by CSS.
Well worth a look.

Chris 

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Kornel Lesinski
Sent: 16 May 2005 17:07
To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org
Subject: Re: [WSG] search engine question

On Mon, 16 May 2005 16:11:26 +0100, Thierry Koblentz [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 You have to use good, accessible menu that uses links in HTML.
 See son of suckerfish dropdowns.

 I'm not sure if CSS menus are really accessible. IMHO, they lack a 
 timer, browser support is weak and most of them do not allow 
 keyboard navigation.

That's the same problem most JS menus have as well.

 On top of that, if not well implemented, they can be totally 
 inaccessible to IE users if scripts are disabled.

JS-based menu will fail as well, and not only in IE, but in other browsers.

Having working, styled top-level items are IMHO best way such menu can
degrade.
Otherwise you may get something like few pages of unordered lists or
spaghetti of links, which breaks page layout and isn't more usable.

 FWIW, I'd go with a DHTML solution that degrades nicely.

But suckerfish dropdowns is DHTML solution that degrades nicely.


You can get best of both worlds - extend CSS menu to have features of best
JS menu.

Add class to menu and make :hover work only on menu with that class.
Then using JS remove that class and add mouseover/mouseout/focus handlers
that implement closing delay, keyboard navigation, etc.

--
regards, Kornel Lesiski
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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kvnmcwebn


Look im not 100% comfortable with the
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/hvmenu/horizon.htm
Unfortunately i've nearly run out of time on this project and must stick
with what ive allready done.

Unless you think im making a HUGE mistake by using this dhtml menu from, im
going to leave it. 


I mean what are the percentages of users with scripting disabled-is it
really going to come back and haunt me?

I had started out with the original suckerfish dropdowns but abandoned them.
I've only now became aware of the son of a suckerfish, as well as Thierry's
method. frustrating.



-Kvnmcwebn. 

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Thierry Koblentz
Kornel Lesinski wrote:
 I'm not sure if CSS menus are really accessible. IMHO, they lack a
 timer, browser support is weak and most of them do not allow
 keyboard navigation.

 That's the same problem most JS menus have as well.

That may be true for the bad ones, but not for quality JS menus.
And I believe CSS offers no possibility re: a timer. There are
workarounds, but they bring other issues.

 On top of that, if not well implemented, they can be totally
 inaccessible to IE users if scripts are disabled.

 JS-based menu will fail as well, and not only in IE, but in other
 browsers.

I don't really agree.
For example, the menu in my site is based on a projectseven's article.
AFAIK, it degrades nicely in old browsers or in the ones with no script
support.

 Having working, styled top-level items are IMHO best way such menu can
 degrade.
 Otherwise you may get something like few pages of unordered lists or
 spaghetti of links, which breaks page layout and isn't more usable.

That's why I mentionned vertical flyouts vs. horizontal ones

 FWIW, I'd go with a DHTML solution that degrades nicely.

 But suckerfish dropdowns is DHTML solution that degrades nicely.

You know what I mean, the suckerfish technique is not supposed to be a
DHTML solution.
And it degrades *only* if the top level items are actual links, which
sometimes is not the wish of the designer.

 You can get best of both worlds - extend CSS menu to have features of
 best JS menu.
 Add class to menu and make :hover work only on menu with that class.
 Then using JS remove that class and add mouseover/mouseout/focus
 handlers that implement closing delay, keyboard navigation, etc.

We agree on this. I believe that's what DHTML is, a bit of CSS with more
JS ;-)

Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Thierry Koblentz
Kvnmcwebn wrote:
 Unless you think im making a HUGE mistake by using this dhtml menu
 from, im going to leave it.

IMHO, it is a HUGE mistake

 I mean what are the percentages of users with scripting disabled-is it
 really going to come back and haunt me?

Did you check the source code?
It is not only inaccessible to JS-challenged browsers, it is inaccessible to
SE as well.
If you need to go this route, make sure to plug some basic navigation
links inside the noscript tag pair along with the warning you alreeady
have in there.

Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kornel Lesinski
On Mon, 16 May 2005 05:06:43 +0100, Kvnmcwebn [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:

Unless you think im making a HUGE mistake by using this dhtml menu from,  
im going to leave it.
How huge mistake is having website seen by Google as Your browser does  
not support script message?

I mean what are the percentages of users with scripting disabled-is it
really going to come back and haunt me?
1-3% of users, 100% of search engines.
--
regards, Kornel Lesiski
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RE: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Mike Pepper
Ongoing dialogue ...

 On Mon, 16 May 2005 05:06:43 +0100, Kvnmcwebn [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

  Unless you think im making a HUGE mistake by using this dhtml
 menu from,
  im going to leave it.

 How huge mistake is having website seen by Google as Your browser does
 not support script message?

  I mean what are the percentages of users with scripting disabled-is it
  really going to come back and haunt me?

 1-3% of users, 100% of search engines.


There is no dropdown menu system which to my knowledge runs without JS DOM
manipulation because of IE's lack of a CSS hover trigger.

I obviate the JS dilemma by using noscript-tagged alternate menus,
replicating the dropdown menu structures on
http://www.seowebsitepromotion.com/. It's by no means a perfect menu system
since it is not traversable via keyboard ... yet :o)

I'm working on an accessible version as time permits but IE is proving
challenging.

Cheers,

Mike Pepper
Accessible Web Developer
Internet SEO and Marketing Analyst
http://www.seowebsitepromotion.com

Administrator
Guild of Accessible Web Designers
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.gawds.org

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Re: [WSG] Space-saving Form Select vs Space-hungry HTML List

2005-05-16 Thread Patrick H. Lauke
Kay Smoljak wrote:
 I'm not sure
how it would fare accessibility-wise either.
Such jump menus can be accessible, if:
- you use an actual form, with a submit button (or, at a stretch, a 
graphical input button) and a simple server-side redirector that takes 
the URL passed as the select's value and redirects to that location
- you avoid using any kind of onchange behaviour on the select, as 
these get triggered as soon as a user browsing via keyboard starts to 
move down the list looking through the various items

But yes, the issue of search engine spiders not seeing these links still 
remains.

--
Patrick H. Lauke
_
re·dux (adj.): brought back; returned. used postpositively
[latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.]
www.splintered.co.uk | www.photographia.co.uk
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Any experiments with SMIL for menus? (was Re: [WSG] search engine question)

2005-05-16 Thread Robin Berjon
Thierry Koblentz wrote:
Kornel Lesinski wrote:
That's the same problem most JS menus have as well.
That may be true for the bad ones, but not for quality JS menus.
And I believe CSS offers no possibility re: a timer. There are
workarounds, but they bring other issues.
This is besides the point of answering the initial practical question, 
but have there been examples of using some of IE's HTML+TIME (or any 
other integration of HTML with something SMILish) for precisely this 
sort of effect? SMIL has simple ways of handling this sort of thing 
including with timers for menu deactivation that degrade very easily to 
browser that don't support it (and could probably have a script fallback 
for applicable cases).

--
Robin Berjon
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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Kvnmcwebn
  OK after all these comments im sold.

 But suckerfish dropdowns is DHTML solution that degrades nicely.

You can get best of both worlds - extend CSS menu to have features
 of best JS menu.

I'd avoid any non-trivial script that supports 4.x browsers.
Scripts designed for those browsers often rely on browser sniffing
and use outdated, non-standard DOMs and methods.
  
When you write for modern browsers only, you may design your scripts
much  better. Nice, but totally inaccessible without JS support.

 Typical DHTML menus are HTML+CSS created and controlled by JS.
  Suckerfish dropdowns is HTML+CSS created by HTML and controlled
  by CSS.

 You get the same thing, but without need for JS support.
  Kvnmcwebn wrote:
   Unless you think im making a HUGE mistake by using this dhtml
  menu from, im going to leave it.

 IMHO, it is a HUGE mistake


Well then im going to go for the son of a suckerfish and redoing everything.

The only drawback(for me) is that the text size cant be fixed as in the js
method i was using earlier.

Thanks all 

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[WSG] got a safari hack

2005-05-16 Thread Kvnmcwebn
Hello,
Is there an equivelant to the underscore hack for safari out there?
_kvnmcwebn

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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread Thierry Koblentz
Kvnmcwebn wrote:
 The only drawback(for me) is that the text size cant be fixed as in
 the js method i was using earlier.

Actually, that should be one more reason to stay away from that menu ;-)
But check that menu in a different browser than IE, you'll see that
text-size can always be increased/decreased.

Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com

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Re: Any experiments with SMIL for menus? (was Re: [WSG] search engine question)

2005-05-16 Thread Patrick H. Lauke
Robin Berjon wrote:
 SMIL has simple ways of handling this sort of thing
including with timers for menu deactivation that degrade very easily to 
browser that don't support it (and could probably have a script fallback 
for applicable cases).
To be honest, I think it's going a bit too far dragging out SMIL (or 
rather IE's incompatible HTML+TIME) for what is essentially something 
that can be achieved with just a touch of CSS and javascript. Native 
support for SMIL/HTML+TIME across browsers is quite bad, so it would be 
an exercise in futility, in my humble opinion...

And yes, you can make something that degrades very easily with 
javascript off / css off as well.

--
Patrick H. Lauke
_
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[latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.]
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[WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread sam sherlock
Hello WSG List Members,
I am delveloping a website that can switch between english and 
itallian.  I am wondering if I should be using en-GB or en-gb for my 
lang attributes
and also for the meta http-equiv=Content-Language content=en-GB / 
are these attributes sensitive to casing? or should I just have en

also is the charset iso-8859-1 OK for italian content?
I would also appreciate any links to web standard sites using multiple 
languages?

thanks in advance, Sam
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Re: [WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread Geoff Deering
sam sherlock wrote:
Hello WSG List Members,
I am delveloping a website that can switch between english and 
itallian.  I am wondering if I should be using en-GB or en-gb for my 
lang attributes
and also for the meta http-equiv=Content-Language content=en-GB 
/ are these attributes sensitive to casing? or should I just have en

also is the charset iso-8859-1 OK for italian content?
I would also appreciate any links to web standard sites using multiple 
languages?

thanks in advance, Sam

Does anyone use transparent content negotiation to handle multiple 
language sites?  I get the feeling this is hardly ever used, if so, why not?

Regards
Geoff Deering
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Re: Any experiments with SMIL for menus? (was Re: [WSG] search engine question)

2005-05-16 Thread Robin Berjon
Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
Robin Berjon wrote:
 SMIL has simple ways of handling this sort of thing
including with timers for menu deactivation that degrade very easily 
to browser that don't support it (and could probably have a script 
fallback for applicable cases).
To be honest, I think it's going a bit too far dragging out SMIL (or 
rather IE's incompatible HTML+TIME) for what is essentially something 
that can be achieved with just a touch of CSS and javascript.
As I said first thing in my post, I was not suggesting this as a 
practical solution, merely wondering if anyone knew of an example that 
had toyed with it.

--
Robin Berjon
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Re: [WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread Robin Berjon
Geoff Deering wrote:
Does anyone use transparent content negotiation to handle multiple 
language sites?  I get the feeling this is hardly ever used, if so, why 
not?
The problem IME is that when you use it you have to also provide a way 
for the user to pick her language which will override the negotiation 
(I've been accessing the Web a lot from computers localized in Japanese 
recently, and they're probably not sending Accept-Language headers that 
reflect the reality of languages I can really accept :). It's not 
complicated to mix both together but the extra feature of negotiating 
the default language rarely seems worth it.

--
Robin Berjon
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Re: [WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread sam sherlock




Robin Berjon wrote:
Geoff
Deering wrote:
  
  Does anyone use transparent content
negotiation to handle multiple language sites? I get the feeling this
is hardly ever used, if so, why not?

  
  
The problem IME is that when you use it you have to also provide a way
for the user to pick her language which will override the negotiation
(I've been accessing the Web a lot from computers localized in Japanese
recently, and they're probably not sending Accept-Language headers that
reflect the reality of languages I can really "accept" :). It's not
complicated to mix both together but the extra feature of negotiating
the default language rarely seems worth it.
  
  

I am using ip2couuntry class in PHP to decide the default lanuage.

Thanks to Evandro who sent me a link to his site in Portugese and
English. The site in question does not use the language attribute as
inteneded (as far as I understand) all Lan attributes are set to en for
Portugese, Itallian and English.

What is the web standards best practise for multi-lingual sites


  Should I use en or en-GB is the casing important?
  What charset should I use for the Itallian version the same as
english or other?
  Are the any link available to webstandard best practise examples?

many thanks  SS




Re: [WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread Geoff Deering
Robin Berjon wrote:
The problem IME is that when you use it you have to also provide a way 
for the user to pick her language which will override the negotiation 
(I've been accessing the Web a lot from computers localized in 
Japanese recently, and they're probably not sending Accept-Language 
headers that reflect the reality of languages I can really accept 
:). It's not complicated to mix both together but the extra feature of 
negotiating the default language rarely seems worth it.

Yes, these are some of the problems I would have expected using this 
approach.  Let alone if you are in some other country, in a net cafe and 
it is defaulting to another language, as what often happens with Google, 
which can be annoying for the user.

Regards
Geoff D
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Re: [WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread Geoff Deering
sam sherlock wrote:
I am using ip2couuntry class in PHP to decide the default lanuage.
Thanks to Evandro who sent me a link to his site in Portugese and 
English.  The site in question does not use the language attribute as 
inteneded (as far as I understand) all Lan attributes are set to en 
for Portugese, Itallian and English.

What is the web standards best practise for multi-lingual sites
   1. Should I use en or en-GB is the casing important?
   2. What charset should I use for the Itallian version the same as
  english or other?
   3. Are the any link available to webstandard best practise examples?

Maybe you will find some of the info you are looking for here
http://www.w3.org/International/geo/html-tech/resources/
G
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Re: [WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread Lachlan Hardy
sam sherlock wrote:
I would also appreciate any links to web standard sites using multiple 
languages?
Still doing some under-the-hood work on this one to bring it up to 
speed, but you can check out http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/ to 
see the site I was pestering the list about a month or so back (thread 
starts here: 
http://www.mail-archive.com/wsg@webstandardsgroup.org/msg16198.html)

Not all pages have multiple languages, but some have translations of the 
English in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Preferred language 
can be selected in the RH column. I used UTF-8

Cheers
Lachlan
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Re: [WSG] search engine question

2005-05-16 Thread John S. Britsios
You might would like to have a look at this accessible drop-down-menu:
http://www.brothercake.com/dropdown/

Good luck,

John S. Britsios
Accessibility  SEO Consultant,
Usability Specialist  Trainer

Webnauts Net
Koblenzer Str. 37a
D-33613 Bielefeld
Germany, Europe

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Designing  Optimizing Web Sites with Accessibility, Search Engines 
Usability in Mind

- Original Message - 
From: Kvnmcwebn [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: wsg wsg@webstandardsgroup.org
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 2:58 AM
Subject: [WSG] search engine question


 Hello,
 Do spiders crawl links in external javascript files, like the ones found
in
 some dhtml menus?
 -kvnmcwebn

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Re: [WSG] mutli language websites

2005-05-16 Thread Peter J. Farrell




sam sherlock wrote:

  
  
I am using ip2couuntry class in PHP to decide the default lanuage.

I don't know if this is the greatest feature - definitely not in Canada
where I live. Since the country has two official languages [english
and french], it would still requires an "evil", but necessary splash
page to select your language (unless you want them to search for the
language toogle link). All gouvernment websites that I know of have a
language page as a well as a method to toggle between both languages.

  
Should I use en or en-GB is the casing important?
  

"EN" should be just fine and according to my notes it is *not*
case-sensitive.

  
What charset should I use for the Itallian version the same as
english or other?
  

Why not use UTF-8 which supports nearly all languages [if not all] I
can think of. For example, ColdFuion uses UTF-8 as the default charset
for HTML as well as source code unless otherwise set.

Best,
.Peter
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