WordPressHelp » Guides

Update Services

admin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:30:09 +0000

Because most of us post to BLOGs in order to be read, having a good and complete list of update services is essential. As I was surfing the web I came across a rather complete, current, and thoughtful listing. This list is maintained and located at: http://elliottback.com/wp/a-list-of-rpc-and-rpc2-to-ping/ Many thanks to Elliot C. Back. Related posts:Accessibility Guidelines Accessibility [...] Related posts:

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WordPress Information Central!

mark — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:55:51 +0000

WordPressHelp (WPH) is very pleased to announce that we have implemented the newest release of TreeMagic-Banyan thereby aggregating the web’s most important WordPress information all in one location!!!

In our continuing efforts to make WordPress easier to use, WPH now affords WP developers & users the opportunity to double-click on any text word on this site and gain “instant” access to related WP resource information from:

WordPress
Lorelle
Automattic
WordPress Themes
WordPressHelp
AmbientWebs and
TreeMagic

Users may access the information from these sites either individually (via the drop-down menu which appears when you double-click on a term) or in a collective, intelligently, pre-processed and correlated fashion (via the WP Banyan Portal). This Web 3 functionality allows users access information ‘on-the spot’ and then return to the source for continued reading and information gathering.

If you have additional sites you wish for us to incorporate in our WP Banyan Portal and TM-Banyan Search function, please use our Contact page to let us know.

800+ cross referenced links! The TreeMagic-Banyan tools on this site now provide easy access...
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WebMaster Tools

mark — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:12:08 +0000

Most of these pointers are courtesy of: http://mywebresource.com

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CSS Guides

mark — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:38:15 +0000

CSS: Style Sheet Guidelines

Web applications should always adhere to W3C standards and validate correctly. Numerous excellent CSS style Guides are available that discuss the how-tos of achieving these objectives, below are a few:

References:

Tutorial:

Style Master CSS Tutorial

Online Guides Over the years we have come across numerous useful websites;...
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Online Guides

mark — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:39:20 +0000

Over the years we have come across numerous useful websites; sites that communicate useful information on web development, standards implementation and more. A few are listed here (we’ll update this list as time goes on…)

Standards

The following sites provide detailed information on web standards. Please remember that all of sites should adhere to applicable web standards! Use these sites to ensure your code complies with the relevant standards.

Tools

Dynamic Drive- Scripts and add-ons
Cleanup your CSS
CSS Menus & More (Stu Nichols)
CSS Page Layouts
Morgue File- Free Open Source photos
Rounded Box Generator
Spiffy Corners- generate nice css boxes
Stock Xchange- Free Open Source photos
WebSite Audit
WebSite Grader

Tutorials

Ajax Tutorials
CSS Listmania
Fix IE Bugs- Explorer Exposed
w3schools Tutorials (html, css, and more)
Web Style Guide
W3c compliant Site Listings

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Web Site Analysis

mark — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:44:25 +0000

Goals

Establish an overall goal for your web site. Who will your audience be? What information do you want to convey to this audience?

Targets

Which of the following will your audience be using?

Web browsers (FireFox, Netscape, Internet Explorer, AOL, Opera, lynx)
browser versions (2.0+ 4.0+, 5.0+, 6.0+, 7.0)
platforms (Windows, MAC, UNIX, Linux)
screen resolution - The most popular screen resolutions at this time is 1024 x 768.

Design your site so that it meets the specifications of the target (s) chosen. See www.thecounter.com/stats to see current statistics regarding the most frequently used browser versions, monitor resolutions and operating systems.

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Design Pointers

mark — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:42:01 +0000

The most important part of your web site is the actual text content. Use the following tips regarding content:

Site Navigation Scheme - Using index cards or smaller pieces of paper, write down all the items that you want included in your web site (Brainstorm here!). Now separate them into Categories, understanding that one index card may end up in more than one category. When you have something that makes sense, you have just created one navigational scheme!
- If you need more than one level of hierarchy, create additional piles. Ensure that those items which you know your audience will want to get to are not too far down in the navigational scheme. Will your audience have to click more than two times to get to the item? If so, consider using a Quick List on higher levels of your site which will get your audience quickly to these popular items.
- Repeat the above process until you come up with one or more navigational schemes for your site. Now decide how you want to ” label ” each of the Categories so that it is brief and yet descriptive for your audience.
Static vs Dynamic - Determine which elements of your web site will be relatively static in nature, and which elements are dynamic, requiring frequent updates. You may decide in this step NOT to include something on the web site, if you will not be able to maintain it.
Page Size - For large documents, decide whether you will break it into separate web pages, making each page printable on its own.
- Your alternative is to make one large document with a table of contents or index at the top with target links to specific areas of the document.
Page Identity - Make each page in a group of web pages understandable on its own. This means that you will need to title each page consistently. If your site has several layers of content, consider the usage of footprints on your pages. (Ex.Home & gt; & gt; ITS & gt; & gt; Documents).
Print vs Web - Content that typically needs to be revised when converting printed media to the web include:
- contact points (email addresses in addition to mail addresses, room numbers and telephone numbers)
- if you include a phone number, use complete phone numbers with area codes
- when referring to a date, spell out the month. While the US uses month / day / year, the rest of the world uses day / month / year
- for forms to be placed online, you will need to rewrite the instructions. For example, remove / reword sentences such as ” Complete back side of this form. “
Link descriptions - Part of your documents will contain links to other information. These links should alert the user to what they will see if they select the link; in other words they should be brief and yet descriptive. In some cases, it is also appropriate to describe the ” where ” in the link. For example, if a link will take the user to another web site, convey that information in the link text. Avoid terminology like ” click here ” or ” press the right arrow “; browser methods of choosing links vary.
- provide ” return to ” statements on pages of your web site to help users get back on track.
Stale content - Tell users, in words, how often a page is updated.
Original content -
- Make the content of your home page original. Do not duplicate documents that appear elsewhere on the Internet. Instead, link to them
- Be aware of copyright regulations that apply to existing Web sites.
In development - Avoid under Construction pages. If you intend to eventually include an additional page or section on your web site, you may say so on a completed page of your web site, but do not put up a page which only states Under Construction.
Spelling errors - Spell check and proofread your pages as you would any other publication.

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Special Tips

mark — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:38:32 +0000

Special Tips

Be aware of the pitfalls of character sets . (Here comes a pound sign Ã‚Â£ what did you get?) Currency signs are a real danger. It might be safer to write the currency in full. It is not just the signs that fail in some way; even those that do display may be misinterpreted. Let ‘ s say you are in the USA and write $25.00 without qualification. How much does that look like to a browser in Australia, Canada, or Hong Kong? If the local $ is worth more than the US$ then you risk someone dismissing a product as overpriced. If the local $ is less, your strangely eager customer may suddenly turn sour when she or he thinks you have been deliberately misleading.

ISO 8859-1 Character Set Overview
If you specify a background color or image, but don ‘ t specify text and link colors, the user ‘ s text and link colors will be used against your background. In some cases, there won ‘ t be contrast between the user ‘ s text and link colors and your background color or image, so your text and links will disappear. The rule of thumb is that if you set one color, then you need to set them all .

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alpha Criteria

mark — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:20:05 +0000

Suggested alpha Standards

alpha Review is final internal review of a website for the purpose of internal quality inspection
all local coding is completed and local developer reviews are completed
the developer believes that the product will meet call client requirements and will pass management examination and sign-off
alpha sites still run on development servers and have not been published to the internet

alpha Readiness Checklist

Please note that all the below criteria, in the checklist, must be met before considering the site as being ready for alpha Review.

Checklist for main page of web site

Does the page have the following?

a name of index.html or equivalent (ie. home.php for WordPress) ? By naming your main home page index.html, users will be able to access your site without supplying a filename at the end of the address.
a title which contains the name of your web site followed by “, CompanyName LLC “. For example: CompanyName LLC
the CompanyName brands used correctly!
the full name of the person to contact regarding your web site .
an email link behind the name of the contact person with an ” @ mail.com ” email address. For example, in the link Sue Jones, the code ” mailto: sjones @ mail.com ” is stored behind the Sue Jones link. If you need an alias for your email contact, contact: webmaster @ CompanyName.com.
META Tags to identify your web site to search engines. We recommend that you use the author, keyword and description META Tags

Checklist for each page of web site

tables

Use sparingly and with caution! Avoid table use in documents whenever possible.
Table use in CSS or base html should be prohibited!

animated images

Design an animated image so that it stops animating after a few seconds and doesn ‘ t loop continuously. Images that flicker (with a repetitive strobe) should be designed so that the frame rate is not faster than two frames per second. This is especially important for larger flickering images or images which flicker between highly contrasting colors.

To check a web page for accessibility issues, use a tool like the free tool named A-Prompt Toolkit.

Checklist for your entire web site

Have you changed all link references to www.CompanyName.com?
Remember any copied links must be reachable.

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Web Specifications

mark — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:16:21 +0000

For the future, to add presentational effects and Web page style, validate documents at the HTML 4.0 level (for the cleanest possible markup), so pages contain little or no HTML 3.2 presentational markup or proprietary stylistic hacks, and use the World Wide Web Consortium ‘ s Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language to add stylistic effects to your pages.

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