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I've been design Web sites for a long time. It isn't often I get excited about a Web Site design technique, but I am excited about this one.
Style sheets (CSS) are a common technique where you describe type attributes (font, size, weight, and color) in a separate file, then call that file in the header section of a web page. You create styles for body copy, headings, sub headings, etc. Then you assign style tags in your html, making that text take on a specific style. If you decide at some point you want your headings red, instead of blue, you just change the style sheet and the entire site is updated.
I've never been a huge fan of style sheets because they mess up the html. You can apply styles to anything; table rows, links, paragraphs, or just span around type. It doesn't take long before you've got redundant and overlapping style tags. Styles can junk up a site in a hurry. Once you lose it, the only way to straighten it out is to go into the html and edit it by hand.
Style sheets, included in html editors like Dreamweaver and Go Live, are limited in scope. A better way to go is to create your own style sheet by hand, in Word Pad for example. In it create styles for default html attributes: for H1 (major headings) tags, for H2 (sub headings) tags, and for P (paragraph) tags. With this specialized style sheet created and applied, all you have to do is format your html with standard html H1 headings, H2 headings and paragraphs and the formatting is applied automatically. Using this technique there isn't a single style tag anywhere in the html. The html is absolutely clean, the page is beautifully formatted, and it looks the same in all browsers.
If that isn't enough, there is another overwhelming advantage to designing this way. Search engines give a lot of importance to major heading H1 tags. Most designers don't use H1 tags because they create big (gargantuan) type. With this technique you can assign H1 tags at will because they are formatted with the font, size, weight, and color you choose. You have the huge search engine advantage of H1 tags without any of the design drawbacks. It's perfect.
We're adopting this technique in all our sites. If you do any html coding at all, you know what a mess the underlying html can be. With this technique you have absolutely clean html - no font tags or style tags anywhere - that yields a beautifully formatted web page that indexes great with the search engines. You can see the new internetman.com to see how it's done.
Internet Man
PS. I will be giving a workshop on Web Site Design at the Tustin Chamber of Commerce at the chamber office in Old Town Tustin on Wednesday, January 10 at 11:00 AM. Call 714-544-5341 for details.
PS. All cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketers in 10 days. To get on the national DO NOT CALL LIST call 888-382-1222. It only takes a minute and is well worth the effort.
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