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In our previous article on creating spamless email links via JavaScript, the presented method, although relatively simple to implement, is not the most effective solution available. Spambots, email harvesters, and other online scumbags relentlessly advance their scanning technology, perpetually rendering obsolete yesterday’s methods. Read more »
By using an <iframe></iframe> within a <div></div>, it is possible to include external web content in most any web document. This method serves as an excellent alternative to actual frames, which are not as flexible and definitely not as popular. Indeed, with CSS, the placement, sizing, and styling of div’s provides endless possibilities for embedding external or even internal web content into pages that would otherwise require the use of frames, Flash, or JavaScript. This method works on any modern browser, as well as any old browser that understands both <div></div> and <iframe></iframe> tags. Read more »
As you may have noticed, Perishable Press recently added automatic language translation to each of our articles. The free, automatic translations are available as a series of image links (via corresponding country flag icons) next to each article’s individual post view. We have found that providing this free service is important as many of our visitors come from countries other than the United States, and therefore may be unable to read our articles as presented in the English language. Read more »
After digging through the WordPress source code, I stumbled upon this very useful JavaScript method for auto-focusing form elements upon page load. Here is the JavaScript code (place within the document head): Read more »
Most Web authors are familiar with the <link /> element included within the <head></head> element of many (X)HTML documents. The <link /> element enables authors to associate external resources to the (X)HTML document. <link /> element references include various types of metadata, navigation, and styling information. This brief post provides examples of these and other important uses of the (X)HTML <link /> element. Read more »
Welcome to Perishable Press! This article explains several methods for opening multiple frames with a single link. For more excellent HTML information, check out the HTML category archive. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to Perishable Press for a periodic dose of online enlightenment ;) Read more »
This tutorial explains several techniques for centering content absolutely using (X)HTML. By “absolutely”, I am referring to an element (such as a <div></div>) that is centered on the page both horizontally and vertically. The techniques presented below explain how to center elements using CSS, frames, or tables. Read more »
Changing the color of scrollbars for Internet Explorer may very well be the oldest trick in the book. In fact, this post exists mostly for the sake of prosperity, as we here at Perishable Press strive to eliminate our entire offline library of website design notes by transferring them to the World Wide Web. Although library conversion requires time, patience, and determination, changing the color of IE scrollbars is relatively simple. Simply associate these CSS rules to the (X)HTML documents desiring unique scrollbar colors: Read more »
Ever since Internet Explorer 5 (IE5), Microsoft has included browser support for “downlevel conditional comments”, a non-scripted method of browser detection. Downlevel conditional comments (DCC) are a useful tool for targeting directives to specific versions of Internet Explorer. Downlevel conditional comments consist of an opening statement and a closing statement. Taken together, the statements may enclose markup, CSS, JavaScript, or any other element typically included within an (X)HTML document. The DCC may be placed anywhere within the document and executes its contents only for the version(s) of IE specified. Read more »
This XHTML header tags resource is a work in progress, perpetually expanding and evolving as new information is obtained, explored, and integrated. Hopefully, you will find it useful in some way. Even better, perhaps you will share any complimentary or critical information concerning the contents of this article. Read more »
Search engines loathe crawling through convoluted lines of code. Oceans of complex JavaScript scare away the priceless indexing and archiving efforts of most major search engines, which will generally abort a crawl upon encountering such mess. The good news is that search engines actually do not deploy JavaScript, so it is possible to use JavaScript to hide those miles of messy code by using the fundamental document.write function. Read more »
If you think that nobody uses frames anymore, think again. I personally know of one person who threw down some tuff HTML frame action for a personal site. So, in the interest of prosperity, we are hereby establishing this post as our official dumping ground for all HTML frame-related garbage. Read more »
Just a few useful accessibility notes.. Read more »
To help maintain consistency when developing new CSS-styled websites, we have created a complete CSS template file. The file contains every HTML/XHTML tag known to man. This includes tags such as BASEFONT and CENTER, which have been deprecated; tags such as COMMENT and MARQUEE, which are exclusive to Internet Explorer; tags such as SPACER and SERVER, which are exclusive to Netscape Navigator; and even tags such as !DOCTYPE and BASE, which are included merely for the sake of completeness. As CSS selectors, the tags are (almost all) empty, just waiting to be filled with declarations, properties, and values. Read more »
Fashion stylish deleted text in XHTML via the über obscure del tag. Code example: <del datetime=”1999-Dec-31T23:59:59+00:00″ title=”Text deleted: 31-Dec-1999 @ 23:59″> Terminate me. </del> Live example: Terminate me. Read more »
Well, maybe not that obscure.. <pre> — Preformatted character data <em> — Renders as emphasized text <strong> — Renders as strong emphasized text <tt> — Renders font as teletype or monospace <dfn> — Defines a definition term <code> — Defines computer code text <samp> — Defines sample computer code <kbd> — Defines keyboard text <var> — Defines a variable <cite> — Defines a citation <strike> — XHTML Transitional only <del> — Indicates deleted text <ins> — Indicates inserted text <dl> — Defines a definition list <dt> — Defines a definition term <dd> — Defines a definition definition <abbr> — Defines […] Read more »
Jeff Starr (aka Perishable)
Perishable Press is the work of Jeff Starr, professional developer, designer, author, and publisher with over 10 years of experience. Check out some of Jeff's books and projects, follow on Twitter, or learn more »
Fun fact: Perishable Press has been online since 2005, and features over 800 articles and more than 11,000 comments. More stats »
