convert my web sites to CSS

My first experience with CSS was tweaking my blog which was a bit confusing ‘cos I was learning movable type code and css at the same time. About 2 years I converted my first site to css and it was a learning experience. I pretty much left it alone after that. Then 1 year ago I converted my second site to css and it was more complex, a bigger learning experience, and I think now I’m at the point where there’s no more messing with the code. From now on I’ll only make sites in CSS but I decided to go back to my first site to review the code and I realize all the mistakes—it’s not fully CSS because some design elements are in the HTML. I’m going to fully tweak that first site and then move on to converting more.

I’m very happy to get this goal completed. My websites work in all browsers now.

Done: my site has been re-written from the ground up using w3c-validated css and html 4 strict.

I think it helps to coincide the transition with a full redesign, as I did. You can rebuild everything from the ground up, and rethink and streamline the user experience in the process. Tighter presentation and tighter under the hood at the same time.

Of course it’s already due for a first round of revisions. Let’s hope the revisions are smoother now that content and presentation are separated.

I’m an above-ground geek, which means I occasionally see daylight.
Now, for the CSS thing – if you have the same tendency to over analyze and discard simplicity as I do, you and I will be able to relate a bit on this topic. My favorite CSS related sites are
http://www.meyerweb.com , http://www.glish.com/css/ , http://www.csszengarden.com/

I don’t put a whole lot of stock into pre-made templates since I like to disassemble and recreate things to suit my tastes and to learn how things work. I’ve used various examples from the three sites listed in my own work on http://www.wisti-thinking.com and I can honestly tell you that having templates around is a lifesaver when you’re in a hurry. In my opinion, most templates will take away a bit of the creative effort of the designer who’s using it for their own personal or business website.

IE does have a few good qualities, I suppose, though I have become quite disillusioned by the lack of flexibility one may require while surfing online, or creating web pages.

I’ve become hooked on Firefox through my brother ( Brian, of http://www.coolnamehere.com ) and have had no burning desire to turn back. For those not in the know, and are at least a bit curious, go to http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/community/ and browse through the various postings and available utilities.

Firefox has several nifty utilities that allow the programmers and web designers of all skill levels to customize their desktop browsers to suit their tastes. If your web design skills are lacking and you have the desire to learn how to work with html and css, the Webdeveloper utility is very useful. It is something I consider required for those that need a teaching tool like I did.

Check out these links for other articles I found on the subject of Firefox…

http://stochastix.wordpress.com/2007/01/24/msie-sucks-and-firefox-rules/
http://iconpacks.mozdev.org/packs/firefox-unofficial.html

First attempt resulted in about 60% of site converted but issues with dynamic content and IE hacks discourged me from completing.

Back to school for a year was a major distraction but once over …

Changed some of the dynamically generated sources for CSS compliant ones, re-read the CSS books and conquered the site.

A long road … but a worthwhile feeling at the end.

very easy to do it. Just don’t let do the absolute positioning. Fluid and centered layouts works fine..

:-)

once you’ve done one. Most of your troubles will be debugging for IE 6 and 7. Don’t do hacks! Use IE Conditional statements. Good luck!

Thank God!

It’s sooooo much cleaner. Just looking back at the older designs I had before CSS makes me shudder. Why had I not done it sooner?

...and I’m not quite done yet. The whole layout thing is done though but I still need to convert the history section to go along with the rest. Anyway, I liked the result myself, have a look if you want to at http://hagwall.com