Common Errors

Should script standards even matter? This is obviously one question that would stimulate much debate. For one, there would be those who would want to advocate it. CSS programmers, and a whole bunch of other internet buffs and computer people would claim that it would enable them to do their jobs much easier. That is, there wouldn't be a need to see whether what they have created would work on different browsers.

Others would of course argue that standardization of everything would also entail a lot of problems. Competition issues and innovative developments in web design would be among them. Just like what has happened in the past edition of the numerous versions of internet browsers. They'd come up with new features, others would follow, and so on.

Perhaps, one of the biggest problems is when the event comes that a standard for web designing is agreed upon, most programmers would have to do away with their favorite habits. In addition of course to the fact that the dissemination of the information regarding the new set of standards would be a must.

Nevertheless, developers would continue to provide the pages of the internet with very creative and artistic touches that make avid internet surfers even more hooked to the world of cyberspace.

You see, digital information technology paved the way for the world wide web. Then, as the world wide web progressed over time, many tricks on website design and development have been formulated. With this, the pages of websites were made more accessible, usable, interactive, and visually appealing. One thing that made this happen was the formulation of the three layers of each page an internet site has.

Well, CSS is basically for the accessibility and customizability of the pages on the website. JavaScript, on the other hand, is for the interactivity and security of a website, and the transactions which are made on it, respectively. Then, there's XHTML acting as the glue which holds the two features together. Well, a platform to house the two is more likely.

But, the three layers always need to be separated. The XHTML layer or structural layer houses two layers. The CSS layer is one presentation layer. The third layer is called behavior layer and this uses JavaScript for its design and development. In order for these layers to communicate with each other, a trigger needs to be used. CSS triggers offer this function, but defeats the purpose of separating the three layers from each other. You see, these layers need to be stand-alone layers everytime a layer is modified. But, with CSS triggers, if you modify a layer, you would have to completely modify the HTML or structural layer. On the other hand, JavaScript triggers offer a more suitable bridge for the communication gap between the layers. So, I advise you to employ JavaScript triggers than CSS triggers.

Do you want to know whether your CSS syntax is correct? Well, you can make use of the Firefox JavaScript Console in order to find it out. Firefox uses a very special feature that is capable of detecting and displaying CSS errors through the JavaScript Console. If you want to see how it works, you can simply select Tools> JavaScript Console. Then make sure that it is set to show "All" or "Errors." After which, go to the browser window and then load a site, which has CSS errors (Finding one isn't that hard.). Afterwards, you can now go over the list of CSS errors.

Following this method is important since the error messages often prove to be more useful rather than those that are provided by the W3C CSS Validator. Choosing a link in an error message opens up a new source window where i the error is already highlighted. So the next time you would want to check out whether your CSS syntax is correct or not, you can simply use the JavaScript Console. Of course, there are other tools, which you can use in detecting errors. Yet the JavaScript Console is quite useful compared to the others.

One of the common tasks that web site developers use CSS for is to design the background of web pages. This fairly important nowadays because internet users are now more particular about the appearance of the web sites they visit. Aside from the fact that companies demand more of the developers, they actually expect them to possess some artistic creativity besides their invaluable technical knowledge and skill about programming.

In any web page, a plain, blank, white background would surely not score high on artistic quality. One of the techniques used by web developers is to use background tiling to add some zest in their creations. However, the common knowledge that when a command is given that would supposedly instruct the system to repeat a tiled image beginning at the center and repeat itself all the way down and towards the right, was actually flawed.

It was found that when the command to begin in the center is given, and is expected to repeat itself towards the right, what actually happens is that it repeats itself going in all directions. Both Explorer 4, as well as Navigator 4 are able to deliver what is expected of it on the other hand. It is hypothesized that the reason for this is that they are probably stuck with their v5 editions.

It was mentioned before that the common errors in making computer codes work are due to technical issues concerning browsers. In some cases, the computer would not just accept the code. But, did it ever occur to you that maybe, in one instance while you were typing, say a complicated JavaScript code or a CSS string, that it is a human causing the problems? That's right. You.

There was one time when I was typing out a CSS code for a friend's site. I was supposed to be putting a text in the box and then... nothing! That was awful, because I even volunteered to help out in the web design. But I recovered my pride somehow when we found out later on that I had just put an excess space in between the unit and the value. This rendered an invalid value, which then made the whole command invalid. Now, we all know that there should not be a space between units and value, so it was concluded that it was just a typo error. Whew. I was able to save myself from reputation disaster. Anyway, that's one of my manifestations of being a human, so the next time you try to impress others or yourself by your CSS skills, just make sure to double check what you just typed in anad mind your code spacing to prevent a similar incident from happening.

This is one feature of a page on any website that should not be forgotten to be included on each page that has a link on your website. If you use CSS to design both the graphical and text layout of the pages on your website, making a mistake of not altering the color of a visited link makes CSS useless. In addition, lacking the necessary visual skills, specifically in color combinations, would be disastrous for both your career as a web designer and your website!

Advanced information technology is continuously being developed so as to provide everyone with access and convenience in navigating through various platforms of information, in this case, the internet. CSS makes websites customizable and accessible, but lacking the necessary rudimentary knowledge on how websites should be designed so as to be most accessible and at the same time most usable would definitely be catastrophic in the goals set forth by CSS. Proper web designing require more than basic knowledge in either JavaScript, CSS, or HTML - it requires experience!

Such sites that does not alter colors for visited links tend to confuse the viewer. This is because not even Einstein remembers how deep he has gone regarding the links on a website, and that would prevent the viewer in navigating through your website with ease. This would cost the viewer time, and costing anyone time is a very frustrating experience for that person! So you just made yourself lose one viewer, and if he has friends, which I'm pretty sure he has some, rest assured - you lost them too!

So you want the pages on your website to look as beautiful as possible, not minding it to look as selfish and impolite as yourself, then? Thus, all you need to do is what you always do but never actually seem to fully understand - read between the lines! Using digital images either as background or add-ons are acceptable, yes, but definitely not using special images and image-like fonts to replace HTML text on the pages of your website!

By doing what the codes below are supposed to do, you then limit the accessibility of your website, specifically to blind PC users. There are about 10% of us that comprise the entire world population, so you have lost that number of visits on your website! Nothing to explain here, just do the CSS background codes below, give the screen reader user population a break, and go do what you're here for: deny us access to your website!

< - sample code - >

div {
background-image:url("Go_to_Hell.gif");
background-repeat:no-repeat;
height:35px;
}

span {display:none;}

< - end of sample - ʖ

There you have it - a good digital image, let's say even one edited with a good photo editor, as well as a font type that is not available in almost 60% of the computer-using world. You've done it again, my friend, but, as always, not entirely on your own, which goes to show what stuff you're really made of. So go and find more ways to bash the blind and the vision-impaired communities of the world, but just don't forget that by doing so, you assure yourself of darkness and despair if you do believe in the aftermath of the afterworld!

Most problems you'll encounter in CSS are because of browser compatibility or lack thereof. Some web browsers do not support the feature of CSS, such as Internet Explorer 6. This version of the Microsoft web browser does not support about 30 percent of CSS features and misreads numerous important properties such as width, height, and float.

However, some shortcomings are not because of the browsers limitation but is due to CSS's own limitations. Here are some limitations that are present in the current specification of CSS. CSS doesn't give you the ability to ascend selectors, there is no way for you to select an ancestor of element that will fit specific criteria. While it is easy to manipulate the horizontal positioning of elements, controlling the vertical placement is very difficult, if not impossible.

Even if all you need to do is place an element in the center vertically, you have to formulate complicated codes for it to be implemented. You also can't simplify the expression of specific property values in your code. For example, width: 50%; margin: -2.5em 0; padding: 1px 0; can't be expressed as width: 50% - 2.5em + 1px; and so on. At times, the margins of an element will collapse all of a sudden, and there's no way you can avoid it.

There you have it. Remember that CSS features are not that perfect. Well, not yet anyway.

Cascading style sheets (CSS) is perhaps the most convenient and efficient way of constructing and designing websites. This is because instead of painstakingly typing HTML codes one at a time, you may use “styles’ in defining the elements of your web page. Web design parameters such as text formatting, table dimensions, image positioning may be defined using cascading style sheets.

However, there are various Internet browsers which may ignore CSS syntax thereby resulting to the improper display of web designs on the computer monitor. For instance, Firefox browser may not recognize a parameter error defining line height whereas Internet Explorer may simply ignore the error and still display the element.

Working on a CSS design can get messy when your syntax starts making an error. The whole setup can lead to a domino effect where one single error can lead to the destruction of the entire style sheet. Many web designers shun CSS mainly because of browser incompatibility. If you're trying to get through Netscape, your attempt can get bloody. Netscape is not lenient, as one syntax error and it disables the whole CSS design.

Incorporate Java script in places where Netscape doesn't allow css designs to be displayed. Use the LINK script href="styleSheet.css"> instead of the @import when importing files. Your names and background colors can also end up misrepresented if you are not careful.

The graphics designs of web pages created using cascading style sheets (CSS) are not always read properly by some versions of web browsers. Some web masters may find it difficult designing web pages that may universally fit any existing browser format or platforms.

Common errors in viewing web pages designed using cascading style sheets may be caused by browser incompatibility or it maybe the result of innate design flaws in coding. Most web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Opera would support CSS features.

Web pages which are designed using cascading style sheets (CSS) sometimes have errors in them that they do not appear as originally intended when they are viewed using a particular browser. Certain web page features may not appear or may be wrongly placed. Status bars, borders and margins, background tiles, text graphics and others may become unreadable and unattractive. Some browsers may present these CSS errors in a separate screen while some may simply ignore these errors. These CSS errors may be due to wrong specification of parameters for certain tags such as table height, width and alignment. While some CSS errors are due to omission of tags or misplaced tags.