We’re Ready for CSS3, but are we Ready for CSS3?

February 27th, 2010

We’re Ready for CSS3, but are we Ready for CSS3?

We’re all smitten with CSS3. It’s reinvigorated that sense of newness that CSS and Web Standards brought our way just a few years ago. We’re able to more easily replicate the set of design standards that has become nearly universal much faster than before with just a few CSS declarations. There are a number of CSS3 rules I’d be writing for every project, but I’m just not sure it’s as ready for prime time as many designers are making it out to be.

I’m having an honest-to-goodness back and forth with myself on this issue because I sympathize with two opposing sides to the same issue. I’ve thought about it so much that I’m not sure it’s as much of an issue I’m making it out to be, but would definitely love to have a targeted conversation about it.

I’d like to review the four rules I’d more than love to use without a second thought on every project I work on for the rest of my life, and explain the issues I’ve come up with (so far) regarding each.

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CSS3 Techniques You Should Know | sixrevisions

February 7th, 2010

Many of you have probably heard all the buzz around CSS3, but exactly which techniques can we use today? In this article I’ll show you some different CSS3 techniques that work great in some of the leading browsers (i.e. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera ), and how they will degrade well in the non-supported browsers (i.e. Internet Explorer). Using browser specific extensions, many of the proposed CSS3 styles can be used today!

If you aren’t aware of the browser extensions, these are CSS styles with a vendor specific prefix. Since CSS3 is not fully supported yet, we must use these extensions. They are as follows:

  • Mozilla/Firefox/Gecko: -moz-
  • Webkit (Safari/Chrome): -webkit- (note: Some webkit prefixes only work in Safari, and not Chrome)

As you might have guessed, one of the downsides of using these extensions is the fact that we must use all of the above prefixes to get the CSS3 style to render in Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. And no surprise to anyone, IE does not support CSS3 or do they have extensions like the other leading browsers. Alright, enough talking, lets dive right in! Note: styles without a prefix are the actual W3 specification proposal.

Forgotten CSS selectors

February 6th, 2010

Anyone who has been using CSS for any length of time has probably been frustrated by the lack of selector support in Internet Explorer 6. There are quite a lot of cases where a CSS 2.1 selector will let you target elements in all other relevant browsers, but where you, if you want it to work in IE 6, have to add a class or id attribute to the HTML.

Well, the market share of IE 6 is now finally at a level where we as developers can say that a site “supporting” IE 6 does not mean “looking pixel perfect”. Fortunately more and more clients understand this as well. IE 7 has been out for well over three years and IE 9 is on the horizon, so I think it’s time to revive those CSS selectors that you never got to use just because IE 6 doesn’t understand them.

Here are brief explanations of some of the most useful “forgotten” CSS 2.1 selectors.

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Free Vector Social Media Icons | icondock

January 30th, 2010

vector-social-media-iconsThis free set includes 50 icons of the most popular social media networks on the internet. The icons are designed in 32px and 16px vector format. With the vector format, you can scale the icon to any size to fit with your design or use it in high quality print materials. What you will get from the zip package: 32px and 16px in three different file formats: vector EPS, PNG, and GIF.

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Use CSS Sprites to Beautify your WordPress Post Dates | wpbeginner

January 29th, 2010

dates-css-sprites Ever wonder how to super style your blog’s post date?  I am going to show you how to do this using CSS sprites in about 18 minutes.

Editorial Note: This post is geared toward theme designers. Prior knowledge of CSS and WordPress is recommended.

What you will need:

  • A graphics program (I use Adobe Photoshop CS4)
  • A simple text editor

What you will accomplish in this tutorial:

  • The dates on your blog’s posts will be super styled using CSS Sprites

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Keyword Targeting: How to Employ Multiple Keywords for SEO & Conversions | SEOmoz

January 23rd, 2010

At some point during your University’s SEO 201: Advanced Keyword Research & Targeting class, they probably gave a few lectures and case studies on how to effectively split up your keyword research list across multiple pages and use those terms/phrases to maximum benefit. But, for those who might have missed that lesson (which would be, umm, all of us, since no formal education in SEO exists), a handy refresher might be in order.

Many SEOs struggle to answer questions like:

  • How many keywords can I target on a page?
  • Should I try to target all of my most important terms on my homepage (since it gets the most link juice)?
  • When I should try to target similar phrases together vs. splitting them up?

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75+ Top jQuery Plugins to improve Your HTML Forms

January 23rd, 2010

jQuery makes it easier and simpler to provide your users with high quality, dynamic, good looking and intuitive input forms. This post lists some of the best available in different categories; “Form Element Visual Enhancements”, “Form Element Data Validation and Manipulation”, “Form Tool tips”, “Calendars and date pickers”, “jQuery hot key plugins” etc.

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10 Best Tutorials To Learn CSS3 | aext

January 12th, 2010

In the last few years, web design has improved significantly. There are so many tutorials out there to increase the skills capacity web designers and web developers. Some popular browsers such as Firefox, Safari already supported some CSS3 properties, and now the designer has many CSS3 properties. Today, I will share some tutorials, tips and tricks about CSS3.

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