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Raven’s Perch is still here. All of the great articles I had on computer-related stuff will be posted in the next 24 hours. I’m just switching things over to a blog so I can actually update the site more often and just pop in and post something whenever I feel like it.
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Webmastering.
Originally posted in July, 2000
Probably the most frequent question I have coming across my screen as I sit in ExpertCity is “How do I stop getting illegal operations? What do they mean?”
An Ill-op isn’t something you’ve done wrong, and it’s certainly not illegal. No policemen are going to come to your house and take your computer away. It simply means that your computer’s resources were too low to continue doing whatever task it was trying to do at the moment, while at the same time running all of the other tasks on its plate.
Take a look at your system tray (the box in the lower right-hand corner by your clock). Is it full of icons? Everything that is in that box is a program that is running in the background while you work on your computer. You may not be using it at the moment; might not even use it at all for a few days. But still this program thinks that it needs to be running all of the time just in case you decide you need to use it. Having that icon there saves you about 4 seconds that it would otherwise take you to activate that program from the Start menu.
What does this tremendous (cough) time saver cost you? In terms of resources, quite a bit.
Your computer only has a finite amount of resources to work with. How much exactly is determined by a number of things:
The more RAM you have, the better. Some people will tell you that anything over 96 megs is wasted, as Windows doesn’t use it. While this may be true, (I can neither confirm nor deny it) more RAM certainly has never hurt anyone, and I personally have seen a significant increase in performance when boosting my RAM over 96 megs. Perhaps Windows doesn’t use it, but other programs do!
The trend for internet connections has moved greatly to high-speed, such as cable or DSL. As a result, webmasters are becoming less worried about the amount of graphics that they use in their webpage, and the file size of those graphics, since they can be downloaded up to 100 times faster than a dial-up connection. You’ve probably seen this trend emerging at all of your favorite web sites. They’re getting prettier, and taking longer to load. Well, all of those graphics are served up to you via your video card, so the more graphics you look at, the more you’re taxing the amount of RAM on that card. If you’ve got a small video card with 4 megs or less of “video memory”, you’ve probably noticed that after surfing for a while, you’ll scroll a webpage down and it will appear to “smear” vertically. That’s a sure sign that your video memory can’t take anymore, and it’s time to reboot. If you’re a power-surfer or work a lot with graphics, buy a video card with the most memory that you can afford. 16 megs is a good minimum for true power users.
Your swap file is a folder that resides on your hard drive. As your computer’s RAM fills up, Windows will compensate by ‘dumping’ things you’re not accessing at the moment into that file so that it can use your RAM for what you are currently working on. Microsoft would have you believe that it’s best to let Windows manage your swap file (aka ‘virtual memory’), but this simply isn’t true. It’s best to set the limits of your swap file yourself, and if possible, place it off of the C: drive (or partition) or at least out of the Windows folder. MaximumPC has written a fantastic tutorial on how to do this yourself. (Check the bottom of the page on the new window that pops up.)
Some hardware in your machine will use resources. This is unavoidable and unfortunately the only way to keep them from doing that is to remove the hardware. Usually the hardware is there because you need it to be so, so you’ll have to live with the consequences. Fortunately, most of the “big” resource eaters are being remade these days to have their own processor on the card, so they’re not using up as much as they used to. Deluxe sound cards, big video cards that perform many functions (like being tv tuners), and networking cards are guilty of grabbing a few percentage points of resources.
Before you begin, make sure you’re on a fresh, hard reboot. A hard (or “cold”) reboot is when you shut your machine down completely and restart it again using the power button. Simply choosing “Restart Windows” from the shutdown menu is what’s referred to as a soft boot, since it really only reboots the operating system and programs - the software.
Check your resources and find out what they are upon bootup. Do this by right-clicking on My Computer and choosing Properties, then hitting the Performance tab. Your System Resources should be over 90%. If they’re not, you’ve got a serious problem with Windows starting too many programs when it boots up and having too much pure, unadulterated junk on the drive. The farther over 90% it is the better, although you’ll never see a full 100%. The highest I’ve seen is 98%.
(Note: The following is for Win98. In Win95 you must take different steps and it’s a bit more complicated, but anything past step #1 you can do easily. With enough requests, I’ll post a clean-up routine for Win95.)
Hit the Startup tab and uncheck everything that you do not want running when your computer boots up. The only things that are necessary to leave in are SystemTray and ScanRegistry, as Windows needs these to run. At any time you feel that you need something turned back on, you can simply come back to this msconfig/startup window and re-check that item.
Unchecking these items will take their icon out of your system tray. If you need to turn one of these programs on, simply access the program by going through your Start/Programs menu, or make a shortcut to the program on your desktop. Unchecking these items does *not* remove or uninstall the programs from your computer in any way.
When you are finished with the Startup tab, click on the AutoExec.bat and Win.ini tabs. Look for anything that says Run= or Load=. If these exist, simply type “REM” (no quotes) in front of the item. These are often loaded by games that run in DOS mode, but some other programs put these commands into the autoexec.bat and win.ini files.
You’re finished with msconfig. Click Apply, and then click Ok.
Your computer will tell you it needs to restart for the changes to take effect. Tell it ok and let it restart.
In the “Named” area, type “*.tmp” (without the quotes). Make sure the “Look In” drop-down box is set to all of the drives in your computer, and “include subfolders” is checked.
Click Find Now!
Highlight everything that turns up in the window and delete it. A fast way to do this is to click on the topmost file, and hold down the left shift key while you click on the very bottom file. They will all be highlighted and then you can just right-click and choose Delete.
Do the same thing for “*.chk” files, and delete those.
Close the Find window.
Close your browser.
Close your mail program.
Almost done!
Hit the Screen Saver tab.
Set the screen saver to None. You can turn this back on when you are completely finished, but it needs to be turned off during ScanDisk and Defrag, which are coming up.
Hit Apply and Ok.
Your task manager will appear. End task on everything that is currently running except for Systray and Explorer. You’ll need to Ctrl-Alt-Del again after ending every task.
Hit Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools.
Choose Scandisk, set it to all drives, and let it start. There are options available to you in ScanDisk, take a moment to look at them to choose your personal settings. It’s fine to just leave it on the default settings.
If you do not ScanDisk often or have never done so, this will take quite a while. Let it finish completely.
When it is done, hit Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools again, and choose Defrag.
Set it to your C: drive and start it. This will also take a long time, especially if you have a large hard drive or haven’t performed a defrag in a while. It might be best to do this just before going to bed and just let the computer run while you sleep.
Take heart, though! The more frequently you S&D, the faster they will be.
When you’re all finished, you’ll have a nice clean, smooth-running computer that will be much nicer to you on resources! Keep in mind though, that you should do this cleanup once a week or so in order to keep your computer in tip-top shape. Some of these steps should be done at least every other day, such as emptying your cache, recycle bin, and deleted mail.
Here’s some things to keep in mind:
Remember, your computer is like a car. It needs its oil changed and the tires rotated every now and again to keep running well. The cleaner your hard drive, the better your machine will run!
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Windows.
Originally posted in July, 2000
In my previous article, I explained how to clear resources (and reclaim some hard drive space) in Windows 98. I had a couple of requests for the same procedure in Windows 95. Basically the only thing that is different is the first step, as there is no msconfig utility in 95. You have to do it by hand, but it’s much easier than it sounds.
Right click on My Computer, choose Properties, and click the Performance tab. Make a note of your system resources. Close out that window.
Go down to where it says Start Up and click the “+” next to it.
This will open up the Programs folder. Inside of that, find the folder labeled Startup or Start Up.
Click the “+” next to it and open it up.
Now for each program that is in that folder that you don’t want starting when your machine boots (you don’t need any of it to start but maybe you really like your Gator program), highlight the program by clicking on it once, and then click Remove.
Click Ok.
You are now in the registry of your computer. This is where Windows holds information about every program (including the operating system) on your machine. Just in case you mess something up, it’s best to save a backup copy of the registry beforehand. We’ll do that now:
Type in “runservices” (no quotes), then click Find Next. (This might take a couple of minutes, be patient.)
If you can’t find it no matter what you do, you can get there by opening these folders in this order:
(Note: The Current Version folder is also where you’ll find your Microsoft Windows product ID, in case you’ve lost your certificate. It’s listed there as ProdID.)
Delete everything the same way EXCEPT Systray.
You will see cascading windows. You need to go to the WIN.INI file, usually the third one back. Clicking on it will bring it to the front so you can work with it. If you don’t see cascading windows, minimize the foremost window (not the Sysedit window itself) and you’ll be able to see the other files.
If you see RUN= or LOAD= lines, type “REM” (no quotes) in front of them.
You’ll be asked if you want to save changes, click Yes.
So how did you do?
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Windows.
Originally posted in July, 2000
You turn on the radio on the way home from work and find out that a new virus has just swept across the country - and it’s main purpose is to erase your hard drive. You know that someone at home is using the computer right now and most likely, that virus is sitting in your email waiting to take its toll. What do you do?
Well, you can either panic and cause a ten-car pile up when you swerve across lanes while digging for your cellphone, or you can smile and say “Go ahead. Make my day. My machine needed a good wiping anyway, it was getting cluttered. So give it your best shot, virus boy!”
What’s the difference between the person scrambling to call home and the person smugly chuckling at the radio announcer?
Smug man backs up his data on a regular basis.
If you’re going to use a computer, you have to back up your data.
“But I don’t open any .exe files!”
It doesn’t matter. The new breed of viruses don’t come with .exe files. A brownout from the local power company can hose your machine. Your hard drive can decide to move on to greener pastures without you. I’ve even heard of one customer who ate next to his computer every night. He had a terrible ant problem. Eventually, the ants thought the inside of the computer case looked like a neat place to go hunting for dinner - and they ate through every cable in the system. You never know what might happen, so I’ll say it again. You have to back up your data.
What’s the best way to back up?
Writable CD Roms. They can handle an incredible amount of data and they’re pretty hard to destroy. My 2.5 yr old abuses his learning CDs in ways that make me cringe, and they still work fine.
Next would be the new “large floppies” - Zip drives, Jazz drives, Orb drives, etc. These big hard-cased floppies hold anywhere from 100 megs of data to 2 gigs. They’re bigger, so they’re harder to lose. You still have to be careful about putting them near magnets, though. (This includes your speakers! Don’t ever put any type of floppy on top of unshielded speakers!)
After large floppies comes small floppies. They don’t hold much, just 1.4 megs of data; but that’s plenty of room for a lot of pictures or small files. They do tend to get misplaced quite often, though.
Last, in my opinion, are tape drives. You can buy a tape drive that will back up an entire server. However, coming from the generation that thought the Walkman was the coolest thing on earth, I know how easily tape can go sour. I wouldn’t use a tape drive if it was my last resort. Then again - that’s just me. Let’s just say I’ve thrown out enough cassettes with their ribbon innards blowing in the breeze that I don’t trust the insides of a tape drive to be clean enough to keep that tape from stretching, ripping, or crinkling.
What do I back up?
Anything that you use on a daily basis. Period. This might include:
How do I back up?
Microsoft has an automatic backup utility - don’t use it. It’s too long, complicated, and unreliable to even go into. As usual, the best way to do it, is to do it by hand.
Remember - Copy, don’t Cut. You want to make a backup of the data, not move it all together. If you can’t find a program, do a Start/Find/Files or Folders for it.
For programs like ICQ, etc., you just need to access those programs’ folders on your hard drive and find out where the data is stored. In ICQ it will be a folder named DB, DB99, DB99b, 2000a, etc. You’re looking for a database folder that has your UIN (icq number) attached to different types of files: .dat, .idx, and .msg. Copy this entire folder onto your backup. If you need to reinstall ICQ after a glitch or a reformat, install the main program first, go through the registration, then turn ICQ off. Replace the database directory it’s made with your backup. Start ICQ back up again, and your contact list should be there.
Favorites/Bookmarks
Your IE Favorites are stored in a system folder within your Windows directory. Therefore, you can’t copy the folder itself. Make a new folder on your backup disk and name it something like Shortcuts. Then open the Favorites folder, copy everything that is inside of it, and paste into your new Shortcuts folder.
If you have IE 5 you can turn your Favorites list into an html page of links. File/Import-Export, then just follow the directions and export as a file and put it on your desktop or straight onto your backup disk.
For Netscape, find your Netscape folder. Then dig down through it until you find bookmarks.htm. Copy this file onto your backup. In Opera and other browsers it’s almost an identical process; sniff around a little and you’ll find your bookmarks file.
When you need to restore, simply replace the existing folder or file with your backup; or in the case of ‘export’, just ‘import’ that backed up file instead.
For Outlook and Outlook Express, you can do both in one fell swoop. C:\Windows\Application Data. Backup this entire folder and after reloading Windows, replace the entire folder.
Netscape - Identity/Preferences/Mail and Newsgroups/Mail Servers. At the bottom of this window you’ll see where Netscape keeps your mail. Go to that folder and copy the whole thing. To restore, simply replace the folder with your copy.
Eudora, Poco, and other email programs also let you specify where you keep your mail. Simply browse through the preferences until you find where that is, then go copy that folder and everything in it.
Address Books
For Outlook and Outlook Express, you most likely got your address book (or contact list) when you copied Application Data. But, just to be safe, or even to load it onto another machine… do a Find for “*.wab” (no quotes). Up will pop all of your address books for every identity on your computer. Make note of where they are, and copy them. After restoring, simply replace.
Again, with other programs like Netscape, Eudora, and Poco; it’s a matter of where you’ve specified to keep this data. Sniff through your program and find out, then copy it.
The My Documents Folder
My Documents, like Favorites, is a system folder. So you’ll need to copy the contents of the folder, not the folder itself. Have fun with it, name your backup folder something like My Junk.
Digital Photographs
This one is simple enough… find those pictures on your hard drive, copy them. Never trust your computer with something as precious as digital photographs that can’t be replaced. Always have a double somewhere. You do not want to lose that great pic of your first grandchild smiling just because you assumed your hard drive would always be there for you.
Installation Programs For Files You’ve Downloaded
Sure, you could always go download these again, but if you’re on a dial-up connection this will take a lot of unnecessary time. You should be saving all of your downloads to a specific folder anyway, so they’ll all be in the same place. If you do this, just copy that folder onto your backup. Ideas for this would be setup files for ICQ, RealPlayer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, WinAmp, Eudora, etc… anything you really use and don’t have on CD.
Anything Else That’s Important To You!
Obviously I can’t go through every program available in the world. Take the time to browse through your hard drive and look in each folder and see what programs are there. (You’ll find many still hanging around that you don’t even use anymore - don’t delete them! Uninstall them instead then delete their skeletons.) Look in those programs’ Help files to see if there is any info on how to back them up. If there isn’t, email the program’s manufacturer, ask friends that have those programs, or just back up the whole folder when in doubt and replace after installing the program when you restore.
Now that you’ve backed up your data, keep it in a safe place. These aren’t disks that you want your children getting a hold of, or that might be easily misplaced. A shoebox in the top of your closet is safe; just throwing the disk into a desk drawer is not. You might even want to put them into a fire safe with your important papers and files.
Either way, the only way to not worry about your data is to make sure you back it up frequently. You might even want to geek out completely and make a ghost copy of your hard drive, or have a second hard drive with the identical information… but that’s not necessary. Just use some common sense and never assume that what you have today will be there tomorrow, and you’ll be fine.
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Windows.
WS_FTP LE (Light Edition) is a fantastic no-frills shareware program to transfer files. Do a Google search and you’ll easily find plenty of places to download it for free.
Once the file is saved to your hard drive, double-click on it to open it and begin installing. The program will ask a few questions - tell it that you’re an “other” user that will be using it from home for personal use. Accept the licensing agreement and allow the program to finish installing.
When you first start up WS_FTP you’ll have two windows pop up.
The one in front is Session Properties, where you will define your connection settings.
Profile Name: This can be anything that makes sense to you, such as Beta Brigade FTP, Jim’s Connection, your domain name, etc.
Host Name/Address: This is where you put the connection info for the server. Usually this is something like “ftp.yourdomain.com”.
Host Type: Leave this on Auto-Detect.
User ID: Put your ftp username here. Uncheck the ‘Anonymous’ box just to the right.
Password: Put your ftp password here. Be sure to check the ‘Save Pwd’ button just to the right (you may not want to do this if there are multiple users on your computer).
Account and Comment: Leave these two fields blank.
Click the Apply button so that WS_FTP saves your settings. Press OK to connect.
The Sessions Properties window will go away and you’ll be left with the larger transfer window behind it.
Transfer Screen:
The left-hand side of the screen will be a directory/file listing of your hard drive. The right-hand side will be a directory/file listing of your web space on the server. In short, we’re going to select one file from the left side (your computer) and send it to the right side (your web space).
Files are always transferred from/into the directories that are currently showing on the transfer screen. Once a file is finished transferring, the window will refresh and you’ll see an updated listing of files.
You can transfer an entire directory simply by selecting (single-clicking) a directory and pressing the appropriate arrow key. A confirmation window will pop up asking if you wish to move the entire directoy and its contents. Press “Yes” to continue. It is best to only do this when all of the files in that directory can be transferred in the same mode (for example, all image files), or if you have specified which files should be transferred in which mode (next).
Here you can type in a file extension, then click the “Add” button to permanently specify that this file type should be transferred in ASCII mode. Add these extensions:
.html
.htm
.shtml
.shtm
.php
.php3
.php4
.cgi
.pl
.asp
.inc
.cfg
.htaccess
.htpasswd
.log
When you’re finished, click “Apply” and then “OK”. You can now check the “Auto” checkbox in the file transfer mode area (area 6 of our illustration above) and WS_FTP will automatically determine which files should be transferred in which mode. Anything that you did not specify in the Options Properties window will be transferred as a Binary file.
Notes:
To close your FTP session, simply press the “Close” button in the lower left-hand corner. The next time you open WS_FTP it will automatically come up with the last Profile you used. If you have multiple domains, simply use the drop-down button by Profile Name to choose which web site you wish to connect to.
Happy FTPing!
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Webmastering.
Originally posted July, 2000
So, you want to put your business online?
It’s true, any brick-and-mortar store is destined to go the way of the dodo bird within the next 5 years if they don’t have an online presence. By the trends I see, I’d say it’s sooner than that. Even SOHO (small office home office) businesses are seeing that they must have a website in order to be more easily accessible. With a website, your business can be available 24/7 to answer commonly asked questions, let customers browse and comparison shop, and above all - take orders. Imagine getting up in the morning to find that 30 orders have come in while you slept. There’s no way you could have done that without a website.
But if you build it, will they come?
Not necessarily. Just having a website doesn’t mean that you’ll be raking in the dough. People must know about it first. That means advertising in some form, and believe me, there are plenty of sharks on the Net who’ll take your money and promise you big things. Although the Net was made for everyone, when it comes to business online you’re swimming in a shark pool. Don’t be a minnow. Keep a level head, do some research, and prepare yourself so you won’t see your cash flow going straight out the door.
In this series we’ll cover what you need to have in hand before you build (or hire someone to build) your website, what to have (and not) in your website, how to choose a good website host, and getting people to come visit you online.
The single biggest factor in what makes or breaks a website is its content. Users will put up with endless download times and annoying flashy graphics if they can find what they came looking for. Develop your content before your first page is ever made. Get a pen and paper, and get ready to do some research.
Know Your Customer, and Give Them What They’re Looking For
First, decide who your website will be catering to. This depends a lot on your business itself. Here are some examples:
Using Client Base & Competitors For Research
An invaluable tool for brick-and-mortar stores, or even from-home businesses, is the client base that you already have. In store, take a poll and ask your customers questions. You can do this with little flyers that they fill out while they’re there (offer a drop-box for completed forms and a prize or two for randomly drawn winners who completes the survey), or casually chat with them about being online while they’re there or ringing up purchases. For from-home businesses, call your clients and talk to them. Tell them you’re preparing to make yourself and your business even more accessible by being on the Net, and you’d like to find out how you can better serve them by being online. You could even send out a small mailing survey, but actually talking to your clients is always the best choice; as you’ll get a more specific answer and show them that you really care about serving their needs.
Some sample questions to ask:
Now that you know what your customers want, go visit your competitors online. Viewing your competition, put yourself in the shoes of your customer and use the information they’ve given you. How well does this site meet the needs of what your customers have told you they want/need to see?
How accessible is the information you want? Does the site try to overload you with fancy flashy fluff or does it deliver what you need immediately? Can you navigate it well - get to every major section of the site from every page in the site, or do you have to hit Back? Do they have a way to order products or services online? If so, what kind of payments do they accept? Is there a way to contact sales or customer service directly from the site? For brick-and-mortar stores, do they have clear directions and maps to help a customer come to their door?
You’ll need to include in your website all of the things that you find useful as a customer from your competitors’ sites, and throw out the things that aren’t. With a critical eye, think of things that these sites are missing and make sure you incorporate those missing things into your own site. Always be on the lookout to be better and more useful to the customer. Don’t worry about impressing a customer with fluff. Give them what they want.
Now that you’ve done some research and know what your customers are looking for, it’s time to design your site. No, I’m not talking about the graphics - yet. I’m talking about the content. Remember, the web may be multi-media, but it’s built around reading.
Think It Out
On paper, outline the structure of your website. It should look something like this:
Keep in mind that accessibility to information is king and navigation is the key to keeping a customer on your site. Let them know what they’re going to find when they click on a link before they click on it; and then deliver that content to them immediately once they’re there. Don’t make them go four pages deep to find information on widgets when the link said “What is a widget?”
Write Your Content
You know what your customers want and you’ve designed a site to fill those needs. Now grab yourself a word processing program (even Notepad will do) and type out exactly what you want your visitors to see on each and every page of that website you’ve just designed. Read over it and judge it as a customer would. Too much jargon? Too little? Keep in mind who your visitor will be. Run-on sentences? Keep your information clear and succinct; Net surfers have very limited attention spans. Do you clearly communicate what you’re trying to say, or clearly explain the product you’re selling (even if it’s yourself)?
Once you think you’re done, spell-check it. Keep in mind that spell-checkers (or speel chickens, as I like to call them) don’t know the difference between you’re and your, they’re and their, etc. Proofread your pages. Then put it all aside for at least two hours (overnight would be better). Then come back and read it again with a fresh eye that hasn’t been chin-deep in this content already. Does it still seem as clear to someone reading it for the first time? If not, go back and revise.
When you’re done, get someone else to read it for you; both as a customer and as an editor. Make sure they’re an excellent speller and know those differences like your and you’re. Using their input, revise again… incorporating only those things you feel are good suggestions. Your mother, for example, may be a great proofreader but she may not represent your target audience. If she feels the content is “above her head” and tells you to talk more plainly, you may not want to do this knowing that your customer is going to know all of the jargon.
Congratulations!
You’ve just overcome the most frustrating part of building a web site - getting your content ready. The time you’ve just spent will save you countless hours when actually publishing your site to the Web. As a web designer, nothing is more frustrating than making a site for a client and waiting endlessly for content to fill it. As someone who does their own web sites, nothing is more frustrating than getting excited about a site and designing the graphics and layout only to find that the content you decide to put into it will demand a different layout approach! Without having the content laid out beforehand, either you or your web designer will suffer endless re-writes, and often one of both of you will lose the enthusiasm for the project.
Now that you have your content and a firm idea on how you want your site structured, it’s time to look into what you will want as far as graphics and dynamic effects; and more importantly, what you don’t want.
Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold
There’s one important thing that a web site owner must remember when building a web site:
Sure, an entrance page with a Flash movie makes you look fancy. But honestly, how many people stick around to watch it? Even users with high-bandwidth connections utilize links to skip past movies, because they want information. If they wanted to watch a movie, they’d be at a movie site or watching television.
As a rule, steer clear of anything that requires your customers to download a plugin, element, or program. This would include Flash, Comet Cursors, Shockwave, special Midi players, etc.
I know what you’re thinking. “But my site will be so… plain!!!”
Not at all. Your visitors will love you because your site downloads fast and doesn’t require extra junk to clutter up their system. They won’t have boxes popping up on their screens asking them if they want to download this or that. You can use alternative, faster loading effects such as DHTML and javascript to produce those fancy effects (even Flash-like movies); and you won’t spend extra dollars or time getting something specially-made for you. (Hint: Designers charge in the thousands to make Flash movies for web sites. Doing it yourself requires buying the program and learning it, which is again thousands of dollars and far too much time.)
Skip The Animations
A mailbox with a hand popping out of it clawing for email is cute, but what business does it have on your business site? Flashy animated graphics do many things, most of which the site owner never intended. They take attention away from the rest of your page, make downloading your site slower, and (with enough animated graphics in your site) you can overload your visitor’s video memory and cause their computer to freeze up.
Keep It Simple - But Not Stupid
The secret to having a professional-looking website is knowing when to say “No” to special effects. Remember, you’re not out to impress your friends with your fancy fluff - you’re there to serve your customers. Give them what they want and do it quickly. Constantly review other websites and ask your customers for suggestions as to how you can improve your site.
In short, don’t lose your head just because you’re stepping into the ocean of the Net and you’re not sure if the old rules of “sink or swim” with your business apply. Keep it simple, focus on the most basic concept - pleasing the customer - and you’ll do fine.
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on E-Business and Webmastering.
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examples are given, code is clearly highlighted and source code for
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This book may be printed out for easier reading (make yourself
comfortable, grab a cup of coffee and learn!) and contains URLs to
valuable resources online.
Format:
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
Contents:
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The Basics
|
Getting More Complicated
|
Really Addicted Now
|
|
Fun Stuff!
|
Resources
|
Business Resources
|
Actual Screenshots From The Book:
(Click on a picture to see a larger version)
About The Author:
Carrie Bartkowiak has been designing web sites by hand since early 1997. Her expertise of computers in general earned her Author of the Week status at Themestream.Com, where she authored many very successful articles such as Illegal Operations in Windows 98 and its companion, Illegal Operations in Windows 95. Windows 98 has been featured in many widespread ezines and publications, and has received the honor of being a Must-See article from ExpertCity.Com. Another favorite is Have Your Domain Name and Use It Too-For Free!. Before Themestream went debunk, her articles there had earned over 300,000 views. Also, Carrie is a BriefMe.Com Editor in the Computer:Webmaster ezine, where she has published many lead reviews of web sites that are of particular use and interest to Webmasters of any level of expertise.
Carrie is also an accomplished computer technician; having managed a national xDSL installation company contracting for such customers as BellSouth.Net, Ameritech, and Telamon. She also freelances from time to time at ExpertCity.Com, and has there a 100%, 5-star rating from her customers.
Born and raised in Maryland, Carrie has lived all along the East Coast. She currently resides in Virginia with her husband and two sons. She complains of dreaming code in her sleep and is constantly striving to learn new techniques in webmastering and computer knowledge in general. Her interests include all types of programming, creating exquisite handmade items with polymer clay, and feeding her passionate interest in politics and current events.
For ebook sellers: This book
is NOT available for resale, packaging with other ebooks/software/auctions,
etc. It is copyright 2000-2002 and anyone caught violating the terms
stated above shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of Software
Piracy law.
Note from 2006
When this ebook was originally released, it was a very nice hit. It sold plenty of copies on eBay, got passed around virally, and sold more copies here from Raven’s Perch.
Unfortunately, time passes, and this ebook is sorely in need of an update that I just don’t have time to write. So rather than continue to sell an outdated ebook, I’ll just give it away for free now. If you like it, come on back and leave me a comment. 
Click here to download HTML By Hand for free
You’re welcome!
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on E-Business and Webmastering.
Originally posted in July, 2000
We’ve all been there. It’s the most interesting link description you’ve seen all day, and you’re eagerly awaiting for the little bar at the bottom of your screen to stop moving so you can get down to the nitty gritty - surfing the site.
But as you wait, and wait, and wait… your anticipation turns to resentment and you start wondering if you should get up and refresh your coffee. Upon returning, you find that not only are you not on a page where you can read anything, you’ve just spent all of that time downloading a really impressive huge “splash” graphic and an annoying midi that’s woken up the baby in the next room.
Grumbling, you look for somewhere to turn the music off - only to find none. The child screams louder and your hopes for having him fall back asleep dwindle away. Having no faith now that clicking on anything in the complex image map of the splash graphic will actually get you to something you were interested in and could possibly bring up even more music you can’t turn off… you close your browser in disgust and disappointment.
I’ve been designing web pages for three years now. I admit, I too get caught up in the latest DHTML and javascript goodies that do incredibly neat things. I can spend days surfing around free CGI script sites and have often been shocked at dawn coming through my window as I was tearing apart a java applet code snippet to make it do what I want. The web, with all of its many languages and challenging cross-browser milestones, is such an exciting place to create something. Where else can you type in the equivalent of hieroglyphics and turn it into a beautiful masterpiece of artwork and information?
But no matter how pretty, or cool, or interesting your page is, you must always follow the golden rule - Be Considerate To Your Surfers.
Sure, in this age of 56k modems, cable or DSL connections, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that many people are still out there surfing around with 21,600 connections trying to enjoy the internet just as much as we are. Too often when you get into making webpages you end up buying the fastest connection you can just so that you can upload and download without turning gray. But that blazing fast connection that suits your needs shouldn’t make you forget the days when you, too, were bumbling along and watching that status meter crawl. You are putting your page up for someone else to read; so be kind to them. After all, they’re doing you a favor by visiting your site.
Splash graphics can be incredibly beautiful and quite impressive. However, unless you’re selling graphics sets and need to show off your talent, or your web site is for a web design business where you want to show what you can do, that splash graphic is only there to feed your ego. Surfers come to your site to find something, not to ooh and ahh over an image they just spent minutes loading and has nothing to do with what they came for.
This is probably the most offensive of all no-no’s when designing web pages. Sure, a midi might perfectly fit the “mood” of your site, but if someone doesn’t want to listen to it and can’t turn it off, they will leave. Be sure to give your surfers a highly visible button where they can stop the music if they want to.
One site I will never return to? I found a page once where I had to hunt for the teeniest control panel for the midi - small enough that the stop button didn’t even show and I had to right-click in order to turn the music off. Once I did, however, I found that a second copy of the midi was playing in the background. Checking the source code, I found that the webmaster had that midi set to load three different ways upon entering the page, ensuring that no matter what the surfer did, they could not escape the barrage of sound. Not only was I a disappointed surfer, I was an angry surfer. Don’t force me to listen to something I don’t want to - and this was obviously force rather than a simple mistake of not knowing how to implement a control panel.
In a word? Slow. Java applets may add some really cool effects to your page, but they are a bear to download. Also, older browsers can’t see them, some browsers freeze up entirely, and that big gray space as its loading simply looks ugly in your page. Leave the news tickers to the news sites, and the lake effect for the postcard sites.
Unlike java applets, javascript loads quickly and still delivers dynamic elements to your page. However, tie down that javascript with multiple mouseover images or put five different scripts on one page and you’ve just blown the whole point of this fast-loading code. Remember that the more text that is in your html file, the larger the code itself is to download before anything else even starts popping up. Keep the javascript to a minimum.
I can’t say enough about hand coding. Have you ever looked at the source code of that editor you’re using? Is there truly any reason you should start each paragraph with bold, center, font, alignment, and size tags only to end them and start a new paragraph with all of that junk again? No. This can triple the file size of your page and slow down its loading. Code your pages by hand - they’ll be slimmer, faster loading, and they’ll do exactly what you want them to do.
Even more annoying than a midi that won’t quit is a pop-up window. Sure, if you have your page on a free site, sometimes you can’t avoid this one. So leave the pop-ups to those who suffer that fate… there really is not anything important enough to tell your visitors to justify raising their ire as they have to close window after window just to see your page. If it’s that important, put it at the top of your page in a different colored text so that it will be noticed rather than ignored.
Who is really making money off of advertising for someone else? Unless your site has over 100 visitors a day and the ad is for something relative to your content, trust me - it’s not you. Don’t get duped into providing free advertising for a huge company over the promise that you might make $25 in a year. The flashy, annoying animated banner is both slow to load and detracts from your page.
Ugh. Need I say more? I want to see the page, not watch a window blind effect slowly reveal what lies underneath.
Have lots of pictures? Be sure to index them in thumbnails so that a surfer can click on what interests them and choose what to spend time downloading. Your surfers will appreciate you for it, and most likely will end up clicking on all of your thumbnails out of mere curiosity. Force them to download ten full-size pictures though, and they’ll be gone before the second one is finished.
Server side includes can be an incredibly useful tool, especially for a webmaster with a large site. But again, everything in moderation. Don’t put more than two SSI tags on one page. Remember, the key words are “server side”… the server has to work to hunt down and serve up that include content, which detracts from the speed of your page.
Probably the most overlooked element of a page is the background graphic. If you use one, pay attention to it. Tiled backgrounds should be no larger than 100×100 pixels, and that is the maximum. Try to keep them to 50×50 at the most. For bordered backgrounds, make sure that surfers with higher display settings won’t get your border repeated in the middle of your page - make the width at least 2050 pixels.
Confused as to what I’m saying? Make a border background that is 800 pixels wide and then set your screen display to 1024×768. You’ll have a border right in the middle of your page’s text. Not good. Keep the larger display size surfers in mind when putting up backgrounds.
Another note on border backgrounds - a border’s purpose is to add to your page, not be your page. Choose a border that is slimmer - your surfer is there to read content, not look at half a screen of graphic. If you do have a wide border, be creative with it - use it for a site menu, or plop graphics right on top of it for an interesting and quite different effect.
This is the smallest of all offenses, but nice if you take the time to acknowledge it. Don’t make your surfers hunt through your entire site trying to find out if anything is new. Either put it right on the front page or vibrantly promote a link to one page where they can see everything that’s been added recently and go straight to it. Besides, it will serve you as well; giving you a timeline on how often you update your site and a pattern of what you tend to do when adding.
An addendum to the golden rule could be “Everything In Moderation”. Having the coolest page on the Net means nothing if your surfers close their browser before they even get your first page loaded. Pick and choose the elements that you’ll add to your site and upload the “new and improved” page somewhere that only you can get to it. Then check it out. How fast does it load? Does it actually say anything? If you were following a link from a search engine or someone else’s page, would you stick around to wait for this to load or just hit Back? Would you be interested enough to go one more page into the site? Two more pages?
Criticize your site with the eye of a stranger rather than a parent proudly beaming over their child’s latest accomplishment. If you can’t do this, have someone else preview the page for you - especially if they have a slow connection and can be honest about what they’re seeing.
You’ll watch your hits go up and your server log will reflect more than just preemptory clicks to your front door, and your surfers will love you.
The unspoken mantra of good webpage designing - imitation from a competitive site might be the sincerest form of flattery, but having a surfer bookmark your page is the ultimate measure of your web design talent.
Written by Raven on October 3rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Webmastering.
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