November 18, 2004
Please feel free to invite some of your colleagues from your or another city/county if you think it would benefit them to be a part of our group!
Location: MARC
(Meetings alternate monthly between MARC in Kansas City and the City of Overland
Park, KS.)
Attendance
City of Gladstone , MO. ............... Kelli Behr
City of Kansas City ,
MO. ............ Rich Lovett and Shumin Zhong
City of Lawrence......................
Lisa Patterson
City of Overland Park , KS ........... Chris Audano, Randy
Ellis, and Susan Waters
City of Olathe.......................... Chris Holdman
City of Shawnee , KS
................. Sonya Fendorf and Roman Madrigal
Jackson County , MO..................
Dan Davis and Joe Tanner
Johnson County , KS .................. Anthony Orpeza,
Sonia Smith and Karen Sorensen
Lawrence Public Library.............. Karen
Davis
MARC..................................... Julie Wittman and Barbara Hensley
The September minutes were approved. Since there were new attendees* (welcome Anthony, Lisa and Shumin), all present introduced themselves.
Old Business
2004 Government Webmasters Post-conference Update
On their evaluation forms, most 2004 conference attendees indicated that they were happy with the conference. Approximately $1,000 is the profit after expenses. The 2005 conference will be in Denver.
New Business
Creation of a Government Webmaster Association
A question was brought up at the 2004 webmaster conference: “Why is there no national association for government webmasters?” Rich Lovett, Chris Audano and a small group from other states are on a committee seeking to organize one. An association name, web site and by-laws are being discussed. Cheryl Thompson, who operates the government webmasters’ listserv, has offered server space for an online library. At this point, anyone can contribute ideas. An organization would bring such benefits as award recognition, group discounts from vendors, discussion forums, and a central site on which to store resources. Please email Rich Lovett, Chris Audano or Chris Holdman for more information or with your ideas.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) / Hands-on Training
For this segment, attendees
relocated to MARC’s computer lab. Use
of the lab was paid for with a MARC grant. Thanks, Barbara! Chris Audano
introduced the speaker, Roman Madrigal from the City of Shawnee, KS.
Introduction
Roman shared a collection of CSS code he derived
from the Web, books, and practice. He also provided us with a handout listing
his favorite CSS-related references.
CSS addresses many of the problems of old-style HTML. Some of the older tags clutter the source code on Web pages and make for inflexible sites. CSS information may be contained on each Web page, called from an external file, or both.
For sites with many style declarations, the centralized method (using an external file) offers the most gain in efficient site management. When a style needs to be changed, only the referenced declarations need to be changed, not all of the instances where it is used.
Roman’s presentation concentrated on the use of external cascading style sheets.
Multiple style sheets are better than one!
One site can have more than one CSS style sheet. For example, one style sheet can focus on a screen version while another controls the look of a print version. The print version can have a streamlined appearance such as omitting a navigation bar.
For more about creating a print-friendly page, visit: http://webdesign.about.com/cs/css/a/aa042103a.htm.
Regarding style sheets for various media, take a look at: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_mediatypes.asp .
Get to know the <div> tag
If you’re just starting out
with CSS, it’s wise to become familiar
with CSS tags and properties. The <div> tag is particularly important
and in most cases, replaces the need for an HTML table. When you use a <div> element,
you are indicating that the enclosed content is a specific section of the page.
In other words, the <div> element is typically used to position portions
of the page.
Note: For a full description of the <div> tag, visit: http://webdesign.about.com/library/tags/bltags-div.htm
More about positioning content
Roman favors CSS layouts which center a fixed-width “container” of
information on a page. He provided several examples. Similar examples to Roman’s
illustrating CSS centering can be obtained at http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2004/09/08/centering.html
Creating customized backgrounds
Attendees seemed particularly interested
in how to specify background images, color, repeat, alignment, and other background
properties. A good reference
regarding CSS backgrounds is http://slackerhtml.tripod.com/stylesheets/col-backprops.html
. Impressive navigation rollovers
Rollovers also received considerable attention. Rollover techniques, usually seen in navigation menus, can be achieved with or without the use of graphics. For further elaboration, review an article by Eric Meyer, one of Roman’s recommended authors: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2001/03/23/rollovers.html .
Software considerations
Various software programs, as well as their upgrades,
have similarities and differences on how CSS code is handled. Dreamweaver 2004
MX, for example, is highly recommended over Dreamweaver’s earlier versions. For
screen shots of Dreamweaver’s interface and a glimpse of the software’s
built-in CSS capabilities, visit http://builder.com.com/5100-22_14-5093623-1-1.html
. Browser considerations
Because different browsers may display web pages differently (note: screen readers ignore CSS entirely), Dreamweaver has the ability to preview your pages with actual browsers. Press the F12 function key or go to File > Preview in browser > select the browser you want.
Tip: Netscape, however, may have a bug which only appears when a page containing layers is maximized to full screen. Since most people run Netscape at full screen, this is probably not a problem. To avoid the problem set Dreamweaver’s Edit-Preferences-Layers option to Add Resize Fix for Netscape Compatibility.
For more info about browser support issues, visit:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/dreamweaver/ts/documents/previewinbrowser.htm and http://www.webaim.org/techniques/css/3
More tips…
1. Another good way to learn is to take a look at the source code of Web pages.
2. CSS can become confusing. It’s recommended that you frequently comment your code in such a way that a browser will not display it to the general public. For more about how to add comments to code, visit: http://css.maxdesign.com.au/selectutorial/rules_comments.htm
Two-day CSS classes are available locally (through New Horizons, JCCC Business and Tech Center, and Foss Training).
Election of Officers
Barbara Hensley is the new chairperson of MAGWeb. Karen
Lynne Sorensen was re-elected as secretary and will continue to record the
minutes. Meetings will continue to alternate between facilities at MARC and
the City Overland Park. However, a change to the meeting time was agreed upon.
Meetings will start at 10:00 AM and end at 11:30 AM (perhaps carrying over
to noon, if necessary).
Upcoming Meeting Topics
Next month’s topic: Critiquing Web Sites.
Also, if your facility has a computer lab we could use for another hands-on session, please let us know. Thanks!
Next Meeting
December 16, 2004, City of Overland Park, KS.
Meeting minutes: Karen Lynne Sorensen, Johnson County Wastewater.