Thanks Sage Telecom For The Push Out The Door

This week, I killed the house land line. There's a little history: Had Sage Telecom for a home phone service. Their service was ok and all, but I under paid them by the giant sum of 1 dollar. They shut off the phone. I called them up - Spent probably about 25 minutes while the very nice lady looked up my account. I'm busy. A home phone was never a priority - not since the cell phone revolution. But there I was. Evidently Sage has this complete automated system that if you haven't paid the full amount, they disconnect you. I DON'T EVER USE THE HOME PHONE! So I went online and made a payment through my bank, whence I noticed it was off. Crazy, there had been less politicians after my vote for a couple days.

After making the payment, I didn't care that the line didn't get turned on right away - I assumed that some person had to "Touch" the account. See loud all caps statement above. However, when it didn't get turned back on for 4 days, I went to the Sage site - I noticed and paid a balance ($20), believing that maybe now they'd turn it back on. Turns out I was supposed to call them to let them know that I wanted to keep my home phone. I'm not exactly sure how I would have known that. So the lady from Sage apprises me that I now need to pay $86 to get the phone turned back on. All OVER A $1!! A dollar? Seriously? Good bye Sage and thanks for over charging me for 3 years for something I barely used. It was mostly a tool for politicians and marketers to call and bug me anyway.

Now for the rest of the story: Everyone, that matters, already has my cell digits so this is just to have something in the house - for the occasional sitter.  First I purchased a tracphone from AT and T. They call their pre-pays Go-Phones. I grabbed 250 minutes for $25 and have 3 months to use them. The cool thing is I set up a new local Google number so it can be given out to friends and family. Google rings my iphone with this new number as well as the "home" phone. Voice mail is emailed - and transcribed - so I can get it from anywhere.

The steps were pretty easy, you just go to Google.com/voice and set up an account (if you don't already have one). It does need to have a GMail account associated with it. Then you select a number or have Google do it for you. You can look up by Area Code or Zip Code. Finally you "point" that new number to an existing telephone - Google rings you up with a code and you're done. You give that number out and it can ring multiple lines. The first to pick up gets the call. The free part is that you go to ATT.com and put in the new telephone number as a free call (A-List). Then when anyone calls that number it comes across to your cell as your new number. With Google Voice you can opt to have everyone state their name prior to you answering. Do this as their number won't register (you want free don't you?).

Note: Outgoing calls from this new line will be charged. Incoming answered calls will go against your minutes too. So you just answer one of your other lines on the account. If you have less than 5 lines on your ATT account, just add a line and it will share the minutes and free goodness. I didn't have that option. This is just an emergency phone. And at $8/month it's worth it. Sorry Sage Telecom - The only way you'll get me back is to give me back my old telephone number, waive the fees and turn me back on. I'd pay the difference of $20, if I have to. The only other issue is that Dish will now charge me $5 for not having a telephone plugged in. Let's see... $48-$57 per month vs $13. The new phone was $20. That's a sum total of $500 per year for an emergency line.

I am not sure how long this particular scenario will last as I have a few other options, like porting my business line over to Google and just forwarding that to my iPhone, then dropping the track phone and switching SIM cards.

Last week a virtual friend sent me this "Hey what's with this post about you" Twitter Direct Message. I actually clicked the link, as I had believed there might be some bad feelings in the local area about my company. Of course I'm not telling you why - suffice it to say a competitor may not like my firm for some strange reason. So Google Chrome saved me from going to that site. w00t! Today two friends' twitter accounts were hacked. They're both very Social Media savvy.

I also received a call today from a lady who clicked the spammer's DM link and got through to that site. Lucky she didn't fill out the form that was there. I DON'T LIKE SPAM! This kind of spam is the worst kind. It plays on your emotions and draws you in - then steals your identity. The viagra spam emails never trick me - I'm not 60. I don't know why they continue to find their way to my inbox. But this new Twitter DMing is a little scary.

Here's one way to not get hacked: Only use https://twitter.com. Its the secure version. In fact, only go to sites that have a security seal or SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certification when in a public wireless area. Facebook has one. My blog has one. The cert's not owned by me, and you might get an "Error" if you try, but it works and is legit. This is only really necessary if you are using open wifi. If you're in a coffee house and browsing the interwebs and log in, you can be "Sniffed" by a FireFox plugin (there are actual sniffing programs too) that can view all your open tabs, and gain access to your logged in sites. If you normally have Safari, FireFox or Chrome (or God forbid, IE) manage your passwords for sites where you have to log in, ensure that you remove this saving feature for non-https sites. That 's' means the site encrypts your virtual transactions, thereby making your password very hard to learn. 

If you get hacked - and you're a business - you need to contact all of your clients and apologize. Then you need to give them the name of a very good internet guru (or this blog post) - and say that even you can get hacked - and if they don't want to get their sites and accounts compromised, they need to get some security in place. Suffice it to say that a guru I use had his twitter account hacked a couple months ago. It can happen to anyone. If it ever happens to me, I'll be referring you back to this post. 

Shot with an iPhone 4

Last week I did a bit of camping - so if you missed me on Social Media or wondered why I wasn't blogging... I needed to get meetings out of the way and keep clients happy ahead of going away for a few days. One of the meetings I had was with a fellow entrepreneur. He has had a business for around a year. He wondered to me, how does one take vacations when you have your own business. I responded that I'd only taken anything over 3 days off once in 8 years. I generally work mornings when on "workations".

So the camping involved kayaking, swimming, fishing, beer drinking and a very small amount of mountain biking. To those of you that manage a business or are involved so drastically in the day to day that you don't take vacations or only have working vacations: How do you do it? Do you attach 4 days to a business trip to get some deep sea fishing in? Do you throw a couple days in at the beginning and end to spend with family on the slopes? Perhaps you don't take vacations, you just ensure that you have 2 hours in the middle of each day to eat lunch with your kids and play a little Wii or go cycling. Maybe golf is your game and you set up as many business meetings as you can for the links. 

Tell me your business/pleasure stories. 

History: You could say that I'm an Apple Lover. I own 2 Apple Macintosh G4 Desktops - in use - one Graphite 500MHz I tricked out with a Dual Gig-a-Hertz processor, additional hard drive and maxed RAM. There's a MacBook Pro in various pieces in a drawer in my office. I won an iPad at a Networking Event (see the top article from the previous link and others on Networking in GR). And, I'm writing you from my big girl friend - See above article. I own an iPhone 3GS purchased the day they came out June 21st, 2009. It's white. I loved her until 2 months ago, when alla-sudden she started being whiny when using location based services or switching between the 3G AT&T Network and Edge (2G) or the WiFi radio. Essentially she'll just crash. Poof. Narcolepsy.

Apple? Are you listening?

I've just pretty much stopped using the AT&T 3G Network, consequently. It does work if I'm connected to a power source, so driving while using Google Maps, requires being plugged in. If I use location in one place, and use it again in the same place, I should be ok... but not all the time. Generally she gets all whonky when I move around between towers using Location apps. I think the tower database may be corrupted or perhaps the battery... But who really knows, since the Apple.com site is no real help with this regard. Monday, the speaker at the top, where your ear goes, ceased to work. Lucky I have Blue Tooth headsets and/or ear buds. Just one more thing that isn't happy with her.

Yesterday I went into the Apple Store, was met by a cutie at the door, saying that I needed an appointment - the next one available was for 4PM in the afternoon - there must have been at least 35-40 patrons in the store, and at least that many Apple-logoed, blue-shirted people with iPads walking about. Last weekend the employees at all the Apple Stores redid the stores to put iPads at every product station, where you could learn more about that particular product and request an Apple Employee to assist you. They were up late getting ready for the opening. It was different, and slightly cooler. The iPad apps that are Apple iStore-Only are cool, but I don't know how 10th Anniversary-Cool it all was. The manager introduced himself to the conversation and was able to over-ride technology to give me an appointment with an Apple Genius in 1/2 hour. I made for the Starbucks and should have offered the cutie some coffee, she kept yawning.

30 minutes later... The Genius, after listening to all that I'd already accomplished, backed up my iPhone, then did a wipe and told her that she was a new iPhone. I'm pretty sure she didn't believe him. She might have played that game before. Funny thing: When I initially purchased my iPhone, they had to set up a device twice, as the first one didn't take to me. I'm wondering if there's a symbiotic thing. So anyway, my phone was done: Dude turned her on - I switched from Edge to 3G, did a Google Maps look up, switched off 3G started importing all my contacts - EVERYTHING WORKED!

I left the store believing that the phone was working, and made it to my car, wherein the New Amnesia Girl Friend starts acting like her old self. I returned to the Apple Store to talk to the girl answering the door. She remembered my name. I'd like to think it's because I'm cute - Yep, I'm going with that. The Genius that assisted me, ran up. We turned the phone back on and it did the same thing, wouldn't finish booting unless plugged in... He thinks the phone is somewhere between death and burial. MEH.

Note: Neither the Cutie nor the Apple Genius made mention of the fact that AT&T may do some original thinking with regards to my contract, as it was just about to expire ;-)

I walked down the mall to the American Telephone and Telegraph store. That store was empty, save for 3 employees. $50 for a refurb 3GS. $200 for a new 4G under contract. $450 for an out-of-contract new 3GS. I'll let you know what I decide.

Let me conclude on a positive note: The Apple employees that I interacted with, were awesome. From the Manager that was able to intercede with an appointment squeeze, the Greeter that remembered my name and email address even with helping the intervening 40 or so people in the hour and 1/2 since we met, to the Genius, who really was a genius. Even though they couldn't fix my device, they checked in to what they could do including offering me a minor discount on a new gal.

I have heard, and read, some awesome stories of Apple hook'n a brother up. I would love nothing more than to write a post on how over the top Apple's Customer Service really is to those of us that have owned Apple products since 1997 and still actively purchase them.

So, I started writing this blog post 21 days ago - I guess I've been too busy again. This is the final post in the "Too Busy" series. (I might just do a prequel ala CS. Lewis, though.) One of the primary things I've added to my life since a month ago, when I was so busy I couldn't see straight, was cross syncing software for iPhone, iPad and Laptop. Collaboration is extremely valuable to me as well. SimpleNote is one such app, that is open source. Open source makes it so others can write apps using their API (code) - adding new functionality that the drafters might not have envisioned.I've not started sharing SimpleNote yet, but once I'm comfortable using it - the functionality is there to allow for increased collaboration. Dropbox is becoming my favorite, can't-live-without collaboration app. Dropbox, as mentioned in a previous post is where you can drop files into the cloud and share them with other computers or people. That's been awesome for sharing files with affiliated partners as we work to quote new projects together.

EasyTask is another app that is cross device syncable. EasyTask has an app for the iPhone as well as a free web interface. You can setup projects and assign tasks. It does not have an SSL site so be careful in public WiFi. One more app that allows for some syncing is PaperDesk. It's a note taking app for the iPad that can sync online. The app has use of the keyboard or optional stylus. It also allows for voice memos. The Lite version is robust, but only allows for a limited amount of memos/notes.

I had really hoped that several of you would have added some thoughts of your own on the types of technology that you use to help you manage your lives better. So here's the appeal to the audience: Please comment below on some of the things you use, day to day, that make life easier. Give it to me full swing!

The biggest thing for me is ensuring that all my clients are taken care of in a timely fashion. As I add more and more clients to the funnel, I want them all happy. For instance, being able to access my email from anywhere is key. Luckily both Google Mail (GMail) and my hosting server allow for IMAP which leaves all my mail on the server to be access via web apps or browsers.

Something else I'm reviewing is SurgarCRM. One of my Affiliated Partners uses it and loves it. I'd love to hear if any of you are utilizing this Customer Relationship Manager, or if there is another open source app you like.

These changes giving me access to my information and files from anywhere haven't alleviated my busy-ness, but do make it so I can remain this busy but not let things fall through the cracks.

This post is meant as a followup to last week's post on having too many things pulling at my time. I discussed that I really wanted to see more of ArtPrize, but had conflicting time constraints not allowing me to experience as much as I'd like. Since that last post I've had even more requests of my day. I had to turn down invitations to political fund raisers and networking events as they just couldn't fit into my schedule.

So how have I started to better manage my time in the last week? For starters, I added Mozilla's Sunbird Calendar Thunderbird extension. It's called Lightening and it allows you to accept calendar invites in your email. Next, I synced up all my calendars including my iPad, iPhone, iCal, GCal and Lightening on the laptop. There's a great article for how on LifeHacker. I love LifeHacker. If you have a spare hour, just go peruse all the cool time saving, computer tweeking, and awesome apps out there that will help your life.

So allowing all my calendars to automatically sync themselves, cuts about 1/2 hour out of my day as I only need to sync the iPad with my laptop, or use google's calendar from the app, and make changes there.

Next I started using DropBox more. If I need to work on a particular file remotely or am delivering a look I drop the file in a DropBox folder and it's accessible from anywhere. That way I don't need to haul around the laptop for every little thing like my last AimWest Board Meeting. I could access to all my agendas right on the iPad. Google Docs works for most all docs, spreadsheets, images and PDFs. Those are all accessible on the iPad as well, and just as easily shared with groups and individuals. I don't need to pull out the lappy, wait for boot, get out a hard drive and locate the file. Instant access on the iPad! No Internet connection? No Problem! iPhone to the rescue with Google Docs and DropBox I can view all the files loaded there. This means that I don't need to perform an aRsync as I'm tring to run ou the door, late, to a client meeting. Next I need to locate some technology that automagically syncs my NAS, an attached HD and DropBox. Any suggestions?

One thing I could really use is a teleportation device, so that I don't have to spend so much time driving downtown, to the soccer fields, home, clients... Ooo ooo, and if Google Goggles was actually something you wore, where you could drive and access your documents, maps, contacts and other files.

Also as a followup - I was able to make it downtown to view some more of the ArtPrize pieces. I took in about 20 pieces at the B.O.B., outside the GRPM and on the Blue Bridge. That was only about 3 of the top-10, but 3 more than I had to that point. If you have a chance to do it with kids, you'll find out what's cool and what's not - if you need help with that.

Look for my next post on more technologies and tricks I'm implementing to help me better manage my time, tasks, thoughts, projects and overall life.

ArtPrize initial voting wraps up tonight at midnight. I've only physically been to 3 of the venues, but have seen some of the other pieces in a walk by or drive by. If you aren't from 'round here, ArtPrize is the largest art contest based in Grand Rapids MI. Artists from all over the world have come to win the $250K prize. I met one artist from Florida. I saw one guy from Tibet. Another from Israel. I'm sure there are lots more I didn't meet from many other countries.

I love art. I used to be a graphic artist. Three pieces that I created, in my early life, hang in my house. I create websites that I try to make works of art. I've not been to all 250 venues or even 10 because of all of the other things I'm doing. I belong to 5 networking groups, and have attended 2-3 others. I have been asked to join the board or leadership of 3 of these groups. I once told the president of one of the other organizations that I generally end up running groups that I join. It's been that way since High School. I don't know if it's because I'm opinionated or if I can just see new and better ways of doing things. What do you think?

One of the boards is for AimWest, a group I joined when I needed to get back into the sales game - I'm now their secretary. I believe they asked me to join their board because I'm opinionated, a technology geek and have growing ties in the community. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I've become, essentially, a professional networker. I say professional because I've won a $100 golf outing and an iPad in the last year. But it's pretty bad that when you network so much they actually ask you to help run a group.

The other two groups aren't formally non-profits or are organized with actual boards (president/vice-pres/secretary/treasurers/etc) yet, which is why they've asked for my help. They want to be better organized, get speakers 3-5 months out and provide their membership more benefits to joining and attending meetings. GRAPE is having me do their website... which, yes it taking a while to get done - see the title of this post. Group management is looking for how we can grow the group, expand the membership to more types of professionals like doctors, lawyers, CEOs, CFOs... so we're looking to bring in different types of speakers that will promote that growth. GRSM, the third one, was started by a couple guys from ArtPrize. It's primary focus is on Social Media education. People can network too, but the prime reason for attendance is learning. This last month GRSM held a tweetup at the GR Public Museum, which had more than 70 ArtPrize entries. That's one of the 3 venue's I graced with my presence - but solely because I was working a group. I did get to see many of the pieces and use a new iPhone App called Scavenger Hunt (SCVNGR).

So, lets see, that's 5 groups I attend meetings of, 3 which I help manage - AND - I run a business that helps companies get found on google, look good, and have an easy time managing their websites. If you're just tuning in to me: Essentially Evolve can provide any solution from Website Design to Social Media Strategizitation (new word - check Doug's Dictionary), from content writing to branding, eCommerce, Content Management and even logo design. I have a bunch of resources that I use for these jobs, so my primary role is sales and project management of Evolve Solutions. That's a lot of work, in and of itself, so helping run all these groups is further draining me of time. The upside is that it is driving business my way. The downside is that I don't have as much time for fun.

Lastly I'm coaching 2 soccer teams. That takes about 8+ hours per week. My lawn looks like crap. The leaves are down. The grass could be mowed again before winter, and I don't have, but, 9 logs next to the house for the wood stove. I've not ridden either of my bikes more than 3 times since Spring.

If I've not called, written, IM'd, DM'd, or FaceBook Messaged/Commented you in a while, it's not because I'm ignoring you, it's because you didn't hire me, don't go to any of the groups I attend, or your kid doesn't play Y soccer in Lowell. Over the next couple weeks I'm going to try some new time, technology and life management tools. I plan on blogging about them over the next month. Yeah - something more to add to my schedule: blogging.

So all this being said, I'm still hoping to carve out some time to get back down to ArtPrize to see the final voting portion and see more pieces. If you see me down there this weekend say "Hi" and perhaps Bump with the SCVNGR app on your iPhone.

Once you can get past the pretty patronizing announcer, this video is pretty close to truth. Nice the interface is 20Xs better though.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I recently had an episode with my MacBook Pro wherein some coffee was spilled across a table and sucked into the fans on the back. As it turns out caffeine DOES NOT increase a computer's speeds. I know all you PC users, reading this, know what it's like to have a hard drive go, or your monitor give a puff of smoke and keel over. I've had the same thing with PCs my company has repaired or at places I've worked. But this type of thing had never happened on any Mac I've ever owned (6 now). Luckily business insurance covered replacement. One bonus was the prices of Apple computers had come down to pricing where I could upgrade substantially from the previous model. This is only one reason I've not blogged in a couple weeks. The old suped-up Mac G4, I was forced to use, didn't have all the passwords in the Key Chain. Yes, I could have gone to each of the websites, I use daily/weekly, and asked for a new password, but figured I'd have to do that on the new machine anyway.

One warm, sunny, February day (6 days after the "event"), Girl Friend 2.0 entered the house with little fan fare, and the box was opened carefully (but I must admit I was drooling a little). It is sexy. If you've not driven a Mac before, you seriously need to take one around the block. I know some of you like your Windows machines, and the new Windows 7 is much prettier than any other MS version, but Apple is like the 20 year old string-bikini clad bronze-beauty at the beach or that hot girl at the bar: Sleek, sexy, fast... Ok, I digress...

Again to you PC owners: I do own this Mac because it's easier to design art, websites, logos, graphics, illustrations and business cards. Yes it's also easier do image manipulation, documentation and categorization. It's better at chunking through data, massive files and multiple functions. But I use it for churning out spreadsheets, documents and emails easily. I can play games on it... but I don't. You shouldn't play games with your girlfriend. The ONLY thing I can't do, natively, is Dot Net code. You may not know that you can use Parallels, Bootcamp or VMWare with Windows running. If I'd have gotten a PC laptop instead of the MacBook, I'd have issues of software licensing – that goes with out saying, but please tell me 2 reasons to own a PC over a Mac. Valid ones. Not beliefs. Back up your rants with statistical information. I can't see any reason anyone should own a Windows PC over a Mac. Oops, I digressed again...

There are soooo many great traits to this new MacBook Pro: from the LED glossy screen, or the multi-touch track pad, to the ultra quiet fans, the up-to 8GB of RAM, to the 7 hour battery. There's the high end video card (or cards) that come standard. Most everyone knows that Apple builds their machines to work with their operating system and vice versa, making everything scream faster than (almost) every other operating system. I say "almost" because I've seen some bench marks with Linux on the same hardware that quite compare, if not exceed the Mac Snow Leopard (OS10.6) OS. Most of you also know that with an Apple machine you're not going to have to worry about viruses, popups or adware. They are going to run for a very long time (sans coffee), and give you few headaches.

The best thing about this Mac was when I was starting the machine for the first time, believing I was going to be spending the next 3-5 days loading software and configuring it, she asked me if I had and old girlfriend I was upgrading from. I said, "yes", to which it replied, "well go get her". I told her that Girl Friend 1.25 was lying in a coma upstairs, but went and removed her hard drive anyway. I inserted her brain into a SATA external enclosure and plugged it into the USB port. She asked me if I'd like to suck in all the applications, settings and passwords from the old machine! I exclaimed, "Yes, oh yes". And then she did it, in just under an hour. My Tweetdeck, Facebook, Firefox, Photoshop and even Terminal settings and plugins were all there. When I started Firefox the first time, it told me that I had crashed the last time and did I want to reopen all previously opened tabs! No amnesia. My Calendar was there. Thunderbird still held all my mail from immediately before the "event";. It was AMAZING! It was worth $500-700 right there - just for that - not to mention all the other sexy things she sports.

Now, I do have to tell you, a couple things that had to be updated, like the program that needed to be upgraded to Snow Leopard from the Leopard (10.5) version I was running on the old machine. Also my iPhone apps didn't make the move. That could have just been a jealous-lover thing or more likely some way that Apple messes with you, machine to machine. I may have lost $.99 worth of apps, that if it's that all-fire important, I'll re-download.

That's the short of it. If you run into me at a coffee house, sitting in the middle of the place, away from a power source (7 hour battery, remember?); or out at one of the local networking events, I attend weekly, ask me about my sexy new girlfriend. I'll probably gush.

I've been talking over the last months about things that interest me: namely ISPs, Cell Phone Technology, my kids, and I've discussed Social Marketing as well as some Social Media related events I've attended. Which, by the way, I'm drafting one about a recent Grand Rapids Social Media Luncheon I participated in. But, this week, I really wanted to touch on some best practices that I've found lacking in sites I've visited lately. There were non-working forms, miss-aligned graphics (most likely due, in part, to bad browser testing), large slow loading images and other issues.

I'm going to start with the large images. There is absolutely no call for giant graphics in websites. As web designers we have asked web tool companies, like Adobe, to add features to decrease image size. This is so, even on slow internet connections, our sites will load quickly. So why, after 14-16 years of some pretty good web design advances, I'm still finding people that are creating background images upwards of 200 KiloBytes?! I don't really care if 50% of your market is using broadband. A 200KB image is still going to take 20+ seconds to download on a DSL connection. Close to 60% of internet users are still on dialup in the US alone. If you want to comment more on this - bottom of page.

Next, there's this new thing called Grid Layout. And by new, I mean from 2007. Essentially, it has to do with using grid systems and column grids for website layouts. We can also apply the theory of a baseline grid with print techniques. On an article on A List Apart (ALA), I found this: "The main principle of the baseline grid is that the bottom of every line of text (the baseline) falls on a vertical grid set in even increments all the way down the page."

I started using this technique while working as a contractor/consultant for a large local international firm. There was a guy there, ahead of his time, that has since moved on to an up-and-coming company on the West Coast – That started using it in a blog that we co-created the code. To me it was like an epiphany.

We've moved from the 3 column layouts down to 2 with best practices, but the theory remains. If you want your lines of text to line up, you have to use the techniques listed on ALA. It does take a little time at the beginning of your CSS creation, but like most of CSS, once it's done, it's done.

Before I discuss more about standards I need to define some terms:

Development layers

• Content and Structure- markup layer – HTML or XHTML
• Presentation Layer – CSS is referenced from the markup
• Behavior Layer – JavaScript elements that enable user events and interactions
• Software and CMS layers – have their own UI layer
• Teams and Processes - To build all of the above

Where to start

Web standards strategy starts at the markup level. It is where the offense of mixing HTML markup with the Presentation and Behavior details are usually committed. A web standards-based approach means creating markup that conforms to the specifications as closely as possible.

There are several reasons why you should be using CSS for your structural markup.

• Makes your pages load faster
• Makes your redesigns more efficient and less expensive and easier to administer
• Helps you maintain visual consistency throughout your sites
• Gets you better search engine results (SEO)
• Makes your sites more accessible to all viewers and user agents

POSH

POSH code (Plain Old Semantic Hypertext) brings meaning to content. It is a fundamental principle of web standards-based markup and will aid in fully reaping the benefits of modern best practices. Use POSH whenever possible in order to convey as much information about the content. By its nature, it also means that all presentation information is outside of the markup. Descendant selectors match any element inside another element having space between the 2 elements.

div p {color: red;}

In this example above, any element from a <div> element will be red. This technique can be used to IDs as well as Classes. Using this simple technique authors can remove the complexity from their CSS.

There is a term going around the coding community called “classitis”, which means putting too many classes in web sites markup and CSS. The term is a funny word for a valid concern. Having dozens of CSS classes to remember and reference is difficult for web authors and business users alike.

A more practical and scalable solution is to use element and descendant CSS selectors. These selectors automatically apply styles to XHTML elements without having to apply classes to every item.

Using the example below notice all of the classes being applied to the markup. This is an example of classitis.

The next example use descendant selectors to get the job done.

By using descendant selectors, we can eliminate redundancy in the code.

Here is the relevant CSS for the above example:

CSS Best Practices

Break style up into multiple style sheets.

Place your CSS rules in an external style sheet, so that they do not need to be downloaded again each time a new page is loaded. Use of Print, Global, Main CSS files helps with load-times as well as ease of browser/print display. Also use of Browser specific CSS files is preferred over hacking a Global Sheet. This means using a separate Style Sheet for IE6, IE7 and previous versions of IE (eg. IE5.5). It is possible to put W3C compliant Mozilla and Webkit styles directly into the Base or Global CSS

Build and test your CSS in the most advanced browser available before testing in others, not after.

If you build a site testing in a broken browser, your code begins relying on the broken rendering of that browser. When it comes time to test in a more standards-compliant browser, you will be frustrated when that browser renders it improperly. Instead, start from perfection and then hack for the less able browsers. Your code will be more standards-compliant from the start, and you won’t have to hack as much to support other browsers. Today, this means Mozilla, Safari, or Opera.

Naming Conventions

For naming conventions it is best if you name the ID or Class name to what it does not how it looks. Example: if you create an error class and choose to color the text red. ".errorRed {font-color: red;}" A decision is made to change the color to orange then the naming convention no longer matches the way the class looks, this can cause confusion to anyone besides the author that made the change. It removes from the markup what the element looks like.

ID names are unique in a document; you can only use them once in the markup. IDs are used for an element that does not need to be duplicated such as #nav, #nav-sub etc. Classes can be used multiple times. Classes in the CSS are represented by a "." In front of the name such as ".content", IDs are represented by an "#" as in #nav.

Use functional names for your classes, avoid words that describe how they look.

Applying Styles to HTML

For the most part, styles should always be applied with a CLASS attribute. Only use the ID attribute when absolutely necessary. Applying a style inline with the STYLE attribute should also only be used when necessary - hopefully that means never.

TABLEs are quirky in the various browsers. They are not "appropriate" to use for layout, they don’t to mix well with CSS, and they pose accessibility issues. It is best to use DIVS instead for layout. TABLEs are fine when displaying tabular data, but that is about the extent of their use.

Try to avoid applying padding/borders and a fixed width to an element.

IE5 gets the box model wrong, which really makes a mess of things. There are ways around this, but it's best to side-step the issue by applying the padding to the parent element instead of the child that gets a fixed-width.

Combine selectors.

Keeping your CSS light is important to minimize download times; as much as possible, group selectors, rely on inheritance, and reduce redundancy by using shorthand.

Use and Knowledge of Specificity

Understand the actual specificity of a group of nested selectors and what their calculations are per selector.

Use Web Typography Standards

Pixels and EMs for Font Sizes

Set the BODY to the designated size and allow the rest of the page to utilize calculations of that based on Ems. Ensure that the line height and word spacing follow the calculations. When you declare a font-family, include at least one semi-ubiquitous option for each major OS (Windows, Mac OS, Unix), and always end with one of the generic font keywords (serif, sans-serif, etc.)

Use the Liquid Layout where you can

The "Stretchy Layout" nicely fills all screen sizes without wasting any space. A floating Box layout could be preferable to allow for more content to fit larger browsers and mini-browsers alike.

Anchors and Images

• Hyperlinks should always be underlined unless they are in a group of clearly-defined navigation links.
• Use :link, :hover and :visited instead of "a" to set link styles.
• Use image replacement methods that are compatible with non-graphical browsers

Don’t use quotation marks around paths/URLs.

When setting a background image, or loading in an imported file, resist the urge to surround the path with quote marks. They’re not necessary, and IE5/Mac will choke.