10 CSS Tips For Website Developers
Working with CSS can be a daunting task.
It is a powerful language and once you have considerable
expertise of the same, you can craft some great websites.
Here are some CSS tips to help you employ its features
well.
Browser Compatibility Issues
Browser compatibility is a crucial concern
in the field of website development. In order to make
sure your website performs well on all browsers and
carters equally to all the website visitors, you need
to ensure that the layout of the website looks the
same across multiple browsers. Different web browsers
render web pages in different ways. And that is why
your website can look something on one and something
different on another. Though the layout is not completely
revamped, the placements of certain elements can be
altered. This in tuns impacts the layout and causes
inconsistencies. When you design your website on a
browser and tweak it to perfection, you should note
that it may look a little different on other browsers.
Therefore make sure you test it across different browsers
during the development stages and take constant browser-shots
so that you know what the differences are.
Design for Smaller Browser Resolutions
Developers usually work on large computer
monitors to create their websites. However, not all
people are as lucky. Only a chunk of Internet population
may be using the large screen monitors to access the
Internet and view websites. Check your analytics program
and see what browser resolutions are used by your
visitors to view your website. A website looks very
different on 1024X768 resolution than what it looks
on 800X600 resolution. Therefore, you should be able
to make sure that your website looks good on both
the resolutions, small and large. Caveat: The problem
with smaller browser resolutions is that images and
page elements block one another and cause improper
rendering of the pages
Use Frameworks
There are a number of CSS frameworks
available on the Internet that helps you make bulletproof
layouts that are not only cross browser compatible
but also tested well. If you don't need a highly radical
solution, CSS frameworks can do the trick.
Use Generic Classes
Instead of naming CSS classes differently
each time you develop a website, try making a simple
CSS class that can be used repeatedly throughout the
design without having to refer back to the previous
one. This will make sure that the web design remains
constant throughout the whole design.
Validate your HTML
HTML affects CSS. You cannot validate
your CSS until and unless you have valid HTML. Moreover,
often is the case that HTML causes variations in the
website layout and requires to be validated in order
for proper rendering.
Validate your CSS
Always make sure you validate your CSS
code and eliminate all the errors. This way you can
get CSS that is cross browser compatible and that
does not break.
Avoid Using Large Background Images
Large images bloat the file size of
web pages, we all know that. Therefore, instead of
using one large image for your background, use a small
one that use CSS to repeat it across the background.
Use CSS Judiciously
CSS is an amazing tool. But that doesn't
mean you go paint the town with it. Use CSS only when
and where it is the bets solution available. Using
it in places where you could have used another light
feature would only hamper your website performance.
Avoid Using Inline CSS
Though it is easy to use and great
for testing it doesn't work well in the production
code. Always keep the HTML and CSS separate.
Use Few Files
Using too many CSS files make it very
complex for any changes to be done to the layout.
The processing time for files are significantly increased
because the browser makes special request for every
one of the files.
About the Author:
Kabir Bedi is working as a senior web
consultant at LeXolution IT Services, a professional
web
design firm India. The company provides a range
of website
design and development services in addition to
a host of website maintenance services such as Web
site updates.
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