HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Use consistent ilename extensions. All the JPEG images on your site
should have the extension .jpg or .jpeg. Pick one and use it for all your
JPEG image iles. Likewise, use either .html or .htm, but not both, for the
HTML iles. he same goes for .txt versus .text for text iles.
.
Use subdirectories to organize supporting iles such as scripts,
stylesheets, and media iles. his not only helps keep the iles organized
as the site grows, but it also makes it easier to back up all your images, for
example.
.
Add version information to the end of a ilename if you need to make
temporary backup copies of speciic iles. hat is, instead of naming the
new version of about.html new_about.html, give it a name like about_
new.html.
.
Use a date stamp for backup copies of iles. For example, use
about_20100501.html instead of old_about.html or about.bkup.html.
Using dates in a year-month-day format will keep them in proper order
in date-sorted ile listings.
.
On a typical website, most pages share a basic layout consisting of the
following:
.
A header area at the top of the page with the website's name and logo
image
.
A content area, possibly organized into sections and divisions
.
Sidebars with navigation, advertisements, and other special content
.
A footer area with address, copyright, and other auxiliary information
he HTML5 speciication, in recognizing this as a de facto layout, provides
section
,
header
, and
footer
elements.
Your web pages don't have to follow anyone else's layout. One of my favorite
early web pages was a student's project that illustrated the solar system with
images of the planets on a black background. he images were scaled propor-
tionally to show their relative sizes and were presented in reverse order from
Pluto to Mercury. Each image was in a table cell, with the height of the cell
proportional to that planet's distance from the sun.
2
Paging down to the sun (a
thick yellow line at the bottom of the page) gave you a true impression of our
2. his was before CSS was available, so the student had to use tables to set the distances between the planets.
