HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7-33.
The Layout Gala: one XHTML document, many possibilities
At the Layout Gala site, you'll find a vast number of different layout permutations based
on the same simple XHTML document, which you can download and try out for yourself. If
you're feeling adventurous, you could attempt to merge two style sheets into one and then use
the body CSS switcher technique we described earlier to give you different layouts for various
page types.
Style Switchers: Giving the User Control
Even if you are not in the habit of having periodical CSS makeovers on your web site, there is
still one other benefit to consider: your user might want to have a different design that's best
suited to them. In such a case, you can employ a style switcher that the user can control. Per-
haps your visitor has impaired vision and wants a higher-contrast version of the page. Or
maybe they're using a screen magnification tool to view your page and the layout causes prob-
lems because some of the content is easily missed. You can give that control to the user by
providing a style switcher tool, a technique that's described in Paul Sowden's article for A List
Apart (
www.alistapart.com/stories/alternate/
). The person using a screen magnification
tool would benefit from a “zoom layout,” and the best place to learn about that is from acces-
sibility expert Joe Clark (
http://joeclark.org/access/webaccess/zoom/
). Combing a zoom
layout (and other layouts or schemes) with a style switcher lets you capitalize on the flexibility
that CSS truly offers.
