Mick Redman

Monday, 25 October 2010

Centre a DIV, interpret font sizes and snipplr

I have been subscribed to http://snipplr.com recently. It's very good. It's a sort of social networking site for coders. Below are a couple examples of things I got from the site this morning contained in the same page. The first technique is how to centre a DIV inside another DIV. Very useful.
The second technique is to set the font size within the body CSS body reference to 62.5%. The result is that when you apply font-size:1em later, this translates to 10px. font-size1.2em is equal to 12px etc. Very useful too.

See demo.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Centre a DIV inside a DIV</title>
<style type="text/css">
body
{
font-family:Sans-serif;
font-size:62.5%;
}
#outer
{
margin:0 auto;
width:800px;
background:#000000;
}
#inner
{
   width:50%;
   margin:auto;
   background:#FF0000;
}
p
{
  font-size:1.2em;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner"><p>Hello World!</p></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Using jQuery corners and simple grids to begin interesting layouts

Here, I have taken techniques from 2 of my previous posts to create a layout. It doesn't look great, but you should be able to see the potential. I have once again, used the jQuery rounded corners plugin at http://jquery.malsup.com/corner/

See demo.

Copy and paste the code into a HTML file...

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Simple Layout #14</title>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<style type="text/css">
*
{
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
body
{
margin:0 auto;
width:800px;
margin-top:100px;
color:#FFFFFF;
}
.twoCol
{
float:left;
width:398px;
}
.boundry
{
height:100px;
}
.content
{
height:200px;
}
.left
{
background:#FF9200;
}
.right
{
background:#000000;
}
.first
{
margin-left:0;
clear:left;
}
h1, p
{
padding-left:20px;
padding-right:20px;
}
h1
{
font-size:5em;
}
</style>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script>
google.load("jquery", "1");
google.load("jqueryui", "1");
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://github.com/malsup/corner/raw/master/jquery.corner.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function()
{
$('#tl').corner('cc:#FF9200 tl 100px');
$('#br').corner('cc:#000000 br 100px');
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="left twoCol first boundry"></div><div id="tl" class="right twoCol boundry"></div>
<div class="left twoCol first content">
<h1>This is my title</h1>
</div>
<div class="right twoCol content">
<p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
</div>
<div id="br" class="left twoCol first boundry"></div><div class="right twoCol boundry"></div>
</body>
</html>

jQuery Text Shadows

The latest text-shadow attributes of course, don't work in IE. There is a way of producing text shadows without using images and that is through a jQuery plugin. You can get the plugin from here http://justinshearer.com/solidShadow/
It's not subtle. There is no opacity, but if you are careful about the width, direction and colours of your shadow, the appearance is very useable. Here is an example of how to use it...

See demo.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Text Shadows</title>
<style type="text/css">
h1
{
text-align: center;
font-size: 8em;
}
</style>
</style>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script>
google.load("jquery", "1");
google.load("jqueryui", "1");
</script>
<script src="http://justinshearer.com/solidShadow/jquery.solidShadow.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function()
{
$('h1').solidShadow('inline','#000000','#CCCCCC','right',3);
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Header 2</h1>
</body>
</html>

jQuery rounded corners

Until recently I had been using CSS3 Pie from http://css3pie.com/ to add such things as rounded corners and drop shadows to elements of my pages. I was adding some rounded corners today to boxes on a website. I checked that they would be working in IE and D'oh! No rounded corners. So, I went in search of something which would work and after several tests of different hacks, plugins and scripts, I finally found this one at http://jquery.malsup.com/corner/ which works very well, so I'm sticking with it for now....

See demo.

Below is an example of how to use it.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>jQuery Corners</title>
<style type="text/css">
body
{
font-family:Sans-serif;
}
.myBox
{
background:#FF0000;
width:200px;
margin:10px;
padding:10px;
color:#FFFFFF;
}
</style>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script>
google.load("jquery", "1");
google.load("jqueryui", "1");
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://github.com/malsup/corner/raw/master/jquery.corner.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function()
{
$('.myBox').corner();
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="myBox">
<h1>Hello World!</h1>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Basic font stack

Here is an example of a basic font stack using tried and tested design principles. They are a great start to a web design. Essentially, all you would need to do for your own site is change the font-family references with the CSS to fonts you like and you are away. Then you can start addressing colour, but the sizes are a good idea to keep, maybe just play with the overall font-size within the body declaration. Have fun!

See demo.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Font stack Using Design Principles</title>
<style type="text/css">
body
{
margin:0 auto;
   width:800px;
   line-height:140%;
   font-size:85%;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4
{
   font-family:Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;
   font-weight:normal;
}
h1, h2
{
   text-transform:uppercase;
}
h1
{
   font-size:5em;
}
h2
{
   font-size:4em;
}
h3
{
   font-size:3em;
}
h4
{
   font-size:2em;
}
p, blockquote, strong, ul, ol, input, small, span
{
   font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
   font-style: normal;
   font-variant: normal;
   font-weight:normal;
   letter-spacing:0.1em;
}
blockquote
{
   text-indent: -0.8em;
   font-size: 1.5em;
}
p
{
   font-size: 1.25em;
   margin-top: 1.25em;
   margin-bottom: 1.25em;
}
input
{
   font-size: 1.0em;
}
small
{
   font-size: 0.75em;
}
span
{
   font-style: italic;
}
strong
{
   font-variant:small-caps;
}
p.justified
{
   text-align:justify;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Heading 1</h1>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<p>Pellentesque habitant morbi <small>tristique senectus et netus et malesuada</small> fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo. Quisque sit amet est et sapien ullamcorper pharetra. Vestibulum erat wisi, condimentum sed, commodo vitae, ornare sit amet, wisi. Aenean fermentum, elit eget tincidunt condimentum, eros ipsum rutrum orci, sagittis tempus lacus enim ac dui. Donec non enim in turpis pulvinar facilisis. Ut felis. Praesent dapibus, neque id cursus faucibus, tortor neque egestas augue, eu vulputate magna eros eu erat. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nam dui mi, tincidunt quis, accumsan porttitor, facilisis luctus, metus</p>
<p class="justified">Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. <strong>Vestibulum tortor quam,</strong> feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
<blockquote>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</blockquote>
<ul>
   <li>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</li>
   <li>Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.</li>
   <li>Vestibulum auctor dapibus neque.</li>
</ul>
<ol>
   <li>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</li>
   <li>Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.</li>
   <li>Vestibulum auctor dapibus neque.</li>
</ol>
</body>
</html>

Simple Grid Layout #2

I have extended the simple grid layout here to include rows of differing sizes within columns.

See demo.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Simple Grid Layout 2</title>
<style type="text/css">
body
{
margin:0 auto;
width:800px;
font-family:sans-serif;
}
.oneCol, .twoCol, .threeCol
{
float:left;
margin-left:20px;
}
.oneCol
{
width:780px;
}
.twoCol
{
width:380px;
}
.threeCol
{
width:247px;
}
.threeCol.first
{
width:246px;
}
.first
{
margin-left:0;
clear:left;
}
.row
{
background:#CCCCCC;
margin-bottom:20px;
height:20px;
}
.twoRowHeight
{
height:60px;
}
.threeRowHeight
{
height:100px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body><br />
<div class="twoCol first">
<div class="row">Column 1 of 2 columns. Row 1.
</div>
<div class="row">Column 1 of 2 columns. Row 2.
</div>
</div>
<div class="twoCol">
<div class="row">Column 2 of 2 columns. Row 1.
</div>
<div class="row">Column 2 of 2 columns. Row 2.
</div>
</div>
<div class="oneCol first">
<div class="row">Column 1 of 1 column. Row 1.
</div>
</div>
<div class="threeCol first">
<div class="row">Column 1 of 3 columns. Row 1.
</div>
<div class="row">Column 1 of 3 columns. Row 2.
</div>
<div class="row">Column 1 of 3 columns. Row 3.
</div>
</div>
<div class="threeCol">
<div class="row">Column 2 of 3 columns. Row 1.
</div>
<div class="row twoRowHeight">Column 2 of 3 columns. Row 2.
</div>
</div>
<div class="threeCol">
<div class="row threeRowHeight">Column 3 of 3 columns. Row 1.
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Applying Social Bookmark Links to your website

I wanted to create more links to my website for SEO purposes. To make it easy for people to add links to my website from social networks. I wanted to do this with the minimum amount of coding and updating. I therefore used http://www.addthis.com/
All I had to do was create an account (which was free).
Click on the "Get Your Button", button.
Copy the code.
Paste it into an appropriate location in my web page.

The code looks something like this :


<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style">
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=yourusername" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a>
<span class="addthis_separator">|</span>
<a class="addthis_button_preferred_1"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_preferred_2"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_preferred_3"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_preferred_4"></a>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=yourusername"></script>

I did 2 things beyond this. I created a div wrapper around it thus:
<div id="socialWrapper">

<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=yourusername" class="addthis_button_compact">Share</a>

</div>

</div>

I then, applied some style to my wrapper in the stylesheet thus:

#socialWrapper

{

position:fixed;

top:0px;

right:1%;

background:#FFFFFF;

}

This way, the social bookmarks would always appear at the top right of my browser window and would not clash with the page content.

See demo.