Number 261 - February 2005

Thoughts About Using Cutting Edge Web Effects
By Jennifer Kyrnin in her column Browsing on the Bleeding Edge
There are so many new and exciting features of dHTML and other "bleeding edge" technologies, but often it's hard to decide whether to use them or not. Before you decide to write your pages at the edge of HTML, there are some things to think about: How many new features are on the page already?    If a page has too many flashing lights, gizmos, and special effects, your readers may be turned off rather than impressed. Also, things like java applets can take up system memory for your readers and can cause their browser to crash if there is too much going on.    A good rule of thumb is to limit your page to one special effect of any kind. This includes music, streaming video, java applets, fancy javascripts, and dynamic HTML. What are you trying to achieve with the effect?    Try to design your pages with purpose. If you want a rollover, add it to the areas of the page that might not be clicked on if you didn't call attention to them. Use dynamic positioning to serve a purpose.    Fancy effects that are effective will enhance your Web page rather than detract from it. Can you achieve the same effect with an older technology?    The older your effects are, the more likely it is that it will be supported by multiple browsers. If you can create a motion effect with an animated GIF, more people will get the point of your page than if you use Netscape layers and dHTML.    The more you can keep your site browser non-specific, the more readers you will have.	If you want a browser specific effect, have you thought how other browsers will see the page?    Even though you may want people to only view your page with Internet Explorer 4.0, you can't control what browsers people use. I've browsed sites with Netscape 3.0 that have no formatting to them. They look strange and barren. They were designed to be viewed with a styles compatible browser, and no thought was given to browsers without styles.    When using an effect, keep in mind how other browsers will see (or not see) the effect. Many effects have built in support for non-compliant browsers. For example, if you use the (IFRAME) tag, you can include text inside the tags that can explain what the non-iframe compatible browser is missing. Toggle Editor's Note:    Should We Require Computer Group Members to Have Cutting Edge Equipment and Knowledge?    It never hurts to anticipate the level of sophistication of your audience (readers/surfers/members) in any area of endeavor. While some of us enjoy pushing the limits and using the very latest stuff, not all of our audience are as up on things as we, on the cutting edge, are.    This is particularly true with respect to the members of a computer user group. We need to keep reminding ourselves that our membership ranges from beginner to expert in computer use and applications as well as some old timers who do not upgrade every time some new fangled "improvement" is introduced.. Even though most new machines come with all the latest bells and whistles, not everyone has a CD-ROM drive. Some are still using computers with 3 1/2 inch disk drives! Your editor even has a computer running (gasp!) Windows 3.1 and often uses it to print this very newsletter. And that computer also has a 5 1/4 inch disk drive (double gasp!) Why? Because it is there--and still is used for some tasks, but also because it is still available to transfer data between old machines if necessary. Ray Mills tells us that he still has a customer that uses an old Osborne 1 CP/M machine!
Number 262 - February 2005