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A Reading List for Web Designers

*Update:* Thanks to “Mithrill”:http://godbit.com/forum/profile.php?id=119, you can now download this entire list, in OPML format. Many feed readers will then allow you to import the whole list in one step. *Download:* “Godbit reading list”:http://godbit.com/files/Godbit_reading_list.xml (OPML(Outline Processor Markup Language), 28kb)

bq.. “Have some RSS; it’s good for you.”

“What’s RSS?”

p. These are times that demand we learn and grow, just to keep up. So many exciting things are happening in the web design community, that it’s hard to know where to start.

As the amount of interesting content on the web increases, a bunch of people ask the same question:

bq.. *Question:* “How can I access, read and manage all the content I want, from all these websites, in one organized place?”

*Answer:* All that content pumping out of each site can be packaged in a “feed.” The feeds from all the sites you’re interested in can be managed, organized and read with a “feed reader.”

p. In other words, using a feed reader is like having your own customized, automatically generated news channel.

h3. RSS Readers

There are _lots_ of different feed readers. Some feed readers may be integrated in desktop software, such as your browser or your office productivity suite. Other feed readers are freely available online:

* “Bloglines”:http://bloglines.com/
* “News Gator”:http://newsgator.com/
* “Google Reader”:http://google.com/reader/

In any event, the one I use and recommend is Newshutch:

* “Newshutch”:http://newshutch.com/

h4. What to read?

This is a list of RSS feeds, which is based on the feeds that I read, on topics including the church online, photoshop, web design, etc.

By the way, understand that the term “RSS” in itself is a little ambiguous, since a feed can conform to any one of several different standards, some of which have different names. For simplicity, the term “RSS” in this article will refer to all types of feeds generally.

h4. Add to the list

This article is an experiment here at Godbit, in that articles are usually written once, with a limited time period for comments.

Instead, during the commenting period, I will update this list based on your input, so that the RSS Reading List can be a resource for all.

So, if you have an RSS feed of your own, or one that you read and recommend, let us know in the comments.

h3. Resource: RSS Reading List

h4. Church

* Site: “BetaChurch.Org”:http://www.betachurch.org/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.betachurch.org/news.xml
* Site: “Church Marketing Sucks”:http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/atom.xml
* Site: “effective web ministry notes”:http://www.eministrynotes.com — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/eministrynotes
* Site: “Heal Your Church Web Site”:http://www.healyourchurchwebsite.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.healyourchurchwebsite.com/index.rdf
* Site: “Kem Meyer on Less Clutter & Noise”:http://kemmeyer.typepad.com/less_clutter_noise/ — “RSS Feed”:http://kemmeyer.typepad.com/less_clutter_noise/index.rdf
* Site: “ServantBlog”:http://servantblog.com — “RSS Feed”:http://servantblog.com/feed/

h4. Comics

* Site: “Dilbert”:http://www.dilbert.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.tapestrycomics.com/dilbert.xml
* Site: “Reverend Fun”:http://www.reverendfun.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.reverendfun.com/features/rss/?language=en

h4. CSS Showcase

* Site: “ChurchBeauty”:http://www.churchbeauty.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.churchbeauty.com/?feed=rss2
* Site: “CSS Beauty”:http://www.cssbeauty.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.cssbeauty.com/index.xml
* Site: “CSS Mania”:http://cssmania.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/cssmania
* Site: “CSS Remix”:http://www.cssremix.com — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/cssremix
* Site: “CSS Vault Gallery”:http://cssvault.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://cssvault.com/gallery.xml
* Site: “Design Melt Down”:http://www.designmeltdown.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/designmeltdown/uecD
* Site: “Design Shack”:http://www.designshack.co.uk — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/designshack
* Site: “Liquid Designs”:http://www.cssliquid.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.cssliquid.com/feed/
* Site: “Stylegala | gallery”:http://www.stylegala.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.stylegala.com/feeds/gallery.xml
* Site: “Unmatched Style | Gallery”:http://www.unmatchedstyle.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.unmatchedstyle.com/index.xml
* Site: “Web Creme”:http://www.webcreme.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.webcreme.com/feed

h4. Getting Things Done

* Site: “David Seah”:http://davidseah.com — “RSS Feed”:http://davidseah.com/syndicated
* Site: “Gary Slinger”:http://garyslinger.com/blog — “RSS Feed”:http://garyslinger.com/blog/feed/
* Site: “Marc's Outlook on Productivity”:http://blogs.officezealot.com/marc/default.aspx — “RSS Feed”:http://blogs.officezealot.com/marc/Rss.aspx
* Site: “Meryl.net”:http://meryl.net — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/Meryl
* Site: “OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas”:http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/ — “RSS Feed”:http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/index.rdf
* Site: “Slacker Manager”:http://slackermanager.com — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/SlackerManager

h4. Godbit

* Site: “Andy Knight”:http://www.andyknight.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/andyknight/
* Site: “Art of Mission – Blog”:http://www.artofmission.com/articles — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/artofmission
* Site: “Tim Bednar “:http://www.turtleinteractive.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/TurtleInteractive
* Site: “Christian Montoya”:http://www.christianmontoya.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/christianmontoya
* Site: “CD Harrison”:http://cdharrison.com/index.php/feed/ — “RSS Feed”:http://cdharrison.com/index.php/feed/
* Site: “Cody Lindley”:http://codylindley.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://codylindley.com/?rss=1
* Site: “Godbit Project”:http://godbit.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://godbit.com/rss/
* Site: “i am a camera”:http://iamacamera.org/ — “RSS Feed”:http://iamacamera.org/default.aspx?feed=rss20
* Site: “Jeremy Flint”:http://www.jeremyflint.com/ — “RSS Feed”:feed://http//www.jeremyflint.com/feed/
* Site: “Justin Thorp”:http://www.mycapitalweb.com/justin/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.mycapitalweb.com/justin/?feed=rss2
* Site: “Larry Tomlinson”:http://anoteaboutmyself.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://anoteaboutmyself.com/rss/
* Site: “Matt Heerema”:http://mattheerema.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/mattheerema-full
* Site: “Nathan Logan”:http://nathanlogan.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://nathanlogan.com/?rss=1
* Site: “Rob Soulé”:http://www.couchfort.net/ — “RSS Feed”:http://couchfort.net/rss/?category=blogs&section=article
* Site: “Robert R Evans”:http://www.robertrevans.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://robertrevans.com/feed/atom.xml
* Site: “SonSpring”:http://sonspring.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://sonspring.com/rss/
* Site: “Standards for Life”:http://www.standardsforlife.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/standardsforlife
* Site: “Yannick Lyn Fatt”:http://www.godsporch.net/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.godsporch.net/rss/

h4. Magazines

* Site: “A List Apart”:http://www.alistapart.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.alistapart.com/rss.xml
* Site: “Bite Size Standards – bites”:http://bitesizestandards.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/bitesizestandards
* Site: “design fckr”:http://dfckr.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/DesignFckr
* Site: “design in-flight”:http://www.designinflight.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.designinflight.com/index.xml (Sadly, seems to be in stasis.)
* Site: “Devlounge”:http://www.devlounge.net — “RSS Feed”:http://www.devlounge.net/feed/
* Site: “Digital Web: Latest Articles”:http://digital-web.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.digital-web.com/dates/rss/
* Site: “Digital Web: What’s New”:http://digital-web.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://digital-web.com/news/rss/
* Site: “evolt.org – Workers of the Web, Evolt!”:http://evolt.org — “RSS Feed”:http://evolt.org/rss/articles.rss
* Site: “Godly Creative People”:http://godlycreatives.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/gcp
* Site: “Investing Talents”:http://investingtalents.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/itmag
* Site: “Smashing Magazine”:http://www.smashingmagazine.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.smashingmagazine.com/feed/
* Site: “Stylegala | news”:http://www.stylegala.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.stylegala.com/feeds/news.xml
* Site: “Stylegala | public news”:http://www.stylegala.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.stylegala.com/feeds/public-news.xml
* Site: “UX Magazine”:http://www.uxmag.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/UXM
* Site: “UX Matters”:http://www.uxmatters.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.uxmatters.com/index.xml

h4. My (Clients’) Sites

* *Note:* Subscribe to all of your (clients’) sites!

h4. My Host

* Site: “DreamHost Status”:http://www.dreamhoststatus.com — “RSS Feed”:http://status.dreamhost.com/feed/

h4. Photoshop

* Site: “Adobe Labs”:http://weblogs.macromedia.com/labs/ — “RSS Feed”:http://weblogs.macromedia.com/labs/index.xml
* Site: “Photoshop Lab”:http://www.photoshoplab.com — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/PhotoshopLab/all
* Site: “Photoshop TV”:http://www.photoshoptv.com — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/photoshoptv

h4. Popular Blogs

* Site: “43 Folders”:http://www.43folders.com — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/43Folders
* Site: “Berkun blog”:http://www.scottberkun.com/blog — “RSS Feed”:http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/wp-rss2.php
* Site: “Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)”:http://www.dpreview.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.dpreview.com/news/dpr.rdf
* Site: “Seth’s Blog”:http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/ — “RSS Feed”:http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/atom.xml
* Site: “TechCrunch”:http://www.techcrunch.com — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch

h4. Web Design

* Site: “./with Imagination”:http://www.dustindiaz.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.dustindiaz.com/feed/
* Site: “9rules Network Official Blog”:http://9rules.com/blog — “RSS Feed”:http://9rules.com/blog/feed/
* Site: “Addison Hall—Eclectic Yet Related”:http://addisonhall.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.addisonhall.com/?rss=1
* Site: “And all that Malarkey”:http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/index.rdf
* Site: “Andy Budd::Blogography”:http://www.andybudd.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.andybudd.com/index.rdf
* Site: “Andy Budd::Links”:http://www.andybudd.com/links/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.andybudd.com//links/index.rdf
* Site: “Andy Rutledge : Design View”:http://andyrutledge.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://andyrutledge.com/feeds/arfeed.xml
* Site: “Anton Peck”:http://antonpeck.com/journal/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/Anton
* Site: “Authentic Boredom”:http://cameronmoll.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.cameronmoll.com/atom.xml
* Site: “Avalonstar”:http://avalonstar.com — “RSS Feed”:http://avalonstar.com/wp-rss2.php
* Site: “Bartelme Design | Journal”:http://www.bartelme.at/journal/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.bartelme.at/rss.php
* Site: “Boyink Interactive, LLC”:http://www.boyink.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.boyink.com/index.xml
* Site: “BrianBreslin.com”:http://brianbreslin.com — “RSS Feed”:http://brianbreslin.com/?feed=rss2
* Site: “ChunkySoup.net”:http://chunkysoup.net/ — “RSS Feed”:http://chunkysoup.net/atom/
* Site: “CollyLogic”:http://www.colly.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.colly.com/index.php?/weblog/rss_2.0/
* Site: “D. Keith Robinson”:http://www.dkeithrobinson.com/index.php/site/index/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/DKeithRobinson
* Site: “Dan Rubin's SuperfluousBanter”:http://superfluousbanter.org — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/superfluousbanter
* Site: “Dave Shea's mezzoblue”:http://mezzoblue.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.mezzoblue.com/rss/index.xml
* Site: “Design 2.0”:http://design2-0.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/Design2-0
* Site: “Design by Fire”:http://www.designbyfire.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.designbyfire.com/?feed=rss2
* Site: “Fiftyfoureleven.com – Resources and Links”:http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/resources/rss — “RSS Feed”:http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/resources/rss
* Site: “Fiftyfoureleven.com – Weblog”:http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/weblog/rss — “RSS Feed”:http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/weblog/rss
* Site: “hicksdesign – journal”:http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/hicksdesign
* Site: “IEBlog”:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/default.aspx — “RSS Feed”:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/atom.xml
* Site: “Jaredigital”:http://www.jaredigital.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.jaredigital.com/atom/
* Site: “Jason Santa Maria | Articles”:http://www.jasonsantamaria.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://jasonsantamaria.com/index.rdf
* Site: “JeffCroft.com Journal”:http://jeffcroft.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www2.jeffcroft.com/feeds/blog/
* Site: “Jeffrey Veen”:http://www.veen.com/jeff/ — “RSS Feed”:http://veen.com/jeff/rss.xml
* Site: “Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report”:http://www.zeldman.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.zeldman.com/feed/zeldman.xml
* Site: “Josh Dura”:http://www.joshdura.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://joshdura.com/?rss=1
* Site: “kartooner.com”:http://www.kartooner.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.kartooner.com/feed/rss/
* Site: “KathyMarks.com”:http://www.kathymarks.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.kathymarks.com/index.xml
* Site: “Lisa McMillan dot com”:http://www.lisamcmillan.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/lisamcmillan/ikDT
* Site: “maratz.com”:http://www.maratz.com/blog — “RSS Feed”:http://www.maratz.com/rss/
* Site: “markboulton.co.uk | Journal”:http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/rss_2.0/
* Site: “MBoffin.com – Recent Posts”:http://mboffin.com — “RSS Feed”:http://mboffin.com/rss/all
* Site: “microformatique – a blog about microformats”:http://microformatique.com — “RSS Feed”:http://microformatique.com/?feed=rss2
* Site: “Modern Life Is Rubbish”:http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/ModernLifeIsRubbish
* Site: “molly.com”:http://www.molly.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.molly.com/feed/rss2/
* Site: “News from Adaptive Path”:http://www.adaptivepath.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://adaptivepath.com/index.xml
* Site: “Ordered List by Steve Smith – Home”:http://orderedlist.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://orderedlist.com/feed/
* Site: “Robert's talk”:http://www.robertnyman.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.robertnyman.com/feed/atom/
* Site: “ryan werth design : blog”:http://ryanwerth.com/blog/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.ryanwerth.com/blog/rss/
* Site: “Shaun Inman”:http://www.shauninman.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.shauninman.com/feed/made-fresh
* Site: “Sillyness Spelled Wrong Intentionally”:http://www.chrisjdavis.org — “RSS Feed”:http://www.chrisjdavis.org/feed/
* Site: “Simon Willison's Weblog Entries”:http://simonwillison.net/ — “RSS Feed”:http://simon.incutio.com/syndicate/rss1.0
* Site: “SimpleBits”:http://www.simplebits.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.simplebits.com/xml/rss.xml
* Site: “Small Transport”:http://www.smalltransport.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.smalltransport.com/articlerss/
* Site: “Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog”:http://www.smileycat.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/smileycat
* Site: “solarDreamStudios”:http://solardreamstudios.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://solardreamstudios.com/rss/
* Site: “Stopdesign”:http://www.stopdesign.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://stopdesign.com/index.xml
* Site: “Subtraction”:http://www.subtraction.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.subtraction.com/atom.xml
* Site: “Tantek.com/”:http://tantek.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://tantek.com/log/posts.atom
* Site: “The Man in Blue”:http://www.themaninblue.com/writing/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.themaninblue.com/perspective.xml
* Site: “The Watchmaker Project – journal”:http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/thewatchmakerproject-journal
* Site: “The Web Standards Project”:http://www.webstandards.org — “RSS Feed”:http://www.webstandards.org/feed/
* Site: “Veerle's blog: Approved”:http://veerle.duoh.com/index.php/blog/approved/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/veerlesblog/approved
* Site: “Veerle's blog: Art”:http://veerle.duoh.com/index.php/art/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/artelsewhere
* Site: “Veerle's blog: full articles”:http://veerle.duoh.com/index.php/blog/index/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/veerlesblog
* Site: “Veerle's blog: Veerle's art”:http://veerle.duoh.com/index.php/artveerle/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/VeerlesArt
* Site: “Warpspire”:http://warpspire.com — “RSS Feed”:http://warpspire.com/feed
* Site: “Web Design from Scratch”:http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/rss.xml
* Site: “Web-Graphics”:http://web-graphics.com — “RSS Feed”:http://web-graphics.com/index.xml
* Site: “WebDeveloper.com”:http://www.webdeveloper.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.webdeveloper.com/webdeveloper.rdf
* Site: “What Do I Know”:http://whatdoiknow.org/ — “RSS Feed”:http://whatdoiknow.org/index.xml

h4. Web Design: Accessibility

* Site: “456 Berea Street”:http://www.456bereastreet.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.456bereastreet.com/feed.xml
* Site: “Accessify”:http://accessify.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://accessify.com/rss/accessify_rss.xml
* Site: “Accessites”:http://accessites.org/ — “RSS Feed”:http://accessites.org/site/feed/
* Site: “Juicy Studio”:http://juicystudio.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://juicystudio.com/syndicate/juicyatom.xml

h4. Web Design: CSS

* Site: “Thoughts From Eric”:http://meyerweb.com — “RSS Feed”:http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/rss2/full

h4. Web Design: DOM Scripting

* Site: “Adactio”:http://adactio.com/journal/ — “RSS Feed”:http://adactio.com/journal/rss
* Site: “Snook.ca”:http://snook.ca/jonathan/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.snook.ca/jonathan/index.rdf
* Site: “Wait till I come!”:http://www.wait-till-i.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.wait-till-i.com/wp-rss2.php

h4. Web Design: Events

* Site: “An Event Apart News”:http://www.aneventapart.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://aneventapart.com/index.xml
* Site: “Carson Systems News”:http://www.carsonsystems.com/blog — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/carsonsystems

h4. Web Design: Information Architecture

* Site: “Boxes and Arrows”:http://www.boxesandarrows.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.boxesandarrows.com/story/rss.xml
* Site: “Garrett Dimon”:http://www.garrettdimon.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.garrettdimon.com/subscribe/index.xml

h4. Web Design: Jobs

* Site: “AuthenticJobs.com Job Listings”:http://www.authenticjobs.com — “RSS Feed”:http://www.authenticjobs.com/rss/offsite.xml
* Site: “MinistryCamp Job Board”:http://jobs.ministrycamp.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/MinistryCamp-AllRecentJobs

h4. Web Design: Podcasts

* Site: “Boagworld”:http://www.boagworld.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/Boagworldcom-ForThoseManagingWebsites
* Site: “.Net Magazine”:http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/podcast — “RSS Feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/pwd

h4. Web Design: Textpattern

* Site: “Textpattern”:http://textpattern.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://textpattern.com/?rss=1&section=weblog
* Site: “threshold state”:http://thresholdstate.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://thresholdstate.com/?rss=1
* Site: “Wilshire One”:http://www.wilshireone.com/ — “RSS Feed”:http://www.wilshireone.com/feeds/rss/articles/

h4. Web Apps

* Site: “Particletree”:http://particletree.com — “RSS Feed”:http://particletree.com/rss/
* Site: “Signal vs. Noise”:http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts — “RSS Feed”:http://www.37signals.com/svn/index_full.rdf

_This article is © Montgomery 2007. Some rights released with a_ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

_Also published at_ “Godbit”:http://godbit.com/article/reading-list.

Standard
Uncategorized

Have a Mint!

Add me to the long list of “Mint”:http://haveamint.com/ fans.

The site is excellent in almost every way, from design, aesthetics, color, theme, typography, architecture, and experience.

The “Server Compatibility Suite”:http://haveamint.com/requirements/ is a very nice touch, allowing me to test whether my server meets the requirements _before_ purchase. Likewise for the live “Demonstration”:http://www.designologue.com/mint/ site.

The purchase process was easy, the download and installation were well-explained and proceeded without problem.

The price for performance and features is well worth it, and most important, the client is delighted.

Standard
Uncategorized

Internet Explorer 7

h3. Seven Things To Do When IE7 Is Released

h4. Internet Explorer Upgrade:

Someday soon, Microsoft is going to release “Internet Explorer 7”:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/, their first major browser upgrade in five years. Those in the internet business have anticipated it for a while now, “discussing”:http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=ie7&btnG=Search+News and “scrutinizing”:http://www.builderau.com.au/program/web/soa/A_developers_look_at_IE7/0,339024632,339271080,00.htm it. If you don’t follow the latest internet events, you may wonder what I’m talking about.

h4. Background:

Internet Explorer (IE) is the browser with the most market share, about 94% in mid-2004 and slowly descending to about 80% or less today. More information on “browser trends”:http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat_trends.htm#browser and “statistics”:http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat.htm is available. IE’s strong showing is mainly due to default installation on every new Windows PC, and being the default browser for the AOL service.

p(pullquote2). “…the IE rendering engine runs pretty rough in spots”

However, web designers and developers have long objected that it displays web pages incorrectly, in conflict with the W3C specifications. In other words, the IE rendering engine runs pretty rough in spots, so bad that there’s almost a cottage industry producing and documenting techniques for fixing or “patching” these problems.

The web industry is so interested in IE7 that there are detailed discussions about the smallest details, including whether a particular “bug will be fixed”:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/08/22/712830.aspx, exactly “how IE7 will be released”:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/07/26/678149.aspx, etc.

The good news is that the IE7 “rendering engine fixes all kinds of bugs”:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/08/22/712830.aspx and other things, making it quite a capable browser on par with its competition:

bq. Internet Explorer 7 … includes improvements in performance, stability, security, and application compatibility. Microsoft has also made enhancements to the fit and finish of the user interface, completed CSS platform changes, added language support, ….

On the other hand, many people argue that “catching up”:http://www.robertnyman.com/2006/09/19/ie-7-is-catching-up-good-enough/ is “insufficient”:http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200609/ie_7_is_better_but_still_lagging/.

h4. Seven Things To Do:

So, if you use Internet Explorer, here is a list of things to do when IE7 is released:

p(pullquote2). 1. Do nothing. (or Install “IE7”:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.)
2. Check out the new interface.
3. Proceed with caution.
4. Enjoy new features.
5. Learn old features.
6. Surf with security.
7. Say goodbye to IE6.

1. *Do nothing.* If your operating system is Windows XP, and you subscribe to the automatic updates feature, IE7 will be distributed as a “high-priority update”. This means that when the final version is released later this year, it may automatically download and upgrade itself for you.

The reason it’s being distributed automatically is the added security improvements, and it will hopefully improve your internet experience greatly.

If your PC doesn’t automatically install it, let’s edit that first step:

1. *Install “IE7”:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.* Don’t hesitate. Don’t even think about it. Just do it.

!http://michaelmontgomery.net/images/79.png(IE7 interface)!

2. *Check out the new interface.* IE7 sports a whole new look and feel. The interface is prettied up and cleaned up:

bq. Simple is good. A redesigned, streamlined interface gives you more of what you need and less of what you don’t. The new look maximizes the area of the screen that displays the webpage.

3. *Proceed with caution.* You may be aware that the ability of IE version 6 and below to render web pages according to the “W3C specification”: was … less than optimal. Again, the good news is that a whole lot of those rendering bugs are fixed with IE7.

The not-so-good news is that millions of web pages were built to overcome those bugs, which will disappear in IE7. So, please realize that some of those pages may look a little funny after you upgrade to IE7. Some things will be too big or too little, or shifted out of place, or even overlap something else.

Don’t worry, web designers are already busy testing and tuning their sites to accommodate, and everything will settle down quickly.

4. *Enjoy new features*, such as:

* *Browser tabs,* which allows you to open multiple sites at once, each in a separate tab of the same browser window. You can also see thumbnail images of all open tabs in a single view.

* *Subscribe* to your favorite sites, including news and blogs. These subscriptions often use a technology called RSS, which means “Really Simple Syndication.”

* *Improved printing* options, including automatically shrinking text for a better fit on a printed page, customizable page layouts, headers and footers, and print space.

!http://michaelmontgomery.net/images/80.png(Search box)!

* *”Open instant search”* IE7 has a “customizable”:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/09/14/466186.aspx “open search”:http://opensearch.a9.com/ box.

bq. Search the Internet directly from the browser frame using your favorite search provider with the instant search box.

* *More real estate.* The interface elements, called “browser chrome,” includes the menu bar, status bar, and toolbars. These elements are smaller in IE7, leaving more available space for web page content.

5. *Learn old features*, such as:

* *Hover that mouse.* Since most people don’t read the help files, point your mouse at anything you don’t recognize. Don’t click it immediately, but just hover there. In a second or two, a little hint may pop up, telling you what that thing does. (This won’t happen everywhere, but can be helpful.)

* *Learn the keyboard.* It’s time to learn a faster way. You’re wasting time, every time your hand leaves the keyboard to grab the mouse. Learn what the “tab” key does (and the “enter” key, too), and the other keyboard shortcuts.

* *Right click.* A useful tip, almost always. Whenever you don’t know how to do something, or what something does, or how to do something with a particular thing, point at it and right-click that mouse. A menu will pop up, and it will be different depending on whatever you’re pointing at. It’s as if the browser’s trying to anticipate what you might want, even if you don’t know what you want.

*Note:* Current browsers (including IE6) already do this. But many people don’t know, so it’s news to the average person.

6. *Surf with security.* Security is supposed to be a priority in IE7. Hopefully their efforts at making Internet Explorer more secure will “just work.”

!http://michaelmontgomery.net/images/82.png(Phishing alert)!

Speaking of security, IE7 has a new security feature which tries to alert you of possible phishing sites. The term “phishing” refers to criminals who want to “go fish” for your private information.

7. *Say goodbye to IE6.* And don’t look back.

h3. In the meantime, better browsers are available

Alternatively, you don’t need to wait for IE7 to get a “better browser”:http://browsehappy.com/ now. There are several excellent choices:

* *”Get Firefox”:http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/.*
* *”Opera”:http://www.opera.com/*
* *”Flock”:http://www.flock.com/*

Lots of good browsers out there. Most of them tuned up their rendering engines a long time ago, and have different features and benefits.

An amusing discussion about browser choices, in the form of a hypothetical “persona” who chooses each browser, tries to answer: “What does your browser reveal about you?”:http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2006/08/19/what-does-your-browser-reveal-about-your-personality/

Which to choose for now? I “recommend”:http://ie7.com/ “Firefox”:http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/, to everyone who will listen.

h4. Conclusion

There’s a lot of excitement about IE7, and for good reason.

In summary, the situation is fairly simple: IE6 is essentially obsolete, and IE7 is much better. (But other browsers may already be there.)

_This article is © Montgomery 2006. Some rights released with a_ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

_Also published at_ “Godbit”:http://godbit.com/article/ie7.

Standard
Uncategorized

Textpattern Feature Request

h3. Web Standards

h4. Separate Content from Style

One of the principles of “web standards”:http://www.webstandards.org/ is to separate the “content” layer (e.g. XHTML) from the “presentation” or “style” layer (i.e. CSS).

h5. Textpattern says: Yes

Textpattern automatically facilitates separating content from style, with the “Content” and “Presentation” tabs.

h4. Separate Content, Style … and Action

Another principle is to separate any “behavior” (e.g. javascript/DOM scripting) from both of the other layers. This is sometimes called “unobtrusive javascript,” such that the behavior is not necessary to the page, but only enhances it.

From the “Web Standards Project”:http://www.webstandards.org/, the “DOM Scripting Task Force’s”:http://www.webstandards.org/action/dstf/ “Manifesto”:http://www.webstandards.org/action/dstf/manifesto/ states:

bq. At the moment JavaScript suffers from outdated, uninformed, and inaccessible development methods which preclude it, and therefore web development in general, from attaining its full potential.
The WaSP DOM Scripting Task Force proposes to solve this problem by the adoption of *unobtrusive* DOM scripting, a way of thinking based on modern, standards-compliant, accessible web development best practices.

That word “unobtrusive” means, among other things, “separate behavior from content and presentation.”

This triune separation is similar to the object-oriented concept in software development of “Model, View, Controller”:http://www.mercurytide.com/knowledge/white-papers/separating-structure-presentation-and-behaviour#mvc-architecture.

h3. Textpattern says: Not Yet

h4. Textpattern Feature Request:

How about a *Behavior* tab in TxP? The primary tabs would then be *Content, Presentation, Behavior, Admin* and *View Site*.

Of course, I ask without the _slightest_ idea of how hard it would be. My thinking is just that … well, it would be nice to have.

Perhaps it will be in “Textpattern Pro”:http://textpatternpro.com/?

Standard