[thelist] Re: Site check checklist?

Techwatcher techwatcher at accesswriters.com
Mon Jun 24 08:27:01 CDT 2002


Hi, Joel --

and anyone else who needs this stuff:
> I'm totally out of the loop on general web design, since I design
almost
> entirely for an intranet. Here are the technical things I intend to
check on
> my site's redesign. Got any suggestions?
>
> Verify overall functionality
> Validate XHTML
> Validate CSS
> Inspect in various versions of various browsers (your details may
vary)
> Inspect on different OS/platforms
> Verify accessibility (alt tags, use of color, generally check to see
that it
> follows W3C guidelines)
>
Go get the FREE, pretty wonderful HTML-Kit (from charmit.org? I think)
and install it. Set the preferences to NOT overwrite your code with
fixed version of your code; just make the fixed code stay in the
preview window.

Now open your file within HTML-Kit. Run the HTML-Tidy module (included
with it, on the Action Bar) on your file. (Actually, while you're
grabbing HTML-Kit you might want to also grab the beta testing HTML-
Tidy -- you can have both installed at the same time). What happens is
that the Preview tab will display the text with all the fixes that the
HTML-Tidy module suggests. At the bottom, a small window lists all the
warnings and errors. If you click on a warning, the other window jumps
to that line so you can see just what they're referring to. You can
also have Edit window (with your old text, if you set the preferences
as I suggested) and Preview window (with the "fixed" text) open side by
side. And you can move the Preview contents into the Edit contents and
save the new version (after more optional editing).

You will love HTML-Kit. It does display CSS files, too, and colors will
be wrong if you screwed up somehow (missed a ; or something). The CSS
section of the Action Bar offers a list of selectors, and attributes.
HTML-Kit makes everything so much easier! (Although it's not WYSIWYG,
press F8 and it will open the result in your default browser.)

Cheers --
Carol Stein
techwatcher at accesswriters.com



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