Although I can build websites I am (obviously) by no means an artist or graphic designer. I try to keep the site low-maintenance and simple. This is made easier by keeping the content -written in XHTML 1.0 Strict- and the, ahem, style separate in CSS.
I try to make good use of PHP on the site, mostly to reduce maintenance but also for things like the Breadcrumbs script, the last modified feature, the contact form and the code snippet that makes the images at the top of each page appear in a random order (the last 2 were supplied by Karl Groves). The PHP gets tested on my computer before uploading by virtue of the WAMPServer 5.
The XHTML, CSS and PHP is mostly written using UltraEdit, my favourite text editor (on Windows anyway) although occasionally I revert back to Dreamweaver MX . The web page template is actually a PHP page that includes 2 other PHP files, a header file and a footer file. The meat of the page gets written in between the require statements for these files.
Most of the photo albums are generated using Web Generator, a bit of freeware that was so good I sent the author, Mark McIntyre, a donation. Web Generator conforms to XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.0. Prior to that I used ULead which was absolutely diabolical, and probably didn't conform to anything. I have now replaced all the ULead albums and saved several Mb of space. Recently I have replaced the tables that contained the photo thumbnails with some neat CSS. Thanks to Mark's layout, the power of CSS and the versatility of UltraEdit this was a very simple task.
I believe that websites should be accessible by everyone and have worked hard to make this site conform to accessibility standards and guidelines. My Access Keys page is an example of this work. I have also tested the site using Lynx and IBM's Home Page Reader software (a text to speech convertor). Changes made as a result of those tests include:
All images, photos and buttons are created in either Paintshop Pro or Photoshop.
My blog is powered by Blogger, but before that the older diaries were written directly in HTML.
No Javascript is used on this site.
