General Design Considerations 7

More Traps

Do try viewing your pages at different screen resolutions. 640*480 is now used by less than 1% of users. 800*600 and 1024*768 pixels and higher resolutions are the most usual. You do not want your viewers to have to scroll horizontally as well as vertically.

Never use underlined text for emphasis. Use bold or italic text. Make sure that the only underlined text is on links.

Be sparing in your use of fonts. Times, Arial and Verdana are examples of the three main types of fonts. If possible offer your viewers' browsers a choice of similar fonts.

Do not use sound or animation unless it is vital to your theme. These can slow down the loading of your pages. The same goes for having too many advertisements.

Do not leave your site to its own devices. Look after it and update it regularly. Some pages will need to be updated more often than others. Do so and the whole web site will seem more up-to-date.

Appendix

This where the list of possible useful programs and web addresses is put. Some of them have already been mentioned. You will find others on the cover disks of Internet and Utility Magazines

FTP Programmes

These are used for uploading your pages onto the Web. Apart from Helexis Site Publisher which I use there are some alternatives:-
CuteFTP--shareware
AbsoluteFTP
FTPExplorer
CFSimpleFTP--Freeware
QueueFTP--shareware
TerrapinFTP--shareware--http://www.tpin.com

Java Script ideas

For the basics of Java Script try the tutorial mentioned above. A number of internet magazines cover Java Script. In the magazine '.Net' their Web Builder advice column addresses readers problems and gives solutions. Try http://www.netmag.co.uk/webbuilder/