HTNet - A Notepad of Tech, Business, Science and Self Improvement

Using CSS in general is very easy. You can style an element via its definition, class and id. Redecorating an entire web site is possible just by editing its style sheets.

However, positioning elements tend to be quite a challenge. Therefore, I’ve created a sample template that will hopefully help those new to CSS to get a head start by building the site layout foundation. You should then be able to focus your effort on working on other areas of your site rather than wrestle with the overall layout.

Read the rest of Simple CSS Layout Template Example »

Back in the 90s, the home page concept was all the rage. Yahoo! built an entire business model around the home page concept and they’re still doing it to this very day. Nevertheless, in this Web 2.0 age, is the home page model dead or has it merely evolved?

Read the rest of Is There A Right Way To Design Your Home Page? »

While waiting for Streamyx’s arrival to my home, I’ve been logging on to the Internet occassionally using TMNet’s 1315 dialup service. Man, it’s a hellish experience! At 33.6kbps everything takes ages to load and I’m merely visiting web sites!

I tried to visit some friends’ blogs and just couldn’t believe how bloody long it took to render the pages! After a while, I started to wonder how long would HTNet take to load on dial-up connection and I took a peek. I’m glad to find out that it loads pretty quickly.

Optimizing your web site’s loading time isn’t difficult; it’s mostly an excercise of common sense; smaller pages load faster. Hence, we should make our pages as small as possible without sacrificing the information we want to present on them.

When it comes to load time, images are undeniably the biggest culprit. However, in this multimedia age, using images is an almost unavoidable excercise. The key to using images efficiently is to select the right image for a particular purpose.

Read the rest of Choosing The Right Image Format Will Make Your Pages Prettier And Load Faster »

If you’re a regular reader of HTNet, you might notice that I have adjusted the look of the site a bit. Some of the changes I’ve made include:

1. Converting the theme to use fixed width instead of the original fluid width style
2. Minor cosmetic changes to the header and footer
3. Making better use of the footer by widgetizing it (it now holds two menu columns and the standard footer text on a third column)
4. Since the footer can now hold widgets, moved some that used to be in the sidebars there
5. Modified the index and category sections to hold a maximum of five posts per page
6. Speaking of pages, I also installed a post pagination plugin; so browsing pages is no longer restricted to next or previous pages
7. Changed all sidebar widget headers to use <h5> instead of the WP standard <h2>; yeah, admittedly mostly for SEO and semantics
8. Also made the sidebar widget headers use a smaller font size

Read the rest of Minor HTNet Facelift: What Do You Think? »

As the SEO saying goes; “Content is King”. However, it wouldn’t hurt if your royal content is dressed up regally, right?

Which is why I really appreciate Smashing Magazine coming up with this list of 45 Excellent Blog Designs. And visually excellent they indeed are!

If you’re a budding theme designer, or you have already created a few; you should consider checking out the designs being showcased. There’s a healthy mixed of busy and minimalist designs. And more importantly, the designs are not picked because of the header (or masthead) alone.

Feeling inspired yet? Have the urge to redesign your blog?