Matter of Opinion

    Readability can be subjective to individual tastes, but it is usually better to arrange the text in a columnar format. Newspapers aren't laid out in columns cause it is easier to print. Matter if fact it is more difficult, as you will find in creating your own pages of text. No, the main reason for columnar format is readabilty. It is easier to keep your place when the end of the line is not to far from the beginning of the next.

    Now all that said, I am trying to make my pages better and more readable, so bear with me if soemthing isn't quite up to snuff. As I have said elsewhere, this is a constant work in progress and I jump from subject to subject depending on what has hit me at the moment. Sometimes I am working on one thing and during the process something else comes up which was triggered by what I was doing at the time. Yep, it is a crazy cycle which I am certain many of you have experienced.

Colors & Contrast

    Once again whilst investigating something else I came across an interesting way of displaying items on your WebPage. This is a CSS style from Dave A. Wheeler's Home Page. It is useful to emphasize the item your mouse is hovering over...

        A:link	{	
        	text-decoration:	none;
        	color:	#00C;
        	background:	#FFC;
        	}	
        		
        A:visited	{	
        	text-decoration:	none;
        	color:	#00F;
        	background:	#FFC;
        	}	
        		
        A:active	{	
        	text-decoration:	none;
        	color:	#F00;
        	background:	#FC0;
        	}	
        		
        A:hover	{	
        	text-decoration:	none;
        	color:	#C00;
        	background:	#FC0;
        	}	
        		
        A.offsite	{	
        	text-decoration:	none;
        	font-weight:	normal;
        	color:	#C00;
        	background:	#FFC;
        	}	

Now then, it is a lot more than just the mouse hovering but it shows another way of handling your links. Course in order to use this I would have to change my CSS files. I will only use this in some specific areas and probably the first will be CreditsNRefs. Don't forget we can over-ride what is in the CSS external file of definitions, by including another definition in the HTML file, 'after' the CSS file includes. If you are curious enough, view the source of my CreditsNRefs page.