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Due to spam attacks I had to password protect editing. The password is the web standard you use to define the presentation of a web site (in uppercase).

MACCAWS-Whitepaper-Myths

• Introduction
• Standards and the Web
• Some common myths
• The benefits of Web standards
• How to embrace Web standards
• Appendix

Some common myths

Standards do not sound particularly exciting, creative nor cutting-edge. In fact, the very word itself conjures up the idea of restrictions and the seeming lack of flexibility. It is unfortunate that the word has such negative connotations, because these misconceptions could not be further from the truth.

Let us tackle a few of the common myths one by one, after which, we shall look at the practical benefits of incorporating Web standards into your Web development project.

Myth #1: Standards make your Web site “ugly and boring”

The use of standards does not necessarily affect the look and feel a Web site. Claiming that standards make your Web site “ugly and boring” is equivalent to saying the specification for the composition of concrete has the ability to affect the look of a building — a claim that we know is untrue; the specification for the composition of concrete ensures that the structure of the building is sound, after which, we can decorate and furnish it in any way we choose.

If a building is well designed, it will be attractive regardless of the concrete that has been used in its walls. However, if the quality of the concrete is poor and does not meet standards, the building risks an unstable existence, with the possibility of crumbling. The same scenario applies to Web standards — they do not infringe upon how a Web site looks or operates. Standard-compliance ensures a robust Web site. If a Web site is ugly and boring, it is because the site has not been well-designed.

CSS Zen Garden showcases attractively designed CSS layouts.

Standards don't just apply to code, there are also standards for the more visual parts of the Web. Some exciting new standards have been developed for animation and graphics. These new standards include: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Syncronised Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), and Portable Network Graphics (PNG).

Myth #2: Standards increase development time

Experienced Web authors who are not used to coding to standards may require some time to become accustomed to new habits and paradigms. However, depending on the skill level of your Web authors, standards can actually decrease development time:

• Standards-compliant Web sites can be much faster to develop and are more easily maintained if you are using markup specifications that work well with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
• You will only need to produce one version of your Web site. You will no longer need print-friendly templates or browser-sniffers, or different templates for different browsers.
• If you use authoring tools such as Dreamweaver or Front Page?, you will need to invest a small amount of time up-front in order to configure these tools ed: link to section on Dreamweaver? to produce standards-compliant Web pages. Instructions on how to complete these steps are readily available. The steps are easily accomplished and will take no more than a handful of hours to complete. You will find that this time is wisely-spent and has near-immediate returns.
• It takes less time to check standards-compliant code for accuracy and correctness [ed: link to validation section]], as automated tools are available to check sites.
• As new Web authors join your team, they will not have to puzzle over implementation quirks and inconsistencies left by previous Web authors.

Myth #3: All of the visitors to my site use Microsoft Internet Explorer anyway

Browsers Change

While Internet Explorer has been the most dominant browser in use, it may not be in the future. At the end of May 2003, Microsoft has announced that they have ceased the development of free, standalone versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. In July 2003, the Mozilla Foundation was formed to facilitate the development of its open-source browser, at the same time that Netscape's browser development was discontinued by AOL. There are other browsers on the market that are freely available, the most well-known being Mozilla, Opera, Safari and Konqueror. Ultimately, users are free to choose which browser they wish to use; therefore, plan for flexibility afforded by standards. Other “browsers” that visit your site

In addition to visitors who use a personal computer, you may have other visitors that you are not aware of, such as search engine bots or spiders. Search engines typically run automated computer programs called spiders (or bots) that search through the text on your Web site (also known as “crawling” a Web site) in order to update their database indices. If your site is not available to bots and spiders, your content may not be so easily found via search engines.

Implementing your Web site according standards ensures that your content is available regardless of the medium that is used to access it. This has the added benefit of freeing you from having to cater separately for new and emerging technologies such as mobile Web browsing using a cellphone or a personal digital assistant (PDA).

Browser Lock-in

If you are creating a Web site for an Intranet or a closed network, developing to standards means that you are not bound to a particular version of a browser and the technologies it supports. Imagine this scenario:

1. Your company's standard operating environment runs IE 4.
2. The entire Intranet is built so that it works only on IE 4?.
3. The Intranet is expanded and built upon year after year by department after department.
4. Two years later your company decides to upgrade to Mozilla.
5. You spend the next six months recoding your site so that it is not tied to any particular browser

Plenty of work could have been saved if your Intranet was built according to Web standards from the beginning. Web standards are designed to work across browsers and devices; if you have developed your Intranet according to standards, you will not have to spend additional time re-constructing your entire site.

Myth #4: It doesn't look the same on all browsers

There is a little twist to this myth — it is in fact true on all counts. The myth lies in that many Web authors believe that Web sites should look the same across all browsers.

Web sites that have been designed to “look the same” run into the problem of being inflexible or unusable, for a part of your potential audience. When a user views a site, they may be:

• using a computer platform of their choice,
• using a browser of their choice,
• visually impaired and require fonts to be large, or have physical difficulties with using a mouse,
• browsing using a cellphone or a PDA that cannot render a graphics-heavy Web site

Building Web sites according to the CSS-based layout method means letting the browser do all the work — regardless of platform or device. Using CSS to its full potential enables you to create one version of your Web content, allowing devices and users to use the style of Web site that works best for them. If you try to make your Web site exactly the same for everyone, you run the risk of making it impossible or unpleasant to use for some people.