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I have downloaded the beta version of Internet Explorer 8 to test and to see how it handles my sites.

photo credit: Dekuwa

I am not going to venture an opinion at this stage as I only downloaded the software about 20 minutes ago.
Continue reading Internet Explorer 8

Many will consider another post on this topic as ‘flogging a dead horse’. This is not quite true as it seems as if this bad habit (my opinion), is just growing in popularity.

Just this morning I was Stumbling looking for some interesting content, when I noticed that most external links on the sites I visited, open in new windows. Why, oh why, is this happening?
Continue reading Opening links in “new” windows

You will have noticed that the text on this site (and indeed on most sites who strive for site accessibility) is not justified. Is there a reason for this?

photo credit: bartmaguire

This subject is so important I am going to quote verbatim from an article published in RNIB in 2005:
Continue reading “Justify” and accessibility

This post is a follow-up to my previous post ‘Playing with fire‘.

To make backups of your WordPress blog you firstly need to have a copy of the core files on your hard drive somewhere. The information supplied here will differ from blog to blog, depending on how you have installed WordPress. The graphic on the left shows the directories and files that I had to download to my machine to ensure that I have a backup of all my core files.

This procedure could take quite a while to complete but fortunately it is not something that has to be done everyday. This backup I refresh every time I update to a new version of Wordpress as well as every time I make any changes to these files. If and when I make changes to the files used by my current theme I update the backup just with the relevant files.

Once this has been done you now need to backup your WordPress database files.

Once again this is something that will differ from blog to blog, depending on which software your host allows you to use. In my case I have to open PHPMyAdmin to complete this task. If you use some other software I am afraid I cannot help you on this issue and you will have to do some Googling.

If you are using PHPMyAdmin you have to get it open. On the initial page that opens you need to click on “Databases” as shown in the graphic.
Continue reading Backing-up your WordPress blog

I just downloaded the latest version of WordPress and this made me think of that little topic that never seems to go away, backups.

photo credit: ™fsse.info™

This post is written from the viewpoint of WordPress as that is the platform I use. The same things will however still be true immaterial of which platform you use.
Continue reading Playing with fire

If your web page is accessible, it means anyone can use it. This means not just the visually impaired, handicapped, or otherwise challenged, it means ANYONE.

In my own country (South Africa) there are many people who still use dial up connections. Many South Africans, who do have access to broadband, have to deal with capped Internet services, making the use of bandwidth a very important issue. I am sure this same situation is still found in other places as well. If your site is slow loading then your site is inaccessible to many of these people.

Just what must you do to optimize your site for speed?
Continue reading Is there a link between accessibility and optimization?

Moving from HTML to XHTML can be quite a daunting task if one is just starting out in XHTML. The following guidelines should help to cut down on the number of errors received when attempting to validate your new XHTML markup:
Continue reading Avoiding errors when validating XHTML

I stumbled upon an article entitled Improving accessibility for motor impaired users. This article really got me thinking. It appears as if following the accessibility standards to the letter is not necessarily always the way to go. This is particularly true if you have motor impaired visitors to your site. These folks have limited, or even no ability to use a mouse.
Continue reading Are the accessibility standards cast in stone?