Improving your site: Tips

I was thinking.. yes, yes I was! I have given 26 reviews on Rev.iew.me at the time of writing this and I realized that I use a lot of cool sites as a reference to help people improve their coding or CSS. I thought that perhaps I could make a short little general-audience review type thing, so if you are a viewer but you are too frightened to join Rev.iew.me (A lot of people have been whining about it on their blogs, I see it you people! I just don’t comment) you can read some of my little tips here to help you out before you submit your site for a review or whatever it is you are improving for.

I absolutely want someone to correct me if this information is not valid, do not think it will piss me off. I am trying to help others but I don’t like giving out wrong information.

Converting to Em from Px

The Why: Basically, when you tell the font size on your page to be 10px, it is going to be set at 10px no matter what. While this may seem like a good idea, think about this: If someone has eyesight problems, they are not going to be able to read your tiny text. Even if you set it at a reasonable size, some people still may need to increase the size.

When you set it with a px amount, you tell it to always remain that size. Thus, people who cannot read your text will not be able to increase it. Generally the next option would be to click the little red ‘x’ in the corner up there. Now, you do not want that, I know it! To accommodate your users is to increase your hits but most important your recurring hits.

The How: I found a really cool converter on a site that I recommend. All you have to do is enter the number you have set for your px and it will show you the equivalent in em. For instance, my example of 10px = 0.63em. Use this Em Calculator.

Also: The same works for percentages. These will also allow the user to increase the size. If you need it, I found a really cool conversion table. It shows the equivalents of Em, Px, Pt and %. Way cool!

CSS Shorthand

The Why: This really does wonders for everyone, honestly. It works well for you because it takes less time to write/edit your CSS because it is shorter and it also decreases the entire size of the CSS document, making it easy to spot errors but most importantly it speeds up your load time for your visitors! This is how the visitors benefit, of course, but who else? The reviewers. If I am trying to help someone spot errors or find a particular something in the CSS, the last thing I want to do is wade through unnecessary gobs of CSS.

The How: It is rather simple, really. If you want to learn, please see Jem’s Shortening CSS Codes Tutorial. If you need help with the sections that she hasn’t gotten around to adding yet, see this CSS Shorthand Guide.

Also: A lovely gal by the name of Catherine actually mentioned this, and it’s amazing! To compress your CSS even more (mine is all shorthand yet it found places to compress!) use Clean CSS.

Spelling and Grammatical Errors

The Why: Well, come on now! Do you really want to look like an idiot (forgive the expression, I am not purposefully calling anyone an idiot! ) on a site that is supposed to represent YOU? No way!! A lot of people complain because they don’t have uber-awesome browser add-ons that will check their spelling while typing. No excuses! Grammar can be excused to an extent, but not anymore!

The How: Why not try using this Online Spelling, Grammar and Thesaurus Checker! HA! No more excuses for poor grammar!

Okay, that’s all for now. There are, of course, the concerns of X/HTML and CSS validation but in order to get that far, you should work on the small things first. In the event that you are ready to validate your site, please visit my lovely friend Jem at her site, Tutorialtastic. Any questions, just comment!