Unify the Net with Web Standards!

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XPointer

2003-03-25 XPointer is a three-part W3C Recommendation. The XPointer Framework is an extensible system for identifying regions in XML documents which provides for multiple addressing schemes. The element() scheme allows basic addressing of XML elements in terms of a document's tree structure. The xmlns() scheme is used to interpret namespace prefixes in scheme names and pointers.

XPointer Framework

XPointer element() Scheme

XPointer xmlns() Scheme

XPointer Press Release

XML Activity Home page

DOM Level 2 HTML

2003-01-9 The Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML is a platform-and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content and structure of HTML and XHTML 1.0 documents.

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification

DOM Level 2 HTML Press Release

Testimonials for DOM Level 2 HTML

DOM Activity

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 and Mobile SVG

2003-01-14 SVG delivers vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. SVG 1.1 separates the SVG language into reusable building blocks. Mobile SVG re-combines them optimized for cellphones and pocket computers.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification

Mobile SVG Profiles: SVG Tiny and SVG Basic

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 and Mobile SVG Press Release

Testimonials for W3C's SVG 1.1

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

2002-12-17 These guidelines are written for software developers as part of the Web Accessibility Initiative, the guidelines explain how to design browsers and media players that lower barriers to the Web for people with disabilities (visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, and neurological) and improve usability for all users.

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Press Release - User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0

Testimonials for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0

XML Encryption, Decryption

2002-12-10 Both, XML Encryption Syntax and Processing and Decryption Transform for XML Signature are now W3C Recommendations. Encryption makes sensitive data confidential for storage or transmission.

Decryption Transform for XML Signature

Press Release: XML Encryption and Decryption Transform

Testimonials for XML Encryption and Decryption Transform

XHTML 1.0 Second Edition

2002-08-1 XHTML 1.0 is a reformulation of HTML in XML, giving the rigor of XML to Web pages. The second edition is not a new version; it brings the XHTML 1.0 Recommendation up to date with comments from the community, ongoing work within the HTML Working Group, and the first edition errata.

XHTML 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition)

W3C HTML Home Page

Exclusive XML Canonicalization

2002-07-20 Produced by the joint IETF/W3C XML Signature Working Group, the specification augments the Canonical XML Recommendation to better enable a portion of an XML document to be as portable as possible while preserving the digital signature, and works with XML Signature.

Canonical XML Version 1.0

XML-Signature Syntax and Processing

Exclusive Canonical XML Press Release

XML Signature Working Group

Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)

2002-04-16 P3P allows people to define and publish their Web site privacy policies, and helps automate how those policies are read. P3P also gives users control over the use of their personal information on Web sites they visit, thus promoting trust and confidence in the Web.

The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 (P3P 1.0)

P3P 1.0 Press Release

Testimonials for W3C P3P 1.0

XML-Signature Syntax and Processing

2002-02-14 Produced by the joint IETF/W3C XML Signature Working Group, XML digital signatures provide integrity, message authentication, and signer authentication services.

XML-Signature Syntax and Processing

XML Signature Press Release

Testimonials for XML Signature Recommendation

WebCGM Second Release

2001-12-18 The WebCGM 1.0 Second Release was a joint effort of the W3C and the CGM Open Consortium. WebCGM is an interoperable way to exchange dynamic Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) files over the Web. The WebCGM Profile adds hyperlinking to graphics-rich applications such as interactive electronic manuals for engineering and manufacturing.

WebCGM 1.0 Second Release

CGM Open Consortium

WebCGM Profile

XML Information Set

2001-10-24 The XML Information Set (Infoset) defines a set of eleven types of information items in XML documents.

XML Information Set (Infoset)

Infoset press release

XML Activity Home page

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)

2001-10-16 The Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 1.0 is used by designers to express how source content should be styled, laid out, and paginated onto a presentation medium such as a browser window, a pamphlet or a book.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0

XSL press release

XSL 1.0 Testimonials

SMIL Animation

2001-09-5 SMIL Animation is a subset of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language 2.0 (SMIL, pronounced "smile") and puts animation on a time line, allows composition of multiple animations, and describes animation elements for any XML-based host language.

SMIL Animation

W3C Synchronized Multimedia Activity

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0

2001-09-5 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 delivers two-dimensional graphics in XML to the Web, providing accessible, dynamic, reusable, and extensible vector graphics, text, and images.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Specification

SVG Implementation

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 press release

SVG 1.0 Testimonials

SMIL 2.0

2001-08-9 Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 2.0 (pronounced "smile") defines an XML-based language that authors can use to write interactive multimedia presentations. Version 2.0 includes approximately one hundred predefined transition effects, and support for hierarchical layout and animation.

Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0)

See how SMIL is already implemented.

SMIL 2.0 press release

SMIL 2.0 Testimonials

XML Base and XLink

2001-06-27 XML Linking Language (XLink) provides a way to allow elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources; XML Base provides a way to indicate the URI base for linking in XML.

XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.0

XML Base

XML Base and XML Linking press release

XHTML 1.1 and Ruby Annotation

2001-05-31 XHTML 1.1 (Module-based XHTML) is a reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict based on XHTML modules, including the ruby module. Ruby Annotation is a short run of text alongside base text typically used in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or annotation.

XHTML 1.1 - Module-based XHTML

Ruby Annotation

XHTML 1.1 and Ruby press release

Testimonials for XHTML 1.1 and Ruby Annotation

XML Schema

2001-05-2 A W3C recommendation in three parts: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Structures, Part 2: Datatypes. XML Schemas define shared markup vocabularies, the structure of XML documents which use those vocabularies, and provide hooks to associate semantics with them. XML Schema was produced by the XML Schema Working Group.

XML Schema Part 0: Primer

XML Schema Part 1: Structures

XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes

XML Schema press release

Testimonials for XML Schema Recommendation

Modularization of XHTML

2001-04-10 Modularization of XHTML extends XHTML's reach onto emerging Web platforms like mobile devices, television, and appliances.

Modularization of XHTML

XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (A Reformulation of HTML 4 in XML 1.0)

Modularization of XHTML press release

Testimonials for Modularization of XHTML

W3C HTML Home Page

Canonical XML

2001-03-19 With XML Signature, Canonical XML Version 1.0 can ensure the integrity of data traveling between XML processors, crucial in applications like electronic commerce. Canonical XML was produced by the XML Signature Working Group, a joint effort of the IETF and W3C.

Canonical XML Version 1.0

XML Signature Working Group

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Canonical XML press release

MathML 2.0

2001-02-21 Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 2.0, an XML application built on MathML 1.01. MathML 2.0 allows mathematical notation and content to be served, received, and processed on the Web.

MathML 2.0 press release

Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 2.0

XML in 10 points

Testimonials for MathML 2.0

17 implementations of MathML 2.0 already available

Standards and You

Author: Jan Hunt

Web technologies evolve and so should Web designers.

As professionals we MUST keep abreast of the changing technologies and learn the ones that are applicable to our work.

Web designers need to:

• Know what the W3C is doing; what recommendations are they making?
• Learn the issues involving W3C recommendations; how will these recommendations affect the way we create Web sites?
• Only then can we make informed decisions about what technologies to use.

You owe it to yourself and if that is not enough, you owe it to your clients!

Show Your Support

Author: Jan Hunt

The W3C standards recommendations are crucial if you want to see the Web move beyond the browser and leave behind the fragmentation caused by browser incompatibilities.

Make the Web of 2002 more accessible and your pages more enduring by validating your documents and sites.

Show your support of the W3C Recommendations for Web Standards by coding to these standards and displaying the W3C validation icons on your sites.

Make Your Move . . .

Author: Jan Hunt

Make the move, leave the 90's behind, get into the 21st century and code Valid XHTML unless the client requests HTML in which case the markup should validate as HTML 4.01

Use valid CSS to give some real style to your site and to make it more accessible!

W3C HTML Home Page

W3C - What are Style Sheets?

W3C - Learning CSS

The W3C in 7 Points

Author: W3C

You've heard it: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) creates Web standards. W3C's mission is to lead the Web to its full potential. This summary in 7 points explains W3C's goals and operating principles.

The W3C in 7 Points

New York Public Library Online Style Guide

Author: New York Public Library

This Style Guide for the Branch Libraries of the New York Public Library explains the markup and design requirements for all Branch Libraries web projects, along with various standards and best practices.

NYPL: Style Guide

Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages Published

Author: W3C Internationalization Working Group/Interest Group and Unicode Technical Committee

An update to Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages has been released as a Unicode Technical Report and a W3C Note. These guidelines cover the use of Unicode with markup languages such as XML.

The Unicode Standard [Unicode] defines the universal character set. Its primary goal is to provide an unambiguous encoding of the content of plain text, ultimately covering all languages in the world.

Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages

Unicode Home Page

Internationalization Activity Statement

Character Sets and Character Encoding - UCS/UNICODE

Author: Jan Hunt

Web designers need to understand character sets and encoding because this information must be included in documents that will be displayed on the Web.

The characters that make up the content and markup of a Web page must be converted by the recipient software, such as a browser agent or an application, from the stored digital format back into the actual characters according to the character set and it's encoding.

For the full article on how to understand character sets and encoding written specifically for Web designers, click the link below:

Character Sets and Character Encoding for Web Designers

Unicode Code Chart

How to Encode XML Data

Four Great Tools

Author: Jan Hunt

Here are 4 great tools you cannot live without:

1. The W3C HTML Validation Service,
2. The W3C CSS Validation Service,
3. Bobby for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or U.S. Section 508 Guidelines,
4. and Homesite. Ok, maybe you can skip this one, but let me tell you that I cannot LIVE (or is it make a living) with out my HTML editor Homesite.

W3C HTML and XHTML Validator

W3C CSS Validator

Bobby

Homesite

Download the Most Current Browsers

Author: Jan Hunt

If you are not using the most current browsers, you are missing out on a lot as you surf the Net!

The browsers are actually starting to converge on how they handle things like CSS; they are actually starting to conform to the W3C standards! WOW!

So get updated and download Opera 6.0 or Internet Explorer 6.0 or Netscape 6.2.1.

For that matter, if you are a Web designer you will want all three. There is still some variation in how the different browsers display HTML and XHTML.

CNET Review - Paint Shop Pro 7.0

Author: Susan Glinert

Photoshop is still the best in the field, but if you need a user-friendly, powerful image editor, Paint Shop Pro (PSP) is an affordable alternative.

In fact, for about $500 less, you get a program that's almost as good as Photoshop.

CNET Review PSP 7

Paint Shop Pro Homepage

Semantic Web Featured in Scientific American

Author: Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila

The Semantic Web, written by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, and Ora Lassila, is the cover story in the May 2001 issue of Scientific American magazine.

W3C Semantic Web Activity

Scientific Publishing on the Semantic Web (Nature Publishing Group)

Author: Tim Berners-Lee and Jim Hendler

An emerging successor to the web, the Semantic Web, will likely profoundly change the very nature of how scientific knowledge is produced and shared, in ways that we can now barely imagine.

Scientific Publishing on the Semantic Web

JavaScript Browser Sniffing and Document Objects

Author: Jan Hunt

JavaScript browser sniffing code does not need to be updated for every version upgrade or new vendor if you write the JavaScript to sniff for Document objects instead of the Navigator objects.

JavaScript Browser Sniffing and Document Objects

XHTML Versions Demystified

Author: Jan Hunt

HTML, XHTML modularization, 1, 2 and Basic. Strict, transitional, frameset DTDs? What is it all about?

XHTML Versions Demystified

How to Read an XHTML Doctype Declaration

Author: Jan Hunt

Have you ever noticed the doctype of an HTML/XHTML document? For that matter do you even use one? What is a doctype for and what does it all mean?

How to Read an XHTML Doctype Declaration

Fixing Your Site with the Right Doctype

Standardization and JavaScript

Author: Jan Hunt

Web standards are changing the way designers need to write their client-side JavaScript. Standardization of the Document Object Model (DOM) that interacts with JS is going to make our lives much easier.

The bad news is that much of the browser-specific JS that is currently on the Web is going to break as the world upgrades to the newer browsers, which will support the W3C DOM standard.

The good news is that designers will no longer have to write multiple functions because of browser-specific APIs!

DOM Activity

Better Living Through XHTML

Author: Jeffery Zeldman

If you want your site to work well in today's browsers and non-traditional devices, and to continue to work well in tomorrow's, it's a good idea to author new sites in XHTML, and to convert old pages to XHTML as your work schedule permits.

Better Living Through XHTML

Write your own XHTML

Author: Jan Hunt

Using XHTML will allow your site to be backward compatible with the browsers of today and position your site for the future of XML.

Learning XHTML will allow Web designers to ease into the world of XML. It's the future, don't wait too long to take that first step.

The W3C HTML Compatibility Guidelines explain how to write XHTML that will work with current HTML browsers.

You can convert your HTML into XHTML with W3C's HTML Tidy.

And now you can publish valid HTML, XHTML, XML, and CSS style sheets with the W3C Amaya editor/browser or Macromedia's Homesite 5.

Finally, make sure to validate your HTML and XHTML with the W3C HTML and XHTML Validator.

Good luck! It's fun!

The HTML Compatibility Guidelines

HTML Tidy

Amaya editor/browser

W3C HTML and XHTML Validator

Homesite 5 Builder.com Editor's Choice Award

Learn More About XHTML

Author: Jan Hunt

The HTML Home Page and HTML Activity Statement explain HTML and XHTML, now and in the future.

XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language

W3C HTML Home Page

HTML Activity Statement

Why two Style Sheet languages?

Author: W3C

The fact that W3C has started developing XSL in addition to CSS has caused some confusion. Why develop a second style sheet language when implementors haven't even finished the first one?

Why two Style Sheet languages?

Which Should I Choose? XSL or CSS?

Display Your XHTML Documents With Style

Author: Jan Hunt

Read the W3C's learning CSS.

Validate your style sheets, using the W3C CSS Validator.

W3C - What are Style Sheets?

W3C - Learning CSS

W3C CSS Validator

CSS Frequently Asked Questions

Author: HTML Writers Guild (HWG)

The main focus of this FAQ is the CSS styling language therefore the browser bugs or browser misinterpretations are not included. The guys who helped invent CSS, Håkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos, have contributed in writing this FAQ.

CSS Frequently Asked Questions

Universal Accessibility Starts Here

Author: Jan Hunt

An easy step to universal accessibility is to use the W3C's Checklist of Checkpoints which summarizes the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Recommendation.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Recommendation

Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Accessibility for the Disabled

Author: Jan Hunt

Everybody should be able to access information on the Web. If the disabled cannot access this information then an important segment of our population is being deprived of a growing form of communication.

Many of the techniques and technologies that will aid people with disabilities will create a more useable/accessible site for everybody.

At minimum all sites should be WCAG Single A compliant and addressing as many Double and Triple A checkpoints as possible.

A site must comply with Section 508 if it is a government site.

Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Section 508 Web Accessibility Checklist

Accessibility Validation

Author: Jan Hunt

Check to see if your site is compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or U.S Section 508 Guidelines using Bobby.

Bobby

Accessibility means Usability

Author: Jan Hunt

"The members of Nielsen Norman Group are user experience pioneers...they advocated user-centered design and usability before it became popular to do so."

Probably the most well-known usability guru is Jacob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group. His personal website, useit.com, has a wealth of information pertaining to usable information technology and I especially like his site Alertbox.com which presents current issues in web usability.

Remember, accessibility is all about making your website available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability.

Nielsen Norman Group

useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website

The Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability

Using XML

Author: J. David Eisenberg

The reason that we use XML instead of a specific application is that XML is not just a pretty face, living in isolation from the rest of the computing world. XML is more than a rulebook for generating custom markup languages. It is part of a family of technologies, which, working together, make your XML-based documents very useful indeed.

Using XML

XML in an Instant: A Non-Geeky Introduction

Author: Charles F. Goldfarb

By now, everyone familiar with the Web knows that it is undergoing a radical change that is introducing wonderful services for users and amazing new opportunities for website developers and businesses.

The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) made the Web the world's library. Now its sibling, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) is making the Web the world's commercial and financial hub.

XML in an Instant: A Non-Geeky Introduction

Why XML? For the Web Designer

Author: Jan Hunt

"XML is extensible, internationalized, robust, simple, and built for the Web," said Tim Bray, Principal at Textuality and Co-editor of the XML 1.0 specification. "Its arrival enables whole new classes of application, and is a major step towards fulfilling some of the Internet's unrealized potential."

Why XML? For the Web Designer

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0

A Gentle Introduction to SGML

W3C XML Activity Statement

The Standards They Are A Chang'en