Re: LYNX-DEV A plea for Lynx friendliness (fwd)

[Filip M Gieszczykiewicz]

Greetings. If anyone is interested, here's my "form letter"
that I just snip for the particular site (alas, sometimes all
of them apply!). Feel free to use.

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   Greetings. These are some very simple and quick changes that can make
   your pages friendly to a much wider range of browsers.
  
   "No one wants a text-only page"

   If you apply these small changes to your document, they will not be
   seen by anyone but a text/image-loading-off browser. There is no need
   for two version of a page!

   The idea of the WWW has been "lost". It was to design the core of the
   pages for the lowest browser and then "spiffy" it up for the rest...
   so everyone could see the majority of it and only miss what their
   hardware could not support. Needless to say, the reverse is true
   today. With your help, we can lessen this sad trend.

   * Icons show up as "[INLINE]" to me and about 30%[+] of the net. If
   you change: <img src="icon.gif"> which renders to "[INLINE]" to:

    1. If it's a bullet:
       <img src="icon.gif" alt="[*]">

    2. If it's a line:
       <img src="line.gif" alt=
"-------------------------------------------------------------------">

    3. If it's an unique picture/large image:
       <img src="icon.gif"
       alt="[Description - type GIF/JPG - size in KB]">

    4. If it's a Company logo:
       <img src="icon.gif" alt="XYZcompany, Inc.">
       (why say anything about logo when they can't see it anyways? :-)

    5. If you don't want to show anything:
       <img src="icon.gif" alt="">

    6. If it's a Capital Letter in a word:
       <img src="W.gif" alt="W">ashington

    7. If you're using a counter that outputs the number as an IMAGE:
       <img src="count.cgi" alt="[some number]">
       (they can't see it anyways...)

   Note: Above all, the 'alt=""' should be used to simulate the FUNCTION
   of the image it replaces (for the text browser) rather a description
   of the icon.

   * To prevent the silly "[LINK]" from being rendered, add an alt tag to
   your image in the link. For example:

   <a href="email.html"><img src="mailus.gif"></a> gives "[LINK]"
   but
   <a href="email.html"><img src="mailus.gif" alt="[Send us E-Mail]"></a>
   gives "[Send us E-Mail]" as the link. MUCH more intuitive!

   Note: About 30% of Netscape users surf with image-loading turned off.
   These changes will not only accomodate them but also the other 20% of
   text-only users.

   * Also, I have found it very useful in my WWW pages to have a standard
   footer on ALL my pages with:

       1) Information on who wrote it (and when it was last updated)
       2) a link to my home page - in case someone arrives from a search
          engine or from a direct link given on some newsgroup
       3) A link to my Disclaimer and Copyright pages
       4) A standarized feedback form AND mailto (help in cut&pasting
          like this letter!)

   * To check for HTML syntax errors, you can submit your page(s) to
   a number of free validation services. You can also get programs
   that will validate your pages before the world sees them. A number
   of these services are listed at URL:

   http://www.htmlhelp.com/links/validators.htm

   * To see what your page WILL look like on lynx, a very common and
   widely used text browser, type in the URL to your document on form:

   http://www.miranova.com/~steve/Lynx-View.html

   Or, under preferences in your graphical browser, disable image
   loading and view your pages again.

   * There now exists an organization to help you design your pages 
   promoting the creation of non-browser specific, non-resolution
   specific, creative and informative sites that are accessible to ALL
   users worldwide. They offer several awards as well as free, expert
   review of your site. Please see URL:

   http://www.htmlhelp.com/

   * Image maps can not be displayed by text-only browser like lynx. Also,
   people who surf with image-loading off are also incapable of navigating
   your site unless you provide a textual alternative to your image map.
   You are effectively blocking off access to your site for countless
   thousands of users. A simple list of links at the bottom of the screen
   would greatly ease this oversight. Good examples of how commercial
   sites have dealt with this issue are: http://www.cartalk.com and
   http://www.apple.com. This would make your site usable. As a bonus,
   site indexing robots and spiders from search engines like AltaVista and
   Infoseek will now be able to index your site. This will increase your
   site's exposure to people who would otherwise not visit your site.

   Note: On the bright side, newer versions of text browsers will send the
   coordinates of 0,0 when a reader clicks on an imagemap. It's useful
   to detect these coordinates and display a text list of links.

   Please realize that this is just helpful advice, not a flame.

   Take care. V1.08
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