CSS

SharePoint 2010 CSS Chart is now live

Heather Solomon — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:13:36 GMT

I have posted a new CSS chart for SharePoint 2010. It has all of the same features as the 2007 chart, and then some. :) Check it out at http://spexp.me/csschart

Thanks everyone for your support!

What has been, what is now, and what is coming!

Heather Solomon — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:13:36 GMT

Wow, it has been awhile since I posted on my blog. This is an update on the past, the present and the future. Thanks to everyone for your support, comments and care.

2009 was a challenging year for me and I went through several personal changes and challenges. I stayed super busy between being a Mom and helping to run a business. Any leftover time I came across I generally used to catch up on sleep! Many people reached out to me to see if I was OK and sent me very caring sentiments and just really nice comments. I appreciate that and it means a great deal to me. Thanks for being such a cool and tight-knit community!

Moving forward I will be posting about SharePoint 2010, and I am excited to do so in a completely new space! This blog has served me well, but honestly, it’s dated. My blog is also running on an older version of SubText and I don’t have the time and resources to properly upgrade and maintain the blog itself.   Very soon I will be moving to Word Press (don’t get me wrong, SubText is great!) AND changing URLs.   Fresh year, fresh product, fresh blog! All of my existing posts will stay intact and I will definitely keep my CSS chart and base master pages posted for your use. In addition to SharePoint, I am going to focus on CSS as well. Now more than ever it is important to know CSS to successfully brand SharePoint.

I am currently writing a new SharePoint Branding Bootcamp for 2010 course and the first delivery will be in Anaheim, March 29 – April 2nd. A lot of people ask me about writing a book. My class is my book. The cool and different thing about it though is that my course is living and continually growing. Every new thing I come across, every trick I create and new even brand new content is constantly being added to my course materials. And as Bootcamp alumi, you will get all of those updates moving forward. Paperback books can’t deliver new materials to your inbox ;-).

This year I am also going to be supporting the new Virtual SharePoint User Group. I have kids. I work. I have a house to keep up. I don’t have the energy to go to a user group meeting every month, especially in the evenings when my kiddos are home. How many of you feel like me?

Matt Passannante is heading up a new solution that will provide presentations, forums and a lot of great resources to our growing virtual community. The Virtual SharePoint User Group will function a lot like user groups located in cities, except it will offer more resources and doesn’t require chugging through rush hour traffic! Plus it is available to anyone, regardless of geographic location.

One last thing… you gotta check out our new site! Dustin Miller and I collaborated on creating a new SharePoint Bootcamp site that uses WordPress as a content management solution (what, no SharePoint? Yes… we don’t use SharePoint for the sake of using it. I believe in honest assessment of which tool is the best for your needs). The design and CMS system is one thing, but the bigger thing is the ease of access to information.  Subscribe to our RSS feed or iCal for the course schedule, and check out our courses by track, product and audience.

One last, last thing… I am on Twitter now.   @speheather Thanks to everyone out there who bugged me about it. ;-)

Content Types and CSS Resources

Heather Solomon — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:58:55 GMT

In my sessions last week I stressed the importance of learning about content types, and really stressed the importance of learning CSS. I have had several people ask me for some suggestions for resources for both of these topics. If you have a resource or a book you just love that I don't mention here, please post a comment about it for everyone's benefit. Thanks!!

Content Types

Introduction to Content Types on MSDN
Plan content types (Office SharePoint Server) on TechNet
What Are Content Types, Anyway? blog post by Andrew May
Content Type Technical Posters for Download by Andrew May
Creating and Using Content Types in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 screencast on Channel 9 by Ted Pattison
What are Content Types? blog post by Martin Kearn

CSS

CSS: The Definitive Guide
CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional
CSS: The Missing Manual
Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design

Recommendations from readers:
Pro CSS and HTML Design Patterns

A Guide to CSS Support in Email

Heather Solomon — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:39:00 GMT

Nice CSS resource on what is an isn't supported CSS wise in popular email environments including GMail/Hotmail/YahooMail, Outlook, AOL, Notes and Eudora.

A Guide to CSS Support in Email

CSS Line-height property - no unit required

Heather Solomon — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 16:20:00 GMT

Ok I admit this was news to me. Blame the Visibone chart I clutch in my little fist when using this attribute every now and again. But the line-height property does not require and in most cases should not use a unit with the value.

Eric Meyer explains it in his post, Unitless Line-heights.

General gist, stop doing this: line-height: 1em or line-height: 20px and start doing line-height: 1.

Holy Grail of CSS 3-column layout

Heather Solomon — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 14:58:00 GMT

While researching ways to make HTML/CSS code ripe for SEO (search engine optimization, I just love this acronym), I came across a new article on A List Apart:

Three columns. One fixed-width sidebar for your navigation, another for, say, your Google Ads or your Flickr photos—and, as in a fancy truffle, a liquid center for the real substance. Its wide applicability in this golden age of blogging, along with its considerable difficulty, is what has earned the layout the title of Holy Grail.

Many articles have been written about the grail, and several good templates exist. However, all the existing solutions involve sacrifices: proper source order, full-width footers, and lean markup are often compromised in the pursuit of this elusive layout.

A recent project has brought my personal grail quest to an end. The technique I’ll describe will allow you to deploy the Holy Grail layout without compromising your code or your flexibility. It will:

have a fluid center with fixed width sidebars,
allow the center column to appear first in the source,
allow any column to be the tallest,
require only a single extra div of markup, and
require very simple CSS, with minimal ~~hacks~~ patches.

Keep Reading...

Go DIVless... a look at an alternative to DIV tags

Heather Solomon — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 13:16:00 GMT

Just read a very interesting article on an alternative to the DIV tag for laying out and structuring your content on a web page. The idea is to ditch DIVs for unordered and definition lists.

After my initial knee jerk reaction (the word list conjures nightmares, thanks SharePoint) and my skepticism subsided (ah geez, is this the brink of another fad like tableless design?) it is actually a very good alternative to setting up the content in your pages. And options are always good.

Go DIVless (via Darren Chan at thecssweblog)

24 ways, only 4 articles left to post

Heather Solomon — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:19:00 GMT

Some recent articles on 24 ways....

Naughty or Nice? CSS Background Images

Unobtrusive Degradable Ajax Style Sheet Switcher

Splintered Striper (programmatically adds two alternating CSS background colours to table rows)

Broader Border Corners

Auto-Selecting Navigation (My fav!) Use CSS to auto select the current nav.

CSS Tabbed Navigation

Heather Solomon — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:29:00 GMT

Shane came across these (nice find):

I just noticed this while browsing around and figured I'd pass it on. There have been several posts on (CSS) tabbed navigation menus using the "Sliding Doors" technique originally showcased on Zeldman.com.

Here are 11 free ones you can use - just pop them into a content editor web part and you are all set.

View examples of the CSS menus

Download the Free CSS menus

I have one on my site that my buddy did.

My only two cents to anyone who wants to do this, be sure your images are teeny tiny in size, or you will end up with a flicker every time the user mouses over the tab as the site loads the hover image. CSS only tab navigation is another way to go and omit the images entirely.

CSS Layout Starting Points

Heather Solomon — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 13:48:00 GMT

24 Ways Day 4 features CSS Layout Starting Points by Rachel Andrew which basically talks about creating a bunch of layout starting points and keeping them handy instead of starting off with a blank CSS canvas for every project.

I know I rely heavily on previously written style sheets for new projects, creating your own stock of CSS styles is a good idea...

CSS Layout Starting Points