BlogmyQuery – BMQ

The HTML accesskey attribute can be used to assign a keyboard shortcut to a link or form control. The intention is to let keyboard users quickly navigate to different parts of a web page or trigger links to other pages.

Whether or not the accesskey attribute should be used at all is a debate that has been going on for years. I’m not going to go there in this article (see Providing Keyboard Shortcuts Using accesskey for a good explanation), but will instead focus on something you need to be aware of if you do use accesskey – values must be unique.

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Posted in (X)HTML, Accessibility, Browsers.

The syntax for void elements and self-closing tags is something most web authors get right. However, there are two types of mistakes that I see every now and then: using end tags on void elements and using self-closing start tags on elements that can have content.

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Posted in (X)HTML, HTML 5, Quick Tips.

It’s been a while since I talked about the market share of various browsers here. It seemed more important around six or seven years ago before Internet Explorer’s market share started to decrease from levels above 95%.

Back in those days, sites that were built exclusively for Internet Explorer and actively blocked visitors with newer browsers like Mozilla or Safari were pretty common. Nowadays they are rare, at least in my experience. I can’t remember the last time I visited a site that told me to go away because I wasn’t using IE.

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Posted in Browsers.

I’ve never been a big fan of Web “applications�. For most tasks that warrant the use of some sort of application I much prefer having a stable desktop application that adheres to the user interface conventions of the platform I’m using, and that I can use without having to be connected to the Internet.

When I use the Web, it’s first and foremost because I want to find or share information – what many call “content�. And that’s something the Web excels at. Yes, Web applications are popular. Especially among developers. But being a platform for creating and delivering applications is not what the Web does best.

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Posted in Accessibility, Browsers, Web Standards.

Right now is a great time to post a job listing on Authentic Jobs. From today until this coming Friday (May 7), you get a 50% discount by entering the promo code 50RJ when you order.

The offer is valid for all job listing types (full-time, freelance, or contract), and of course the 100% money-back guarantee still applies.

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Posted in Job openings.