Expression Web Blog

Total Validator validates an entire site from the desktop

The Total Validator Advanced Desktop Tool can be run from your desktop and validate an entire site at once a very useful tool to have, it also will spell check your alt attributes.

Validate Site

To validate an entire site, insert the path of the site you wish to validate or browse to it. I suggest selecting the home page file as your starting point.

Under ‘What to Check’, Leave the ‘Number of Pages’ pane on the ‘Basic Tab’ blank to accomplish this

Eliminate Spell check

To run a validation without a spell check on the ‘Basic Tab’ under ‘Validations’ select the drop down arrow on the Spell Check selection and select the blank area at the top of the list.

If you do want to do a spell check, then select your language from the same drop down list.

If you want to include your Alt Attribute (Tags) Text tick the ‘Include Attributes’ radio box on the ‘Advanced Tab’ under ‘Spell Check Options’

Eliminate Codes

When you want to eliminate certain selections from the results insert the codes Total Validator – ( examples below ) produces, in the Advanced Tab – Miscellaneous Options

•  E401 – Authorization Required – The links might be password protected
• W802 -  Is the Alt Attribute (Tags) text deliberately empty?: When using <img>, it is valid to have an empty ‘alt’ attribute for images that have no content; such as spacers and parts of larger images that have been broken up or used for other layout purposes.

I decided it was time to get FireFox 3 – I wanted to be sure all my addons were going to work first – and I heard about a new (to me) validator and I decided to try it out.

Total Validator  is a free all-in-one validator which includes the following:

• HTML validator
• Accessibility validator
• Spelling validator
  • English
  • France
  • Italian
  • Spanish
  • German
• Broken links validator
• Screenshots with different browsers

Works as a Firefox Add-on or extension.

I tried it against the HTML Tidy FireFox Add-on and Total Validator found more problems.

However what I really like is the Alt Attribute spell check, I have not found anything like that before.

Today I received an email to an addy that I only use with PayPal, so of course it is reflected in their code on the buy buttons I use. The only people that would use it would be someone who had illegally spidered my addy.

This email was from someone who used this email addy. It was about Genealogy and since I belong to a FP and EW lists on Rootsweb and two of the help lists there I thought it was someone from the lists emailing me and it was not marked spam by my spam checker so I opened it and read it.

The email was touting a new book about how to make a site and publish it as a book also. Admirable you might think, that might be so if they had told you how to do this with a Web or Text Editor. However they were touting a Word Processor and a Desktop Publishing Editor, namely Word and Publisher.

How simply awful. The mere thought sent me to shuddering at the thought many people that will read that and produce sites that web users will not be able to read. Either because it will crash browsers or cause untold accessibility problems not to mention TEACHING this method.

I believe when you teach, no matter the subject you should be ethical in your practices, every single time.

In my humble opinion this is not the case here.

Make a book yes but please, please, please do NOT publish the output as a web site. That is what Expression Web is for. Or there are plenty of free Web editors around to produce your site in the correct way.

I won’t advertise their book for them so in order to recognise the book and site I am talking about .. this is a quote from their pdf file they ask you to look at.

“This appendix presents detailed information on the two website authoring applications we recommend, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher, and how to use them to createa genealogy website. A website authoring application creates the HTML files of the website. Also, the website authoring application should be capable of producing, in a straight-forward project, the genealogy book from the genealogy website. “The Book” as it is called in this guide is the traditional product of genealogy research and the dream of many genealogists.”

Start as you mean to go on and learn the right way when it comes to coding your site and the correct editors to use.  If you are going to teach people how to create a book you do it one way. If you teach them how to create a website you teach another way.  The two do NOT go hand in hand.

So what is the lesson here?

Firstly, kindly don’t spam. Spamming is liable to backfire on you.

Secondly if you are going to teach a method make sure your not promoting bad practices to those people who have the least idea on how to proceed in a new and scary genre.

Lastly the owners of this book and site sent the email to the wrong two people who feel strongly about valid and accessible code. (My good friend Pat Geary also received this email). Hence this post from two irate web designers!

Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Editionis provided free by Microsoft. So what about that is to do with free Expression Web? Well it uses the same engine that Expression Web does so much of features are available within VWD08EE with the added bonus of the ASP.NET features.

 The following features are not available within Visual Web Developer, now some of those you are not going to miss and can even substitute by using a free html editor or other third party tools.

1. Image tracing
2. Picture editing tools
3. Ability to draw tables
4. Layout table tools and task panes
5. Advanced, HTML-oriented Find and Replace
6. Spell checker
7. Quick Tag Editor
8. Behaviors
9. Frame-set editing
10. Image map tools
11. Previewing pages in predefined fixed sizes

The point is, Visual Web Developer 2008 is free for your usage and for those that can learn quickly but are on a lower budget this is an ideal stop gap to further your tool-set for web design. I also see it as an encouragement to learn ASP.Net by being in a familiar setting to Expression Web.

I needed to do some screen shots with more advanced features and I had not had time to move SnagIT  my preferred screen capture tool from my beta computer to my new laptop. I’d heard that FireFox had a plug-in that could do this so I searched and found Screengrab v0.93. It was not as intuitive as I thought it would be, I needed to right click to be able to make selections and use the plugin but other than that it did the job.

If you can’t afford the sophisticated SnagIT, the free FireFox plug-in will help you on your way. Remember you have to download FF plug-ins within FireFox NOT Internet Explorer.

ReMix07 is sold out but don’t worry you can still keep up with what’s going on via the ReMIX07 Boston Facebook group!  and what’s more you can continue the conversation after the show.

Sadly if you dont’ have a ticket you won’t be in with a chance to win a brand new Vespa  LX 50 but Cheryl Wise – MVP – Expression Web will be crossing her fingers. Cheryl is presenting this year and we wish her good luck with the following session.

CSS and Standards Based Websites with Expression Web 
Why Expression Web? See some of the things Expression Web can do to make creating cross browser websites easier with its sophisticated CSS tools and standards based output.

Another of the sessions you should look at if your interested in making the best of your site is IE7 + Web Stds by  Molly Holzchlag

IE7 + Web Stds
In this session, gain insight into the design and development features that you can now use confidently to achieve cross-browser design. You’ll learn about CSS selectors that are now useful in progressive design; PNG transparency; and the techniques available to make sure your work looks great in IE6 and other browsers, too.

If you plan on blogging about ReMIX07 Boston, G. Andrew Duthie asks you to tag your post with remix07boston. You never know you might find your post being promoted amongst the best of the blogs on the ReMIX07 Boston site during and after the show. He also asks if you have an idea on just how interactive the conversation can get then either post your thoughts at the facebook group or contact him via:
http://blogs.msdn.com/gduthie/contact.aspx

Not only that you can download MIX07 session recordings. Each of the sessions include a camera feed of the presenter(s) alongside the demo feed. There are on-site interviews and videos featuring partner demos. Which you will see featured here as they are listed.

If you didn’t get in this year, there is always next year at MIX08

Fancy free resources? If your a Agency Web designer or Developer you should check out PHIZZPOP It’s a new part of MIX online and they want you to share and show off your work. Coming up on the site will be a national competion centred around design. You can watch a interview with some of the people from Acentimum that designed phizzpop and they tell you the ideas behind the site.   

PS. If your at ReMix07 Boston they are sponsering a party Monday night.

The big news on ReMix07 Boston is that they are releasing the source code for much of the .NET Framework, plus built-in support in Visual Studio 2008 for debugging into Framework classes. In this videwo Shawn Burke from the .NET development platform team talks about the announcement, so visit the link to learn more about it.

Part of the Mix Online experiance is the videos at Visitmix University  there are various videos on offer, personally I like the one about RSS feed.

Shortly after the launch of our Ebook on Launching a WordPress Blog a Mac user asked me if I would consider making it available to mac users. With a little help from Cheryl Wise of By Expression in converting the ebook into PDF format, we (Pat Geary and I) are now able to offer the ebook in PDF format, while it might not look exactly perfect in this format it is readable and useable.

 Launching a WordPress Blog Ebook in PDF format

Pat Geary and I have written a Free Launching a WordPress Ebook which is suitable for those using their own domains and subdomains. We cover how to set up WordPress on your server and what settings and preferences are needed. Not only that we make sure SEO features are implemented so your blogging experiance starts off the right way.

Free Launching a WordPress Blog Ebook

1. Getting started with a WordPress Blog
2. Requirements for Installing WordPress – Before you get started make sure your host gives you the tools you need. One host that we know of who does not is 1and1 UK Home packages. Did you read to the bottom of the page?
3. Installing Database -
4. Download WordPress
5. Configure wp-config-sample file – Did you read the instructions all of the way through? Did you rename the file?
6. Configure a FTP Client – If you are already using an ftp client that works, it is not necessary to download FileZilla. Use the one you are comfortable with, but make sure if you’re using another ftp client to set it to ASCII.
7. Installing WordPress –
8. Setting up WordPress – Did you read to the bottom of the page? Do not try and install a new theme yet. Work with the default one until you have finished setting up.
   Options Permalinks – If your url looks like http://your-domain.com/hello-world.php rather than http://your-domain.com/?p123 you followed the instructions. Ready for the next step?
9. Configure WordPress Categories – Did you follow all of the instructions to the bottom of the page? Don’t worry; you can add more categories later.
10. Setting WordPress Preferences – Read it all!
11. Installing WordPress Themes – Now you are finally here. Read it all to the very bottom. It will take you longer to decide on choosing a theme than anything else. Once you have installed the theme, take the time to check how it looks in the various browsers, does it have a horizontal scroll? Does it validate? Do you know enough to tweak it until it works like it is supposed to or would you be better off choosing another one?
12. Creating SEO Titles in WordPress – Did you follow all of the steps? Did you read to the BOTTOM of the page? Does your page title look like it is supposed to?
13. Disable NoFollow Attribute in WordPress – If you don’t read to the very bottom, you will miss the bit about writing posts. After all, that is what your blog is for.

1. WordPress Essentials
   1. WordPress Plugins
      1. Akismet Plugin – If you don’t want to be plagued by spam, read and configure this plugin.
      2. Sitemap Plugin – Read all the way to the bottom or you will end up with the word category beside all of your categories.
      3. WordPress Database Backup – An easy way to backup your database.
      4. WordPress Ready Contact Form – Do you want your readers to be able to contact you? Then you need a form for them to use. Don’t skip this part.
      5. How Trackback and Pingback works in WordPress Learn how they work, how to use them and when to use them.
      6. Moving a WordPress Blog – More advanced but someday you may want to move from a sub-domain to a domain all its own.
      7. Upgrading WordPress Program – Read and implement carefully, WordPress regularly updates and improves the program, so be ready with the instructions at hand.
      8. WordPress API – You will need this for configuring your Akismet Spam Plugin.
      9. WordPress Tips
2. Desktop Blogging Clients – These are more advanced topics for you to explore, if you find you don’t like the WordPress interface to post your blogs, these desktop blogging clients are a safe alternative.
3. Windows Live Writer
   1. Setting Up Windows Live Writer
4. BlogDesk
   1. Installing BlogDesk
   2. BlogDesk Configuration
   3. Creating Posts in BlogDesk
   4. Inserting Images in Posts
   5. Publishing with BlogDesk
   6. BlogDesk Options
   7. BlogDesk Extras

Enhance your business and start blogging The Right Way.

Tina Clarke, Microsoft MVP – FrontPage & Pat Geary, Microsoft MVP – FrontPage Copyright 2007. All Rights Reserved