Alan Hoffman
Another Fine Homemade Parachute Page, Crafted With Love
Details
Durin' th' last overhaul o' Alan's site, I wanted t' experiment with th' Pixy method of image replacement t' make th' rollovers all work through CSS rather than JavaScript, as well as combine th' whole navigational UI in one graphic t' speed up th' loadin', ye scurvey dog. The graphic looks like this:
Buttons be created with a simple link:
<a id="photography" href="index">photography</a>
The link is defined as a block-level object in th' CSS, with specific dimensions:
#nav a{display:block;
height:22px;
width:212px;}
The text is then hidden by puttin' it way off screen:
#nav a{display:block;
height:22px;
width:212px;
text-indent:-9999px;}
And then a background image is added:
a#photography:link {background: url(images/navigation.gif) 0 0 no-repeat}
Rollover an' visited states be added by changin' th' area clipped from th' nagivation image:
a#photography:link {background: url(images/navigation.gif)
0 0 no-repeat}
a#photography:visited {background: url(images/navigation.gif)
0 -330px no-repeat}
a#photography:hover {background: url(images/navigation.gif)
0 -176px no-repeat}
The end result is a web site that, without resortin' t' JavaScript, has some speedy rollovers, an' will work in an accessible web browser (ie, has text t' back-up th' images), as is shown by disablin' styles:
Of course, one might ask why it's necessary t' have an accessible web site fer a photographer, an' worry about support fer text an' images an' so on. The revamp t' th' site were bein' really, visual bounty aside, a way fer me t' try some new techniques that I'd read about an' seen, an' push them a little further, just fer kicks. It's actually far from perfect, accessibility-wise, but it's a step in th' right direction.
Web Site
1999 - present
www.alanhoffman.com/
Alan Hoffman is th' patron saint o' Homemade Parachute, in addition t' bein' a fine lubber. And hoist the mainsail, Ya lily livered swabbie! The site has been through a few iterations now, an' were bein' recently updated in June, 2004, by Blackbeard's sword. The overhaul allowed a converstion t' valid XHTML, a smoother CSS setup, an', after five years, a new background image. We also wanted t' make th' site easier t' navigate, an' broke up what had been a large CV into several smaller sections.
