Website Design: Part Seven

DESIGNING YOUR OWN WEBSITE

Vicky Vickers

PART SEVEN: STILL MORE ON IMAGES
Pictures & Other Graphics
Images add interest to your page. However, you have to be careful with this and not over do it. Too many images on a page cause it to take a long time to load and you may lose the average web browser, who is often a very impatient person. Try to keep to a few, fairly simple images with small file sizes. Is this case, you might say that less is more.

The basic tag for images with the default settings of align left and no space around the graphic is:

Other tags which can be placed within this tag are:

ALIGN=CENTER
ALIGN=RIGHT
ALIGN=LEFT
VSPACE=number value
HSPACE=number value
WIDTH=number value
HEIGHT=number value

It is best to put in the height and width attributes so the browser knows what size space to leave for the graphic as when it brings the text in before the graphics.

You can have text flow beside the graphic. This will work with graphics that are aligned either left or right. To do this, place the image tag for the graphic before the text you wish to flow. If you want to include only a short heading beside the graphic and don't want the rest of the text to flow up there also, then use the following tag between the two blocks of text.

This will ensure that any text following the tag will not start until there is a clear space to the left of the page in which to do so.

TIP
WEAV (Web Enthusiasts Association of Victoria) has a Web Graphics SIG (Special Interest Group) which meets once a month to discuss issues concerning the production and use of graphics in website design. For more information on the SIG, check out the coming events and SIG pages on WEAV's website at www.weav.bc.ca

Acknowledgements
This article was published in the September 1996 issue of the Victoria Macintosh Users Group's monthly newsletter "MACtalk" in Vicky's monthly article "VMUG On-Line" and in the Fall 1996 issue of the Web Enthusiasts Association of Victoria's quarterly on-line newsletter.

Vicky Vickers is the owner of Word Crunchers, Etc. which specializes in website design and HTML training. She is a past-president (1994-6) and former webmaster (1995-8) of Victoria Macintosh Users Group (VMUG). She also founded and was the first president (1996) of the Web Enthusiasts Association of Victoria (WEAV).

All rights reserved. For commercial purposes, no part of this page may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, Internet, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the express permission in writing from the author.

Return to Library Index

Call me today at 250-595-6593 to discuss your website design
or e-mail me at vicky@crunchers.bc.ca

Vicky Vickers, Word Crunchers, Etc.
3290 Shelley Street, Victoria, BC, V8P 4A5
Fax: 250-595-7384 (call first)