Monday, November 28, 2005

Time to stop using CSS hacks

The Internet Explorer development team have already said it, now the person who, in his own words "..opened Pandora's Box (Model) of CSS Hacks..." is adding to the message: It's time to stop using CSS hacks now, and start using valid, standards compliant code.

Tantek has written an informative article, shedding some information on how the infamous Box Model Hack came about, explaining what a hack should and should not contain, and offering some useful tips for pressing forward with new browsers.

Tantek's message is excellent, and the guidelines he mentions are valuable to any web professional. He points to using standards, validating your work, not relying on browser defaults, only using hacks for obsolete browsers (if absolutely necessary) and keeping the pressure on browser vendors as ways of helping to eliminate hacks from your work.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Email Newsletters

I've recently completed an email newsletter for a client, which would have been a difficult and time consuming job if I had to set up everything manually. However it turned out to be a streamlined, enjoyable and educational project because I used , which handles every step of the process, and handles it well.

Unlike other email marketing software I have tried, Campaign Monitor has a clean, usable interface, intuitively handles subscriber management, allows clients to obtain reports on their campaigns and doesn't mangle my standards compliant XHTML. It also responsibly handles bounces and advises on how to avoid sending an email campaign that may be mistaken as spam.

One feature request I would like to see (and I have asked for) is to allow an option for clients to manage their subscriber lists from their client login, if they client wants to. At present, they need to use my admin login to do this. I am hesitant to give my admin login to clients, as they then potentially have access to my billing information, as well as other client's email campaigns.