Text in Terms of Layout
by Judy Vorfeld

Good Web design is much more than graphics, content, and navigation. From a Desktop Publishing standpoint, it includes the knowledge of average visitors' attention span and what works in terms of layout, for an average page.

Web visitors have a very short attention span, but if a subject interests them, they'll be more likely to study the site. It then becomes the responsibility of the designer to make the words aesthetically appealing and easy to understand.

Case in Point

Here's an example from a page I worked on recently at Asthma Reality. Look at the first grouping under the Introduction. While the author had the three items numbered, there was no paragraph break from beginning to end, and no indentation. It was one large paragraph from "We will ask" to "behaviour of the individual."

I began by using an ordered list that would number each item while moving the sub-grouping away from the introductory paragraph. Ordered lists <ol> and unordered lists <ul> indent either the numbers or the bullets from the left margin, then indent the subject matter. Everything in items 1, 2, and 3 started in lower case. I capitalized the beginning word in each heading, removed the short dashes that preceded each sub-section, and capitalized the first word in each.

Go back to the site and scroll down to the heading, "Sympathetic-parasympathetic nerve." In this section, the two quotes simply had line breaks, a short dash at the beginning of the sentences, and no capitalization of the first word in the sentence. Adding bullets transformed them, giving the words the importance they deserve.

All text coloring on the site was done by the author. This can add a great deal of emphasis to words and phrases, and can also be used well in headings.

Enhancing Style

Another successful way of laying out text is to occasionally use the <blockquote> </blockquote> tag around text. It indents from the right and left, and also a bit from the top and bottom.

One last item: try to avoid typing completely across a screen. It often pushes the reader away and sends him/her elsewhere. The only time when it may be okay is on a site with information that will be printed (for study purposes) more than it will be read online.

Judy Vorfeld (Webgrammar), owns Office Support Services, a home-based business specializing in the value of good grammar usage. Services include typing, copyediting, Web analysis, renovation, and design. She also works with foreign Web site editors when translated text needs clarification for the American English audience. You can reach Judy at oss@ossweb.com or http://www.webgrammar.com.

Judy is truly one of the good people on the Web. She is highly motivated and community involved. We met her through our awards program and invited her to share her talent with you. When you go to visit her web site, please tell her the Internet Brothers sent you..

The Internet Brothers have implemented hierarchical menus for navigation. Easier done than said.

The hierarchical menus were created using Peter Belesis' © Dynomat DHTML scripting tool from Webreference. Give them a visit, you'll like what you learn.

Site Map