Curtis Dicken's Blog

JavaScript Tips & Tricks: Image Scrollbar & Image Viewer

Curtis Dicken — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:45:19 +0000

In this series of articles I show you how to make a space-saving image scrollbar with viewer. The first article of the series illustrates the image scrollbar piece complete with a pseudo animation effect. In the second article I extend the image scrollbar into a full image viewer with scrollbar. The complete project includes functionality to scroll through images in the scrollbar as well as change the large image, image title and image description when you hover over the thumbnail images in the scrollbar. The key topics covered in this project include the two-dimensional Array, innerHTML, setAttribute, setTimeout, onmouseover and onmouseout.

The series can be found on HtmlGoodies.com:

Top 10 Controls for ASP.NET Developers

Curtis Dicken — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:38:13 +0000

Recently I was asked to provide a top 10 list of ASP.NET controls. When I first started thinking about how in the world I was going to narrow down all of the available ASP.NET controls, I must admit, I was a bit overwhelmed. I decided my first step was to decide what types of controls needed to be on the list, so I narrowed it down to the essentials. That is, controls that ASP.NET developers are most likely to need for the average development project like navigation menus and ASP.NET AJAX.

My next criteria to narrow my focus was to look at each type of control by excluding everything free. Not only did this narrow down the field, it also made it likely that everything I considered would work out of the box and have adequate documentation and support. From there I took in to consideration everything that you would expect like features, ease of development, documentation, support, ease of deployment, ASP.NET version compatibility, and even price.

You can find the entire list in my full article titled Top 10 Controls for ASP.NET Developers published on CodeGuru.com.

All About Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Basics, Tips & Tricks, Advanced Techniques

Curtis Dicken — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:56:14 +0000

Even if you are new to web development you have probably heard about search engine optimization–SEO for short. Generally speaking, SEO is more important to commercial websites than it is to personal websites but it’s just plain cool to see your website appear in the top 10 results of a search regardless of what type of website you create. In this series of articles I explore the basics, tips and tricks, and the advanced techniques of search engine optimization. Topics covered include how search engines work, meta data (page title, keywords and description), page content, what not to do, how hyperlinks affect your rank, heading tags like

, coming up with a url name that makes sense, sitemaps, the power of social networking, XML sitemapping, the image alt element, controlling web bots & crawlers, and using a robots.txt file. You don’t have to be a large company to get good rankings but you do have to understand the process:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Getting Started

Tips & Tricks for Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Advanced Techniques

Getting Started with Google Analytics

Curtis Dicken — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:34:37 +0000

Whether you are new to website design/development or a 15 year veteran you will find Google Analytics a great tool to analyze visitor trends for your website. In this article we’ll take a look at how to get set up with Google Analytics, how to add the Google Analytics script to your website and take a look at some of the basic features. You can read the full article titled Getting Started with Google Analytics on HtmlGoodies.com.

Blogging with WordPress: Tips & Tricks

Curtis Dicken — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:17:17 +0000

In this article I take a look at some of the more advanced features from WordPress and offer up some tips and tricks on making your blogs better. Some of the features discussed include posting by email, the Proofreader, Discussion Settings, privacy settings and blog reading. In addition to the features I also show you some great Tips & Tricks like securing your admin pages, creating a copyright notice, adding custom styles with the CSS Editor, using Widgets, making navigation easy, using subscriptions, taking advantage of the Extras, and limiting redundancy. Blogging with WordPress: Tips & Tricks can be found on HtmlGoodies.com.

Blogging with WordPress

Curtis Dicken — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:49:48 +0000

Since the mid 1990′s when blogs first appeared on the scene, blogging has continued to grow. It’s estimated that there are over 100 million active bloggers today. In this article I take a look at one of the most popular blogging services on the web today, WordPress.com. We’ll walk through everything from signing up to defining appearance to posting your first blog entry. You can read the full Blogging with WordPress article on HtmlGoodies.com.

Once you’ve had a chance to sign up and maybe take WordPress for a test spin, I invite you to offer your opinion on WordPress:

View This Poll

Trends of the Mobile Internet

Curtis Dicken — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:14:18 +0000

Recently, Morgan Stanley released the epic 424 page report called “The Mobile Internet Report”. The report covers topics like relationships between past and present technology trends, the state of the current mobile internet, and estimates on growth in the mobile internet. In my article Trends of the Mobile Internet I discuss the key topics that will affect web developers and designers in the years to come.