Next, you'll need to think about page width. If your pages are too wide, they won't fit on paper. Width problems are often caused by a layout that contains fixed-width tables. The solution is to either use relative widths, or to make sure that fixed width is not too large. In order for your pages to print correctly, they should have a maximum width of approximately 600 pixels.
As CSS overrides HTML definitions, it's easy to change size of your tables. For example, defining a relative width of 100% can be done with following class:
Your next concern is font. The one you use for screen display might not be best one for paper. Sans-serif fonts, such as Arial, are often considered to be most suitable fonts for Web. On other hand, Times New Roman is generally best solution for printed content.
In addition to font style, you'll also need to consider its size. The font has to be large enough so that it can be read easily. However, if it's too large, it'll take up unnecessary space. The optimal size in my opinion is somewhere around 12-14 points.
Consider setting background color to white and text color to black with CSS. Some printers do print background images and colors, which is usually just a waste of ink. Even worse, if text color and background color are close to each other, printout may be impossible to read.
Instead of using a class selector for these modifications, it's usually more comfortable to simply change way in which text inside BODY tag is displayed. Setting font to black 12-point Times New Roman and background to white can be achieved with following CSS statement:
BODY { background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; color: black }
The final touch ===============
After you've created a stylesheet that is to your liking, link it to your HTML files. To do that, simply place following line between
and tags:
All that you'll need to do now is to use your new classes in appropriate places and you're set to go. Happy printing!
Lauri Harpf runs the A Promotion Guide website, where he offers free information about search engines, directories and other promotion methods. His site can be found at http://www.apromotionguide.com/
Web Site Start-up and Promotion Guide For Professionals
Written by Milana Leshinsky
Continued from page 1
3. Locate up to 20 e-zines that target same audience that you are. Make sure they accept articles. Create a text file and record their e-mail address (where you will send your articles), e-zine's title and publisher's name.
TIP: If you want to save even more time in long run, enter all this data into a mailing list program so all you would have to do is click "Send" button and your articles will be sent to everyone on list.
Now your web site is set up and promotion strategy is in place. The rest of plan will have to be implemented weekly to be effective.
4. Write one quality and informative article a week of interest to your target audience and do following:
- Add a resource box to article about you & your product - Add TITLE and META tags to it and submit to Search Engines - Post your article on your web site for content - Submit it to e-zine list you generated earlier - Submit it to article directories and lists
Here is list of most popular article directories and lists:
5. Locate up to 3 popular forums where your target audience hangs out. Post replies to their questions up to 1 hour a week. Leave your web site link (or specific article link) behind so people know who you are and why they should listen to your advice.
Follow this plan for at least 4 weeks. Make sure your articles are of high quality and offer a solution to a problem that you target customers might be facing. If you articles are published, expect increase in traffic to your web site. And your freebie should take care of capturing your visitors e-mails.
Your follow-up messages should introduce your products or services. As always, make sure your subscribers can leave your list at any time.
Milana Leshinsky is a professional web developer, and the author of web design manuals for beginners: "Create Your First Business Web Site in 10 days" http://www.firstbusinesswebsite.com/?a-consultants "Mesmerizing Website Power" http://www.instantwebanswers.com/?a-consultants