So, I’m just sitting here waiting for Dorian to arrive. I’ve moved all my patio furniture inside along with the plants and other objects the wind could pick up. So, I wondered, “What is there now to do but wait?” That is when I thought, “I could write a blog post.” So, let’s talk a bit about Word, the SchoolMessenger editor built into the portal, and of course accessibility.
I’ve been recently going through many of the pages of both the school and district web sites and have come up with a list of recommended style rules that might help make your web pages look better. So, let’s get started.
- Don’t use the Enter key to double space, triple space, or more in your content. When screen readers come across too many blank lines, they may interpret that as the end of the content and not read further.
- You do not need to press the Enter key every time you get to the right side of the content area like the old carriage return days of manual typewriters. Just keep typing and save that Enter key for separating paragraphs only.
- Do not try to center text by using spaces to the left of the text. This has two potential downfalls. One is that if a different font is used by someone’s computer to display the text because they do not have the font used when you created the content, the width of their space character could be different throwing off the centering of the text. But even more likely is the effect on this text when displayed by different devices (computer screens, laptops, tablets, and phones) and even when displayed in different orientations, landscape or portrait. Of course, you can test this by clicking on the little screen button in the Editor’s toolbar at the top of the screen when editing any page in your web site.
- Back on the Dark Ages of typing text on manual typewriters, instructors told students to use two spaces between sentences. That extra space was needed for readability back then. However, today on electronic devices, that extra space could lead to formatting issues. (I have trouble remembering this too, so don’t feel too bad if you catch yourself double tapping the spacebar between sentences.) If you think you need more than a single space, use tabs or text justification instead.
- Just because your content does not appear to have spelling errors does not mean that everything is perfect. A common error is the use of correctly spelled similar sounding word in place of the correct word. For example, a student’s interest may peak when the topic is something of extreme interest to them. However, teachers need to pique their student’s interest in all topics. Don’t listen to Mark Twain who wrote, “I pity the man who only knows one way to spell a word.”
- There is almost never a good reason to use a custom font style (font type or font color) other than the default provided by the portal editor. It is never a good idea to overwrite the styling of hyperlinks by changing the underline or color behavior designed into your site.
- The underline text attribute should only be used for hyperlinks. For example, book titles are italicized, not underlined.
- Use the Paragraph Mark to separate paragraphs and to allow different text alignments (such as when you want to switch between left justify and center justify).
- Only use full justified text for narrow content columns if at all.
- Formatting text with heading tags (H1 through H6) is typically used only for single lines of text that introduce a topic or section, never for paragraphs. If a paragraph consists of only a short single line of text, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) testing may try to interpret that line as a header and suggest that you use a heading tag. Resist the temptation. Headings are never used just to format text and they should not be used for a single line of text unless that line introduces a new section or topic.
- Never cut and paste images from other sources into a portal content area. Always upload the graphics using the Image Manager into the Image folders within the portal. Then reference these files from within the content. This will help pages load faster because images stored in the Image Manager are cached.
- When using MS Word, right click the status bar within Word the next time you edit a document. In the Customize Status Bar dialog that appears, click on Accessibility Checker in the lower half of the list placing a check mark in front of it. When you close out of this dialog (by clicking out of it) you will see an Accessibility button in the left side of the status bar. Clicking it will open the accessibility panel on the right side of the screen showing you all the things you should correct to make your document more accessible. You can also add an accessibility button in the Quick Access toolbar at the top of the Windows screen. By default, the Accessibility feature is also found in the Review ribbon in all recent Word installations. If it is not there on your version of Word, you can add it by customizing your ribbon.
Well, the storm is still not here. Maybe I’ll go out and start up the grill. Remember next Monday is the next scheduled Open Lab. Go to Canvas to sign up.
C’you there.