24 Ways to impress your friends

24 12/2005 Have Your DOM and Script It Too

Shaun Inman concludes our series by detailing a technique for executing JavaScript returned by an Ajax call without using eval(). Remember kids, Christmas Eve is when Ajax comes calling, so leave out some sherry and mince pies. Tonight we feast.

Impress your friends with your non-eval() arbitrary JavaScript parsing

23 12/2005 Edit-in-Place with Ajax

Drew McLellan follows on from Day 1’s simple Ajax tutorial by taking the next steps and building a Flickr-style text edit-in-place system. Crank your Ajax dial up to 11 and get stuck in. Ding dong!

Impress your friends with your magic Ajax editing

22 12/2005 Debugging CSS with the DOM Inspector

Jon Hicks demonstrates how to use the Firefox DOM Inspector to debug problems in your CSS. It may not be the ideal time of year for seek and destroy missions, but I’d be prepared to overlook that. It’s the season of goodwill, after all.

Impress your friends with your CSS debugging fu

21 12/2005 Swooshy Curly Quotes Without Images

Simon Collison questions the use of quote-mark images for the aesthetic styling of blockquotes. In doing so, he demonstrates a method of achieving the same purely with CSS. A worthy thing in my estimation.

Impress your friends with your swooshy curly quotes

20 12/2005 Naughty or Nice? CSS Background Images

Derek Featherstone considers the difference between decorative and informational graphics and how each is best approached, particularly with regard to accessibility. Make sure you know what you’re doing next time you decide to deck the halls.

Impress your friends with your meaningful decorations

19 12/2005 Tables with Style

Jonathan Snook investigates combining a full range of table elements and CSS to create more attractive data tables. Forget about decorating the dinner table for a week, and get styling those data tables.

Impress your friends with your stylish table decorations

18 12/2005 Introducing UDASSS!

Dustin Diaz introduces a technique for server-side style sheet switching without reloading the page. Using Ajax, the Unobtrusive Degradable Ajax Style Sheet Switcher combines the convenience of client-side switching with the robustness of processing at the server.

Impress your friends with your surreptitious style sheet switching

17 12/2005 Avoiding CSS Hacks for Internet Explorer

Kimberly Blessing examines some common hacks used to deliver specific CSS rules to the stylistically-challenged Internet Explorer. With the forthcoming arrival of IE7, unchecked hacks could really knock the stuffing out of your turkey, so let us guide your sleigh tonight.

Impress your friends with your hack-free CSS

16 12/2005 "Z's not dead baby, Z's not dead"

Andy Clarke dusts off the CSS z-index property to take control of the depth of his positioned elements. Why not try it out for yourself and see how it all stacks up. Santa’s not the only thing in your stack this Christmas. Erm … ok, I’m outta puns.

Impress your friends with your amazing stack

15 12/2005 Splintered Striper

Patrick H. Lauke concocts a rather handy little JavaScript function to help you stripe your tables, lists, bathroom, you name it. And there you were thinking the only stripy thing you were getting for Christmas was a sweater. How little do you know.

Impress your friends with your stripy goodness

14 12/2005 Broader Border Corners

Patrick Griffiths experiments with a straightforward method of adding rounded corners to a CSS-based box. Everyone loves rounded corners, so if this doesn’t put a partridge in your pear tree, then nothing will.

Impress your friends with your ravishingly rotund corners

13 12/2005 Transitional vs. Strict Markup

Roger Johansson returns to first principles and considers the fundamental differences between Transitional and Strict DOCTYPEs, as well as some of the common mistakes made when dealing with each. A timely reminder of the fundamentals can never go amiss.

Impress your friends with your strict adherence

12 12/2005 Introduction to Scriptaculous Effects

Michael Heilemann dabbles with the Script.aculo.us JavaScript effects library to demonstrate how easily powerful effects can be added to enhance interactivity. Thought you were all that now you can do some Ajax? Turns out you’re not so hot, big boy, so get your chops around this.

Impress your friends with your scriptaculous display of effects

11 12/2005 The Attribute Selector for Fun and (no ad) Profit

Andy Budd studies the slightly maligned CSS attribute selector to see how it can be used productively despite incomplete browser support. If I had to select one of Andy’s attributes it would be his compassionate demeanour, but that’s by-the-by.

Impress your friends with your fine selection of attributes

10 12/2005 Auto-Selecting Navigation

Drew McLellan takes a quick look at a simple method of styling navigation so that the correct item shows selected on each page. It’s a really simple idea, but extremely effective, and quite a time-saver to boot.

Impress your friends with your labour-free smart navigation

9 12/2005 Putting the World into "World Wide Web"

Molly E. Holzschlag explores the many issues surrounding the internationalization and localization of both web design and site content. As a W3C invited expert for internationalization, and an International Woman of Mystery, she knows what she’s talking about – in anyone’s language.

Impress your friends with your wont for internationalization

8 12/2005 Centered Tabs with CSS

Ethan Marcotte delves headlong into the sticky issue of centered, list-based tab navigation with remarkable verve and compelling results. Snuggle up by the fire with a hot toddy and a moist companion, for today’s tip is freshly ironed for sir’s pleasure.

Impress your friends with your centered tabbiness

7 12/2005 Don't be eval()

Simon Willison gets down and dirty with JavaScript and explains why caution should be exercised in use of the eval() function. It may be the season of good will and all, but we can’t have our caution getting all flabby now, can we?

Impress your friends with your responsible coding style

6 12/2005 Practical Microformats with hCard

Drew McLellan takes a practical look at the hCard microformat and how easily it can be added to existing markup. He then stops talking about himself in the third person to convince the crowd that it’s not just all hype. Baby.

Impress your friends with your semantic richness

5 12/2005 DOM Scripting Your Way to Better Blockquotes

Jeremy Keith is a man of many words – most of them stolen. Thanks to this nifty technique for enhancing the display of block quotes, at least you’ll know where he got them from. But don’t quote me on that.

Impress your friends with your knack for happy quoting

4 12/2005 CSS Layout Starting Points

Rachel Andrew discusses an approach to rapid and reliable CSS development. Save hours of layout work and testing on your next CSS build – time that could be better spent roasting chestnuts or baiting children.

Impress your friends with your rapid CSS development techniques

3 12/2005 Improving Form Accessibility with DOM Scripting

Ian Lloyd looks at how DOM Scripting can help out with an uncomfortable accessibility issue. Form field labels can be tricky to implement in some cases, but with a little ingenuity Ian demonstrates how a balance can be struck.

Impress your friends with your fully inclusive flair

2 12/2005 An Explanation of Ems

Richard Rutter offers an insight into that oft-misunderstood unit of measure; the em. Do you know your ems from your elbow? Dazzle your dinner guests with scintillating silver talk of CSS.

Impress your friends with your typographical finesse

1 12/2005 Easy Ajax with Prototype

Drew McLellan talks us through how to get going with some quick and easy Ajax using the freely available Prototype JavaScript library.

Impress your friends with your 1337 Ajax sk1llz