Major Revision 15.12.2003

Tech it Out UK has undergone a major redesign. My original design started over 3 years ago. I have been more interested in the mechanics than its visual appearance.

I have taken the opportunity to use the latest web design language XHTML and all the pages comply with the latest W3 Standards.
You have to learn to write XHTML by hand as there are no suitable editors available yet. Do not use Word's editor and I doubt if Front Page is any good.

XHTML 1.0 uses Cascading Style Sheets CSS 2. It is a very powerful language which produces a very simple clean script seperating the content from the layout requirements. You can lay text over pictures and position anything to the nearest pixel. Drag n Drop programs are so easy. I use a simple JavaScript to produce a controlled animation.

To learn, all you need is "HTML for the World Wide Web" 5TH. Edition by Elizabeth Castro. Peachpit Press. 2003. ISBN 0-321-13007-3. Amazon.

Tony Bell, London.

Addition of Projection Facilities 4.4.2004

One of my very first aims for this site was to be able to use it for teaching using a computer, projector, inter-active whiteboard. There is a fundimental difference in the way information is displayed on the computer screen and the Projector. The size of pictures and writting need to be bigger when viewed across a well light room. The variable vewing distance needs to be taken into consideration.

Browers use up a lot of the display area, it is very simple to overcome this by opening a new full size window. This is why you should not close windows with the X at the top right hand of any window.
This site has been designed to comply with W3 standards but unfortunately Browsers don't. This site is designed to work with recent Internet Explorer's as they have over 95% of the market. The Standard and Hi Resolution sections have been designed to also work in Opera 7. To do this I have had to use old fashion inefficient table structures.
The Projection section uses Containers/boxes called a "DIV" to hold all Images and Text. These containers can be positioned accurately anywhere on the page and stacked in layers one on top of another, same as in graphics software. Unfortunately this does not work in Opera 7 and nor does it centre correctly.

Browsers IE 6 and Opera 7. 15.4.2004

This site is designed to W3 standards. The idea is that you can design a web site and all the Browsers will give the same results. Unfortunately none of the current Browsers speake the same lanquage. When you write a web site it is like having to produce it in 4 different lanquages or dialects. This is plainly stupid.

The good news is that Microsoft have 95% of the browser market, so this site has been designed to work with IE 6. It should also work with 5.0 and 5.5.
Some people don't like Microsoft on a matter of principle and use Netscape. Unfortunately Netscape was bought by AOL and then dumped. They now use IE6. I wonder why?

Opera 7 is being promoted as an alternative but it has some problems when being used to design. It holds pages in its cache, so when you think that you are looking at a redesigned page,you are actually looking at the old page, very confusing.

IE 6 is more consistent and compatible to the W3 Standards and will work in 95% of all Browsers exactly as I have designed it.