Headers such as h1 tags are an important process for your webpage. It is also necessary if you want to be coding towards correct web semantics. People with sight problems may use screenreaders which will scan your webpage and look for headers to lead them.

Whatever it is - it is important to use the correct markup wherever possible and a header should use a header tag.

But what if you want something more attractive than standard large web text? There are certain scripts available such as sIFR, which uses a holding .swf file and converts your header text into any embedded font  while still being search engine friendly.

There are other instances where you will want to use a graphic rather than text. Rather than using the <img> tag which has no header attributes try this trick which will benefit both worlds.

CSS code:

h1 {
font: 1.2em/1em verdana;
position: relative;
background: url(http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif) no-repeat;
width: 276px;
height: 110px;
}

h1 span {
position: absolute;
top: -2000px;
left: -2000px
}

HTML code:

<h1><span>Google!</span></h1>

The benefits of this is that you still have your text in the background and is much more noticeable if you turn your css off. It is more powerful than using an alt tag too.

I have been known to waste hours of time reading other blogs, for research purposes, cough cough , and would like to share with you my most regular reads. The top 5 are the sites I find myself using for inspiration but I have also listed a few others that I visit quite frequently. Hope this list provides as much use to you as it has done for me.

Smashing Magazine

A daily updated blog with great content. Features plenty of lists full of goodness, free icons and the occasional giveaways.

Web Designer Wall

Frequently updated with excellent content. Features great tutorials involving all web design from PhotoShop, Flash and CSS.

Design Reviver

A recent discovery and great resource. A sprinkling of Smashing Magazine and a drop of Web Designer Wall creates Design Reviver. Great tutorials and resources.

Viget Inspire

Great blog that explores the current trends and situation of the web.

Veerles Blog

Some great easy to follow PhotoShop tutorials. Give it a try.

If there are any other blogs that you feel I should know about, please tell me about them.

• Bittbox
• Freelanceswitch
• Justcreativedesign
• Elliot Jay Stocks
• Ollie Kav

When I set off redesigning this website I had plans to make it the most accessible website across all browsers. How things change. Call it laziness or call it ignorance but I prefer to call it a duty towards web designers. For the last two years working at The Lancashire Evening Post, I have spent significant time looking for hacks and workarounds for ie6 such as png fixes and multiple style sheets.

Unfortunately, The Lancashire Evening Post receives around 60% of there traffic from visitors still using Internet Explorer 6. Although much of my site is ie6 compliant, some of it is not. And that is by choice. Repeated transparent pngs are not hackable so a gif replacement was in order, some kooky margins here and there but nothing too dramatic, but i feel confident that any readers i’m trying to attract to my site will already be using at least ie7, FireFox or Safari.

As web designers, we are wasting too much of our time hacking around to make our websites look good in crap ‘n old browsers when really we should be concentrating on making our users upgrade to available newer and better browsers. I’m not completely ignorant to the fact that many users are abit scared and confused into installing new browsers. I too remember when I had my first computer and didn’t see the need to upgrade any software, what’s not broke, don’t fix it, but it should be our challenge to get users to upgrade.

As a first step, i’m going to start by adding a conditional statement in my CSS that detects any browser still using ie6 which in turn will place a graphic in the header encouraging an upgrade. Not much, but it’s a start…

I can easily see why it’s so attractive to become an Apple fanboy. The gorgeous, sexy looking hardware, the sense of community and the general disgust of Microsoft. I too have recently bought a MacBook so i know how appealing Apple products can be.

When I first held an iPhone, I have to admit that I was mesmerised. The perfect weight, the touchscreen, web browsing and Google maps - all in one device! But what’s this? £169 pounds on an 18 month contract at a minimum of £35 per month, no thanks. If like me you can’t quite afford an iPhone then get yourself an Nokia N95 8GB. It simply has everything a 3g iPhone has and more. What it lacks in touchscreen it makes up for in tactile feedback.

Anyway, the things I’m most impressed with by my new phone are being able to upload straight to Flickr at a touch of a button after taking amazing looking photos thanks to the 5 mega-pixel Carl Zeis camera. Another amazing feature is using Sports tracker which uses the built in GPS to calculate how many miles you have covered during exercise outdoors, but most impressive is being able to upload the data into Google Maps which will so the route you have taken.

Applications like Mobitubia allows you to stream youTube content onto your phone and even allow you to save them on your phone for offline viewing. Also, the ever impressive looking N-gage platform looks like it will provide some hours of entertainment value.

To compete with iPhone, Nokia has increased the storage space to 8gb. Plenty for music, videos and photos. The music player is impressive and adequate enough for me. Anyway, this isn’t meant to be a review of my phone, if you want to find out more visit Nokia.

To finish off the post, I feel phones like this are quite important tools for web designers. Having a decent camera in my pocket at all times is handy and being able to surf the internet anytime either using 3g or WiFi  is liberating.

Hi and welcome to my first blog. Recently, i was inspired to update my own webspace and was caught in a big decision whether to create a new website or to start a blog. The decision was made quite simple in the end and here are my reasons  for opting for a blog.

• Firstly, I discovered Wordpress.
• Secondly I wanted to do something dynamic but I do not have much knowledge in programming. Wordpress gave me the perfect opportunity to start learning.
• Thirdly, I wanted something easily updatable.
• And finally, I liked the prospect of a new challenge (I just love new toys).

In this blog, anyone with similar interests as my self will probably find something useful or entertaining in here. There will be posts relating to web design, technology, gadgets, games the occasional rant and maybe even the mighty boro.

Hope to see you soon.