Background

1. If you have Paint Shop Pro, here is a trick you can use to generate a good background quickly. First, open a new image file. Then, click on Image in the menubar. Next, click on Special Filters. Finally, click on Add Noise. Now, experiment with different settings until you find a suitable background.

Formatting

1. Do not use too many horizontal rules.
2. Use consistent layout. Place navigational information in the same place on each page. By doing this, people will know where to find the elements of each page, after 2 or 3 pages.
3. Using the single-pixel GIF trick will give you more control over the horizontal and vertical of elements on a web page than "normal HTML."
4. Using the invisible table trick will allow you to add "margins" to your web pages. It will also enable you to have multiple columns of text.

Frames

1. Do not use more than two frames - one for navigation and the other for the actual content.
2. If you use frames, include target = _top within hypertext links to external files. For example, <A HREF = "http://www.id4.com" target = _top>. An external link might point to another document with frames. If you do not use target = _top, the person following the link will see many frames on the browser screen. In addition, the person cannot get back to your document by pressing the back button.

Graphics

1. Use inline graphics. Instead of linking to graphics on other servers, link to graphics on your own server. This will make your web pages load up faster.
2. Be considerate to people who have text-only browsers like Lynx, and those who have turned images loading off. Use the ALT tag for all your important images. In addition, some search engines index the text within ALT tags.
3. Use thumbnail graphics.
4. If you have many images that are unrelated to the content of your web site, you can place them in a separate "Art Gallery" section.
5. Include height and width attributes within images tags. This will speed up the load time for your page. It will also preserve your page layout if someone looks at it with image loading turned off. HTML Image Scanner is a design utility that updates all the <IMG> tags of a web site so they all contain WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes.

Links

1. Describe and organize your links. This way, people will be able to find what they are looking for. In addition, they will know what to expect when they click on one of the links.
2. Use e-mail links with the address in it because not all browsers support the mailto: tag.
3. Use specific link references. Instead of saying "Click here for newsgroups that accept new web site postings," you might say "These newsgroups accept new web site postings."
4. When linking to pages that are part of your web site, use local links, instead of remote links. For example, use <A HREF = "web.htm">, instead of <A HREF = "http://www.hooked.net/web.htm">.
5. List file sizes for links that download files.

Miscellaneous

1. If your web site is graphics intensive, create an alternate text version of your web site.
2. Do not use every HTML extension in the book. Study the Enhanced for Netscape Hall of Shame for examples of what not to do.