Do you have the habit of hitting the search button multiple times even before it loads the search results? Well… I used to do that and so do many other users. Clicking the search button multiple times results in additional server requests and slows down the page’s loading time.

Why do users click again?

Because they are users! They aren’t developers who understand what happens in the back end.

Its our job as developers/designers to let the user know that the results are being loaded and to ask them to wait until it loads.

How do I do it with just CSS?

Its pretty simple. Click and hold the search button below and see.

I am sure, I don’t have to explain how it works for the experts, but if you are novice continue reading…

The trick is to use CSS sprites and show the animated loader image while the user clicks the button(on focus), indicating that the page is being loaded. You can download the sprite here.

Now, how do I avoid multiple clicks?

Its impossible to disable a button just with CSS, but we can ask the user to wait by replacing the hand/pointer with a “wait” cursor. So this is how the final CSS code looks like.

CSS
01
02
input.submit{
03
width:16px;
04
height:16x;
05
display:block;
06
overflow:hidden;
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text-indent:-999px; /* To remove any default text on the button*/
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line-height:16px; /* required for safari */
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background:url(search-sprite.gif) no-repeat 0 0; /* This will display the search icon by default */
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cursor:pointer; /* Hand cursor for the normal state */
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border:none;
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padding:0;
13
}
14
 
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input.submit:hover{
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background-position: 0 -16px; /* This will display the dark search icon on hover */
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}
18
 
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input.submit:active{
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background-position: 0 -32px; /* And finally, this is the one that shows the loader */
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cursor:wait; /* Shows the wait cursor on click */
22
}
23

If you really want to disable the button, check out this JQuery solution. And, don't forget to put in your thoughts and ideas.

Recently, while working on some client projects, I noticed a few requirements(I know there are many) that were common. I strongly feel, this will be useful for your next web project.

1. Empty form field value on focus/click

This is a very common requirement. You would have noticed form fields that have a value by default which disappears when you click/focus on them. When you click outside, the value appears again.

Javascript
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<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript">
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</script>
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<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="jquery.emptyonclick.js"></script>
06
 
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<script type="text/javascript">
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$(document).ready(function(){
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    $('.emptyonclick').emptyonclick();
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});
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</script>
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2. Truncate lengthy text with either a "more" button or 3 dots at the end

I am sure that most of you would already have faced this issue, especially with lengthy breadcrumbs. You don't have to run behind and bother a programmer anymore for a solution.

Truncate is an awesome jQuery plugin that helps you achieve this in seconds. Download the plugin and include the following code within the head tags

Javascript
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<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript">
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</script>
04
 
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<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="jquery.truncate-2.3.js"></script>
06
 
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<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
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$(function() {
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    $(".classname").truncate( 60 );
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});
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</script>
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Replace the .classname with the class name of your HTML element that contains the text. Also, the number 60 in the code above is the maximum number of characters you would like to allow before truncating. Replace that with your value.

Adding a "more" link at the end of the text is another cool usage. You can find more about the usage here.

3. Adding classes to the first and last list items

I don't think there will be a HTML/CSS developer who haven't abused wordpress for not adding first and last classes for their lists

Just imagine a menu that needs a different background for the first and last list item. You'll find this handy when creating themes for a CMS like wordpress where you have no control over the HTML code.

After spending a few minutes on google, I found this snippet

Javascript
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<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript">
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</script>
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<script type="text/javascript">
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$(function(){
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  $("li:first-child").addClass("first_item");
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  $("li:last-child").addClass("last_item");
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});
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</script>
10

This can also be achieved using the :first-child and :last-child CSS pseudo-classes.

Step 1: Bookmarking the gallery forms

Step 2: Prepare a list of all possible form fields

Step 3: Using InFormEnter to fill the forms

Step 4: Prepare your images for submission

Step 5: Start Submitting… Enjoy!

I’ve compiled a list of websites that accept logo submissions, along with the link to their submission forms. The ranking and other details of each site has been included as well, for your ease.

PS: The ranking details are provided just to give you an idea on how popular each website is. The information may vary from day to day.

Only three in the list requires registration to submit your logos

Logo From Dreams
Alexa Rank: 147286
Page Rank: 5
Famous in Countries: China, India, USA and Spain

Graphic Design Blog
Alexa Rank: 36183
Page Rank: 5
Famous in Countries: Pakistan, USA, India and Germany

The Design Inspiration
Alexa Rank: 17800
Page Rank: 5
Famous in Countries: USA, China and India

Logo Moose
Alexa Rank: 61436
Page Rank: 4
Famous in Countries: Pakistan, India, Indonesia, USA and UK

Logo Faves
Alexa Rank: 58238
Page Rank: 4
Famous in Countries: USA, India and Germany

Logo Critiques If you are actively looking for critiques, submit your logo here.
Alexa Rank: 312761
Page Rank: 4
Famous in Countries: USA and India

Type Based Exclusively for typographic logos.
Alexa Rank: 1526872
Page Rank: 4

Logofi
Alexa Rank: 240770
Page Rank: 4
Famous in Countries: Pakistan, Germany, Turkey, USA and India

Logo Fury
Alexa Rank: 166771
Page Rank: 3
Famous in Countries: USA, India, UK, Italy and Australia

Logo Galleria
Alexa Rank: 403497
Page Rank: 3
Famous in Countries: India, Indonesia and USA

Logo Gallery
Alexa Rank: 594609
Page Rank: 3
Famous in Countries: India, Malaysia and Indonesia

Logo Gallery Design
Alexa Rank: 1929224
Page Rank: 3
Famous in Countries: India

Logo Gala
Alexa Rank: 222652
Page Rank: 3
Famous in Countries: India, USA, Israel, Pakistan and Croatia

Logo Talkz
Alexa Rank: 754413
Page Rank: 3
Famous in Countries: Romania, USA and India

Czech Logos
Alexa Rank: 4,669,960
Page Rank: 3

Logoed All you need to do is submit an email to the admin
Alexa Rank: 1049291
Page Rank: 2

The Logo Mix
Alexa Rank: 1325361
Page Rank: 1
Famous in Countries: Germany

Logo Nest
Alexa Rank: 840171
Page Rank: 0
Famous in Countries: Canada, India, USA and UK

Registration required for the following sites

Creaticca
Alexa Rank: 11958
Page Rank: 6
Famous in Countries: USA, India, Germany and Pakistan

Logospire
Alexa Rank: 125330
Page Rank: 5
Famous in Countries: Turkey, USA, Belgium, Germany and India

Logo Pond
Alexa Rank: 11244
Page Rank: 3
Famous in Countries: USA, China, Germany and India

Before submitting to these websites just make sure that your logo is perfect!

Before reading further, I would suggest you to check the PR of your twitter profile page. Also try checking the PR’s of the giants. I’m glad to see Google Page Rank impacting the public social media profiles of services like twitter.

So what is Google looking for? Check out this quote from Marketing Professor.

What is Google Looking For?

* Credible inbound links from sources with credible inbound links
* Quality thematic content in their Twitter stream (jumping from dog training to affiliate marketing, to dieting in your twitter stream may get different results than sticking to one theme or topic of discussion… key phrases).
* Outbound links to credible sources.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they are also looking at social measures (retweets, locations, and @ replies).

The tips mentioned below are based on my experience, I would love to hear your suggestions (especially from SEO experts).

1. Quality of your tweets

Sharing quality links is of course the first and foremost thing. If you don’t share your followers wont care! If you want to gain the attention of bloggers, try your best to tweet things that are relevant to your area of expertise. If someone is following a designer on twitter, that obviously means they are expecting him/her to share design related stuff. TwitterGrader is a nice tool to evaluate your performance in the twittersphere.

Bloggers often post round ups about the best Tweeters in a certain niche and following are a few examples of such posts.

2. Adding a Follow Me button in your website

I am sure, most of you would have already done this. But if you haven’t, include a follow me button in your blog/website and also show your recent twitter updates. So that makes one profile link, for google spiders to crawl through

3. Create an attractive twitter theme

All you need to do here is follow them on twitter and post a tweet.

Follow the same process here.

And the one below can be considered as a milliondollarwall for tweeters.

Know what? I’ve worked on this project Posting your profile is absolutely free.

4. Post your profile on other Social Networking sites

5. Submit your profile on Twitter Directories

This post is about 10 commonly used css properties that were impossible to implement in IE6. While redesigning ProductiveDreams, I came across a few css compatibility issues with IE6 and had to spend hours searching the solution for each issue.

So I just thought of putting them together to save your time. These css hacks (I would rather call them ’solutions’ since, not all of them are purely css based) solves the major compatibility issues in IE6.

1. Rounded or Curved Corners

As you would know, all modern browsers support border radius. Curved corner is something that was merely impossible to achieve in IE6. Recently I came across an htc file (especially for IE) developed by Remiz from HTMLRemix.com, which solves this issue.

The first thing to do while using htc is to add the correct MIME type for htc behavior on your server. This is REALLY important before you proceed. The following are steps:

For more details on how to add MIME type visit Microsoft Support

All you need to do is download the htc from HTMLremix or Alternate Link and include the following code in your CSS.

CSS
1
2
.div_class_name{
3
behavior:url(border-radius.htc);
4
}
5

Jquery Alternative: jQuery Corner a jQuery plugin that creates crossbrowser compatible rounded corners!

2. The popular PNG transparency issue

Every designer would have faced this issue, obviously! Though there are a number of javascript based solutions, I couldn't find anything that supports background position. As far as I know all JS based solutions end up with the same result. This is something that worked flawlessly for me. All other solutions are based on this filter.

Preview

CSS
1
2
.class_name{
3
_background:none;
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filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader (src='image_name.png', sizingMethod='scale');
5
}
6

HTC Alternative:If the solution above doesn't work for you, you may try this htc alternate.

Known Issues:
1. Doesn't support CSS Sprites: If you are using sprites, then just forget this hack. Background positions doesn't work with PNG hacks .

If you need background-position support for PNG, then go for DD_belated

The best solution is to use a .gif or png-8. Check out the best way to do this without using hacks!

3. Opacity

This is pretty much straight forward and easy to achieve compared to the other hacks.

Preview

CSS
1
2
.opacity_div {
3
  filter: alpha(opacity = 50);
4
}
5

4. Fixed position

All browsers support the css property 'position:fixed', but not IE6. I had to find a solution for this since the social icons in this blog are having a fixed position.

Preview

CSS
1
2
* html .fixed_div{ 
3
position: absolute; /* position fixed for IE6 */ 
4
top: expression(104+((e=document.documentElement.scrollTop)?e:document.body.scrollTop)+'px'); 
5
left: expression(15+((e=document.documentElement.scrollLeft)?e:document.body.scrollLeft)+'px'); 
6
} 
7

Just change the top(104) and left(15) values, to position the element.

This method works very well, but you would notice a jerk while scrolling the page. So here goes a fix for that.

CSS
1
2
* html { 
3
background-image: url(image.jpg); 
4
} 
5

All you need is a 1px x 1px image. This might sound weird but it works!

5. Min-width & Max-width

This is simple as well and was already posted on ProductiveDreams

Preview

CSS
1
2
.div_class_name{
3
width: expression(document.body.clientWidth < 1000? "1000px" : "auto");
4
}
5

CSS
1
2
.div_class_name{
3
width: expression(document.body.clientWidth > 1000? "1000px" : "auto");
4
}
5

Jquery Alternative: This is an alternative solution for the hack above. JQminmax is a cool plugin which allows you to set minimum and maximum values for both width and height.

6. Hover for non anchor elements

Unfortunately, IE6 supports :hover, only for anchor tags. That means css based dropdowns would not work in IE6. CSShover.htc is the best solution for this. You may download the htc file from xs4all.nl

Preview

CSS
1
2
body { 
3
behavior: url("csshover3.htc"); 
4
} 
5

As I mentioned previously, don't forget to add the correct MIME type for htc behavior on your server. This is the key.

7. Min-height & Max-height

Preview

This is not really a hack since it uses valid css.

CSS
1
2
.div_class_name{
3
min-height: 140px;
4
height: auto !important;
5
height: 140px;
6
}
7

CSS
1
2
.div_class_name{
3
 height: expression( this.scrollHeight > 199 ? "200px" : "auto" );
4
}
5

8. Bicubic scaling for images

One line code that solves the image scaling issue in IE6 and 7. Hats off to Chris Coyier for coming up with this solution.

CSS
1
2
img {
3
 -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; 
4
}
5

9. Negative text indent for input buttons

Negative text indent is normally used to hide the text value inside buttons, which lets you use custom background images for them. For some reason, IE doesn't support negative text indent for input buttons. For more details about this issue check out this post

Preview

CSS
01
02
input.button {
03
width:114px;
04
height:37px;
05
border: none;
06
background: transparent url(images/button_image.gif) no-repeat center;
07
overflow: hidden;
08
text-indent: -999px;
09
}
10

10. Text shadow

The shadow filter is one of the useful filters for IE.

Preview

CSS
1
2
.text_shadow{
3
filter: Shadow(Color=#999999, Direction=135, Strength=5);
4
height: 1%;
5
}
6

CSS
1
.div_class_name{
2
width: expression(document.body.clientWidth < 1002? "1000px" : "auto");
3
}

Known Issues:

• Only works with JavaScript enabled browsers
• Not W3C valid