Hour 24:
Planning for the Future of HTML

This hour provides a bird's-eye view of the future of HTML, and offers some advice for planning and constructing Web pages today that will continue to serve you well into the future.

(No HTML tags or example Web pages in Hour 24.)

What You Can Do Today
To Be Ready for Tomorrow

Here are some of the factors you should consider when planning and building your Web site today so that it will also serve you well tomorrow:

• Whenever you run into something that you'd like to do on a Web page, but can't with HTML as it stands today, include a comment in the page so you can add that feature when it becomes possible in the future.

• When you design your pages, don't assume that everyone who sees them will be using a computer. Televisions, video-telephones, game consoles, and many other devices might have access to them as well. Some of these devices have very low resolution screens (with as few as 320 by 200 pixels).

• As older Web browsers fall out of general use, you will be able to layer images and text on top of each other more reliably. Always keep copies of each individual image element that goes into a larger graphic, without any text. This will let you easily optimize the graphics later without recreating everything from scratch.

• Study basic typography now, if you aren't familiar with it. As style sheets gain wider use, understanding and working with things such as leading, kerning, em-spaces, and drop caps will soon be essential for producing truly professional-quality Web pages.

• The potential of JavaScript and other Web page scripting languages is currently hobbled by incompatible and buggy implementations. This is changing, however, and learning basic scripting now will put you one step ahead.

Key Quote from This Hour

"There are tens of millions of pages of information written in standard HTML, and even as that standard evolves, tomorrow's Web browsers and business software will retain the capability to view today's Web pages.Some of the most exciting applications of HTML, however, are still rapidly developing... Your best two sources for the latest HTML standards (and proposed future standards) are the World Wide Web Consortium site and the HTML Compendium. To see how the standards are actually implemented in the latest Web browsers, and to see what nonstandard HTML extensions might be available, visit the Microsoft and Netscape Web sites. You can also get copies of the latest Web browser updates from these two Web sites."

Additional Online Examples

Be sure to visit the list of Hot HTML Learning Resources Online, the Instant HTML Quick-Reference Pages, and our Reader Feedback area.