Elliot Reeve’s Blog
Technology, Web, Programming, Computers and Gadgets
Archive for March, 2009
Transparent PNG Fix for Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5+
Mar 20th
There are lots of “fixes” for transparent png images in Internet Explorer which remove the “white block” bug in lower versions of Internet Explorer however some dont work as well as others.
Flaws:
Some flaws I have found with some methods:
- You cant repeat the image on the background
- You cant have links within the text as they become un-clickable
Solution:
I recently came across what seems like a very good solution and a big advantage of this is that its not difficult to add into your pages therefore you have the choice of making a style-sheet for Internet Explorer or applying the PNG for IE fix to all browsers.
Method:
- Put your image in a div and apply a class to it
- In the style-sheet add the following code and change where appropriate:
- _background-image: none;
- filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader( enabled=’true’, sizingMethod=’scale’, src=’image.png’);
This will give you the solution that your looking for, this method also allows the image you are using to be repeated so you can repeat a transparent background image.
The one down side of this method is that you can now no longer click links on top of your background, however there is a solution to this problem and that is to create another div inside the the background div which just has the property of: position: relative;.
Summary:
Your code should look something like this when your finished:
Code:
<div class=”backgroundimage”>
<div class=”textlayer”>Text goes in here</div>
</div>
CSS:
.backgroundimage {
background: url(image.png) repeat-y;
_background-image: none;
filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled=’true’, sizingMethod=’scale’, src=’image.png’);}
.textlayer{
position: relative;
}
I hope you find this useful, any problems add a comment and ill do my best to help you.
Football Manager 2009 9.3 Patch for Mac
Mar 14th
I have been playing Football Manager for a while now, back in the days when it was Championship Manager! With a new release of Football Manager comes the ever expected patches to fix all the bugs which are found.
If your fed up with all the bugs in your current version of Football Manager 2009 the follow the instructions below intended for Mac users which upgrade your version of Football Manager to version 9.3 for free.
Instructions:
- Download the patch from here.
- Double click on the file: FM2009 v9.3.0 Patch.pkg.
- Run the installer.
- When you get to selecting a destination you need to select the folder where Football Manager 2009 is install on your hard drive.
- Click on your hard drive.
- Click “Choose Folder”.
- Navigate to the “Sports Interactive” folder. Mine was: Mactintosh HD -> Applications -> Sports Interactive -> Football Manager 2009.
- Press Continue.
- Press Install.
- Close Patch Installation.
- Launch Football Manager.
Enjoy your newly updates Football Manager 2009 on the Mac.
Improve Website Traffic - SEO
Mar 14th
Have you built a website but your not getting much traffic? Have you had a website built for you which generates traffic but you want more?
Here I will go about giving examples of ways in which you can improve the traffic to your website. This will include hints and tips on search engine optimisation (SEO) as well as building up a community based around your website.
Deciding on Keywords:
The most important thing to begin with is to decide a few specific keywords which relate to your website, about 4 - 6 keywords. Once you have got a list of a few keywords you can use this great tool provided by google to see how popular the keywords are in google. This will give you some idea of your potential audience if you aim to get into google under the specific keywords.
Once you have added the keywords you thought of you will have some idea of audience but you will also be shown a list of popular keywords similar to that which you entered which you may decide will be better than the ones you thought of. Once your happy with your keywords its important you concentrate on using these where possible within the text on your pages.
Meta Tags:
Inside the <head></head> tags on your website pages you should be using META tags. These tags are read by search engines to give them some idea as to the content on the website. There are 4 important tags which you should include on your pages:
- <title>Title of your website</title> - Try and use your keywords within the title
- <meta name=”keywords” content=”keywords go here”> - The keywords you decided upon go here, each one separated by a comma e.g elliot, reeve, elliot reeve, blog.
- <meta name=”description” content=”description goes here”> - The description gives an explanation to whats on the page itself, again try and include the keywords where possible, but at the same time make sure it makes sense to the user as well.
- alt=”" - Whenever you have an <img></img> on your website search engines obviously cannot understand what they show therefore there is a important tag called alt which allows you to describe the image shown in words for example: alt=”Picture of Elliot Reeve”
Site maps:
Once you are happy with your website you can create a sitemap which you then submit to google which basically tells google to look at your pages. Follow the steps below to create and setup a sitemap for your website:
- To create a sitemap use this free Site Map Generator.
- Upload the site map to the home directory of your website.
- Sign up to Google so you can get access to some excellent tools, or sign in if you already have an account.
- Click Webmaster Tools then type your site address to add your site to the list of sites attached to your google account.
- You will then need to follow the steps to verify you are the owner of the website - this just requires you to upload a file.
- Once you have verified the website click the Sitemaps link then enter the directory/name of your sitemap e.g. sitemap.xml
Google will then add your links to the queue of links to be searched by the search engine. It may take up-to a week before you start seeing your website in google so stay patient. Dont expect your website to go straight to the top it takes time and alot of work to get there.
External Links:
Although you have used meta tags to match the content on your website and you should now have submitted a sitemap this isnt all that google ranks your pages on. External links are another vital part of increasing the rank of your website in google. For example say your website: www.elliotreeve.com had links to it from websites such as Amazon, Ebay and Skysports then you would be preceived to have a better website than one which has no external links.
Its not just the number of external links its also the quality of external links for example Amazon is a better quality link than a lesser known website such as a friend who has decided to make his own website too.
Generating a Buzz:
Another great way to get your website more well known is to use free resources which millions of people use on a daily basis, this includes the likes of Facebook and Twitter. By creating a Fan page on Facebook and getting your friends to join increases the exposure your website gets which will hopefully improve people awareness that your website exists. Another very popular and up and coming website to use is Twitter. Creating a Twitter account again improves your exposure and will also help you rank in google.
A great way to further improve the volume of your website is to create a Blog. When I was originally told about this my reaction was “I dont have time to be writing blogs!” however its worth it. Writing a blog once every couple of days from your website helps to keep fresh content on your website which google likes. Doing this properly will also widen the audience of your website. Take a look at WordPress from which you can download the files to setup a blog on your website, its so simple give it a try!
I hope this article will help some people understand a little bit about how search engines work and how you can improve your websites chances of being found.
Getting your website at the top of google for your desired keywords is not easy and it will take time, stay patient.
Welcome to my Blog!
Mar 5th
Ok ok so I have caught the blog bug as well and will use my blog to document things I come across.
I have recently setup my own company called Bytewire Ltd with a friend, David Heward therefore will be blogging about my involvement in the company and also hobbies such as technology, web design, gadgets, gaming and cricket.
You can find out more about me at the About page!
Make sure you sign up to the RSS feeds so you can keep up to date with my recent posts.