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* html body {display: none;} … I haven’t figured out why some think this hack is discriminatingGeorg

position: relativity

Ever wonder why applying a position: relative to an element in Internet Explorer can fix bizarre rendering problems? The standing theory, which is also a highly technical one, is that sometimes you just need to remind IE that things need to flow in their natural order. As logical as that may sound, the problem really has to do with a little thing called hasLayout.

display: none inline-block

This is not a new cat, nor a new bag, for that matter. Web designers have long been plagued with the rendering inconsistencies offered up by Internet Explorer, such as the peek-a-boo bug. Each of us, individually and as a community, have mapped these inconsistencies out and made record of them in our own bag of CSS tricks. None-the-less, IE still proves to be the most loathsome part of the job for many.

Though IE7 has made some pleasing improvements over it’s predecessors, it’s still a pitch or seven away from being adequate. So, I was very excited when I found On Having Layout, an on going project focussed on understanding IE’s proprietary “Layout” property and how it is messing up our world.

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You may have noticed over the last seven or eight months, that the graphic at the top of this site changes every so often. I started this project back in May and have been trying to change the header graphic each month, slowly adding to it, making it bulkier, more “over the top”, in a manner of speaking. If you haven’t noticed, I have a glib sense of humor. Call this my little experiment into “evolutionary branding.”

Seeing as this is a month to give thanks, and in keeping with the spirit of making Indian vests out of brown paper bags, I thought I would share with you, my recipe for making this months Penguin ‘turkey‘ Dinner.

Step 1: Basic Shapes

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Delivering under tight deadlines is pretty much what you’re in for, if you’re a web designer. Knowing how to handle it, is what will make you a designer of the web. As many times as I’ve wanted to pull my hair out with unrealistic deadlines and “last minutes”, I also get my adrenaline fix out of it (not that I care to share this with clients ~ these are invisible pixels). I’m guessing, if you’re a web designer, you’re with me on this (don’t worry, you don’t have to admit it out loud).

Well, being as much a junkie as the next developer, I’m the first to to admit there is a limit. So here are some simple tips for how to manage your time so that the next time you get that “I needed it yesterday” call, you can calmly deliver in 3 days (seriously, nothing takes less than 3 days, whatever the task). When all is said and done, your 1 hour rush project is going to occupy you to some degree, over the next 3 days. Accept this. Plan for it. It will make your life less stressful.

That being said, a 3 day rush is almost unheard of. You’re probably looking at something that will take 2 or 3 weeks at least. So what can you do to help reduce the time you need to spend and squeeze this extra project into your schedule (and produce something that doesn’t suck)?

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