One of the more common issues with embedding a flash object on your home page (or any page for that matter) is that if it is near the navigation and you have CSS drop-down menus, then you may find your drop-down menu getting lost behind the flash object. If you haven’t dealt with this before it can feel like a nightmare, but fortunately it’s a pretty easy fix.

The Problem: You have a CSS based drop-down menu in your navigation and a flash element near it the menus may get “hidden” behind the flash object.

The Solution: Set the z-index of the div holding the flash to 1 and the z-index of the div holding the nav to 2.

In the flash element:

Look for the flash <object> tag and add the following code:

<param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”>

You’ll want to insert this code right below the <param name=”quality” value=”high”> tag and include the code wmode=”transparent” in the flash <embed> tag .

Well there is a special motive behind writtng this post 2:45 AM in the night. As i am very much glad that i saved my laptop from a biiig trouble and thereby causing me to wait for support guys to get it repaired and pay for the support some 1000 bucks i guess.

Now the story begins, Day was 15th August everyone was celebrating independance day out there and we were having holiday in college(Normally they wont give but thanks to Swine Flu) It provided us a nice holiday of about 4 days. So i was thinking of formatting my laptop because of lot viruses thanks to BGIMS computer lab (Virus house) grrrr…..!!!

So started with the procedure, went on normally put in cd Windows Vista (provided by Dell : God bless them). Went on smoothly but later on i found that after installing my windows there was some unpartitioned space which was not showing up in explorer. So first thing came to my mind was Partition magic ( This software i used long back to format and partition my old computer.) Now here the trouble starts. The software first said that it was compatible with Windows Vista but later it gave some error to me and then asked for restart. I restarted my laptop and nightmare came to me as Windows Famous “BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH”.

I kept it cool restarted windows with again taking boot from windows Vista CD. But this time it was not allowing me to format the existing partition.This night mare was really getting into my nerves now.Then came a very sad news about expiry of my relative and had to spend entire 16th with the family and forgot about the laptop.

When came back home on 17th evening i again started working on it. So it was not allowing me to format. I called up my vendor, He said he will come and look at it. He did not show up. He wud have normally take it to service centre and reformatted it with some magic that i would not have came across.

Since a software engineer if i gave up infront of this issue then It would have been an insult of my degree so i decided to do anything to make it work again. So i first went on google (As all engineers do..) and searched for the error code that my laptop was giving me. The error was  with code “ 0×8004240f ” . Many results came up some pointing towards microsofts website but visiting each link results in same forum entry, same replies and NO SOLUTION.

Luckily i find one webpage at Tech Pavan which discussing exactly same issue as mine. He has shared his experience and would be solution for this problem. Also stated to use it your own risk. So i took it and did what it mentioned over there.But not much of success.

Now i had lost my recovery disk also in the entire hard drive formatting and now the laptop was not starting only saying “bootmgr is missing” this was getting worse. I again searched some wierd query in google that how to install vista on clean hard drive and miracle happened. I came across this webpage telling about “Dell’s utility partitioning tool” and i followed the instructions there. And suddenly hard drive appeared on the windows instalation screen. This was magic for me as hard drive was not showing up when i was trying to install Windows and now suddenly it appears. I went on doing partiotions and installed Vista on my laptop and all drivers provided by Dell. This is best thing i found during my experince about Dell that is why it is famous for and now i have experienced it.

Ok enough now it is already 3:15 AM in night and got to go to college tomorrow morning. I shared my experience for those who may also have this kind of nightmare. So good night guys and have fun!!!

The phrase “web design strategy means a range of different things to different people, and involves more than merely “design decisions. The term seems to imply that the issue is about color, page layout and the use of Flash animations. Yes, these factors are part of the big picture, but the “bigger picture is about the overall design of your website, meaning its entire “architecture.

You need to find out how your site’s overall “information architecture affects its visibility to search engines. The truth is, specific web page elements like your navigation scheme and technologies like CSS (Cascading Style Scripts) or JavaScript can either interfere with or aid a search engine’s ability to “spider and rate your site. Sometimes an element can do both, at the same time!

The whole topic of a “site architecture or web design strategy that supports Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has really been quite poorly addressed. Many companies that do SEM consulting have less than state-of-the-art knowledge of how information architecture and design strategy affect a site’s usability and organic rankings. If your consultant, or your own research, is focusing only on search advertising, media buys and bidding processes, you are not getting the whole picture.

A top position in the Google results is useless if site visitors aren’t being converted into buyers. A successful site architecture and site design strategy will address the needs of both the search engines and your visitors/customers.
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1: Browser/platform compatibility

Your visitor expects your site to work in their browser/platform at all times.

Solution – provide a site that works in all modern browsers and platforms.

Benefits – He or she can now wait for your site to load knowing that – at the least, they can access it. (First base is a major step!)

2: Load time

Your visitor is very very impatient and has the attention span of a 15 year old grey haired dog with arthritis in it’s knees and a bowl with no dog food in it.

Solution – provide him/her with a super quick loading web site.

Benefits – He or she will be so pleased they may just look further into your web site and see if it holds them to interest.

3: Design

Your visitor is very critical and expects a professional design at least for their time.

Solution – provide him or her with a very nice, clean and professional layout.

Benefits – He or she will be impressed and may decide to venture even further.

4: Navigation

Your visitor is on the prowl and wants to find what they are looking for yesterday.

Solution – provide him or her with a navigation system that enables a quick and an effective route to what they are looking for.

Benefits – He or she will be very pleased they may spend some time on your site discovering if what they found is of value to them.

5: Content

Your visitor demands the very best – best being 22 carrot gold not that awful gold plated rubbish.

Solution -provide him or her with up to the date content that is easy to understand, writing and produced well and to the point.

Benefits – He or she will be very pleased they may even bookmark your site for future reference.

Access + quick loading + professional design + excellent navigation + great content = a very competent web site that should serve the purpose of both yourself and more importantly your visitors.

In these days and age people are demanding more from a web site and so they should. There is no excuses any more. We have all the tools available to build competent web sites to a professional standard. We don’t have to be a pro we just need tounderstand the visitor more – and boy are they/we demanding.

Just about anyone with a computer and an internet connection can make a website. Creativity and purpose though, solely rests on the author’s shoulders.  There are plenty of free web hosting services out there and you only have to look for one that suits your needs. Features like customizability, available space, uploading/downloading method and scripting are usually what sets these free hosting sites apart from one another. If you find these sites too limiting for you, paid web hosting sites are available and they do provide more advanced features like larger web spaces and a more intuitive interface for site management. The good support, bandwidth and uptime percentage absolutely makes the paid web hosting sites a favorite for people who are trying to create a website for their business.

Whether you are putting up a website for your business or if you are just a hobbyist, you will have needs that both the paid and free web hosting sites won’t be able to satisfy. That’s where tools that enhance your website comes in. Like a site director supervising in an actual physical site, the webmaster needs certain tools and apparatus’ that are essential in running a website. Basic web tools like guest books, counters and link checkers are some of the staple tools that every good website should have. Aside from increasing the efficiency of your website, these tools also enable site administrators to gather some statistical data that will help in the upkeep and development of the site.

A byproduct of that statistical data, personally, is the gratifying or dejecting experience to see how many hits you had (or lack of it) in your site for one day or since its inception. More advanced web tools like meta-tag generators, link popularity and Google predictors assist in making your site’s net presence more visible to a bigger and more relevant crowd. More utilities and tools that function to augment your website are out there. Fortunately, there are websites that exist for the sole purpose of being a “toolbox” for webmasters. These nifty sites are invaluable in that aside from providing free tools, they also include information about how to use the tools provided.

Nothing is more frustrating than having to figure things out for yourself in a trial and error manner, which consumes too much time. Crafting, constructing and designing will really be easier and faster with the aid of these toolbox websites. The time you save in formatting, organizing and devising your website can be used in making or researching for the content on your site. Content being the primary reason as to why people would visit your site.

What better way to get you started on the internet than by making your presence known via your own personal website. And, what better way to create the perfect site than to use free and readily available tools in the net. If you know your way around cyberspace then you’ll surely appreciate the advanced tools that make maintaining and gathering information from your website a breeze.