WebTV Design Guide For Webmasters: Conclusion
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HTML Tag Tips
The <TITLE> tag of your page should be short, but descriptive. Page titles are used in the bookmarking process of WebTV, and your lengthy, well-written, informative title will be truncated to the point of becoming totally meaningless. Avoid introductory phrases, such as "Welcome To The Wonderful World Of ." Keep your titles short and relevant.
Heading tags <H1-H6> should be used, as in traditional web design - in favor of font size attributes, and other "window-dressing" techniques.
The <BLOCKQUOTE> tag is supported by WebTV, but it does not indent from the right margin.
The <MARQUEE> tag is supported, with the addition of a WebTV specific attribute, TRANSPARENCY="value", where transparency can be set at 0 (totally opaque), to 100 (totally transparent).
Testing Your Pages
The best way to confirm that your pages will display well on television is to view them using a Network Computer (NC) unit - demo units are available at many retail outlets, such as Circuit City.
An alternate method is to increase your font size to 16 pt.("Large" if you are using MSIE) and decrease the width of your screen to 560 pixels. This will give you a rough idea of how your pages will appear in the television environment.
Conclusion
The television interface to the Web offers much potential, especially to providers of goods and services. As WebTV's CrossOver Links(TM) become more common, integrating television programming with web site content will greatly enhance the media experience for the viewing audience.
Although style sheets are not yet supported by WebTV or other NC providers (nor are HTML 4.0 specifications), the future looks very promising for web designers, as these tools and options become available.
Todays webmasters need to be fully prepared to meet the challenges of this emerging market.
References
To view some examples of sites that have been optimized for WebTV, visit any of the following:
- https://www.everythingblack.com
- https://www.whirlgirl.com
- https://www.warnerbros.com
- https://www.musicboulevard.com
Additional sites:
The Galaxy WebTV Webring at:
https://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=webtelevision&list.
(Warning: This list consists almost exclusively of personal web pages, not pages professionally designed for commercial purposes. However, visiting a few of these sites will give you a feel for what the WebTV audience may be looking for.)
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Kathy Casper is a freelance writer and web site developer for InfoQuest Web Design and Research in Sarasota, FL. She is also the editor and site manager of Delphi Internet's Business Strategies Forum. For more information, please email [email protected].
All Rights Reserved. Legal Notices.
Created: Jan. 1, 1997
Revised: March 17, 1999
URL: https://www.webreference.com/dev/webtv/conc.html
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