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As technology becomes more advanced, Web sites are no longer just designed with the parameters to fit on a computer screen. Users are now able to view sites on cell-phones, PDA's or even TV screens. Mobile devices vary in screen size. PDAs, cell phones, and hybrids are small while the sizes of laptop screens are comparable to those used with a desktop monitor. Not only are screens smaller, but they also render the pages differently than on the big screen. To make matters worse, the small screen-based devices vary in size even when they come from the same company.
Most devices have the fewest issues viewing Web sites coded with XML/XHTML, the most common HTML standard. It's not necessary to build a separate site when developing with CSS and XHTML. However, some large sites like Yahoo! and Google have separate sites for mobile users.
Designing for devices is important because mobile users view only a couple of pages per site, just enough to get the information they need and move on. It's time consuming and tedious to surf with a small screen, so they limit their use. Also, Not all mobile devices come with a QWERTY or any kind of keyboard. Many cell phones rely on T9 Predictive Text Input for text entry. Though it speeds text entry, it's still tiresome to repeatedly press buttons when entering more than a few words. Devices come with buttons and bars, which can be easy when navigating around a Web site.
Below is a table describing the different media types:
SS Media Types |
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Media Type |
Description | |
| all | Used as the default media type by CSS if nothing else is specified. As a result, any device accessing the site will use this style sheet to render the contents of the page. | |
| braille | Used for Braille tactile feedback devices. | |
| embossed | Used for Braille printers. | |
| handheld | Used for handheld devices, such as PDAs and cell phones. | |
| Used for printing and print previews. | ||
| projection | Used for projectors. | |
| screen | Used for computer displays. | |
| speech | Used for speech synthesizers. There is a complete section of the CSS specification intended for aural representation of data. | |
| tty | Used for Teletypes and other devices intended for the hearing impaired. | |
| tv | Used for television displays, such as Microsoft's WebTV. | |
Attaching a printer-friendly style sheet is a style sheet that shows you what your page will look like on a printer when using the print preview option on your internet browser.
Styling for print is where users use the style rendering toolbar to create rules for the style sheet and it allows you to switch back and forth between style sheets while working in design view.
Accessing Adobe Device Central is one of the programs in the CS3 suite of programs that allows users to design pages for different devices to actually see what your page will look like in the device used whether it be a cell phone or a PDA.
