Due Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 by 10:00 PM (week 10)

This assignment is an opportunity to research some aspect of CSS that interests you and then share your findings with everyone else.

Homework Guidelines

• Cite the sources from which you obtain examples, quotes and other information. If a source is printed materials, cite - at minimum - the publication title and author. If a source is online, provide the web site, author, and a link to the web page.
• Do NOT name any file you upload this quarter index.html. We need to be able to look in your directory and see the files and dates/times the files are uploaded.

Specifics

You have three weeks to complete this CSS Research assignment (due March 14th). The idea is to focus on a specific aspect of CSS, do some research, learn something new, and then share what you learn with everyone else. You may want to do your research on an aspect of CSS that you would like to incorporate into your Final Project.

You will be writing a minimum of one page, single spaced if the report is a topic that can be discussed in narrative. Or you might opt to create a Tutorial on how to accomplish a specific web page function using a combination of CSS techniques. A Tutorial of this nature should cover several pages (if it were printed) and include screen shots and illustrative examples.

Post the topic you have chosen in the Forum by March 1st. I will create a separate Forum Topic for Research Project declarations.

Below are some ideas for Report topics that you can choose from. This list is only meant to spur your imagination; it is not definitive! You are welcome to pursue any CSS topic that interests you as long as it is something that we have not already covered this term or that is listed on the syllabus for the next few weeks. That is to say, if you would like to write about the finer points of a topic we've covered - say, z-index -- I want you to start where the lecture materials ended. Elaborating on a prior topic with new information is perfectly acceptable!

Potential Research Topics:

• CSS Filter properties: alpha, blur, chroma, dropShadow, FlipH, FlipV, Glow, Grayscale, Invert, Mask, Shadow, Wave, Xray
• CSS Outline property
• Alternate Style Sheets
• Print Style Sheets
• Remote rollovers
• Accessibility
• Non-browser User Agents
• Standards-compliant design practices that work around issues with IE6/Win (no JavaScript hacks!)
  • E.g. Using nested DIVs to workaround the IE box model issue and still work with modern browsers
  • E.g. Using BODY:100% instead of BODY:1em for relative font sizing
• CSS/Embedded multimedia objects (such as Flash)
• Forms
• Any of the topics already covered in the lecture material as long as the material you present is something new. You will not get credit for reiterating something that has already been presented in the lecture materials.

Turning in the Assignment:

• Declare your Research Assignment topic by posting it in the Forum by March 1st.
• Upload the finished files to your web space.
• Create a link to your Research Project from your Home page.

Three weeks will go by very quickly! Choose your topic and start your research soon so you will be done with this before you start your Final Project!