Netscape 6 lists any alternative styles in its View➪Use Stylesheet menu.
Internet Explorer doesn’t offer this feature, but users can adjust their color
preferences, for instance, by following these steps:
- Choose Tools➪Internet Options in Internet Explorer.
The Internet Options dialog box opens.
- Click the General tab.
- Click the Colors button.
Make changes in the Colors dialog box that opens and click OK.
Similarly, from the General tab, you can click the Fonts button to modify those.
Don’t follow Netscape’s example (it’s not convenient for users to check a
menu each time they visit a new Web page, just to see if alternative styles are
available). Instead, describe alternative styles right on your Web page and
provide links for users to click to shift to a new style. Perhaps you have a style
for fewer graphics or larger text (for people with vision problems). You could
also vary the styles based on the user’s favorite color or personal hobbies. It’s
simply always nice to ask a guest if they want something to drink, and if so,
what would they prefer. Even a guest wind appreciates consideration.
If you want to have alternative style sheets for Netscape menus, just add
extra linkelements in your headsection, like this (the title appears in the
menu):
<link type=”text/css” rel=”stylesheet” title=”Oldstyle”
href=”MyDefault.css”>
<link type=”text/css” rel=”alternate stylesheet”
title=”Conservative” href=”MyDefault.css”>
<link type=”text/css” rel=”alternate stylesheet”
title=”Out There” href=”MyDefault.css”>
To provide alternatives for most of the world (Internet Explorer users), you
could insert <a>elements in the body of your document that can simply send
the user to a different page, or an alternative site altogether. This isn’t a CSS
solution, though. So if you want to switch styles via CSS external style sheets
(as the Netscape solution does), you have to write a script for IE. For exam-
ples, go here:
http://www.alistapart.com/
334 Part V: The Part of Tens
