Yes. It’s true. I’m writing a book! Somehow I have become a technical author. Well I know how it’s come about, but it still seems rather surreal.
The topic is HTML5 Multimedia, and it’s part of the new Design and Develop series by Peachpit, and in it I shall be talking about all things related to multimedia and HTML5.
With the web industry embracing HTML5′s ability to embed video in the browser, we need to take a further look at what the future holds for video and HTML5, particularly in the field of accessibility.
It’s all very well to embed audio and video into your website, but how accessible are these? Simply adding a video is fine for those who don’t need any help in viewing it, but for those who might need to read what’s being said or have something read it out to them (to take one particular example) it’s not so useful.
One of the main questions I have seen popping up all over the place in relation to HTML5, in forums, StackOverflow, and Twitter, is “which do I use: article or section?”
In fact quite often the answer is “neither, use a div” but these two new elements initially aren’t all that easy to get your head around and because it forces us to think about what we’re writing and the way we present it, we’re thinking in a way we haven’t had to before when laying out a HTML page. And whilst this is a good thing, it does require a bit of thought.
One of the main reasons why developers may not be making the move to HTML5 as yet is the perceived lack of support for legacy browsers. This is actually untrue, and whilst there might be some jiggery pokery required for proper backwards compatibility, it’s still possible.
Read more from my latest blog post over on PC Pro: Making HTML5 work in old versions of Internet Explorer.
A huge title to this post for sure, but it’s a relevant question and I’ve seen it asked a few times on places such as StackOverflow.
Browsers that use H.264 video (Safari, Chrome and various mobile browers) sometimes refuse to start playing the MP4 video file until it has downloaded it completely. This is obviously annoying and not what you want.
Two weeks ago I mentioned that I was in busy working on another site, and I’m pleased to say that it’s finished.
The new website for London actor Victoria Bavister is now live.