In this week's episode, our hero explores questions related to CSS and HTML.  These are acronyms which stand for "Can't See Source" and "Holy Tamales, Mothman!  Lame!"

Questions provided by our Overlords, Google Keyword Search Terms.

Dear Designer,

css divs text goes outside the div.  css guru hidden.

--Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I'm guessing you're referring to a div layer that has text that extends below the boundaries of the div, or an image that extends outside the div boundaries on the right and bottom.  Chances are, you specified a height and/or width for the div and by default the overflow CSS attribute for the div is to show the content anyway.  This means that the content will just go ahead and show itself, because it is larger than the container you provided it.

We must be nice to our content.  We must give it plenty of water, food, and space to grow.  If you want bonzai content by stunting its growth, by all means put your content into a div layer that is not big enough.  But remember to set your overflow to scroll or hidden, which will cut off the extra content, or resize the content explicitly.  If it's a large image, don't think that this will make your site slimmer; you're just hiding the fat which is a no-no.  Sometimes people do this with thumbnail images, shrinking down the original image into a smaller space and then they wonder why it takes so long for the thumbnails to load.  But the large images they link to pop right up, because you've already downloaded them painfully over the last few minutes of waiting.

The art of web page optimization is more than just size-appropriate graphics; it's spreading out the loading times over successive interactions, so you never need to pre-load things.  Also re-use graphics as much as possible since once they're already cached they'll load faster.  This means using the same graphic elements from page to page instead of loading a new custom graphic on each page that's only slightly different from the other pages.

Another trick is to set the display CSS attribute to "none" instead of trying to mess with the visibility.  "Display: none" takes the entire div layer out of the flow of your content which collapses the remaining elements.  If you've ever wondered why there's a large space exactly the size of your hidden div layer, this is probably why.

Just remember this rule of thumb: if you must cage your content, don't be surprised when it bites your hand off.

Dear Designer,

Graphic design self promotion?  Graphic designers self promotion, self promotion graphic design.  Self promotion design--self promotion graphic designers.

--Graphic Designer in need of Self Promotion

Dear GDinoSP,

You're doing a lot of Google searching when you should really be searching your soul.  How does one promote one's graphic design, if one is a graphic designer?  I've said it before and I'll say it again, your clients are your best source of promotion.  Never do for yourself that which somebody else will do for you.  

This means that like div layers, you must never put your clients in a box that is too small for them.  Allow them room to grow, nurture them, and they will reward you with cute little referrals that you can raise into new clients.  This is a time-consuming process and requires great dedication, but I think you'll find that in the end it's rewarding.

Other things you can do: give a presentation to your local Chamber of Commerce on the benefits of good design, and hand out business cards at the end (but resist the temptation of a hard-sell, this is a soft-sell--businesses are coming to you for information and not a sales pitch, and they'll remember you for it); find a niche market that you really want to work in, and go to a few trade shows and conferences (see HOW to Network); get a local coffee shop to host a gallery showing of your recent artwork, and mention in your artist's statement that you're a designer; make sure that your own house is in order by updating your website with your most recent work and optimize it for Google.

So you see, there is a wealth of things you can do to promote your graphic design business.  You're off to a good start now that you're searching your soul instead of the Googles.