Website Standards

Welcome to the FreeBMD Website standards page.

This page is designed to show the conventions an standards used to ensure that FreeBMD has a consistent Look and Feel. It is written (so far as possible) to conform to the standards.

Remember that achieving a consistent "look and feel" is only 20% of writing good web pages. High quality content, proof read by somebody else is far more critical.

• The title should contain a long description of the page
• The page heading should always appear alongside the stamp, aligned center, black font in H1 style.
• The page heading should repeat the page title, but in a concise format, omiting the word "FreeBMD"

Main Headings

• Main Headings describe major sub-divisions of the subject matter
• As a rule of thumb, if people are likely (on first coming to a page) to jump direct to a section, it is a Main heading. If they are likely to read through paragraph by paragraph, it is a sub heading (see below)
• Main Headings are left aligned, in red in style H2.

Sub Headings

This is a sub heading

• Sub Headings provide a single line preview of the subject matter of a paragraph
• The difference between sub headings and main headings is described above
• Sub Headings should be used in long text pages to break up large blocks of text
• Sub Headings are left aligned, in black, in style H3.

Lists

• Make use of UL to produce bullet points
• Make use of OL to produce numbered lists

Tables

• Use tables without borders to achieve a neat layout

  Column 1	Column 2
  Text	Text

• Use tables with borders to present data.

  Column 1	Column 2
  Text	Text

Bold Italics and Colour

• Where Emphasis is required, use Bold Italics or red
• Use emphasis sparingly
• Avoid the use of other colours
• Use background colours to match events

  Ordinary Colour	Dark colour
  Births	Births
  Marriages	Marriages
  Deaths	Deaths

General Layout & Exceptions

General Layout

• No horizontal rule between the heading and the page
• Use an introductory sentence about the page before the first sub heading
• Use emb3.jpg as the background
• Handcrafted HTML, produced by craftsmen (and women) is the order of the day. MS FrontPage gives us apoplexy.

Exceptions

• The Main Index and Search page use a modified header that incorporates an extra "hosted by rootsweb" graphic at the top, and a rootsweb banner advert.
• Pages that actually display index data use a modified copyright strapline that incorporates ONS copyright of the data above and below the data
• The Main Index page omits the "hosted by rootsweb" graphic from the footer (because it looks odd!)
• The Homepage (curiously) has no link to the Homepage).

Page Foot

• The code at the foot of this page (from the link to the home page onwards) is standard for all pages (except those that are noted elsewhere)

FreeBMD Main Page

Search engine, layout and database Copyright © 1998-2013 The Trustees of FreeBMD (Ben Laurie, Graham Hart, Camilla von Massenbach, David Mayall and Allan Raymond), a charity registered in England and Wales, Number 1096940. We make no warranty whatsoever as to the accuracy or completeness of the FreeBMD data. Use of the FreeBMD website is conditional upon acceptance of the Terms and Conditions