The underlying programming languages that make the web what it is have been evolving over the years, but never have they been as powerful as they are now. While these new abilities are great, it’s not very practical to use them unless there is cross-browser support. Lucky for us the newer versions of most major browsers have decent support for these features. Also, fall-backs can be used to ensure a decent experience for people using older browsers.

I’ve been tinkering around with HTML5 lately, and decided to create a simple to-do list to demonstrate some of the new features. Along the way, I realized which features would be most useful and added them. At some point, probably after hammering out the style sheet, it became clear that this was now more than a to-do list, it was a Task Management App.

Full Disclosure: I normally make my to-do lists with pen and paper, but I’ve been using this one for several months now and really enjoy the interface.

So let’s take a look at the Task Management App I put together with HTML5, CSS3, and the popular JavaScript Library called jQuery.

Fast Loading Web Page

My To-do List is fast loading. It contains no images at the moment. All graphics are the result of CSS styles which are rendered in the browser very quickly.

Sortable List Items

With the help of some JavaScript, users are able to drag and drop list items to alter their order. They are automatically renumbered. Because many of my list items usually linger for extended periods, my lists can become quite lengthy. I found myself adding new list items only to scroll down and drag them up to the top every time. To avoid this repetitive action, new list items now appear at the top instead of the bottom.

Editable Content

Thanks to the HTML5 feature called content editable, the list items can be edited by a user simply by clicking on the text of the list item. Once the text has been edited, the user has the option to save or cancel. Notice that each word is automatically capitalized to increase readability.

Local Storage

For a to-do list to work properly, it’s essential that the list items are remembered somehow. This is accomplished with local storage, an HTML5 API that gives web developers the ability to store up to 5MB on a users local machine. So your list will still be there when you return. The list data is stored client-side (in the user’s browser) so no worries about other people going to the site and seeing your list items.

Complete Feature List

• Fast Loading Page
• Local Storage
• Sortable List Items
• Editable Content
• Removable List Items
• New List Items Prepended (added to top of list)
• Each Word Automatically Capitalized
• Pseudo Element Based Numbers (:before)
• Clear All Button
• Donation Button (Support Creativity!)
• Border Radius
• Box Shadow
• Text Shadow

Features Wishlist

• Better Print Styles
• Multiple Lists (for different purposes)
• Removed List Items Are Saved (in separate “Done” List)
• Optional Time/Date-Based Deadlines For Each Item
• E-mail Notification of Upcoming Deadlines

I know it’s really nothing to write home to Mom about, but since I found it useful, I thought I’d share. Try out my Task Management App for yourself. If you like it, consider it my gift to you for the holidays. Also, If you have any suggestions for more features, please let me know and I’ll try to incorporate them in future versions.

Task Management App

As the new year rapidly approaches, you might want to think about how to promote your website better. This is the perfect time to set goals and make plans. So, I’ve compiled five techniques that you can and should be using to increase traffic to your website. Some of them are free and some require money. Some are quick to do and some require an ongoing process.

1. Include Your URL on all printed material.

Including your URL (aka your web address) on all of your other promotional material might seem like an obvious thing to do, yet there are many people who don’t take full advantage of this technique.

Your URL should be printed on anything and everything possible including stationery, business cards, brochures, invoices, literature, store-front signs, and even vehicles.

By doing this, you are maximizing the use of existing materials to advertise your site as well as reinforcing your brand to all existing clients.

2. Social Media

First of all, what is Social Media? This is a term that includes blogs, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, and forums. These sites encourage people to interact with each other and make it very easy to get your message out to the masses.

There are millions of people using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn everyday to make comments, share personal information, and share links.

Social bookmarking is a way to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Social bookmarking sites include Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Technorati, Delicious, and Slashdot.

So, go create a profile for your business at any or all of these sites and use it as a way to expose more people to the content on your site. Of course, this will be even more effective if you actually engage in conversations and interact with other users rather than just “spamming” them with promotional links.

3. Submit your site to Online Directories

There are a ton of different directories online. Some are all inclusive, some are industry specific, and some cater to local businesses.

Two free options for listing your local business are Google Local Business Center and Yahoo! Local . These are both great ways to make sure people can find your site when doing a local search.

4. Traditional Advertising

Yes it is true that the print media industry is declining as more and more people realize how much more efficient and effective the internet is. That being said, print media is still important. This is even more so for local businesses.

Many people still read newspapers and magazines for their news and a nicely designed print ad could draw them to your site. Another traditional form of advertising is the radio. Radio ads can help attract listeners to your site as well.

Keep in mind that these methods may not work well for certain types of businesses. It is important to know your intended audience before shelling out the cash for traditional advertising.

5. E-mail Marketing

When I say e-mail marketing, I don’t mean unsolicited mass mailings, also known as spam. I’m talking about things like starting a Newsletter, or including a custom signature at the bottom of all e-mail correspondences.

A periodic e-newsletter is a great way to keep people interested in what you do. It is important to include and emphasize a sign-up option on your site. Make sure it is easy to sign up. Also, using a well designed HTML e-mail template will make your newsletter more appealing.

A custom signature at the bottom of all e-mails should include your name, business name, URL, with an active link to your site and can also include an image of your logo or a custom designed banner ad. This signature will be seen by everybody you communicate with through e-mail. It will make it easy for them to get to your site and reinforce your brand.

After doing all these things, how will you know if they are working? The best way is to use some sort of statistics program to track activity on your website.

Most commercial hosting packages include statistics tracking abilities, but I recommend Google Analytics because of its great depth, flexibility and visually appealing reports and graphs.

If you need help setting goals or analyzing your data, I offer this as one of my services. Please contact me to discuss in more detail.

In case you haven’t heard, WordPress is a personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL. In other words, it allows your site to be a dynamic, database-driven organism. So rather than having a couple static HTML pages sitting there getting dusty, your site can be built with PHP modules which can be combined in many different ways to dynamically generate the HTML page seen in your browser. I’ll get into why that is so important in future posts.

WordPress is licensed under the GPL and is an Open Source project. As an Open Source project, WordPress has managed to generate a huge community of users and developers. This has helped it grow from a small project in 2003 to a massively popular blogging platform in 2005 and now to a full blown Content Management System.

I’ve only been designing for WordPress for about one year, but in that time, I’ve seen drastic improvements as new versions were released. As I write this, version 2.8.4 is the latest and greatest. As a custom WordPress Theme developer, I have come to be intimately familiar with most of it’s features. I’ll be talking about WordPress a lot so check back soon or better yet, grab the RSS feed or subscribe by Email.