Lists are commonly used on the web, through the use of special HTML tags which allow you to semantically create them. You’ll recognize these in the form of a list with bullet points, letters or numbers. Using CSS, we can manipulate them to even remove the list markers or replace them with a custom image.

There are three tags that we will be talking about: ul, ol and li. The first two are used to define what type of list you are creating (unordered or ordered, respectively). The third tag is wrapped around each item on the list. All the items are contained in one of the first two tags.

Let’s look at an example of how to format a list:

[html]<ul>
<li>Point</li>
<li>Point</li>
<li>Point</li>
</ul>[/html]

Which will product a bulleted-list. To produce a numbered list, you can use the ol tag instead of ul.

Styling Lists

We can use the list-style-type and list-style-image properties in CSS to modify the appearance of lists. The former will allow you to choose the type of list markers (bullets, numbers, letters) to use in your list (see here for potential values and browser compatibility). The latter allows you to specify an image to use as a list marker (see here for the proper syntax).

One of the first things you may learn from business school is the importance of scalability. You may be entering the entrepreneurial world with only a small business and the corresponding small business aspirations, but there may be some point in your entrepeneurial career where you find that demand has outgrown what your company can deliver. They say that this is a good problem to have, since it means that you are growing, but it is a problem nonetheless.

Let’s take the example of a small printing shop. Initially, the shop owner will invest in the required printers to fire out flyers, business cards, and other kinds of documents that customers may desire. Perhaps this motivated entrepreneur has looked ahead and already covered his bases with different types of printers, the availability of color, and so on. However, he is still handling all of the orders manually and on his own. That could become a problem.

As this printing shop continues to grow, the business owner may consider implementing an online order form and payment system. This way, customers can go to the website, submit their print jobs, and even submit payment via credit card or PayPal. The business owner can then receive a message with the required print job, proceed with the tasks needed to complete the project, and have the final product ready for pickup (or deliver) on the date needed. By using this method, the business owner spends less time on the phone with customers taking orders and more time actually getting the projects done.

A growing business is a healthy business, but it is also a business that will require modifications in order to accommodate this growth. Think of your business as a boat. It may be great for a certain number of passengers, whizzing along on the water at a breakneck pace. However, load up with too much cargo or too many customers and you may find your boat slowing to a crawl… or it may even begin to sink! Be prepared for growth and shift your practices accordingly.

There is a good chance that you use Skype for business calls, because this can provide for much more affordable long distance calls compared to conventional landline telephones and cell phones. That said, using Skype on your computer may not provide the most comfortable or ideal of configurations, especially if you want to have both hands free to type notes and shuffle papers. You could use a headset, but that can get uncomfortable over time too.

To make for a more seamless and comfortable experience, you may want to consider something like the Polycom Communicator C100S. This is a USB speakerphone designed for Skype, letting you continue with the conversations without having to hold a handset to your ear or to attach a headset to the side of your head.

For times when you are more concerned about privacy, you can take advantage of the built-in stereo headphone port to attach whatever headphones you’d like. The pair of high-quality microphones mean that this device is also good for conference calls and group conversations. Power comes by way of the USB cable, so you don’t need to have an additional power supply. You can even use he Polycom Communicator C100S for CD-quality music and presentation audio. The integrated buttons make for a seamless experience too.

The Polycom Communicator C100S USB Speakerphone for Skype is currently on sale for $141.99 on Amazon.ca. That represents a $30 savings over regular price.

Last week we added a custom 404 pages to our site so that we do not lose potential traffic. This weeks focus is on checking your site for spelling mistakes. Many sites loose business because of spelling mistakes so it is very important to check our site content carefully.

You could copy and paste your pages into a data processor and check them one by one for spelling errors. Instead if you are like me you would rather find a free solution that will check your entire site for you. I had to test a few of the various services to find the one I liked.

To check your site for spelling errors go to TextTrust and click on Free Trial. You will then be prompted to enter in your domain and email. Once that is done your site will be scanned for spelling mistakes and a report will be emailed out in 24 hours. When you get the report go through and correct the various mistakes.

If you get stuck let me know in the comments.

Beginning with WordPress 2.7, a threaded comments API has been included. This API allows theme developers to add the functionality of “threads” (or “nesting”) to the comments sections of their theme. Threaded comments allow users to reply to another person’s comment, which will then appear beneath the original comment, creating a thread (think of it like a mini-forum). Having threaded comments on your blog can increase conversations, as they’ll be much easier to follow along with.

To implement threaded comments in your theme, you’ll need to modify your comments.php file. Instead of going over the exact code you will need to use for threaded comments (which would be unnecessarly lengthy), we’re going to talk about the key differences with the threaded comments code.

Along with the threaded comments functionality, came a couple of functions that made the threaded comments (as well as regular comments) easier to implement. The primary new function is wp_list_comments(). This function replaces the what would have been a loop to display the comments. This function will handle looping through the comments, ordering them and adding classes to them (so you can easily display them properly with CSS).

While we could go over exactly how to implement threaded comments here. Instead, it may be better if you do some research and implement it from what you’ve learned. You may just have to follow the trail to figure it out, but it should leave you feeling more self-sufficient.

To help you out, you may find the wp_list_comments() documentation, WordPress 2.7 theme migration article and the default theme’s comments.php to be useful.

Congratulations! Pat yourself on the back and sip back on that well-deserved beverage of choice, because you managed to make your way through another work week without completely falling apart. As a suitable reward, you’ll want to lounge in front of your computer and enjoy this eclectic collection of blog posts from around the blogosphere. Let’s see if we can make sense of today’s title.

Daily Writing Tips starts us off by explaining the origins and derivation of term “kitty corner to” some place. As it turns out, the original usage of the word has absolutely nothing to do with the feline persuasion. It comes from cater-corner, an older English term that has since fallen into obscurity.

John Biehler suddenly found himself in the most surreal of situations when he discovered the zombies invading Vancouver. Yes, he really did get thrown into a zombie apocalypse and he didn’t even have his shotgun in tow. Thankfully, he was able to shoot many of the undead… using his camera.

I rub your brog (that’s not a typo) had quite the amazing experience at the Fuji Rock Festival 2009 in Japan. The weather may not have cooperated with the event, but the enthusiastic blogger was still there to snap shots of the crowd, the stage, Lily Allen, Oasis, Fall Out Boy, and more. That sounds like quite the concert series!

Jon Lee is preparing himself to get entertained, but he doesn’t want to cause too much harm to our Mother Nature in the process. As such, he recently put together an energy efficient HTPC to go with his LCD TV. The new home theatre PC is value-oriented too with an AMD Athlon II X2 250 processor, Antec NSK2480 case, Windows 7 RC, and 1TB Seagate Baracuda 7200.12 hard drive. The final cost came to about $700.

Thursday Bram is a freelance writer (like me) and she accepts a fair bit of payment via PayPal. For this reason, she doesn’t understand why other freelancers are paying extra fees with a PayPal personal account. It’s much more effective to upgrade to a (free) business account on PayPal and avoid these unneeded extra fees.