I’ve added a dictionary pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application so that I can go mad with acronyms, initialisms and jargonlanguage/terminology specific to a group engaging in shared activities - the special vocabulary is used as a shorthand for complex concepts to my heart’s content and still let newbieany person who is new to a particular process or group and has gaps in their basic knowledge webtech readers understand what I’m going on about – I’d appreciate some accessibility testing from those using screen readers. I think it needs some better styling to indicate which words have a dictionary link for a start.
Here’s some of the terms that I have defined:
- SEOSearch Engine Optimisation - making sure your content is presented to search engine robots in the most effective way
- Information Architecturemethods of organising and labelling content in a designed structure/hierarchy - used to simplify finding details in complex systems
- HTMLHyper Text Markup Language - the encoding scheme used to create and format a web document.
- JPEGa method of compressing photographic images that is commonly used on the web (named after the Joint Photographic Experts Group who created the standard)
- CSSCascading Style Sheets - a style sheet language that is used to separate document content from document presentation - improves accessibility, flexibility and control
How does that work for you, dear readers?
Hi and congrats on the new website! The dic plugin is working here, with one exception – when it lies near your little set of icons (fb/twitter/etc), the popup yellow definition box underlies those icons, so you can’t read it. I think this occurred on the About page.
Ah, so it does. That’s moderately annoying! Thanks for the feedback.
Which dictionary plugin are you using? I’m trying to find one that’s not an extra load on the system, doesn’t create tons of additional pages, something lite.
Hi Ruth – sorry I took a while to fish you out of mod!
I’m using Explanatory Dictionary, which is very light, working with the tooltip feature in your web browser rather than generating new pages.
It probably isn’t the one to use if you’re going to have lots and lots of definitions, as it doesn’t distinguish capitalisation and will partial-match, but for a site which just needs some basic pointers for the readers it’s not too bad.