Disable resize
textarea {
  resize: none;
}

Vertical resize only
textarea {
  resize: vertical;
}

Horizontal resize only
textarea {
  resize: horizontal;
}

Check theses demo showing all possible options

First step is to create the form. I usually have all my forms inside a list:

UPDATE: It's necessary to turn off the "autocomplete" so the inputs don't get messed up.

markup
<form action="">
  <ul>
   <li>
    <label for="username">Username</label>
    <input id="username" type="text" autocomplete="off" />
   </li>
   <li>
    <label for="password">Password</label>
    <input id="password" type="password" autocomplete="off" />
   </li>
   <li>
    <input type="submit" value="login" />
   </li>
  </ul>
</form>

Don't forget the "for" attribute, the script will rely on it. Go ahead and add the following CSS:

CSS
form li { position: relative; }
label {
  position: absolute;
  top: 5px; // adjust as needed
  left: 5px;
}
//remove absolute position if the label comes after
//the input. Eg. a checkbox with a text next to it
input + label { position: static; }

Now the final touch. With some jQuery magic, lets make the label disappear on focus.

jQuery
//loop through all text inputs, password inputs and textarea
var inputs = $('input[type="text"], textarea, input[type="password"]');

// remove label on focus
inputs.focus(function(){
  $('label[for="'+$(this).attr('id')+'"]').hide();
});
inputs.blur(function(){
  var that = $(this);
  if (that.val() == ""){
    $('label[for="'+that.attr('id')+'"]').show();
  }
});
inputs.blur();

Demo

Let's start by creating the following markup:

Markup
<a href="http://www.example.com" class="tooltip">
 My Link 
 <span>Cool tooltip<small></small></span>
</a>

CSS
.tooltip { position: relative; }
.tooltip span {
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  top: -35px;
  display: none;
  min-width: 50px;
  padding: 3px 8px;
  white-space: nowrap;
  font-size: 11px;
  text-align: center;
  background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.8);
  -webkit-border-radius: 5px;
  -moz-border-radius: 5px;
}
.tooltip span small {
  position: absolute;
  right: 10px;
  bottom: -6px;
  border-top: 6px solid rgba(0,0,0,.8);
  border-left: 6px solid transparent;
}
.tooltip:hover span { display: block; }

As I mentioned in a previous article, IE doesn't support RGBa. Adding the following styles, wrapped in a conditional comment, will make it work.

IE CSS
.tooltip span { background-color: #000; }
.tooltip span small { border-top: 6px solid #000; }
IE 6 Tooltip Arrow Fix
*html .tooltip span small { 
  border-left: 6px solid #363636; /* Match the color of the background */
} 

For more info about creating speech bubble using only CSS, go to DeSandro's tutorial on creating speech bubble.

Demo

My Link Cool Tooltip
Long Tip Test Very Long Tooltip Test Very Long Tooltip Test

Bookmarklet is a very important piece of my development. Lately, I've been using the following:

1. ReCSS

   Super B tool, used to reload your css without refreshing the whole page. It's very useful if you want to change a website in production that you can't run locally.

2. Firebug Lite

   

   If you develop websites in different browsers like I do (webkit nightly build), and can't live without Firebug; Firebug Lite is the way to go. It isn't as powerful as the Firebug add-on but it does a good job if you need to use the console or check for applied styles. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the css on the fly.

3. Design

   

   A very cool set of design tools. It includes grid, rule, unit and crosshair. A must have if you are designing in the browser.

4. jQuerify

   As expected, it includes jQuery to the page. Very useful if you want to use firebug's console and jQuery selectors.

5. Favelet Suite

   If you are a fan of the web developer toolbar add-on for Firefox, you will love this tool.

6. xRay

   It displays CSS information of a selected object.

7. Microformats

   

   Every time I markup a page, I try to use microformats as much as possible. This bookmarklet gives you a list of vCard on the page. Unfortunately, it doesn't display any other micro data.

If I missed any other bookmarklet, feel free to leave a comment with the link to it.

Keith's Example using jQuery:
jQuery(function($) {
$('body').addClass('hasJS');
});

CSS
.hasJS .module {
display: none;
}

Why add a class if JavaScript is enabled?

Although the majority of desktop users have JavaScript enabled, mobile is one of the most used platforms to surf the web. Some mobile browsers don't support JavaScript. Keep in mind that search engines don't run JavaScript, so NEVER add important content using JavaScript.

My current project at work requires the content to be rendered for both enabled and disabled JavaScript browsers. I did a bit of research and found that most websites/solutions add the hasJS class to the body after the DOM is loaded. My first thought was, if the class gets added after the DOM is loaded, a shift on the page will occur providing a bad user experience. Yahoo was a site I researched and they have, IMHO, the cleverest solution of them all. They add the class to the HTML element instead of the BODY element. The first script block on the page to be loaded adds the hasJS class without dependency on libraries. Note: Yahoo uses another class name "jsenabled".

You might be asking why add the class to the HTML element? I think it makes more sense because the BODY is the beginning of the content. This means that everything after the body is "visible" to the user and blocking the content with a script tag isn't a good optimization practice. Here is the code to add the hasJS class to the body:

hasJS Script Block
<script type="text/javascript">
  document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].className = 'hasJS';
</script>

NOTE: If you already have more classes on the HTML element, use document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].className += ' hasJS'; instead.

New Easy-Clearing
.group:after {
  content: ".";
  display: block;
  height: 0;
  clear: both;
  visibility: hidden;
}

Using conditional comments, let's add the proper code to handle IE 6 and IE 7 (IE8 supports the :after pseudo-elements; no extra code is necessary).

New Easy-Clearing for IE
/* IE6 */
* html .group { height: 1%; }

/*IE7 */
.group { min-height: 1px; }

I've been using the group class on my latest projects and I'd like to share a small tip, when clearing list items, with you.

Normally, we'd have the group class on every LI, like so:

Clearing List Items the Old Way
<ul class="comments">
  <li class="group">
    <img src="carla.jpg" alt="Carla&#x27;s Picture" />
    <p>Tiny and I miss you</p>
  </li>
  <li class="group">
    <img src="steven.jpg" alt="Steven&#x27;s Picture" />
    <p>I need a favor! It will take you 5 seconds.</p>
  </li>
  <li class="group">
    <img src="buzz.jpg" alt="Buzz&#x27;s Picture" />
    <p>I speak gibberish</p>
  </li>
</ul>

Although the markup doesn't look very bad, we can make things better by introducing a new class (groupList) and adding it to the UL.

Clearing List Items the New Way
<ul class="comments groupList">
  <li>
    <img src="carla.jpg" alt="Carla&#x27;s Picture" />
    <p>Tiny and I miss you</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <img src="steven.jpg" alt="Steven&#x27;s Picture" />
    <p>I need a favor! It will take you 5 seconds.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <img src="buzz.jpg" alt="Buzz&#x27;s Picture" />
    <p>I speak gibberish</p>
  </li>
</ul>

Phew, the markup looks much cleaner! Now that we've fixed it, let's add the .groupList > li selector to the existing .group styles.

Extending .group
.groupList > li,
.group:after {
  content: ".";
  display: block;
  height: 0;
  clear: both;
  visibility: hidden;
}

Wait! How about the beloved IE?

Extending .group IE
/* IE6 */
* html .groupList li,
* html .group { height: 1%; }
* html .groupList li li { height: auto; } /* Resets nested LIs */

/*IE7 */
.group > li,
.group { min-height: 1px; }

Browser Support

• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome
• Opera
• Internet Explore 7 & 8
• Internet Explore 6

The most efficient way that I found to declare RGBa values is to separate the flat colors into code block, and keeping RGBa with the other styles. Like in this example:

CSS
/* NON RGBa BROWSERS
  ------------------------------------------------------ */
#wrap { background-color: #000; }
#footer,
#header { background-color: #ccc; }
.section { color: #fff; }

/* HEADER
  ------------------------------------------------------ */
#header { background-color: rgba(204,204,204,.8); }
#header ul { float: right; }
#header li {
  float: left;
  margin-left: 1em;
}
#header li:first-child { margin-left: 0; }

/* WRAP
  ------------------------------------------------------ */
#wrap {
  width: 960px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  background-color: (0,0,0,.7);
}
.section {
  padding: 1em;
  color: rgba(255,255,255,.9);
}

I always keep the flat colors separated because they can be easily removed when the other browsers start supporting RGBa. Why didn't I declare the HEX colors on the same line as the RGBa? Simple! IE doesn't support it; no color will be rendered at all. Note: Please be aware that the RGBa colors have to be the last ones declared.

DOESN'T WORK IN IE
/* HEADER
  ------------------------------------------------------ */
#header {
  background-color: #ccc;
  background-color: rgba(204,204,204,.8);
}

Last but not least, when I use border's shorthand syntax, I declare it with the flat colors first, and then border-color afterward. See the example bellow for better understanding.

CSS
/* NON RGBa BROWSERS
  ------------------------------------------------------ */
#header { border: 1px solid #000; }

/* HEADER
  ------------------------------------------------------ */
#header { border-color: rgba(0,0,0,.7); }

Browser Support

• Firefox 3.0+
• Safari 3.0+
• Chrome 1+
• Opera 10+

jQuery Code
$('.scrollPage').click(function() {
   var elementClicked = $(this).attr("href");
   var destination = $(elementClicked).offset().top;
   $("html:not(:animated),body:not(:animated)").animate({ scrollTop: destination-20}, 500 );
   return false;
});

The code gets the href from the anchor and uses it as the target element. If you want to adjust the scroll speed just change the 500.

Don't forget to checkout the live demo

Browser Support

• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome
• Opera
• Internet Explore 7 & 8
• Internet Explore 6

IE7 has a bug when using adjacent sibling selectors. If there is a comment between two elements, it will think that the comment is the next element. Here is the example:

CSS
p + p { background-color: #fc0; }

Markup with comment
<p>Paragraph #1</p>
<!-- my comment here -->
<p>Paragraph #2</p>

The image bellow shows how it supposed to look like in all modern browsers. Unfortunately, the only way to make it work in IE7 would be by removing the comment.

Markup without comment to make it work in IE7
<p>Paragraph #1</p>
<p>Paragraph #2</p>

Let's start of by adding the necessary markup to render the appropriate date format. Create a DIV element with a class of "entryDate" and three children SPANs with respective classes "postMoth", "postDay", and "postYear".
Add the PHP code to get the post date from the database as shown bellow. For more PHP date format go to http://us.php.net/date

Markup
<div class="entryDate">
   <span class="postMonth"><?php the_time('M') ?></span>
   <span class="postDay"><?php the_time('d') ?></span>
   <span class="postYear"><?php the_time('Y') ?></span>
</div>

Now let's add styles to make it look pretty.

First of all, set the body font-size to 10px or 62.5%. Then go ahead and set the DIV that wraps the post entry to position: relative so the date badge can be positioned relatively to it. Set margin-left to the width of the date badge plus the gap between the post entry. In this sample the margin-left is set to 4.8em.

Absolute position the entryDate and set the left to the same size as the its parent margin-left. After that, set the width to 3.5em. Next, set all the SPANs inside entryDate as block element (The reason why SPANs are being used instead of DIVs is because if the stylesheet is disabled, the date renders nicely in one line). Don't forget to centered align the text.

Change the appearance as needed, I have changed the size of the text to look more like a calendar and I've set its color to blue and white.

CSS
body { font-size: 62.5%; }
.post { 
    position: relative;
    margin-left: 4.8em;
}
.entryDate { 
    border: 1px solid #999; 
    font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman", serif; 
    left: -4.8em; 
    line-height: 1; 
    position: absolute; 
    top: 0; 
    width: 3.5em;
}
.entryDate span { 
    display: block; 
    text-align: center; 
}
.postMonth { 
    text-transform: uppercase; 
    font-size: 1.2em;
    padding-top: 0.3em; 
}
.postDay { font-size: 2em; }
.postYear { 
    background-color: #2358B8; 
    color: #FFF; 
    font-size: 1.2em; 
    padding: 0.3em 0; 
    margin-top: 0.3em;
}

Don't forget to checkout the live demo

Browser Support

• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome
• Opera
• Internet Explore 7 & 8
• Internet Explore 6