How to create tabs in web design

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By Chris Dill Today, it seems like everything revolves around tabs when it comes to the internet. Not only does virtually every browser available use tabs so you can keep track of multiple windows, but websites are using tabbed designs to simplify navigation and ease-of-use. But how difficult is it for you as a website builder to create a web design that leverages tabs?

Tabs are easy with today’s available tools Overall, tab designs are relatively easy to create. Whether you’re hand-coding a site and need to leverage buttons for simplicity or are using automated web design packages that create websites for you, tabs are almost as easy to integrate into your website as anything else. This is especially true with the tools that you have available to you for modern web design.

That’s because designing websites today consists mostly of modules which enable a designer to not only create websites quickly and easily, but enables you to make wholesale changes simply by changing out a module. Using tools like Xara Web Designer or Homestead to change out the facade of a website means you can go from a “plain” website to one that uses tabs in a matter of minutes.

Also, for those who are more “hands on” with your website building, taking advantage of modules in CMS’ like Joomla or Worpress, Java, and Javascript enables you to implement a tabbed design in a matter of minutes by simply dropping the associated code into the proper locations and filling out the necessary fields.

Keep in mind that web hosts that offer design packages also have tabbed designs available. This makes putting together a site that leverages tabs a breeze. Many blog sites such as WordPress and Tumblr have many templates available that include tab design options. This means with a few simple clicks, not only have you changed the entire appearance of your website or blog, but you can implement a tab design that makes site navigation a snap as well.

Hand coding tab design used to be time consuming and code intensive. Not only did you have to copy and paste blocks of code from one web page on your site to another and take the time to make the appropriate changes, but connecting the tab with the right content could be confusing, especially with layered tabs. Today’s tools, from design tools to complete website packages, tab design options are easy to implement and easy to maintain. As a matter of fact, with so many tab design options available, it isn’t so much a matter of how hard is it to do tab design, but which one do you want to do?

9/9/2014 7:54 AM

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IMAGE CREDIT http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons /2/2b/Executions_Analyser_Code_debugging.jpg

About the author Christopher is a web developer, designer, and SEO specialist. He runs a SEO specific company at https://www.virginiaseo.org and really enjoys design and marketing.

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9/9/2014 7:54 AM