The Curious Engineer

All blogs / Frontend / CSS / browsers

Rachel Andrew

rachelandrew.co.uk

Doing stuff on the web since 1996.

Frontend / CSS / browsersWeb developmentEssays / personal

’05’10’15’20’25
Posts
682 from 16 Apr 2001 to 30 Sep 2026
Posting
monthly (15 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://rachelandrew.co.uk/feed/

2026 15

  1. More than words
  2. Remove start and end margins with the margin-trim property
  3. CSS Layout News in the ATmosphere
  4. Multiple-column layout, rows, rules, and floats
  5. How do we talk about atproto to non-developers?
  6. Understanding AT Protocol
  7. Over 15 years of conference speaking
  8. Where’s the holistic AI productivity data?
  9. Joining the atmosphere
  10. What would a 2026 CSS Anthology look like?
  11. The importance of people who care
  12. Do you need AI for that?
  13. Look into the future of the web platform
  14. Generative AI has broken the subject matter expert/editor relationship
  15. 2025 in review

2025 5

  1. A matter of fact
  2. Reading flow ships in Chrome 137
  3. CSS multicol block direction wrapping
  4. Blog questions challenge
  5. 2024 in review

2024 9

  1. Public speaking in 2024
  2. A progress update on reading-flow
  3. When is the right time to share our excitement about new web features?
  4. Masonry and good defaults
  5. Masonry and reading order
  6. On having no visual memory
  7. Closing time
  8. 11 years
  9. 2023 in review

2023 6

  1. 1996
  2. align-content in block layout
  3. Why are we not still using tables-for-layout?
  4. Cooking
  5. Technical writing resources
  6. 2022 in review

2022 4

  1. Thank you An Event Apart
  2. Stop treating all of your content as if it were news
  3. A new home for this site
  4. 2021 in review

2021 2

  1. Good news about display: contents and Chrome
  2. Talk for axe-con: Grid, content re-ordering, and accessibility

2020 6

  1. Writing technical articles: Defining your ideal reader
  2. Does masonry belong in the CSS Grid specification?
  3. Running Online Workshops – The Smashing Podcast
  4. Let’s Learn CSS Grid!
  5. Making Things Better
  6. The CSS Layout Masterclass

2019 15

  1. 2019
  2. Get Ready For CSS Grid Layout – 2nd edition
  3. Announcing Smashing Print Magazine
  4. Grid, content re-ordering and accessibility
  5. CSS Grid subgrid lands in Firefox Nightly
  6. A design pattern solved by subgrid
  7. Getting involved with the web platform
  8. CSS Subgrid News and demos
  9. Are nested grids like nested tables?
  10. Upcoming CSS Layout Workshops
  11. CSSconf EU, Grid Layout, and me
  12. More logical properties
  13. HTML, CSS and our vanishing industry entry points
  14. Fronteers, The W3C, and me
  15. That was 2018

2018 17

  1. Editorial Layouts, Exclusions, and CSS Grid
  2. The Way We Talk About CSS
  3. Why I’m moving from MacOS to Windows
  4. Coming to a browser near you – faster than ever before!
  5. Widget
  6. Should I try to use the IE version of Grid Layout? Revisited for 2018
  7. Get Started with CSS Grid – Online Class
  8. Launching a new product – from self-hosted to SaaS
  9. Grid Level 2 and Subgrid
  10. The CSS Layout Workshop updated for 2018
  11. CSS Grid One Year On
  12. Weeknotes 5
  13. Weeknotes 4
  14. Weeknotes 3
  15. Weeknotes 2
  16. Weeknotes 1
  17. So that was 2017

2017 34

  1. How should we resolve percentage margins and padding on grid and flex items?
  2. CSS Survey Roundup
  3. Launching today: The New CSS Layout
  4. Announcing Notist
  5. Multi-column Layout Level 1 published as a Working Draft
  6. Changes to the Grid Spec and taking on Multi-Column layout
  7. GridBugs
  8. Perch, Patterns and Old Browsers
  9. Why display: contents is not CSS Grid Layout subgrid
  10. Refer to the spec : background and motivation
  11. A redesign
  12. Is it really safe to start using CSS Grid Layout?
  13. You do not need a CSS Grid based Grid System
  14. Breaking out with CSS Grid explained
  15. A very good time to understand CSS layout
  16. Refer to the spec: Introduction
  17. What’s happening in CSS?
  18. Refer to the spec: What is all that stuff at the top of the spec?
  19. Refer to the spec
  20. Edge starts work on their Grid implementation update
  21. Grid is all about the container
  22. CSS Grid Fallbacks and Overrides
  23. Subgrid moved to Level 2 of the CSS Grid specification
  24. CSS Grid lands in Firefox 52
  25. CSS Grid Guides on MDN
  26. Learning CSS Grid Layout
  27. A Box Alignment Cheatsheet
  28. Reporting Browser Bugs
  29. The end of the clearfix hack?
  30. CSS Grid. One layout method not the only layout method
  31. Browser Support for evergreen websites
  32. It’s more than just the words
  33. CSS Grid is Coming
  34. Being effective in 2017

2016 29

  1. 2016: a year in review
  2. Blue Beanie Day 2016
  3. Should I try to use the IE implementation of CSS Grid Layout?
  4. CSS Grid Layout AMA
  5. The Amazing Women of CSS
  6. CSS Grid Layout Module Level 1 at Candidate Recommendation
  7. CSS Grid meets the real world – a login form
  8. Why there is no CSS4 – explaining CSS Levels
  9. The web is not print and other stories
  10. The proposed box-suppress property
  11. CSS Grid updates, changes and state of the browsers
  12. Thinking about page floats, figures, regions and grids
  13. Creating an EPUB for Workshop Notes
  14. What I Learned From Posting a Survey of Conference Speakers
  15. Being where the people are
  16. Rebuilding the Perch UI – creating a pattern library
  17. Rebuilding the Perch UI – not your usual redesign
  18. A Revised Subgrid Specification
  19. A Public Roadmap for your Product
  20. Flexible Sized Grids with auto-fill and minmax
  21. Should I use Grid or Flexbox?
  22. CSS Grid and CSS Regions
  23. Making Sense of the New CSS Layout
  24. CSS Exclusions and Grid Layout
  25. A Grid Solution for the Responsive Tables Problem
  26. Learn CSS Layout with me – online or in person.
  27. Vanishing boxes with display contents
  28. A Review of Gauges – real-time web analytics
  29. Get Ready for CSS Grid Layout

2015 18

  1. 2015 in Review
  2. Launching the CSS Workshop Online
  3. But What About Old Browsers?
  4. CSS Master from SitePoint
  5. Three years with CSS Grid Layout
  6. CSS Grid and The Box Alignment Module
  7. Confidence and Overwhelm
  8. Modern CSS Layout, power and responsibility
  9. CSS Grid Layout at CSS Day
  10. CSS Grid Layout: Solving the Gutter Problem
  11. What does your audience need?
  12. Development environments, configuration management and deployment
  13. The impossibility of a “simple technical solution” to the VAT MOSS mess
  14. Grid Layout automatic placement and packing modes
  15. An oar, a cat, a bottle of wine and a chicken leg
  16. VATMOSS – the first quarter
  17. CSS Grid Layout – creating complex grids
  18. A GTD Reset

2014 43

  1. A Year in Links
  2. Review of the Year 2014
  3. VATMOSS and SaaS ecommerce, payment and delivery apps
  4. Consensus and VATMOSS
  5. How the EU VAT rules make EU startups and digital businesses uncompetitive in a global market.
  6. How small companies and freelancers can deal with the VATMOSS EU VAT changes
  7. Implementing the new EU VAT Rules
  8. No Exit Plan
  9. The horrible implications of the EU VAT “Place of Supply” change
  10. Technical editing as a service – the Book Toolkit
  11. Selling Simplicity
  12. Using tweets as social proof
  13. Support the independents
  14. Grid by Example
  15. Do you “trust your gut” or rely on data in business?
  16. Apple and the 3 week video card swap
  17. CSS Grid Layout: getting to grips with the Chrome implementation
  18. How to become good at estimating time
  19. GTD and OmniFocus 2 – my productivity workflow
  20. We’re Not “Doing a Startup” – video from UIKonf
  21. Mailing lists for bootstrappers
  22. What Happens If You Succeed?
  23. The Transition From Client Work to Product Business
  24. Your email inbox is not your to-do list
  25. Conference speaking, transparency and fairness
  26. re:build Conference 2014
  27. I ran The London Marathon 2014
  28. 5 Tips for the Healthy Frequent Traveller
  29. Chapter 1: The Profitable Side Project Handbook
  30. Perfectionism or procrastination? Reframing the Minimum Viable Product.
  31. Playing a mind game. On distance running and product launches.
  32. Don’t Benchmark Your Success Against Outliers
  33. Podcast advertising – the “sponsor read” is key
  34. The case of the abandoned clients
  35. All I know is how to work hard.
  36. net magazine: Pro Ways to Launch a Product
  37. Content Marketing for bootstrappers – what should you write about?
  38. Selling digital products with Shopify, FetchApp and Stripe
  39. Go back to basics with your product and “fix all the things”
  40. HTML, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, WTF – creating an ebook
  41. The Profitable Side Project Handbook – now available
  42. My 2013 in writing and speaking
  43. Fitness goals for 2014

2013 44

  1. Table of Contents for The Profitable Side Project
  2. Review of the Year
  3. The Bootstrapped Product Resource List
  4. It is never done.
  5. A hostile environment: payments, the PCI DSS and UK digital businesses
  6. Preventing accounting chaos in your product business with Xero
  7. Smashing Book 4: Writing about technical support
  8. Making Your Product a First Class Citizen
  9. Announcing The Profitable Side Project Handbook
  10. A new site design
  11. Conversations with my teenager about the Internet
  12. Unfashionably profitable
  13. Running in the USA – Rock and Roll 10K, Brooklyn
  14. One armed in the gym – things you CAN do with a broken elbow
  15. Review of Snappy – Customer Service Simplified
  16. WYSIWYG Editors still suck – and we only have ourselves to blame
  17. Mailing list
  18. I do not wish to be “reached out” to
  19. Nothing to fall back on
  20. The Bootstrapped Discuss forums
  21. Stuck
  22. Book Review: Design Evolution
  23. Dear Apple, I am not a freak.
  24. Shipping your product – the workshop
  25. Writing about the business of web development for A List Apart
  26. The best 5K ever
  27. CSS Grid Layout: Named Grid Lines and areas
  28. CSS Grid Layout – what has changed?
  29. Working from home and the proper business
  30. Entering races and fun runs
  31. Back in the gym
  32. Goodnight WaSP
  33. Cast off
  34. Women, speaking and online abuse
  35. modern.ie
  36. Credit and Risk – getting paid for your work
  37. Want a podcast guest?
  38. New book: CSS3 Layout Modules
  39. One week
  40. Broken.
  41. AfterShokz headphones review
  42. Starting to run
  43. Falling off my road bike
  44. A new blog

2012 17

  1. On Fear and deciding not to be afraid
  2. A year of talking to people
  3. Moving from WordPress to Perch
  4. We need to talk about content management
  5. The importance of social media for product developers
  6. Doing, speaking and (not) being an internet celebrity
  7. Book Review: A Practical Guide to Web App Success
  8. On acquisitions, pricing and being part of an ecosystem
  9. Public speaking for the (formerly) terrified
  10. Front Trends 2012
  11. A community for the bootstrappers
  12. Stop solving problems you don’t yet have
  13. Responsibly Responsive: developing the Greenbelt website
  14. The return of the Ideas of March
  15. The CSS3 Anthology
  16. Writing beginner level tutorials
  17. Emerge mini-conference and the challenge of presenting online

2011 20

  1. On lucky breaks and saying yes
  2. Be kind to one another
  3. Startups, lack of sleep, and finding better ways to do business
  4. Include your advertising policy when considering website accessibility
  5. Setting people up to fail – why I am afraid of the “bubble”
  6. Complying with PCI DSS when using a hosted payment page
  7. How to move your online sales away from PayPal
  8. Your WYSIWYG Editor sucks
  9. Your CMS as curator of your design and content
  10. Financial things to know when starting a business or taking on your first freelance job in the UK
  11. Future of Web Design 2011
  12. Stop turning contact form spam into a user problem
  13. If all you have is a hammer…
  14. On “mumpreneurs” and other labels
  15. StartUp Britain – what do new businesses really need?
  16. The Ideas of March
  17. Pricing your product
  18. Reselling web hosting to clients
  19. Understanding your medium
  20. Perch addon development and old PHP versions

2010 19

  1. Relaunching the edgeofmyseat.com website
  2. The week of many launches
  3. Online CSS3 Conference
  4. On paying and being paid
  5. An open source application for re-use networks
  6. Using Twitter for customer testimonials
  7. Web Directions @media 2010
  8. Perch 1.5
  9. University of Abertay Dundee
  10. Web Directions @media 2010
  11. Your advice for students who want to work on the web
  12. Blog redesign
  13. Should web designers be able to build their own designs?
  14. Women and the backchannel responses
  15. Women and the backchannel
  16. Spec work for web developers
  17. On self-promotion, lies, and being a woman
  18. Choosing web hosting
  19. Looking forward to 2010

2009 4

  1. Moving accounts from Quickbooks to Xero
  2. Keeping an eye on cashflow – accounts and bookkeeping for web businesses
  3. Perch – a lightweight but powerful CMS for small sites
  4. Ada Lovelace Day

2008 12

  1. Web design or development profit share agreements
  2. Starting your own business during a downturn
  3. 24 Ways returns and edgeofmyseat.com evolves
  4. New Book – “Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong”
  5. Wedding!
  6. Summer project
  7. Off camera flash fun
  8. Does PHP have an image problem?
  9. Dear lazyweb – what should I do with all this email?
  10. So what happens now?
  11. IE8 and the future of the web
  12. I need a new photo project

2007 9

  1. What would you want in an “advanced CSS” course?
  2. CSS Training and changes at edgeofmyseat.com
  3. The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks, 2nd Edition
  4. Geek running
  5. @media2007
  6. New design
  7. WaSP Street Team
  8. We’re still looking for those women
  9. Online identity

2006 17

  1. Rachel Andrew BA (Hons) Hum (Open)
  2. Bedework
  3. 24 Ways returns
  4. CSS – what is the current starting point?
  5. One photo every day for a year
  6. Trains
  7. Diversity thoughts
  8. Greenbelt 2006
  9. On getting older … and not changing all that much
  10. Choosing your CSS techniques
  11. @media 2006
  12. HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS, 2nd Edition
  13. Geeks who happen to also be women
  14. The most irritating thing in the world?
  15. Highbury House receivership
  16. Four Things
  17. Happy New Year!

2005 21

  1. 24 Ways To Impress Your Friends
  2. CSS Shorthand Guide
  3. So, how do you cut up a mango?
  4. … and all things nice
  5. Build Your Own Standards Compliant Website Using Dreamweaver 8
  6. Clearing space on the shelves
  7. Dreamweaver 8
  8. Pants
  9. Websites alienate Firefox users
  10. Missing out and meeting up
  11. DHTML Utopia: Modern Web Design Using JavaScript and DOM
  12. What were they thinking?
  13. Syncing the Nokia 9500 Communicator with Tiger
  14. Diversity
  15. Teaching the Small Person XHTML
  16. Mac Mini
  17. Adobe Aquire Macromedia
  18. Time
  19. Moving offices
  20. hardware hell
  21. Convince me to get a Mac

2004 58

  1. Happy Christmas
  2. The Open University
  3. This is the way we do things around here
  4. Geeks unplugged
  5. The CSS Anthology
  6. Using tables to layout forms
  7. Firefox 1.0
  8. Hallowe’en and unexpected Google ranking
  9. Sigh …
  10. Baby Zeldman
  11. On being a volunteer
  12. WordPress
  13. Grand trip 2004
  14. Spread Firefox
  15. Spam spam spam spam
  16. Driving test
  17. Redesigning all over the place
  18. Browse Happy
  19. Geeks at the beach
  20. TheOpenCD
  21. Holiday
  22. The PHP Anthology
  23. Where are the women in CSS
  24. In league with the devil?
  25. Why you should dump Internet Explorer
  26. Web Standards – who cares anyway?
  27. They Work for You
  28. Guild of Accessible Web Designers
  29. Tell An American To Vote (.com)
  30. Blogger
  31. Should I be offended?
  32. Geeks
  33. My mother blogs …
  34. Where can you see lions?
  35. I am a car owner
  36. Geocaching
  37. Yay for birthdays!
  38. Piano
  39. How to sell accessibility
  40. Put it back!
  41. Alpacas
  42. t-shirts
  43. Fair Trade
  44. Useful Aramaic Phrases
  45. Fixed the random rebooting problem
  46. getting away from it all
  47. Cold …
  48. Lego me
  49. Barred from the lottery
  50. Counties I have visited
  51. Wine merchants
  52. Is it just me …
  53. You are not allowed into our site because we don’t like your browser
  54. Interview with Dave Shea
  55. Snuffle
  56. I love the web
  57. People vs. Peer
  58. whitelist/blacklist

2003 56

  1. Iran Earthquake Appeal
  2. O Little Town …
  3. Open University Results
  4. Packt Publishing
  5. CSS and babies
  6. Calling Ms. Test
  7. quiet …
  8. Learning to drive
  9. Turnip lanterns
  10. Does anyone see anything wrong with this idea …
  11. Win a book
  12. A List Apart relaunches
  13. Bookcrossing
  14. self destructing email?
  15. new book
  16. Favicon and time
  17. Hiran de Silva
  18. Why is my computer so slow?
  19. Wise words
  20. Mess
  21. Dreamweaver MX 2004
  22. Quiet 2
  23. Doctor slang
  24. Don’t click on the blue e
  25. The RPC Server is unavailable
  26. Mobile Phones
  27. Web design postcards
  28. Strange Banana
  29. Mutant Online
  30. Dreamweaver MX Design Projects Support
  31. Good music
  32. New Site
  33. My little sister …
  34. End of an era
  35. Too Darn Hot
  36. As if it’s not enough …
  37. Weird
  38. promoting your business
  39. “Premium Content” on DMXZone
  40. Icky colds
  41. Must do better
  42. Dreamweaver MX Design Projects – source code
  43. Dreamweaver MX Design Projects
  44. The Historical Jesus
  45. Two sides to every story
  46. War
  47. and a door closes
  48. allinthehead.com
  49. War is not the Answer
  50. Macromedia Redesign
  51. eep .. it’s March already
  52. Your very own furry archbishop
  53. out of the cold
  54. Space Shuttle Columbia
  55. things that make me go grrr
  56. Happy New Year!

2002 63

  1. Christmas shopping
  2. Fundamental Web Design and Development Skills
  3. feesch!
  4. I don’t know why this is funny
  5. Mary
  6. If you do the Flash thing
  7. Enormous wasps
  8. The mind boggles
  9. Why
  10. Tired
  11. October
  12. ugh … tax
  13. New toy
  14. An ordinary day
  15. Friday night …
  16. Which Ani Album are you?
  17. One year on
  18. mailing list nastiness
  19. If you can see this …
  20. Solaris
  21. Book
  22. More book news …
  23. Yes
  24. Debian 3 released
  25. Dreamweaver blogs-a-plenty
  26. Linux in schools
  27. Summertime …
  28. various …
  29. You too could have a wonderful web site for 10 UK pounds…
  30. The WaSP Returns
  31. Mozilla version 1 released
  32. birthday parties and moving house
  33. What’s your Debian Package name?
  34. cool stuff
  35. The Political Compass
  36. can you believe the Dreamweaverfever
  37. extra hours in the day needed
  38. Email
  39. one reason that I’ve been so quiet
  40. Keep updated on Dreamweaver MX
  41. helping at the school
  42. mmm … beer
  43. Strange earth problems
  44. April
  45. Theres nothing like a nice usable web site
  46. Free speech
  47. The UK Needs a web conference
  48. well … that was a short month
  49. mummy… where’s my internet?
  50. One year on …
  51. modern “girls” can’t cook?
  52. CSS tests
  53. busy …
  54. Study
  55. new stuff
  56. working another weekend…
  57. too busy to blog
  58. things found in the server logs
  59. XHTML tastiness
  60. The small person discovers the web
  61. Email 2
  62. spam spam spam spam
  63. Happy New Year!

2001 139

  1. a personal review of the year
  2. a new look
  3. new toys
  4. I’ve been ranting again
  5. Oooo … a new Mozilla
  6. things worth reading
  7. Web Standards Project take a break … ?
  8. The big blank screen
  9. Ra d41d cd98
  10. long absences again…
  11. The end is in sight
  12. our past is always with us
  13. The Future Independent Web
  14. Trying to work
  15. Referrer Weirdness
  16. argh Linux!
  17. another new month?
  18. Gah! Pooters!
  19. Online classes
  20. getting there…
  21. If you can see this …
  22. excuse any break in service…
  23. Inevitable
  24. fun with CSS
  25. today …
  26. dull news of the day
  27. a new article
  28. moving on … to what?
  29. Thursday
  30. just praying
  31. “Rules for Jokers”
  32. all quiet
  33. I’m Free!!!!!
  34. trying to stay awake
  35. I know and I’m sorry …
  36. stranded!
  37. An experiment
  38. where did that weekend go…?
  39. Wise words
  40. new site
  41. Mmmm Beer
  42. clock watching
  43. eeeevil cat!
  44. Eek
  45. Wednesday
  46. Useful site
  47. mmm … Beer …
  48. SirCam seems to be slowing down
  49. August already?
  50. Changes
  51. argggghhh.. stop it!
  52. 1000 Journals
  53. UKBloggers – ‘Party in the Park’
  54. Photos
  55. Found in my referrer logs
  56. This is fantastic
  57. sigh …
  58. festivals
  59. Monday Monday
  60. mothers
  61. a toad
  62. in the news…
  63. More pooters … must have more!
  64. Smart tags be gone!
  65. An Interview with Dori Smith
  66. July
  67. Warning labels
  68. forgive me for my lack of updating
  69. Too busy being a geek to blog…
  70. Awww
  71. Music
  72. whirr .. whirr .. whirr
  73. strange things happen here…
  74. wretched errors
  75. another tableless wonder
  76. new navigation
  77. the table layouts are dropping like flies =)
  78. Why web clients settle for less
  79. Dogs in Elk
  80. various CSS grooviness
  81. working too hard
  82. Thea Gilmore …
  83. design to drool over
  84. linkage
  85. the end … ?
  86. Ra 5058 be4e
  87. Add Old Browser Message
  88. fragile
  89. this has cheered me up
  90. dreamweaverfever.com
  91. Linkage
  92. Oh Yuck
  93. More quiz silliness
  94. changes
  95. red hair
  96. weddings
  97. archived ideas
  98. search engine requests
  99. Why 2
  100. Sorry about the outage
  101. we seem to be back
  102. More goodies
  103. Sunday…
  104. title-free
  105. I have coolness
  106. amstrad computers
  107. Ra 5058 be4e 2
  108. lack of updates
  109. I like this …
  110. Truth
  111. weekends, more of them please
  112. perhaps we’ll never know
  113. Busy 2
  114. Independents Day
  115. Yawn
  116. more links
  117. I may start to develop webbed feet
  118. really should get to bed
  119. Grey
  120. puzzling
  121. Meep
  122. sunshine
  123. an endless circle of upgrade pages
  124. server logs fun
  125. when will it be summer?
  126. *giggle*
  127. dancing
  128. all quiet …
  129. First day
  130. has anyone actually ever died of boredom?
  131. Is it only Wednesday?
  132. The quest continues
  133. what no tables?
  134. The Joy of HTML
  135. small things
  136. still poorly sick
  137. Always read the label
  138. poorly sick
  139. happy birthday to me!