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During a phone interview recently I was asked what practices (layout, accessibility, etc.) I used during web design. So here's a quick write-up of what easily came to mind. It's not exhaustive nor in any particular order.

1. Tables are for tables. Don't use tables to format your content. Only use them if you actually need to display data in a tabular format.
2. Use appropriate header tags progressively at the appropriate levels. The title/text that describes what's on the current page should be in an H1 tag. Sections below that should use H2 for their titles, etc. Don't use an H4 tag if you don't have an H1, H2 and H3 above it.
3. Use appropriate tags for the content. Use header tags for headings, use P tags for paragraphs (not DIVs!), use OL and UL for lists, etc. Don't try to use DIVs or SPANs with goofy formatting for everything.
4. Make sure your content looks orderly and readable even if there's no CSS. Text only readers will ignore most if not all of your CSS.
5. Make sure links are visually obvious. Underlining is the standard cue for links. Don't take that away from your users.

This post was inspired by Quick poll : what is your favorite Management Studio tip or trick? by Aaron Bertrand on SQLblog.com.

My favorite SMSS (2005 for me) tricks include:

• CTRL-Tab for switching between windows.
• CTRL-R for showing and hiding the results pane.
• Include column headers when copying or saving the results options under Tools | Options | Query Results | SQL Server | Results to Grid.
• Highlight any table or view name in T-SQL and hit Alt+F1 for sp_help and a list of its fields. (Suggested by dan from the above mentioned post.)

More tips here: DAT315 – Session Review for SSMS Tips & Tricks Session by Bill Ramos.

Here are some more issued we encountered when moving up to a 64-Bit SQL Server 2005. 

 64-Bit Product level is insufficient errors - This happened to us because we didn't have full SSIS installed on the server, just the development version.

• Why do I get "product level is insufficient..." error when I run my SSIS package?
• Where is my SQL Server Integration Services package running?
• SSIS - DTS_E_PRODUCTLEVELTOLOW Error
• MSDN: DTS_E_PRODUCTLEVELTOLOW

64-Bit Offline Mode is True error - This just required a regsvr on a DLL.

• MSKB: On a computer that has a 64-bit processor, you receive an error message in SQL Server Management Studio when you connect to SQL Server 2005 Integration Services or when you create or edit a maintenance plan
• DestinationConnectionExcel and OfflineMode
• Getting Error in 32bit DTEXEC on 64bit machine

64-Bit Linked Server Error - 64-bit SQL Server calls a stored procedure that doesn't exist on linked SQL 2000 servers. Creating a wrapper around a similar existing procedure fixed the problem for us.

• Issue with 64-bit SQL Server using SQL 2000 linked server
• Linking 64-bit SQL2k5 to 32-bit SQL2k ... or, How to Avoid Wasting 10 Days Waiting For Straight Answers

If you've just switched to the 64-bit version of SQL Server and have SSIS packages that access Excel or Access, you may find that you packages stop working. That's because the JET driver that is used to access Excel and Access is 32-bit only. SSIS normally uses the 64-bit DTExec to run SSIS packages, it has not access to the 32-bit drivers. Here are some articles with all the details and work arounds

Quick Reference: SSIS in 32- and 64-bits
http://toddmcdermid.blogspot.com/2009/10/quick-reference-ssis-in-32-and-64-bits.html

SSIS Snack: SSIS, Excel, and a 64-bit OS
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/andy_leonard/archive/2010/01/19/ssis-snack-ssis-excel-and-a-64-bit-os.aspx 

64-bit Excel Driver in Microsoft Office 14
http://dougbert.com/blogs/dougbert/archive/2009/08/28/64-bit-excel-driver-in-microsoft-office-14.aspx

Excel (and Access) Data Source in 64-bit environment
http://ssis.trigonblue.com/Excelin64bitenv/tabid/523/Default.aspx

Facebook Groups

• Has a set look for all groups
• Can enable or disable discussion board, wall, photos, videos, links, related groups, related events
• Cannot rearrange elements on the group's web page
• Limited amount of basic info you can post at the top of the group's web page
• Can easily message all group members
• Can change your group type at any time
• When a group administrator posts to the group, it appears as though that individual posted it
• Group admins' names appear on the group's web page

Facebook Pages

• Starts out with a "wall" page that shows recent posts, like individual profiles
• Supports multiple "tabs" (or "pages") that can have different content
• Can include any applications you want (wall, photos, etc) on different tabs
• Allows you to add blocks of artibrary HTML so you can show anything you want
• Allows you to rearrange the applications on the page
• No way to easily message all page fans
• Cannot change the page type after it's created
• When a group administrator posts to the group, it appears as though the page posted it
• Page admins' names do not appear on the web page
• Provides a Facebook "badge" you can put on your other websites that includes the logo, name and counts of updates and fans
• Allows you to have a "username" for your page so you can have a shorter URL

This information is based on the United States Postal Service standard abbreviations for states and territories: http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/usps_abbreviations.html

If your data needs to include addresses for the continental United States only, it's best to check if the address's state is included in the list of continental states, rather than checking if the state is not in the list of non-continental states.

For example, this incorrect SQL snipit allows addresses in Guam and other territories to pass through:

WHERE store.State NOT IN ('AK','HI','VI','PR')

This is the correct code to check for continental United States:

WHERE store.State IN ('AL', 'AZ', 'AR', 'CA', 'CO', 'CT', 'DE', 'DC', 'FL', 'GA', 'ID', 'IL', 'IN', 'IA', 'KS', 'KY', 'LA', 'ME', 'MD', 'MA', 'MI', 'MN', 'MS', 'MO', 'MT', 'NE', 'NV', 'NH', 'NJ', 'NM', 'NY', 'NC', 'ND', 'OH', 'OK', 'OR', 'PA', 'RI', 'SC', 'SD', 'TN', 'TX', 'UT', 'VT', 'VA', 'WA', 'WV', 'WI', 'WY') AND store.Country = 'United States'

I just found these great indexes for the W3C HTML and CSS documentation. It uses a frameset with a list of all HTML elements or CSS properties in a frame on the left and the current W3C docs on the right. Very nice. I found them on Paul Parks’ website.

HTML Index: http://www.parkscomputing.com/html4/

CSS Index: http://meyerweb.com/eric/css/references/css2ref.html