hyperdaz: ...cant quite believe really that websites are still so under desinged... and features simular to these are not more widespread...
Well, for the most part, you're going against several thousand years of history. The principle method of written communication on the planet is horizontal text, reading left to right (yes, there are other ways). The waaaaaay principal method of reading text electronically is left-to-right, horizontally.
Your first year of design class should have been very clear on the anthropological issues of design -- when you design something that is hard to use, it won't be used. Natural Selection works very well in the field of design!
As far as under-designed websites, I have never seen in ten thousand years of recorded history a medium pushed to the limits of functionality and design as the web. I mean, there's just really
nothing against which one can compare the web, with it's millions of individual designers and voices, all hollering out their own words in their own way.
So, it's hard for me to think that there's any sort of dearth of design weirdness out there when
nothing else on the planet or in the recorded history of all civilizations on this planet can even come close to what's already out there and being cranked out. Furthermore, I
know that only the tiniest fraction of what's possible using HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript or Perl is being done. Which means, and I do not think that I am exaggerating in the slightest, that we have used a small percentage of what's already possible to outstrip everything else on the planet.
So, pardon me if I have a chuckle at the idea that web design is limited in ability.
![[lol]](/data/assets/smilies/lol.gif "[lol] [lol]")
Coming back from the Perspective Trip, now, you're talking about doing a rather unusual thing: displaying text sideways.
This is a "design limitation" in the same way that windshield wipers on the
inside of the glass are a design limitation. Nobody specs it because nobody would probably do it because they would know that, outside of the novelty value, it is less useful than keeping the wipers on the
outside of the glass. Or keeping the text level.
Alternately, you can think of it this way: make a website with white letters on a white background. How popular/interesting/frequently read do you suppose that page will be. That white-on-white page is
more accessible than a page with tilted text!
You can angle text in a couple of different ways:
[ul]
[li]make a graphic image (or a bunch of slices)[/li]
[li]angle text in a word processing document, such as a Word file, then save the .doc on the web[/li]
[li]Angle the text in a PDF and save that on the web.[/li]
[li]You can probably do this with Flash or Swish. The text is editable, you just have to recompile your swf file each time you change it.[/li]
[/ul]
I approached it from the "novelty" angle, meaning that I basically sacrificed readability and useability to solve the problem. However, if readability and/or useability is important to you, then you might reconsider angling your text. The people who
aren't already tilted because of nerve damage or paralysis will become so and then they'll have their monitors tilted manually to accomodate the entire rest of the web with their disability and
still your website won't be accessible.
![[smile]](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif "[smile] [smile]")
Maybe that'll help, maybe not.
Cheers,
![[monkey]](/data/assets/smilies/monkey.gif "[monkey] [monkey]")
Edward
"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door
....It's definately not the everyday script, but I'm not so sure that a custom scroll box couldn't be built to make this happen. The question is "How?" 
I just gotta use this.... sooner the better 