I've been hard at work on my site and have just about gotten it finished. I added some collapsible Spry panels to the samples page and added content to everything else. My next task is to gather up all of the repeat code and stick it into an external stylesheet so that the formatting from one page to the next is consistent. As it is, using the webpage host I am using now, I have to manually add changes to each and every page and I have forgotten a few things here and there. For now, though, my main focus was on getting a site up and running that actually functioned. it isn't 100% complete, but I'd say it is at least 98.5%.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
This Week In Web Design...
... I learned how to create Spry Assets to add more bling to websites. I replaced the left side vertical menu bar with a Spry bar and added a sub-menu to the SAMPLES button. I also created a graphic for the background of the footer. There was a graphic already provided in the book work and I just opened Photoshop and used the gradient tool to tweak the colors a bit to suit my needs. I also learned how to create a hyperlink that opens a new tab rather than opening in the existing tab. To show you what I mean, here's a link to my website: MY WEBSITE.
All of the pages on the site now have been created using a template that I crated last week. Templates are your web design friends. Rather than have to manually code each and every page, you only have to create the first one and save it as a template. Then, you create the following pages from that template.
My instructor has told me that I have to have the site finished and full of content next week, so I guess that's my challenge for the week ahead.
All of the pages on the site now have been created using a template that I crated last week. Templates are your web design friends. Rather than have to manually code each and every page, you only have to create the first one and save it as a template. Then, you create the following pages from that template.
My instructor has told me that I have to have the site finished and full of content next week, so I guess that's my challenge for the week ahead.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
What I Learned This Week
This week in class, I learned how to create a banner in Adobe Photoshop. First, you pick a few graphics that you think might make an interesting banner. Then, in Photoshop you open a new project and delineate an area to hold your graphics. Next, you start dropping the graphics into that area.
Typically, the graphics are going to be too large, so you have to alter their image size properties to make them fit. You are most likely not going to be able to use the entire graphic, so try and pick images that look good with a letter box on top of them.
After you've got your graphics layered the way you want them to be, you start adding your text. This is the text for your home button and such. Once you've got the buttons spaced out the way you want them to be, you have to use the slice tool to cut your overall banner image into small slices. This is necessary so that you can add code to each slice in DreamWeaver.
I make it sound a lot simpler than it actually is. It's easier if you just see for yourself. You can check out my website at THIS SITE.
Typically, the graphics are going to be too large, so you have to alter their image size properties to make them fit. You are most likely not going to be able to use the entire graphic, so try and pick images that look good with a letter box on top of them.
After you've got your graphics layered the way you want them to be, you start adding your text. This is the text for your home button and such. Once you've got the buttons spaced out the way you want them to be, you have to use the slice tool to cut your overall banner image into small slices. This is necessary so that you can add code to each slice in DreamWeaver.
I make it sound a lot simpler than it actually is. It's easier if you just see for yourself. You can check out my website at THIS SITE.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Chapter 3 Hands-On Exercises (1-9)
In this unit, I learned more about cascading stylesheets, IDs, classes, and external stylesheets and had the opportunity to practice using them. So, here you go...
This sentence is using an inline style
Testing the new embedded body settings (Green text on a white background)(NOTE: the background color here is changed due to settings on this site)
Testing the .new class settings (Bold and italic, Arial/Helvetica/sans-serif font family, no underlined links, white background, black text): Yahoo.com
Week 2 Exercises Involving External Stylesheets
My Favorite Movie Using External Stylesheet #1(3.7)
My Favorite Movie Using External Stylesheet #2(3.7)
CSS Advantages Using External Stylesheet
CSS Advantages Using Modified External Stylesheet and Using Inline Code to Overwrite Stylesheet Elements
CSS Disadvantages Using External Stylesheet
CSS Disadvantages Using Modified External Stylesheet
3.9 Required me to go to CSS Validator to validate one of my external stylesheet files. The site was surprisingly easy to use. I uploaded the file and clicked the CHECK button and it popped up right away with two error messages. I had listed the font name and the color for my <h1> definition incorectly. Not only did it recognize my crass mistakes, it even told me how to fix them. I quickly made the changes and uploaded the file again and it passed. Easy peasy. I'd recommend this tool to anyone learning about CSS and XHTML. It definitely made things a lot easier for me. It's a very useful tool if you're not completely sure what you're doing(ie. - if you're like me =D ).
Chapter 2 Hands On Exercises
DAVID
Yahoo.com- Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- HTML
- XML
- XHTML
MARK TWAIN
"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
A diagram of the organization of a web site is called a site map or storyboard. Creating the site map is one of the initial steps in developing a web site.
The additional exercises required me to create several websites and they can be found here:
Sunday, June 19, 2011
My First Entry
So, here I am in my 8th quarter at ITT and I am taking a Scripting and Web Authoring course. My first assignment is to create a blog about my experiences learning Adobe Dreamweaver and XHTML. Ideally, this plain, boring looking blog should become neater and neater as the quarter moves on. As of right now, though, I know virtually zero about designing web pages.
I do, however, know what looks good and what doesn't. For instance: Google.com is an example of a web site that looks good. I like the minimalist nature of the site. The front page is very simple and straightforward. Google is a search engine and doesn't pretend to be anything else.
As for an example of a poorly designed website, I present this example to you that was co-created by one of my instructors and a friend of his: AFCatering.com
At first glance, the site doesn't look too bad. They grabbed a bunch of components and threw them together into a solid package that delivers everything the client wanted. However, if you take a look at the order forms, it gets atrocious. The pages seem to scroll down forever. This functionality could have been better done by breaking it into smaller segments. For instance, the menu deserves its own page. Each menu item could have had a box next to it where the customer could enter the quantity they wanted to order. In the upper right hand corner of the screen could have been a box that would track the total based upon what the customer had entered in with a check out button that would take them to a payment options screen.
I hope to not make these same mistakes during the assignments I undertake for this course. That is all for now.
I do, however, know what looks good and what doesn't. For instance: Google.com is an example of a web site that looks good. I like the minimalist nature of the site. The front page is very simple and straightforward. Google is a search engine and doesn't pretend to be anything else.
As for an example of a poorly designed website, I present this example to you that was co-created by one of my instructors and a friend of his: AFCatering.com
At first glance, the site doesn't look too bad. They grabbed a bunch of components and threw them together into a solid package that delivers everything the client wanted. However, if you take a look at the order forms, it gets atrocious. The pages seem to scroll down forever. This functionality could have been better done by breaking it into smaller segments. For instance, the menu deserves its own page. Each menu item could have had a box next to it where the customer could enter the quantity they wanted to order. In the upper right hand corner of the screen could have been a box that would track the total based upon what the customer had entered in with a check out button that would take them to a payment options screen.
I hope to not make these same mistakes during the assignments I undertake for this course. That is all for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)