Winter Break

Yeah! winter break is quickly upon us.  What to do, what to do?  I suppose I will spend it with my three children.  We are all out of school and we are all very excited and ready for the much welcomed break.  I am very satisfied and looking forward to this break before Spring classes begin.  (blah)…No really it’s not that horrible.  My kids are ready to go to the movies, eat popcorn, play video games, sip hot cocoa, and hopefully(if its warm) go sledding.  We are thinking up things to do with our time.  Guess what!?  No homework!  Yes!

The final project

I felt that the final project was a great way to really see what you have learned and how well you can manage both Dreamweaver and Fireworks. I really like the way I can manipulate photos or make my own designs in Fireworks. It really let’s you use your imagination and just let it go if you want to. I can do all sorts of shapes and text designs that I can make my web pages much more eye-catching. That is a great application. Dreamweaver is also packed full of fun ways you can layout the page and I really like the CSS style sheets. I am still practicing and exploring to see what I can come up with. I thought that the final project was fun and it let me venture out and see what I might be able to do and work on too.

Fireworks-Good, Bad, Ugly

Since I have been playing around with Adobe Fireworks, it’s been very eye-opening.  I have found that I can alter and play around with an image and just make the changes that I like.  So I like Fireworks so far.  There is so much you can do and since we all have different likes and many different things pull our attention, this is a great application to work with.  As I am creating my web pages, I am able to use my graphics in a new way.

I was getting a bit overwhelmed with so many, many, choices.  I quickly got over it-either I use ever single option or just stick with a few basic tools.  Either way it is what you make of it, right?!

Copyright….or wrong?

Until this assignment to write my opinion, I haven’t really thought about copyright laws.  But as the lecture went on and after reviewing the movie clips, I realize there is something quite unfair.  As freedom of speech as we all have, shouldn’t the Internet have the same freedoms or laws?  I don’t know, but it just seems that it should be able to view or express what they want to to the public.  I also see this another way, that people have a right to give approval before someone else can use what is theirs to begin with.  I know if I made something and I put a copyright protection on it, I would expect them to abide by it.I personally have used pictures and such off web sites and I am sure that I broke the copyright law when I used it for my own personal use.  I didn’t know until last class that it was illegal.  Oh well!  At least now I know what I can or cannot do for my web site or personal use.   As I was looking for pictures for my web site some did ask that I make mention of who created the picture and where I got it from.  I thought this was a great way of using someones image and being compliant with their request.

Quote for the Week

Here is a quote that I wanted to share with everyone, I got this from my business class and thought it was a great one!!!

We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. ~Jimmy Carter

Do we think ourselves to be a ‘beautiful mosaic’ of people? Makes you stop and think doesn’t it and hopeful with a clear mind and open heart.

Works like a dream….aahhh

What do I think about Dreamweaver? From my point of view this is an awesome application that I enjoy using as I explore and make up new web pages. I had to build a web site from using HTML code only and it was pretty tedious, but was a great way to learn…trial and error! Sooooo with Dreamweaver at my fingertips, I find it to be user friendly. Here’s why: Since I have been using CSS, I find this to be a great way to keep the pages uniform and not having to chose color, font, headings, etc. for each and every page is a plus. I really like how you can just chose the style sheets and go from there! Very nice. I like how you can drag and drop within dreamweaver, it is easy and seems to work well. When I chose to look at my page creation in the browser, it looks true to form and that is extremely helpful so I know what the user is looking at when viewing my site. I find editing, saving, and publishing works well for me. I honestly haven’t come across any pitfalls or snags in using Dreamweaver. Hope that it will continue this way for me, for I am looking forward to using this app. for all my web sites.

No Heat for me…

So here I am just sitting at my computer at home. I am organizing my life, such as what to do today and this week up ahead. I am paying some bills and doing some homework (such as this blog). My computer is situated next to a window in my apartment and I have no heat…not much anyhow. So to the coffee pot I go, and I believe this will be a “coffee day” for me. I thought about what to write this morning and I think I will share this website with those interested in the A+ certification. In one of my other classes, we took a practise A+ test and it was most helpful. This will give you a head start and great knowledge of what to expect on your A+ test. Go to Course Technology and this should take you directly to the student download page and just download the CertBlaster Test Prep Questions. You should be able to navigate from there. Hope this helps! 

CSS styles on Google

In September I picked google as one of my favorite web sites. So I looked into the styles it used for the site. I found mostly tables and lots of div tags too. I was in my igoogle when I looked into the page source. (igoogle is fun). Anyhow there were also css used within the site too. As well as javascript. I looked at igoogle in print preview and didn’t see anything but the header. I also wanted to check out the San Diego Zoo site as well. I found that they use style sheets with css, and javascript. I like the use of tables and it had a bunch of list tags and div tags. Different headers were used throughout the site as well. I like this style of web site, it is laid out nicely and user friendly as well as easy on the eyes, which is a plus!   Also in print preview, it showed quite a bit of the site except for some flash animation and images.

Typography

I found these 4 sites that I think represent the 4 color schemes:

• www.seaworld.com This was a basic monochromatic theme, just shades of blue.
• www.playtexproductsinc.com/corppages/index.asp This site displayed a nice complimentary colors.
• www.coke.com.my/sprite/main.htm This had the analogous color scheme down nicely.  It has shades of light-green, yellow-green, and green.
• www.minutemaid.com This site looked like it represented the triad color scheme.  It displayed green, orange, and blue.

This was a very challenging assignment, but it was a great way to learn what is out there and how colors go well or not so well with each other on a web page.

Friendly zoo site…come and explore it!

For a web site that has easy to view pages with nicely chosen font and styles, this is a great one to visit. http://www.sandiegozoo.org/  I picked this site as having pleasant typography for numerous reasons:  I especially like the color of background which really brings out the colors of font.  This makes it friendly for the viewer!  The color is neutral, not too bright and not at all dull.  For a zoo web site this is superbly designed for all ages and tastes.  The kid’s page has bright colors and awesome graphics…but I will keep on the subject.  The size and style of font that is used is kept the same throughout all the pages you visit.  I believe this is especially important in creating a successful web site, which the ‘San Diego Zoo’ site has accomplished very well.  Click on the link and explore…have fun!