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IDCC 370 Announcements
Saturday, April 25, 2009
In-theater Movie Survey, 04/25/09
Check this out:Just a reminder that you should have made good progress on your in-theater survey by class time on Tuesday, April 28, so that we can troubleshoot any problems you may have in creating an on-line form.
Note: also be sure to bring to class on Tuesday your assignment two so that you can work on corrections. Everything will be due (Assignments 1, 2, and 3) by no later than 4:30 p.m., Friday, May 1. Your final packet of materials should be left with Gail Wessell, Smith 121. Be sure to sign the roster when you leave your assignments with Gail.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: interactive form, king kong, movie, on-line survey, survey
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Bentley Ranked 14th Nationally, 04/23/09
Check this out: 
Here is something to be very proud of: Bentley University has just been ranked at number 14 by US News and World Report in their Best Business Schools Specialty Rankings: Information Systems.
Three academic departments at Bentley share this space: CIS, IPM, and IDCC (DUC). Take a look at the company we keep (click the graphic to the right to enlarge).
Further, it is interesting to note that behind us in the rankings are Arizona State University, the University of California--Berkeley, University of California--Irvine, Purdue University, University of California--Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below.
Labels: Bentley University, US News Ranking
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Monday, April 20, 2009
Form Construction 04/20/09
Check this out:
In class Tuesday, we will continue working on the final elements of Exercise 7, the ice cream survey. I will clarify any issues you may have with the checkbox and radio form elements, especially the intricacies of the Name-Value pair and the unique ID for the label.
You may be interested in learning more about Fitts' law, as that is the chief conceptual underpinning of form field accessibility. Remember the Buchholz simple formulation of the law: "The smaller the target and the longer the distance necessary to travel to hit the target, the greater the likelihood that the target will be missed."
All of this means, simply enough, that, in designing forms, you will want to make the checkbox and radio button areas as large as possible; therefore, we need to include the label and the form element as the entire target, thereby increasing the probability that your respondent will easily be able to access all elements of your form.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: accessibility, check boxes, Fitts' law, Form Elements Accessibility Guide, name-value pair, radio buttons
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Thursday, April 16, 2009
Form Elements and Form Development Cycle, 04/16/09
Check this out:This handy little state drop-down element and this country drop-down element will save you a great deal of typing. (Warning: These links open in new browser windows.)
You are free to use these form elements in Dreamweaver, whenever you need to, especially in your final assignment, due NLT 4:30, Friday, May 1, delivered to Gail Wessell, Smith 121. Be sure to sign the roster when handing in Assignments 1, 2, and 3 as a package.
Thinking about how to create a form is half the battle in designing an interactive survey for the Web.
The Form Development Cycle tutorial (opens in a new window) will help you to understand the 8-part form development cycle that will make Assignment Three much easier for you as you go about designing your on-line survey. I highly recommend that you step through the tutorial before too much longer.Note that you can save yourself much time and misery if you plan carefully. This assignment is a perfect example of how to use paper and pen (low fidelity prototyping) literally to sketch your plan and its phased implementation. This approach to form design is iterative. You design, implement, test, redesign, reimplement, and retest. Work slowly, carefully, and in small increments, just as we are working in class on understanding the various form elements.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: check boxes, Dreamweaver, Form Development Cycle, form elements, Form Elements Accessibility Guide, interactive form, on-line survey, radio buttons
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Saturday, April 11, 2009
Interactive Form Construction, 4/11/09
Check this out:
Next class we will begin work on the interactive form elements of the Assignment 3 specifications in class. Our first challenge will be to understand and create correctly labelled interactive form elements. Over the years, students have found this technology to be inviting and actually quite a bit of fun. 
I hope you will have the same experience. The screenshot of the forms tab insert bar (above) shows one easy way to access the 14 form elements available to you in Dreamweaver. The screenshot to your right shows the drop-down/fly-out menu system that also allows access to the form elements. I use them both, depending on where I am working in the form being built.In class, we will very carefully construct a prototype form that will include all the elements needed for assignment 3.
To make a form work on our servers, you will need some special markup that calls up a Perl file (mailto_nt.pl) in the cgi-bin (Common Gateway Interface-binary) folder on the server atc.bentley.edu. This HTML markup is simple text in a Notepad file (cgimailto.txt) containing hidden elements that allow the form to function. These elements must be inserted into the head of the form tag. Therefore, in class on, you will need this markup, often referred to as the cgi snippet, to test the functionality of your form.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: Assignment Three, binary, cgi snippet, Common Gateway Interface, form elements, form tag, interactive form, Perl
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Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Floating Callouts and Graphics, 04/08/09
Check this out:Our focus in class will be on creating a number of CSS rules that allow you to float callouts and graphics left and right. The float, as many of you have learned already, is an essential design concept in CSS.
Using your exercise six cleanly scrubbed, XHTML-ized, Semantic Web-proofed, well-formed and valid text, Open Communication Climate, you will plant two callouts and two graphics, both left and right, making necessary adjustments to the graphics and text to improve design for readability and overall aesthetics. You will want to pay special attention to the relationship of the graphics, callouts, paragraph size, and headings: a full-bore design experience is about to be yours.The graphics above left and right are the ones you will use for this exercise. I will provide written instructions and will work through the design and rule-writing with you in class. I think you will find working with the float to be a lot of fun.
At the bottom of your newly designed page, you will add this source note after the Buchholz source note:
Microsoft Office Clip Art Photographs: j0406569.jpg (Shaking hands) and j0289517.jpg (2 women in office). (n.d.). Microsoft Office 2003. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: CSS, Float, Graphics, Microsoft Clip Art, Open Communication Climate, scrubbed, Semantic Web, source graphic, spell-check
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009
CSS Order for Assignment 2 04/07/09
Check this out:The graphic below illustrates the order (hierarchy) of your CSS rules in 370.css:
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: 370.css, CSS, hierarchy
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Sunday, April 05, 2009
Withdrawal Deadline, Monday, April 13 04/05/09
Check this out:Here is a message for you and me from Dean Ellis, Office of Academic Services:
"Please be aware that the final deadline for students to withdraw from a full semester Spring course is Monday, April 13.
The only exceptions considered are for late occurring medical or family crises. Poor performance in a course is not considered an extenuating circumstance for late withdrawal. Therefore, I encourage you to talk with students now if you fear they are in danger of failing and should consider withdrawal."You know where your grade and absences put you at this point in the semester. If you think you are in danger of receiving a bad grade for the course--one that will seriously affect your gpa--make an appointment with me to discuss your progress in the course.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: course withdrawal, Jane Ellis
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Friday, April 03, 2009
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 30-day Free Trial Download 04/03/09
Check this out:As the product marketers at Adobe say about Dreamweaver CS4:
"Design, develop, and maintain standards-based Web sites and applications. Build world-class Web sites and applications with one of the industry's leading Web authoring tools.
Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS4 software is ideal for Web designers, Web developers, and visual designers."You can easily download a free 30-day trial version. When you get to the Adobe download page, mouse over the DW icon (third from the top in the second column), and you will see the graphic above. Note that you can buy, try, or learn more about DW. Click on "Try". You will then be taken to a screen that requires you to create an account if you are new to Adobe; if you already have an account with Adobe, just sign in. Let me know if you have any problems with this procedure.
Happy designing in the comfort of your own home. :)
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: CS4, download, Dreamweaver, free 30-day trial, web design
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Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Christopher Hass Speaks about Web Accessibility 04/03/09
Check this out:Chris Hass, Usability Consultant from the Bentley Design and Usability Center (DUC), speak about Web accessibility issues on Friday, April 3, 11:20-12:35, in Smith 210.
Here are some of the topics Chris will cover:
Here are some of the topics Chris will cover:
- What is a disability? What’s the difference between a situational and a functional disability?
- What are assistive technologies that affect Web use, and how familiar does one need to be with them?
- What is accessibility? From both legal and practical standpoints
- What/who governs Web- and software-based products in the US and abroad
- Understanding the letter AND the spirit of the law – advocating for “usable access” not just “access”
- What coding solutions typically support or fail to support accessibility
- What decisions can able-bodied developers make as opposed to testing with persons who have disabilities
- Case examples from DVD development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site development, HP.com’s commercial Web site, others
- The perils and challenges of “Web 2.0” for persons with disabilities
- ROI benefits of accessible design
Brief Bio:
Chris Hass has more than 12 years of experience in human factors research, user interface design, and accessibility in the development of innovative user experience programs. Chris has unique expertise conducting human factors research with persons with physical and cognitive disabilities, a skill that strategically aligns with one of the center's key growth areas. He also brings extensive experience designing information architecture and interaction designs for consumer, medical, professional, and human service products. Prior to joining the Design and Usability Center, Chris worked at the American Institutes for Research, where he was a senior research scientist in the Human Factors Research and Design group. Previously, he served as a World Wide Web specialist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below.
Labels: accessibility, DUC, human factors, usability, web design
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Optimizing a Word Doc for XHTML 04/02/09
Check this out: 
Next class, we will begin our assignment three design project using this Word doc about open communication in the workplace. In class, I will provide specific directions on how to handle this document, which will become exercise 6. The basic idea is to show you how to import a Word doc. file and then to scrub up the XHTML in preparation for named fragments and style rules application (readied for the Semantic Web). This will be practice for assignment three, due no later than 4:30 p.m., Friday, May 1.
Here is a character set code that will be important in this assignment: iso-8859-1. I will explain why this is important and how to use it as you move toward styling your own essay for assignment three. Don't forget where this code is.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: Assignment 3, iso-8859-1, named fragment, Open Communication Climate, scrubbed, Semantic Web, Word doc
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Sunday, March 29, 2009
Banners and Buttons, 03/29/09
Check this out:Next class we will finish up the look and feel of your Web site template by creating the CSS "buttons."
I think you will be amazed at how attractive your site will be when the banner and buttons are activated on all your pages. If you enlarge the screenshot to the left, you will be able to see some of the buttons and banner detail in the template page for exercise 5. With any luck, we will be able to complete the lion's share of this exercise in class. At any rate, you will receive a sheet of directions that will allow you to work on your own outside of class.For the next two classes or so, you should bring your Assignment One, if you have not finished correcting it yet, and any exercises that you may need to complete or polish up. If there is time in class, you may be able to tackle some of this material. Remember, Assignment Two with the annotated copy of Assignment One, is due Thursday, April 9, at the beginning of class.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: Assignment One, Assignment Two, banner, buttons, CSS, css buttons
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Assignment One Corrections, 03/27/09
Check this out:As a group, you created some wonderful Web sites for Assignment One. Congratulations to you all. I want, however, to highlight some areas to watch out for when creating a Web site and in making your corrections on the assignment. Here goes:
Writing and proofreading: The Web is both a graphic and a written medium. In Web design, you must be very careful on both fronts, as you are publishing to the world. Make sure that your writing is concise and correct. Watch your phrasing (how you say something), punctuation, spelling, and proofreading (shift/F7 in Dreamweaver results in the spellcheck utility, pictured at right). Good writing is critical in the design of Web sites. If your site is riddled with errors, your credibility and professionalism plummet. People will not trust the information you are trying to convey. A site that is untrustworthy is just taking up cyberspace. Don't let that be you. - ALT: Be sure that all graphics contain Alternative Text (ALT). This becomes very important as you construct your pages for Assignments Two and Three.
- Contrast: In Web design, when setting text against a background color or layer, you must be very careful to create high contrast, otherwise the text will not be visible. The extreme, as I've mentioned, is black text on a black background or white text on white. It just doesn't work. In some of your pages, you put dark text against a dark background: no go. Note too that when you use a black page background, your visitors will have a difficult time reading blue and maroon hyperlinks. You need to change the color of the background, hyperlink, or text.
- Vertical spacing: Some of you have too much space vertically—usually extra enters. Kill them.
- Page titles: Remember that the <title> tag is your visitor's (and your) best friend for all the reasons discussed in class. Make sure that all your tags are structured so that the key identifying information for the page itself comes first, followed by key site identification information. Here is the ideal model: <title>Biography, William Buchholz, IDCC 370, Spring '09, Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452</title> Another: <title>Exercise 5 – The Finished Template, William Buchholz, IDCC 370, Spring '09, Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452</title> You get the idea.
- Click here: Avoid this. Remember, you should always make in-line hyperlinks descriptive of their destination. Rather than “William Buchholz resume, click here,” you should set the link descriptively: “William Buchholz resume.” Creating descriptive links helps your site visitors and, of course, contributes to more effective SEO.
- Quoting and paraphrasing: Some of you are still confused about how to handle quotes and paraphrases. The easiest rule of thumb is this: if you use three words or more in a row from your source, be sure to put quotations around this material. You can intersperse your commentary with quotes, but be very careful about this. And remember to refer to the handout for Exercise One (1c: CreatingYour Prototype Site) that spelled out exactly how to create your documentation both in the text and in the sources.
Labels: "click here", alt, Assignment One, background, contrast, meta tags, proofreading, shift f7, sources, spacing, spell-check, writing
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Monday, March 16, 2009
Sites for Free Graphics, 03/16/09
Check this out: 
In thinking of the graphic signature (look and feel) of your site as communicated effectively through the banner, buttons, and color palette, you may need to do a little more exploration for graphics.
Here are three sites that offer a wonderful selection of free photographs (note their fair use policies as published on their sites):
In class you will be able to explore some of these sites to work on your banner as we begin the next exercise. Remember, you will also be experimenting with graphics effects using other free materials from the Microsoft clip art photo collection, brownielocks (http://www.brownielocks.com/
backgrounds.html), and GRSites (http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/).
Note: When you start to download free material, remember to save the graphics in your masters subfolder of the images folder. Be sure to name any file you download with the site name prior to the graphic filename; for example, brownielocks-dribblessplats.jpg. Then, as you acquire graphics from brownielocks and other vendors, the files will be together in the masters subfolder. Remember, you need to credit all your graphics sources and provide links to the graphic (or at least to the site if you cannot link to the graphic). It is very important that you keep all of these files straight, so take care.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: color palette, design, free Web graphics, graphic design, Graphics
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
Site Design and Graphics, 02/28/09
Check this out:In preparation for your upcoming assignments, you should be scouting the Web for sites whose design you admire. You will want to pay special attention to the color palette, layout, and design of the banner and navigation areas of the sites. Take your time to explore the sites in the following list:
- http://www.456bereastreet.com/
- http://meyerweb.com/
- http://www.simplebits.com/
- http://www.pearsonified.com/
- http://www.cssbeauty.com/
- http://www.bartelme.at/
- http://www.themaninblue.com/
- http://www.andybudd.com/
- http://warpspire.com/
- http://www.briangardner.com/
- http://bittbox.com/
- http://fadtastic.net/
- http://www.davidairey.com/
- http://www.alvit.de/css-showcase/
- http://www.designlinkdatabase.net/
- http://csscollection.com/
- http://www.cssbased.com/
Make some mental notes (or better yet, jot down some ideas) that you can incorporate into your own site as we move into the final phases of designing your sites.
You will also want to visit free graphics sites for images you can use in your design. In class, and in exercise 4, you will be experimenting with graphics effects using materials from the Microsoft clip art photo collection, brownielocks (http://www.brownielocks.com/backgrounds.html), and GRSites (http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/).
When you start to download free material, remember to save the graphics in your masters subfolder of the images folder. Be sure to name any file you download with the site name prior to the graphic filename; for example, brownielocks-dribblessplats.jpg. Then, as you acquire graphics from brownielocks and other vendors, the files will be together in the masters subfolder. Remember, you need to credit all your graphics sources and provide links to the graphic (or at least to the site if you cannot link to the graphic). It is very important that you keep all of these files straight, so take care.
In selecting the graphics sites and downloading your material, you should be thinking of the whole look and feel of your site: colors, graphics, and page design. Do you want your site to be light and airy? Dark and brooding? Serious and professional? Wild and crazy? Subdued and understated? Adventuresome? Cute? Tough? Nationalistic (e.g., Irish, Italian, American)?
We will spend some time in class working through the technical aspects of design, so you should have plenty of opportunity to experiment. But do not save this work for class alone. Work on your design outside as well.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
You will also want to visit free graphics sites for images you can use in your design. In class, and in exercise 4, you will be experimenting with graphics effects using materials from the Microsoft clip art photo collection, brownielocks (http://www.brownielocks.com/backgrounds.html), and GRSites (http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/).
When you start to download free material, remember to save the graphics in your masters subfolder of the images folder. Be sure to name any file you download with the site name prior to the graphic filename; for example, brownielocks-dribblessplats.jpg. Then, as you acquire graphics from brownielocks and other vendors, the files will be together in the masters subfolder. Remember, you need to credit all your graphics sources and provide links to the graphic (or at least to the site if you cannot link to the graphic). It is very important that you keep all of these files straight, so take care.In selecting the graphics sites and downloading your material, you should be thinking of the whole look and feel of your site: colors, graphics, and page design. Do you want your site to be light and airy? Dark and brooding? Serious and professional? Wild and crazy? Subdued and understated? Adventuresome? Cute? Tough? Nationalistic (e.g., Irish, Italian, American)?
We will spend some time in class working through the technical aspects of design, so you should have plenty of opportunity to experiment. But do not save this work for class alone. Work on your design outside as well.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: brownielocks, color palette, design, free Web graphics, Googling, graphic design, Graphics, GRSites, layout, optimize graphics, source graphic, Web assets
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Using Dreamweaver to FTP Your Site, 02/24/09
Check this out:We'll spend time in class finishing your bottom navigation class for the template.
After we pour all your top-tier pages into the template, title all your pages correctly; for example:
- William Buchholz, IDCC 370, Spring ’09, Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452
- About William Buchholz, IDCC 370, Spring ’09, Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452
Biography of William Buchholz, IDCC 370, Spring ’09, Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452 - Ontology Essay, William Buchholz, IDCC 370, Spring ’09, Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452
First, remember that your account has already been created on the IDCC server. Now you need to hook to that server through Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver's FTP utility can be a little confusing the first or second time through, so I hope this advice will help.
Make sure the latest copy of your Web site is on the c:/ drive (most likely a drag and drop from your m:/ drive) to a subdirectory with your last name. Example: C:\Documents and Settings\wbuchholz\My Documents\My Web Sites\370\.
Once you're sure you have the latest version of your Web on the c:\ drive, invoke the site management wizard to edit your specs. I'll walk you through the steps in the wizard, so don't move too quickly. Wait for the whole class to go through this.
The key screen in the wizard is the one where you actually hook to the server and your folder on the server. Here is a screen shot to use as a model (click to enlarge for easier viewing):
If you need some help with this whole process in class, just raise your hand. If you run into trouble at home, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu for more advice — or wait until the next class, and we'll quickly take it from there. Please feel free to comment on this post (nothing dirty, though) and I will respond for all to see.Labels: Bentley, Dreamweaver, FTP, site setup, Web assets, Web site directory, World Wide Web
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Commenting CSS Style Rules, 02/24/09
Check this out:
You will spend a good deal of time in this class making sure that your css rules are properly ordered. As the 370.css file continues to grow (we'll be adding a good number of rules in the next few weeks), you will want to be able to traverse the rules easily. Thus, in addition to good structure, you will want to add some descriptive sign posts along the way.In setting up your signposts, you will need to comment your CSS style rules in the hierarchical chunks I keep alluding to in class. This css commenting model (pdf) will give you an idea of the way I have commented my 370.css thus far. Feel free to use this document as a reference point in your own commenting of 370.css for Assignment One. I will address any concerns you may have next class.
If you are interested in some further commenting ideas, check out "Brownspank, a standards-conscious Web Designer for Brown Battery Studios," who has posted an interesting article on CSS comments: Maximize CSS Comment Usage. Take a look at this for some good commenting ideas.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: Assignment One, Brown Battery Studios, Brownspank, commenting, CSS, w3c.org
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Creating Pseudo Class Selectors with Dreamweaver, 02/11/09
Check this out:
Next, we will be working with our site templates to visually set the signature and the bottom navigation bar. The three views of the nav bar and signature (at right; click to enlarge) show the progression from unstyled to completely styled (note: the exercises link is in the hover state, bottom graphic).To create this set of "faux buttons" in css, you will be working with the four css pseudoclasses:
- a:link
- a:visited
- a:hover
- a:active
To make these buttons work, you will create a style class .botnavbar and attach it to your bottom navigation paragraph tag. I think you will find this whole styling activity to be fun and an instructive introduction to your next challenge: the top navigation button bar:
Garrick Chow, from Lynda.com, has a nice review on Creating pseudo class selectors with Dreamweaver. Feel free to watch this tutorial to reinforce what we will learn in class about css pseudoclasses and design.If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: Dreamweaver, Garrick Chow, Lynda.com, pseudo class, tutorial
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Monday, February 09, 2009
Site Template Construction, 02/09/09
Check this out:In undertaking exercise two, Web site template construction, you will be tackling some rather sophisticated design approaches that combine XHTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). To gain a better understanding of the standards involved, please review the first seven slides in the PowerPoint tutorial on Cascading Style Sheets.
Also remember that when you create content for the Web in Dreamweaver, you must never use the alignment icons on the properties bar, as depicted (and crossed out) here:
These icons insert deprecated HTML attributes into your page markup (align="left"; align="right"; align="center"; align="justify"). Instead of these deprecated attributes, use CSS in creating your Web site according to standards.
When we create our site template, we are establishing the layout and design that will be used ultimately to generate all the pages of the site. Note that in creating this exercise, you supplied paragraphs of text in Latin. In the design business, this text is known as "greeked." (Click on this image to find out Microsoft's explanation of "Lorem ipsum.")If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: alignment icons, attribute, Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, deprecation, Dreamweaver, greeked text, layout, template, tutorial
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Thursday, February 05, 2009
Purchase of Dreamweaver CS4, 02/05/09
Check this out:
I know that a good number of you are interested in purchasing Dreamweaver CS4. Here are the instructions for the licensed student purchase through Bentley U. Note the student price is $99, plus shipping and handling. This price cannot be beat. I highly recommend that you take advantage of this if you can.It's very important that you purchase the correct platform (Windows or Mac), as this software is not returnable and not refundable for any reason.
Windows Platform License
https://owa.bentley.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=dcc911fc496548bb9cecf2dceca2aecb&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cdwg.com%2fshop%2fproducts%2fdefault.aspx%3fEDC%3d1603103 (add to cart)
You must also add 1603100 to the cart for the media (from the shopping cart use the quick cart function)
Macintosh Platform License
https://owa.bentley.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=dcc911fc496548bb9cecf2dceca2aecb&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cdwg.com%2fshop%2fproducts%2fdefault.aspxEDC%3d1603099 (add to cart)
You must also add 1603096 to the cart for the media (from the shopping cart use the quick cart function)
Your order total including media should be $115.69 plus tax and shipping, and your order should arrive within 2-3 weeks. If you have any problems, email https://owa.bentley.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=dcc911fc496548bb9cecf2dceca2aecb&URL=mailto%3astudentsales%40cdwg.com or contact Bentley's sales rep, Lisa West-Woodard, at https://owa.bentley.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=dcc911fc496548bb9cecf2dceca2aecb&URL=mailto%3aLisawes%40cdw.com
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below.
Labels: adobe, Dreamweaver, Windows platform
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Wrapper, Header, Contents, Footer, 02/05/09
Check this out:
Be sure that you understand conceptually the design principles depicted to the right regarding the wrapper container that holds three other containing elements for your Web template: header, contents, and footer (click on the graphic to see an enlarged version).Proper nesting of these containers is critically important in designing the structure of your template. Note that the wrapper div contains the siblings: header, contents, and footer. It may seem strange that the contents div is at the same relational level as the header and footer divs, but think of these containers as all needing to be separate (but not equal) and contained within a parent element.
The commented markup is inserted to clarify the relationships of the divs, identified by their particular unique IDs (click on the graphic at left to see an enlarged version).
Note in the markup itself how the sibling divs (header, contents, and footer) are contained in the parent div (wrapper), which is contained in the ultimate parent, the <body> tag. This containment exhibits proper nesting of the divs, without which your Web template would not function properly.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: container, CSS, Dreamweaver, sibling, template, wrapper
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Cascading Style Rules, an Introduction, 02/03/09
Check this out: 
In the final class this week, we will explore more carefully the ins and outs of cascading style rules. It is very important to create rules with the proper syntax and punctuation. The "Cascading Style Sheets" PowerPoint tutorial will serve as our introduction to the formal aspects of CSS (here is a printed PDF version of the tutorial with notes).
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.
Labels: Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, PowerPoint, punctuation, style rules, syntax, tutorial
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The XHTML Hierarchy: Thinking Inside the Box, 01/28/09
Check this out: 
Lee Underwood's article on the HTML Hierarchy will help you to understand the container model and XHTML hierarchy, both essential to working effectively with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Underwood notes in part two of his article: "As we look at the structure of the page we will see that each element is related to another element. This is called a parent-child-sibling relationship [tree structure]. An element that is directly above another element in the hierarchy is called the parent of the element below it.
The element below the parent is called the child. When two elements are equal in the hierarchy, they are known as siblings."The PowerPoint tutorial on "Getting Started with XHTML" reviews this nesting/container structure at the tag level. We will examine this tutorial carefully in class. If you are thoroughly comfortable with the concepts of hierarchy and containment, you will be better able to master all areas of Web design.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below.
Labels: Cascading Style Sheets, child, CSS, CSS box model, form elements, hierarchy, Lee Underwood, parent-child relationship, parent-child-sibling, relationship, sibling, sibling relationship, XHTML
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Web Site Directory Structure and Exercise One, 01/27/09
Check this out: Web Site Directory Structure Tutorial
We will work through this tutorial carefully in class. The thumbnail image to the left links directly to the PowerPoint Web tutorial (for your convenience).
The information in this tutorial is vital. Understanding this and undertaking the suggested "best practices" will save you a lot of grief as we proceed through the course. Be sure to ask questions that may occur to you as you study the slides in this tutorial. I have some real horror stories to share with you from students who did not take directory structures and Web backup seriously enough.
You may want to print out the tutorial (Web Site Directory PDF). That way you'll have the slides and my discussion notes right in front of you . . . and you can make any additional notes you might need right on the printout.
You should also use the information in this tutorial to flesh out your discussion in exercise 1 on directory structure. I'll show you in class a quick and easy way to access a particular slide and its notes as well as a method on how to grab the slide URL, rather than laboriously typing it into your document.
If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below.
Labels: best practices, directory, PowerPoint, Web site directory
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Welcome to IDCC 370, Web Design I, 01/15/09
Check this out:A revolutionary development in communication, the World Wide Web offers unprecedented access to mass audiences. This introductory course focuses on the principles and practices necessary to create effective pages for the Web.
You will receive instruction in writing hypertext documents, designing Web pages, authoring well-formed XHTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and meeting a variety of technical challenges.
The course focuses on purpose, scope, and audience considerations in page design; writing informative and persuasive on-line documents; designing coherent, portable, navigable, and interactive pages; and employing the fundamental principles of color theory, typography, layout and graphic design for the Web.Combining lab, lecture, and discussion, you will learn the best practices of electronic design to create your own interactive Web sites. Be sure to check into the class Web site every day for announcements.
Here is a picture of a Web designer. And this is what you want to turn into? I look forward to our journey together into the wonderful world of Web design.If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below.
Labels: Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, design, graphic design, layout, Semantic Web, spider, typography, Web designer, Web site directory, World Wide Web, XHTML
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