- Announcements
- E-mail Buchholz
- WJB Contact Info
- Buchholz Bio Note
- Student Info Form
- IDCC Dept Help
- IDCC Faculty Info
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Miscellany. Make your own badge here.
IDCC 370 Announcements
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Course Grades to Date Posted, 10/31/07
Check this out: 
An updated report of the grades from both sections one and two of IDCC 370 is now available.
The grades are sorted on data in the "Final" column, from the highest to the lowest (0 = F). Each row of grades is identified by the last two digits of your student ID number. In cases of duplicate IDs, one of the numbers has the letter "b" suffix. If you notice an error in your grade, contact me immediately.
Note: In some instances unexcused absences are causing a serious drop in the projected final grade. Remember, this report predicts your final grade in a mathematical straight-line projection only, so you must not assume that the final projected grade is cast in concrete at this time. It is the grade you would receive if I were required to turn in a final right now.
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, grades, quiz
top of page
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sites for Free Graphics, 10/29/07
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.
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
top of page
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Site Design and Graphics, 10/24/07
Check this out:In preparation for your second assignment, 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
top of page
Sunday, October 14, 2007
SEO with Title and Meta Description Tags, 10/14/07
Check this out: 
The basic principles of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), are critical to implement when designing Web pages, especially for e-commerce sites. Optimized pages make use of key words and phrases in the page's title <title>, meta description, h1, and h2 tags, as well as in the rendered content of words and graphics alt text.
In the SEO illustration, the phrase "idcc 370" has been entered into the search box of the four most currently popular general search engines, Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo!, Google, and Ask.com. In the screen shots, note how the results make use of the <title> tag, meta description tag, and the search phrase in context (search return snippet). All results in the example are the first two or three returned on the search.
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: search, Search Engine Marketing, SEO
top of page
Monday, October 08, 2007
Using Dreamweaver to FTP Your Site, 10/10/07
Check this out:We'll spend time in class finishing your bottom navigation class for the template. When your Web site shells are ready, take a deep breath. You've accomplished a great deal so far. But now we are about to embark on the FTP journey.
First, you need to make sure that you have an account on the Bentley student server: create your account. Once you've created your account, you need to hook to the 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
top of page
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Commenting CSS Style Rules, 10/03/07
Check this out:
We've spent a good deal of time in 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
top of page