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Bill Craft
Instructor, CBTE-162
Web Page Creation

Wow, that was easy!

There is more info about LiveWriter here.

There is info about LiveWriter Beta here.

I publish my blog on Lunarpages.com.  They provide WordPress hosting for free as part of their basic web hosting service.  It is fairly easy to set up and updates easily.

Have you ever noticed that a picture on a web page loads way too slowly? It sort of expands down the page from top to bottom.

That is because modern digital cameras produce very large files and if you use a picture that comes straight from a good camera, it has way more info in the file than is needed for a webpage.

Photoshop has very good tools to adjust the size of images used on the web, but that program is VERY expensive.

Yesterday I found a program online that is very good and absolutely free. Please take some time to play around with it; it is very powerful and not very hard to figure out.

Look at the help files and FAQs. There are very clear directions.

If you tell the program to keep the actual size (height and width) the same as the original, you can chage the image “quality” to strip off all the unneeded data and reduce the image size by about 75%. Doing so will make pictures load online much faster.

Play with “Image Quality” and “Compare Image Sizes.”

There is also a very nice cropping tool.

There will be nothing “testable” about this program. I am just letting you know about it because it’s useful and well done. I plan to start using it myself on a regular basis.

http://webresizer.com/

…Bill

First, the Website:

http://www.craftwebproject.com

This is an almost identical copy of the info that is available inside the Mesa College Course Management System (WebCT-Vista).  I keep it up for two reasons:

1. New students can review the content of the course before the course starts and before they can log on to WebCT.
2. Previous Students can’t log in to WebCT after the course officially ends.  The website will give those students a place to go back and review things they learned in the course and to use some of the links and info that have ongoing value.

The website is fairly stable.  It doesn’t change much over time.

Next, the Blog:

http://www.craftwebproject.com/blog

During every class session I learn along with the students.  Students ask questions, the Mesa Website tries something new, I read something that is really interesting about web design, and I go to conferences and meetings about web design.  These issues and bits of information are not strictly “part of the course” but in a way they are.  If you like web design, you like to get better at it and you are probably interested in what’s new in the field.

So the blog gives us a place to chat about web design and a place for those discussions to go on after you have completed the course and no longer have access to WebCT.

Please feel free to jump into the blog at any time.

…Bill

Most professional web designers use Lorem Ipsum text.  Here is a site that will tell you all about it, and generate as much as you want–for free.  http://www.lipsum.com/

Here is another Lorem Ipsum generator with a different, but useful approach:
http://html-ipsum.com/

It is a small yet powerful programmer’s editor that features syntax highlighting, HTML previewing and a FTP client.

I played with it for a couple of hours and it seems like it could be really helpful.

http://www.pspad.com/en/

It is certainly not necessary for CBTE-162 for you to use this program; I just wanted to let you know that it seems to be OK, it has lots of HTML/XHTML features, and you might want to check it out if you are dissatisfied with the functionality of NotePad.

Softpedia.com certifies that it is spyware and virus free.

http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/PSPad-Editor-Clean-6399.html

“…float is not a positioning property in CSS —the only position properties in CSS are absolute, relative, fixed, and static—however, when you combine widths, margins, and floats, you have CSS properties at your command that are often more reliable in terms of layouts than any of the available position properties. You can create all sorts of layout arrangements with float, whether or not float is technically a positioning property.”

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/web_design_101_floats/

This article provides information and steps for publishing to Cox.Net Personal WebSpace using an FTP application.

Manual Solution
Because every FTP application is different, the steps below are generalized. For more detailed information, see the FTP program’s online Help.
Note:

Personal WebSpace is case sensitive. If the URL to the Personal WebSpace is included as a link on other webpages, or in emails or other files, it should be typed in lower case only. An example of the correct format is http://members.cox.net/username.

Example: http://members.cox.net/USERNAME/ and http://members.cox.net/UserName/ are both incorrect, as they are not all lower case.

All references that are made in Personal webpages to a file, such as a graphic, must be made in the same case as the filename. For example, if there is a picture named “IMAGE.jpg” in the Personal WebSpace folder, the link used to that picture must be the same case. The correct way to link to that image would be http://members.cox.net/username/IMAGE.jpg.

Example: http://members.cox.net/username/image.jpg or http://members.cox.net/username/Image.JPG will not work.

(Be sure to read the Terms of Usage. For more information about Cox High Speed Internet’s Personal WebSpace rules and policies, read Cox’s Acceptable Use Policy.)

Step Action

Open the FTP application.

When prompted for the host name, enter members.cox.net.

Enter username and password.

Note: The username and password are the same as those used for email.

Example: If the email address is johndoe@cox.net, the username is johndoe.

Connect to the server. Most FTP applications have a Connect button. Once connected, FTP provides a list of the files in the Personal WebSpace directory.

Select and transfer the files.

Close the FTP application and disconnect from the Personal WebSpace server.

All steps complete.

This Information Applies to:
Cox High Speed Internet Personal Webspace.
Publishing Your Personal WebSpace.
Personal webspace or website offered by Cox High Speed Internet.
Building a website with Cox High Speed Internet web tools.