Blogs?

[Edson]

hey bruce and fellow sitebuilders,

i have been playing with the sitebuilder. too restless to be restricted to their templates. heading towards my own site. have a look at an opening page that informs address and stuff and offers a choice of language (english or portuguese).

in the end the design template i'm using is my own current site (design-wise, that is). somehow i found it easier to start the site from scratch, after having understood how the templates work and how the pages relate to each other.

regards.

edson

[Gaieus]

Hey, Edson!

Really meaningful content on the index page for sure!
Did you know that you can even automatically redirect people depending on their browsers' language settings?

(but that's going to be Bruce's next tut in php scripting...)

No, really, it will be cool. Yet there are no links under the lang options right?

[Gaieus]

ruce,

I do really appreciate what you're doing here although I've already been through this (own, design and "webmaster" a couple of sites). I was only going to tease Edson a bit but I'm truly enjoying these guys having their new toys in their hands. They're like kids now...

I believe (and hope) that when more, particular questions arise, I'll also be able to contribute a little bit - especially when you're away for a while - though I know only one thing for sure: I don't know nothing (double negation being meant for emphasis only).

So thanks for all and since this topic has been "reported" by Juju (as I remember) we are also considering to move it to some tutorial room or even into it's own place (you still remember what "reporting" means I hope )

Cheers

[rhankc]

@alan wood said:

with words and an image that read, click here and an arrow pointing to 'create and update' Not sure how you managed to create that image. I think maybe screen capture software, not sure. Is there any freeware to do this, or is there a workaround?

I use one that has great capabilities, and the price is reasonable, considering when you have it you will probably use it everyday. Their logo looks similiar to google earth.

[Gaieus]

Bruce, I know, I know...
I'd been developing websites (just as I was learning how to do it myself) for more than a year when I started to play with php (I still cannot code - I just apply others').
Yet a css editor seems to be very handy right at the beginning - to have a separate css file is something like reloading a component in several skp files.

I use TopStyle Lite (freeware edition) for it can do everything that I understand.
Here's a link (the Lite version is kind of "hidden" in the middle of the page):
http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/TopStyle/Default.aspx

Well, as people here are starting with templates for now, they might not need it at the very beginning but it may become handy after a while.

[Gaieus]

Good. I oten find pre-templated sites very heavy and slow.
Lightweight, clean stuff - not much "decoration" - for easy loading. The images will do whatever download time is needed anyway.

I1ve collected some good stuff (nifty little programs as well as handy websites) that I'm going to put into a page and post here so that everyone can get the resources.

[Edson]

@gaieus said:

Really meaningful content on the index page for sure!
No, really, it will be cool. Yet there are no links under the lang options right?

ok, gai, i do not mind having you pull my leg with the remark about "meaningful content". but, hey, watch me for meaningful content in the very near future.

yes, there are links under the lang options, but right now they lead to pages that are identical to the first one. thus you almost cannot perceive it.

regards.

[Edson]

@unknownuser said:

Edson you will be leading this class soon....you might want to make a template out of your page using sitebuilder if you haven't already....cheers

maybe too soon for that but who knows. if my family do not throw me out today (i have been holing up at my office downstairs trying to build the site) i may get further ahead today.

you are so right, bruce: as long as you have an interest in many things you are alive, age does not matter! i have known people who at 30 are older that me at 54.

keeping in touch with interesting people like you all is part of the equation that helps one get old and alive, even happy at times.

so thank you all for the encouragemnt and help.

see you soon.

[guite]

Bruce,

Your earlier reply to my post, where you talked about learning, is inspirational. I too like to learn new things (used to?) but I already feel like I am getting rough round the edges (Edson, don't laugh ). Just one instance, I don't watch much of National Geographic TV anymore. The boat under ice analogy I don't quite get.

Guys, I don't mean to distract this topic. Please carry on.

Guite

[alan wood]

Hi Modelhead,
Just arrived. Had a busy day.
thanks for the lesson.
Alan

[alan wood]

Hi Modelhead,
Finally got there.
Index page uploaded.

CV will be added soon.

At some stage I will be wanting to add active menus under the top nagivation bars. Not worked on that one yet, need to go looking.

Thanking you.

Alan

http://www.hand-cut-dovetails.com

[alan wood]

Modelhead
And the second page is not centred.
I'll sort that out.
Alan.

[Edson]

hi bruce,

there you have my first attemp at sitebuilding. i am afraid i did not restrict myself to the index page. since i had been playing with a number of pages related to my new site i thought, what the heck, let's put a few more. so i published the english-language side of my site (preliminary study for a site, well understood).

you will see that i followed the basic statement with a kind of wish list for the features i would like to learn in the future.

have fun. cheers.

p.s.: the new site is the one on the right in my signature.

[Edson]

@unknownuser said:

the images, a navigation bar consisting of a sequence of numbers or dots, an arrow at each side of the main image area saying next and previous, etc.
explain more about the location of these nav bars as you move from page to page please

the best way to do this is to show you the feature in other sites. thus i am including picts 2 and 3 below.


to be continued...

[Edson]

@unknownuser said:

- how to insert a scrolling bar inside an area of a page, say for a longish text.You can build a frame but please tell me more about this??

two examples, one for text, another for pictures.

another question: creating alink between a word and a page (say, to go back to the previous one) makes to word to turn purple. how can i change that color?

cheers.

edson

[alan wood]

Okay Modelhead,
Had a bit of a play, site updated.
cheers
Alan

http://www.hand-cut-dovetails.com

problem is
The old index page appears first. Now how do I update that?
Lets go play

[Krisidious]

this may be a little detailed for you beginners, but it's really neat...

link candy... http://www.snap.com/

[alan wood]

Hi Kris,
Thanks for that. Still on a learning curve with Modelhead at present, but handy for future reference. I've save the details just in case.

Modelhead.
Sorted out the problem. Need a five minute break to clear the head.
thanks
Alan.

http://www.hand-cut-dovetails.com

Question
I have made my pages 700 wide and notice that I have space either side that I would like to use. Would you suggest 800 wide?

[Edson]

alan,

i had a width problem myself as i set it at 900 and the site resulted too wide for people who have 15" screens or smaller. decided to take the standard width of 760 (the one sitebuilder uses). by the way, what an improvement on your site. just imagine a few weeks down the road: we will have a site made by ourselves and will be able to maintain it and change it at will.

kris, thanks for the tip.

regards.

edson

[alan wood]

Hi Edson,
Thanks for the comments. I'm okay with my front page to date.
I am aware that I'm at the front end of a steep learning curves. I have a large bank of interesting images from my workshop (I call it the shed)
that I could add. Yep I like the idea that we are now in control of our own web site all thanks to the help of Modelhead.

Modelhead,
Thanks for that I feel that I'm getting there.

You asked for a piece on that simple method that I used for creating a tutorial...do you still need that??

100% YES PLEASE. That style of presentation to a person not used to the software interface of Yahoo sitebuilder makes it a perfect method of getting the basics across. Better than words alone and I feel that I will be able to use it in my dovetailing tutorials. If I have a sketchup model on screen of whatever, I can place a large arrow to the point that I am referring to. It will be as clear as a whistle.

Tell me what your thoughts are now on putting your course on the web...have you thought about how you are going to tackle it??

I have a few ideas on this.
People of all alibities will eventually be accessing my web site one day, so I was thinking of concentrating my efforts on the beginner as far as the detailed step by step tutorials are concerned.

For the more experienced my idea was to have available the models of my jigs made in sketchup. An experienced person will be able to 'read' them, examine them, explode them, and with a very small amount of text from myself, work it out themselves. Eventually I would get around to doing in depth tutorials on these for the benifit of the beginner.

As you are aware now, I do spend time raising funds using my skill base in my shed. I would like to use pay pal with this project.

So if you agree, would you be kind enough to nominate a group or cause that you would like to support. I like others greatly appreciate your help.

thanking you.

Alan