Week 7 Blog

This class was a great learning experience for me.  I was not familiar with blogging or how to set up a website prior to this class.  This class gave me a lot of tools to get me familiar with both of these concepts.  I hope that one day in the future I will be able to utilize the skills I have learned in this course either professionally or personally. 

I have also enjoyed learning skills in Photoshop Elements.  I have always been interested in learning this program.  There are a lot of features to use but the class gave me a good start to become familiar with what the program offers.  I am looking forward to editing my photos using this program. 

The creation of my website was challenging, frustrating, and fun.  I used the online website, Weebly, to create my website.  I felt this program was straight forward and easy to use.  I had a little more trouble creating the Expressions Web website.  I tried to apply the same set up to both websites, but since they are both templates in different programs, the websites do not look the same.  I used more pictures in the Weebly website because the template offered more flexibility as far as the formatting options.  I was able to use the exact same text in both website, the placement was different.   I was not able to apply the picture in the heading of the Expressions Web website as I did in the Weebly website.   In comparing the two websites, I like the appearance of the Weebly website better than the Expressions Web website.  It is more colorful and fun and it was definitely easier to create. 

Week 5 Blog

I found the information provided in Chapters 13, 14, and 15 to be very informative.

Chapter 13 provided advanced options for making a website better.  A few of the features I thought were interesting were the use of tables, richer colors in photographs, slicing graphics, and image swaps.

Chapter 14 provided useful tips for testing a website to make sure links and pictures perform as the creator intended.  It also provided tips to fix the links or pictures that are not performing properly.  In is important to make sure your website is performing properly prior to publishing it on the internet. 

Chapter 15 provided information on gathering files, uploading files, and testing a website online.  In this chapter it again stresses the importance of testing the website to make sure all links, etc. are working properly. 

A storyboard is a rough draft of a plan for the website written on paper.  It is a way to organize the creator’s intentions for the website page by page.  The final website may not look exactly the same as the rough sketch. 

I reviewed the different websites that provide free templates to help design a webpage.  I thought Wix was really neat but couldn’t find a template that fit into my plan.  I think I am going to use Weebly for my website.  It is pretty basic, easy to use, and I feel it fits into my plan best. 

Week 4 Blog

Chapter 3 discusses the process of formatting text on a webpage by using various features such as fonts and colors and also additional features such as links, graphics, tables, and frames.  It was a good refresher of what we learned in class.

Chapter 4 discusses the process of planning a website.  It discusses naming and titling pages and also the importance of keeping the files for the website organized in its own file, separate from other files.  The chapter mentions two questions to think about when planning a website.  Those questions are, “Who is the target audience?”, and “What do I want this site to accomplish?”.  The chapter suggests creating an outline as a way to start organizing you thoughts for the website.  It also talks about gathering and storage material for the website. 

Having access to the ability to create your own website is good if someone has a message or product they want to introduce.  An advantage to creating a webpage yourself is that it is cost effective.  The software available makes it easy to do this.  A disadvantage is that if you are not creative, you may not create an appealing website.  You have to weigh the cost factor against the appeal of the finished product.  If you slack on cost, you may be sacrificing sales and/or interest.