Week Fifteen (really? did I lose count?)
Anyway, it's our last night of regular class before finals week. I will talk with you tonight about ways to finish up and I'll answer remaining questions about the remaining parts of Project V. We'll review how to transfer your site and other final matters.
Week Fourteen
OK. We have toniight and next week to finish up our work. Your final projects should be ready for me to look at by Wednesday of final's week. Meet with your group briefly at the beginning of class, show your projects, ask questions, and then continue working. I'll be around to help out.
Week Thirteen (Thanksgiving)
I'll look over work tonight and review your posted material for Parts A and B. You should also meet with your group and present this material to them at the beginning of class. I'll be available for help and questions. Please take time to look at project documents for the others in your group, if not others in the class.
Here's a nice, simple page on meta tags.
Week Twelve
I've revised the due date for parts A and B of the Project V documents. You should review that part of the assignment at the Project V link. If you have that material ready, I encourage you to present that material to your group tonight at during the first part of class time. If you don't have this ready, be prepared to present it next week. Note that we have three remaining class periods after tonight. Pace yourself.
Spend a little bit of time with your group tonight showing them what you are up to and explain to them what your goals are for this evening. Pay attention to your writing. Write clearly and carefully consider the content, not only of the documents you are preparing for me, but also the material you are writing for your web site.
Week Eleven
Tonight I'll show you how to create a simple navigation system. I've built one to show you here. You don't need to copy this exactly, but I want you to understand the concepts I'm using here. I'm using an attached css style sheet. I'll show you how to do this a the beginning of class.
Week Ten: Halloween
This is a test: Insert this code into a new blank page (call it css.htm) and also remove the link that is in the code at line two of that new page . [in other words, remove this material if it appears at the top of your code: "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"] Try to do all of this without help from me or others. We'll see if you've been following me when I talk about cut/pasting code into your new DW document and we'll see if you understand where the CSS code belongs in your new document.
In this css.htm page you just created, put an external link to the GVSU web page and create a link to this new page on your main page and call it "CSS assignment" so that I can easily see your work. Raise your hand when you are done. Next, change the color backgrounds, borders, and sizes.
Here's the code to begin with:
<style type="text/css">
<!--
a:link {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
background-color: #666600;
height: 50px;
width: 150px;
text-align: center;
padding-top: 7px;
padding-right: 3px;
padding-bottom: 3px;
padding-left: 3px;
margin: 0px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
a:visited {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
background-color: #666600;
height: 50px;
width: 150px;
text-align: center;
padding-top: 7px;
padding-right: 3px;
padding-bottom: 3px;
padding-left: 3px;
margin: 0px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
a:hover {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
background-color: #000000;
height: 50px;
width: 150px;
text-align: center;
border: 1px solid #CC9900;
padding-top: 7px;
padding-right: 3px;
padding-bottom: 3px;
padding-left: 3px;
margin: 0px;
}
-->
</style>
Week Nine: October 24
Please orgainze yourselves into small work groups. I'll help facilitate this at the beginning of class tonight. I'd also like you to enter a description of what you are up to in Project V. I want to be able to click your Project V link and see what your plans are.
For Project IV I'd like you to pick a page related to Project V and use it for Project IV. In other words, this Project IV will give you a chance to do some preliminary work on Project V. I hope that's clear. If not, I'll clarify during class.
Tonight, I will show you a few things, then I will meet with some of you that I didn't get to meet with last week.
Week Seven and Eight: October 17
Please note that there is a special topics course offered next semester: WRT 380 Multimedia Writing. Please visit that website and consider taking this course as an elective.
Last week we looked at CSS (style sheets). I found that creating screen shots seemed more complex than it was worth. I wasn't convinced they would be helpful. So we'll just go over it again tonight in review.
Week Six : October 3
We'll begin this evening by doing some rhetorical analysis of the Goodwill website. I'd like to approach this from several different perspectives. Let's begin with the most abstract: the rhetorical analysis and the classical appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos. You are probably aware of how these appeals work and how to use them based on your work in either WRT 200, COM 203, or another writing course. So you'll begin by reading through the website, observing how its images and text work together, and thinking about its overall message, purpose, and social function. A rhetorical analysis can (and should in this case if you are able) go beyond the three "persuasive appeals" and it might also consider matters such as kairos, audience, metaphors or figures of speech, and so forth. You can refresh your memory or learn more about these concepts at the link in the second sentence in this paragraph.
What we learn from genre studies is that documents--or rather kinds of documents--have social functions that define them (and to some extent define us as regular readers of those documents). A thorough rhetorical analysis will take into account as many of these various rhetorical factors as possible. After you have spent some time reading and observing on our own, and after you have taken some notes, then I'll have you work in groups to discuss the three appeals and other rhetorical matters related to this website. Finally, to finish this part of the work, I'd like you to write up your analysis and post it on your web page as "Rhetorical Analysis of Goodwill." I will review final versions of these on Sunday before next week's class. Next week, we will have a representative from Goodwill come and talk with us about this website.
Try to separate your rhetorical analysis from a design analysis. I want you to read the handout that I give you tonight more carefully after class. Then I want you to prepare a one-page design analysis of this Goodwill website and turn it in at the beginning of class next week. You don't need to make a web page, just a one-page Word document. Organize your analysis as you see fit, and draw on the material I give you in class tonight. If you have sources on your Resource Page (or if others in the class have such sources) related to navigation, design, (and you may include some analysis of the writing as well) you may refer to that advice as well in your design analysis.
On a different matter: If you have not yet completed Assignment Two, please do so before next week's class.
Week Five: Sept. 26
We'll get an introduction to Fireworks today. You can use Fireworks to manipulate images and create "text" images. The main thing to pay attention to in working with images is your pixel size. So whenever you work in DW or FW, please turn on the "show rulers" so that you can used to seeing how wide your screen is in pixels. Width is always more important than depth. We'll create some images and you can practice putting them in your HTML documents.
Please spend time reviewing the Project I pages of the other students. Remember that a "resource page" is not about resources you might use for other classes, but rather resources you would use for this class. Categorize your resources and write full annotations. Kari, Ashley, and Kristin all have a good start on this project.
We need to spend some time at the Goodwill website and talk about the the quality of the writing and usability of this site.
It's also time for you to start looking a little more carefully at the design of your page. In particular, look at your use of white space. Make sure that your line lengths are not too long, and start to clean up ugly pages by using even lines and careful use of alignment.
Week Four: Sept. 19th
I'm sorry that I can't be in class today. I have had to leave town for a funeral. Prof. Gilles will be able to answer any questions you have about the work I'd like you to do this evening.
1. Begin tonight by opening DW, and then open a page that you are currently working on or need to work on. At the same time have the browser open so that your work can also be viewed as it appears to others when they visit your website. Practice again, changing the page, then uploading the page to the www2 site (your N drive) and then refresh the browser to see the changed page. This should be automatic by now. If you have problems with this, please get this clarified when you do step 5 below.
2. Now, on this page you are working on, or on a new page, click on the "Page Properties" button that you see down in the Properties palette. Once you see the Page Properties palette, experiment with these options and see what happens.
3. Find the spell check (it's in one of the pull down menus, but find it yourself so you remember where it is) and spell check your document.
4. Remember to type something in the Title Bar at the top of the page you working on. This causes the browser to have a title instead of the default Untitled-1 text.
5. Create a new, blank document and put a table in it. Now figure out how to to use the different features of the properties palette when you have your cursor somewhere in that table. Learn to split and merge cells; learn to change the Horz and Vet defaults (and learn what difference it makes); learn to change the background color of a table. Learn to add a border and learn to add a border color (simply type in the pixel width in the space beside the Brdr in the palette). Learn to merge cells. Learn as much as you can about tables.
After 30 or 40 minutes of individual practice, please put yourselves in groups of three and take five or ten minutes to show the other two what you have done and how you did it; take five or ten minutes to ask questions and have them show you things you could have done that perhaps they know how to do. Then after this 10-20 minutes at your computer, go to the other person's computer and have them do the same thing. And finally, visit the third person's computer in your group and have them show you what they know and learned, let them ask you questions, etc.
A few comments about tables
Notice that we use the pixel as our standard unit of measure in building web pages. Tables borders do not usually look good in a web page, but sometimes they are good to have them when starting our so you can see more clearly the results of your work.
Let's make sure that all of our web pages that use text place that text in a table so that the line lengths do not stretch across the entire screen. To do this, place them in a 400 px table. (Or choose an appropriate table width). Notice that you can also use a % to determine table width, but I think a fixed pixel width is best. You should probably design for an 800px screen because that is a medium size screen and will accommodate people using both higher and lower resolution screens.
I'd also like you to notice that each time you hit return in your DW screen, you create a new paragraph for the next line. However, if you hold down the shift key when you hit Enter (return), you will create a "soft return" and it will not add the extra space between the lines that is normally associated with a normal carriage return (enter).
If you have your pages created and up to date, you can try to learn about CSS (style sheets) by reading the related HELP screens in DW.
As far as design goes, make use of the design principles you learned in WRT 251 or WRT 200. That is, avoid the use of centered text, make things flush left unless you have a different design idea, don't trap white space, and make sure you have white space on your page.
You should also read up on tables in DW or in some other source of information you might find on the internet. You should experiment around with creating different tables, creating color backgrounds in the table cells, and trying to use a table to position text on your pages.
Begin Assignment Two
Please click on Assignment 2 at the left. Let's try to get Assignment 2 complete (on your web page) by next week. If you have any questions, I'll be back on Thursday and I'll be happy to answer email questions then or meet with anyone individually. Don't forget that everyone's web page is now linked here "Class Web Pages" and at the left. Please review other's web pages and seek each other out for help and advice.
Best of luck tonight. --Prof. Royer
Week Two and Three
Assignment one should be available to me as a link on your Project II page. If that is not yet done, please do so as soon as possible in order to receive a grade for this assignment. If you don't have this work done by Wed. I assume you are having trouble and need some help. Please come and see me.
Things you should be comfortable with at this point (end of class tonight); please review:
- ftp
- you should feel comfortable FTPing to/from school N: drive to your home account or a computer outside the network.
- creating web pages, links
- you should know how to create internal and external links and understand the difference.
- tables within your pages
- you should understand how to insert a table, know what cell padding means and what it's used for, how to create a background color in a cell and entire table.
- HTML
- you should understand how to view the HTML code in Dreamweaver; you should have practiced changing the code directly and observing the effect in the WYSIWYG side of DW; you should be able to look at code and notice "boldface" or see where a table has been inserted or notice "italic;" please learn and note the difference between a <p> and a <br> at the end of a unit of coded text and what difference it makes in the layout of the paragraph. (shift-Enter vs Enter) at the end of a paragraph.
- web page
- you should have your web page (index.htm) file in public_html up and running.
Depending on where we are today with our progress, I may have us begin Assignment Two, or we may work on other things.
Week One
Before the end of our class today, I'd like everyone to make sure they have an "index.htm" page up on their WWW2 site. We'll check today and make sure that's the case. I want to introduce DW today, "define" the site, and make sure we are using the program correctly. If we can accomplish that, I'll go over "assignment 1" and we'll ask that that part of that be completed in the next few days.
This week we will make sure that everyone has N drive access and that you know how to build a basic web page. I want you to know how to FTP by the end of the class, and be comfortable with Dreamweaver. For help on these matters see:
FTP to your N: drive
FTP to set up web page for publishing (step one)
FTP to transfer files (step two)
And we won't meet next week because of the holiday. So I'd like you to read and study the entire Good Documents site over the next two weeks. You don't need to follow the external links, but read through and know the information in the internal links. I'm mainly interested in you learning what you can about writing and the special demands of the web. So pay attention and focus on that kind of thing in this website. You don't need to know the materials in "about/where/philosophy/techniques." You should skim through the "samples" and the external links. We'll test the next time we meet on the writing-related matter from this website.