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Layout - How graphics are repeated in a cell. Colors Adding
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Page layout
Generaly you start a web site layout with a table. Then
you add the graphic elements that make up the design
such as graphics across the top and down the left side
of the page. You generally create cells and insert your
graphics as cell backgrounds. A tip when adding your
graphics to you cell backgrounds is that a graphic added
like this repeats itself for the full width of the cell.
Therefore, to fill an entire cell with a block of blue
color for example, the graphic you create can be much
smaller in width than the cell. And, it will still fill
the entire cell. The advantage is a smaller graphic,
which adds to reducing the time it takes for the page to
download in a web browser.
You may wonder why web sites are developed with external
graphics that are simply blocks of color, when you can
set a cell color within Dreamweaver. I have found that
when I want to place a graphic of text into a colored
cell, if the cell is colored using Dreamweaver color
settings, the colors do not match exactly when viewed
with Netscape. (Seems to look ok when viewed with IE).
But, if the cell background contains a graphic of the
color, the color is seamless when placing text over it.
Colors
If a client has a logo already created for print
materials, like letterhead, business cards, etc. and
they don't have it in electronic form, you may need to
create a logo yourself. In order to figure out the exact
colors to use in the online logo so that it matches the
company's printed material logo first ask the client if
they have the numerical value for the color(s). Such as
the "RGB" value or the "HTML" value. They may not have
it. In this case, they will probably give you the
"Pantone" value. A Pantone value will be something like:
329 or 302
in the Pantone Matching System.
You can purchase a simple program, PANTONE ColorWeb Pro,
from Pantone that will enable you to translate a Pantone
Matching System value to RGB and HTML.
Here are the details:
PANTONE ColorWeb Pro
This product consists of two color pickers, the PANTONE
Internet Color System picker for the 216 "internet-safe"
colors, and the PANTONE Digital Color Picker providing
sRGB and HTML values for 938 PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM
Colors. The software allows users to reposition PANTONE
MATCHING SYSTEM Colors for use on web pages. However,
recognizing that the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM palette is
a full 64-bit color palette, and will dither on
lower-end systems, PANTONE ColorWeb Pro also allows
cross-reference between the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM and
PANTONE Internet Color System. In addition, the full
version of PANTONE ColorWeb Pro ships with the PANTONE
Internet Color System Guide and PANTONE Digital Color
Guide, providing physical printed simulations of the
respective color palettes.
Adding downloadable Adobe PDF Files
Links to other sites and to documents in formats other
than .html are configured to open in another window. An
easy way to configure a link to open in a different
window, is to set the "target" property for the link to
"_blank".
Here is documentation on the Target types from the
Dreamweaver manual:
To make the linked document appear somewhere other than
in the current window or frame, select an option from
the Target pop-up menu on the Property inspector.
_blank loads the linked document in a new, unnamed
browser window.
_parent loads the linked document in the parent frame or
parent window of the frame that contains the link. If
the frame containing the link is not nested, then the
linked document loads in the full browser window.
_self loads the linked document in the same frame or
window as the link. This target is the default, so you
usually don't have to specify it.
_top loads the linked document in the full browser
window, thereby removing all frames.
-If you want to convert a Word Perfect or a document in
another format to Adobe PDF Format there is an online
service that you can subscribe to for $10.00 per month
or $99.00 per year at:
https://createpdf.adobe.com/index.pl/2158526796.78616?BP=IE
I recommend you subscribe to this if you are going to do
frequent updates of files that you want to keep in their
file format but have them easily readable by most web
users.
Here are the formats that can be converted using this
service: Microsoft Office Word (.doc), Publisher (.pub),
PowerPoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), Rich Text Format
(.rtf), Text (.txt) Adobe Formats Illustrator® (.ai),
InDesign™ (.indd), FrameMaker® (.fm), PageMaker® (.pm,
.pm6, .p65), Photoshop® (.psd) Corel WordPerfect Office
Formats WordPerfect (.wpd) Adobe PostScript® Formats
PostScript (.ps, .prn), Encapsulated PostScript (.eps)
Image Formats Windows bitmap (.bmp), GIF (.gif), JPEG
(.jpg), PCX (.pcx), PNG (.png), RLE (.rle), TIFF (.tif)
Map Directions
Here is a tip that you might want to take advantage of
in developing your web sites. When you need to provide
directions on a web site, you can link directly to a map
where the destination is identified in the center. From
there you can choose "get directions", and a visitor
only has to type in their starting point.
To use mapquest (http://www.mapquest) you can create a
link on your web page that links not just to:
http://www.mapquest, but rather to a program that you
can provide arguments to. For example, this link will
give you a map with Bryant College at the center.
Then, you can click the "Get Directions to this
Location" button in the upper right corner of the
mapquest site.
Text Scrolls
There are a lot of free java applets out there to use
for scrolling banners or scrolling text. One that I use
a lot is "TextFloater" from
http://www.javaplayground.com
Calendar
There are many calendar applets out there. I found a
simple one I like where you can customize the color. You
can find it at my web site at:
http://www.wickfordwebworks.com/webscripts
or
ftp://www.wickfordwebworks.com/webscripts
Forms
I use a free perl script for programming forms. The
script saves all form data to:
both a file and an email message. The script is from
Matt's script archive at:
http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts
The script also saves just the email address to a
separate file so that you can maintain an email
distribution list.
Furthermore, the script will send an email message to
the user who submitted the form, which you can
customize, for example, thanking the user for filling
out the form, etc.
Search I use a free perl script for programming search
functionality, also from Matt's Script archive at:
http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts.
Discussion Groups
I haven't developed one yet. But, I came across a
company called Ikonboard that has one that looks easy to
use. http://www.ikonboard.com
Hit Statistics Extreme
Tracking Hitometer
HitsLinks
Free Java Scripts and Applets
http://javaboutique.internet.com
http://www.wsabstract.com
http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts
http://www.cyberiapc.com/applets.htm
Free Clip Art
http://www.free-clipart.net
http://www.free-graphics.com
http://bestclipart.com/cgi-bin/imagefolio/imageFolio.cgi?direct=office
http://www.fortisgraphix.com/graphics/buttons.html
http://www.webmastergate.com/graphics_sites.html
http://dgl.microsoft.com/
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