Class Notes and Agenda Fall 1998 #1 Thursdays 6:00 - 11:00pm Room B202 Central Park Campus, McKinney, TX Fall 1998 #2 Saturdays 10:00am - 4:00pm Room D-130 (Library) Spring Creek Campus, Plano, TX Collin County Community College Applied Graphics & Design Technology Dept. Professor : Darren Dittrich (B.S. and M.S. Computer Science, Virginia Tech) Founder: Emphasys Web Solutions and sell.com classifieds
	September 3/5, 1998
	Syllabus Books & Publications Software & Machines Netscape Overview Communicator/Navigator 4 Navigator 3 The Basic HTML Page
	Email Darren Dittrich Start thinking about your personal page, gather information Read Introduction & Chapters 1, 2, 4, & 6 in HTML
	September 10/12
	New software releases: Netscape Communicator 4.5b2, Anarchie 3.0 Pro, Transit News: Norton Utilities 4.0 shipping soon, MacOS 8.5 is near GM, BBEdit for $79 Darren's tip o' the week: Use MacOS 8.x Color Picker for HTML Colors Darren's pick o' the week: versiontracker.com URLs mentioned in class: The HighFive Babble List FedEx (JavaScript rollovers that work) Microsoft (an excellent source of cookies)
	Review Project 1 Requirements Email Etiquette Reply-to Address Email name A good guide to email etiquette Email virus hoaxes, such as the Bill Gates/Disney hoax HTML Basics HTML and the Web Browsers URLs Second Page: Intro to BBEdit Lite More Text Formatting Fonts Colors 4LI>SUB/SUP Teletype and PRE Underline and Blink Comments Inserting Images Lists
	If you haven't already, email Darren Incorporate text into your personal page, format your resume Read and reread Chapters 1 & 4-8 in HTML
	September 17/19
	New software releases: News: Darren's tip o' the week: Darren's pick o' the week: Misc: The webColor MousePad Web blunder #78
	Email Etiquette Reply-to Address Email name A good guide to email etiquette
	Begin work on your personal page, bring in prototype version to cdass 4 for review 4LI>Read Chapters 5 & 6 in HTML Bring in two URLs (and be prepared tg discuss them!: 4UL> A well-designed page: any site that you think is terrific. 4LI>A good personal or bio page: professionally appealing, effective, concise. For examples, see my two picks below...

	September 24/26
	New software releases: NameCleaner, FileMaker Pro 4.1 News: MacOS 8.5 is GM Darren's tip o' the week: c|net's browsers.com & BrowserWatc` 4LI>Darren's picks o' the week: Design: <'B>Kasporov vs. DeepBlue Persgnal: John Maeda
	Review class URLs (see my picks above) More HTML Intro to Links & Anchors Destination, Label, and Target Anchors TARGET Other links Link Cglors 4LI>Adding Graphics to your page 4LI>The <IMG> Tag BORDER ALT WIDTH/HEIGHT LOWSRC ALIGN HSPACE VSPACE Scaling an image Horizontal Rules Review Project 1 Requirements
	Complete most of first project. We'll be reviewing all projects next week. Turn in final versions at the beginning of Class 6.

	October 1/3
	New software releases: Adobe PageMill 3.0, Ilustrator 8 News: ISPcon in San Jose Darren's tip o' the week: HTML 4 companion book site Darren's pick o' the week: Webintosh
	Project 1 Reviews More HTML Page Layout Margins SPACERs UL Pixel Shims BG Images BLOCKQUOTE Lists Ordered Lists Unordered Lists Definition Lists Nested Lists Tables Introduction Headers, Rows, and Columns HTML Reference Barebones Guide to HTML NCSA's Beginner's Guide to HTML Yahoo's listings... What not to do... New! Project 1 Requirements
	Work on projects.

	October 8/10
	New software releases: Netscape 4.0.7 News: Intel & Netscape make investments in Linux, Internic to lose control May 1999 Darren's tip o' the week: MIT Hyperarchive (Macintosh shareware) and TuCows (PC Shareware) Darren's pick o' the week: c|net's builder.com and their HTML reference list... Another good HTML reference page: Bare Bones Guide to HTML Need that perfect picture? Check out some online stock photography sites...
	Project 1 Due at beginning of class... be prepared to demo your work! Note: Bring ZIP disks to class, if possible. (for DreamWeaver) More Tables Borders COLSPAN, ROWSPAN WIDTH, HEIGHT COLGROUP and COL BGCOLOR CELLPADDING & CELLSPACING NOWRAP Graphics Intro GIF vs. JPEG Working with Photoshop Modes: RGB & Indexed Color Type-based logos Image Previews Transparency Photographs Careful! Keep originals in a safe place. Cropping
	If you have purchased Creating Killer Websites, begin reading the first three chapters. Otherwise, take a look at the content on killersites.com. Need to buy a book? Check the online prices at amazon.com for : KillerSites SecretSites DreamWeaver VQS HTML 4 VQS If you plan on purchasing these books, or any others online at amazon.com, do our website hosters a small favor, and click thru the links above for those specific books, or this general-purpose link for other books. Thanks! (Note: only direct clickthru­purchase sessions count. On return visits, use these links again.)

	October 15/17
	New software releases: Norton 4.01, Quark 4.04, Adobe ImageStyler News: Apple Announcements Darren's tips o' the week: Foolproof email enclosures Table widths: use maximally-divided row And a note about viewable screen pixels (lowest common denominator, from a the babble listserv): Recent testing on both Mac and Windows screens running 640x480 resulted in the top of a page being 580x300. This allows for browser margins, window borders, vertical scroll bar, and default 'bars' in both Netscape and Explorer. We checked versions 2.x through 4.x. Anything wider results in having to scroll horizontally to see the whole page in many setups. See also the GVU WWW User Surveys Darren's pick o' the week:
	Killersites Table Tutorial and the hard return table bug Eine kleine Web History How the Internet Works (and all those terrific acronyms :­) Basic Protocols TCP/IP Layered Protocols (PPP) Basic Services DNS SMTP FTP Telnet Web Servers HTTP HTTPS SSL The Netscape Broken Images and what they mean: Midterm Exam Review Basic protocols and acronyms If you miss this class, you'll wanna get notes for the midterm...(see above) All HTML up through Tables
	Begin investigative work on Final Projects Bring in one potential client contact

	October 22/24
	New software releases: Netscape Communicator 4.5 News: Bill goes to court. Darren's pick o' the week: StudioArchetype
	Midterm Exam Search Engines The Big 4, and some others Categorized Search Engines (Yahoo!) Submitting your site (SubmitIt! and plenty of others...) How different search engines work... Text Indexing Search Engines (AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek) Robots and spiders and the robots.txt file. Specialized Search Engines People and Businesses (Four11, SwitchBoard, AnyWho, WhoWhere, and others) Files (download.com, TuCows, Info-Mac) UseNet News (DejaNews) Advanced searching options (python -monty) <FORMs> WebMonkey's excellent tutorial The form tag GET vs POST ACTIONs and mailto: trick Select, option, input, textarea Graphics as SUBMIT buttons
	Create an HTML form using one of each type of form element Finalize project selection... use the Secretsites Project Profiler for ideas.

	October 29/31
	Darren's pick o' the week: Pricing surveys and online info at NetB2B.
	Discuss Midterm Grades Discussed in class: Online auction houses... eBay and OnSale Web-safe colors and ColorSafe/DitherBox ARCO's image consultant: Landor. Starting up a new client website Step 1: Get that domain name! Check the Internic Registry Who is the Internic? Upcoming changes to TLDs What you need to register Step 2: Look for similar sites Collin County Volunteer site Wylie Library Ideas for Thursday nite (mark-9.org) Still looking for related site ideas See Andrea's latest email about the site Ideas for Saturday (planosymphony.org) Dallas Symphony A c2o project, the Detroit Symphony (thanks, Curtis) Uh-oh. Looks they already have site... could be improved though! (thanks, Mary) HTML Frames Overview Pros & Cons Chapter 10 Tutorial c|net's Fun with Frames More with frames... for reference, check out O'Reilly's HTML: The Definitive Guide
	Continue creating/evolving design ideas for the site. Bring 2-5 (rough) ideas of front page and/or related sites to class next week. Be prepared to discuss your ideas with the class. Assignment: Create a frameset that looks like this.

	November 5/7
	New software releases: News: Darren's tip o' the week: What not to do with frames Darren's picks o' the week: Updated! HTML Compendium Jakob Nielsen's useit.com User Interface Engineering
	Announcement: planosymphony.org is a GO. (Carmen Dunehoo will meet with us today at noon.) mark-9.org is a GO (Mark 9 representation will meet with us next Thursday nite.) Notice: Project sites are online. www.emphasys.net/mark9 www.emphasys.net/planosymphony ftp.emphasys.net Thursday (changed!) LOGIN: thursday PW: <as discussed in class> Saturday LOGIN: saturday PW: <as discussed in class> More Frames details... look at the homework. Why frames suck (most of the time) Project Development Pitfalls The Pyramid Brewery example from SecretSites (site design by Brasil Design Group, and Worker Bees) What should I charge for my site? Take a look at Project rough ideas Discuss problems and issues with site design Review and discuss rough comps (that's right! everyone will be involved...) Graphics Workflow (Illustrator > Photoshop) and Fireworks
	Based on class feedback, take another cut at roughs for your site. (Bring them in next week.)

	November 12/14
	New software releases: StuffIt Deluxe 5.0, BBedit 5.0 News: DreamWeaver 2.0 Announced Darren's tip o' the week: Lynda Weinman in Dallas
	Review and discuss artwork for website. Interface Design Issue: NavBars and Rollovers Web design tools overview Adobe PageMill and other page-level editors DreamWeaver 1.2a Site Development Review and discuss second-generation comps FTP Update the pages Sign up
	Contruct Site Map/Description Bring in Photoshop/Illustrator Mock-ups

	November 19/21
	New software releases: Photoshop 5.0.2, ImageReady 1.0.1, Timbuktu 4.8 News: Comdex coverage Darren's tip o' the week: internet.com Darren's picks o' the week: Quokka Sports Kasparov vs. DeepBlue Monona Terrace
	Web Design... Jeffrey Veen: Library (function) vs. Gallery (form) Seven Deadly Sins Blank Line Typography Horizontal Rules Background images that interfere The Slow Load Illegal use of the third dimension Alias, Dithering, and Halos Paralysis Jakob Nielson's Guidelines Graphics, palettes, web colors, and compression Photoshop and WebType (Chapter 5) Laying Out Pages (Chapter 4)    Single-pixel GIF trick and invisible tables Project Calendar Information Architecture Asset List Confirm Site organization Design Decisions Confirm logo selection Color choices (LINK colors, graphic colors) Type Selection (HTML, graphics)
	Obtain initial client sign-off on basic design and overall structure. Work, work, work. Complete the major layouts, graphics, and structure. Start content.

	November 26/28 (Thanksgiving Break)
	Happy Turkey Day! Campus closed
	Continue final project efforts.

	December 3/5
	New software releases: Dreamweaver 2.0, BBEdit 5.0 News: AOL acquires Netscape
	Review for Final Exam Common web file types and MIME Types, helper applications, plug-ins and servers A Primer on MIME Types (how HTTP servers and web browsers interact) How GIF and JPEG compresses pictures Cookies (the good and the bad) Top Level Domains and the Internic JavaScript vs Java Seven Deadly Sins GET vs PUT methods (forms, CGIs) Yahoo! search vs Wall Street Journal login
	Look over class notes to prepare for final exam, and continue final project efforts.

	December 11/12
	Final Exam Continue Website Work Client Meetings

	December 17/19
	Darren's tip o' the week: Information Presentation & Useability Edward Tufte & The Challenger Disaster Darren's picks o' the week: Philip Greenspun's photo.net Juxt Interactive
	Hand back Final Exams Finish Projects! Finalize graphics Proof pages for content on /proto Browser & platform check Email aliases and forms Go live. META Tags and Search Engine Registration Credits Page Leftovers Fill out class survey Class rankings Best-guess time estimate Info about emphasys.net
	Merry Christmas!