Therefore, I have begun constructing a classroom website that allows me to do a little bit more than my blog does....or does it? Here are just a few of my challenges in learning HTML and CSS construction of a website!
- Did you know that special fonts you download on your computer and use in your website cannot be used on computers that do not have that special font installed?
I didn't! What a surprise when I finally unveiled my website to my family who I thought was able to see everything, only to discover they were praising bland font on a dark background. It was so kind of them to encourage and praise my efforts, but boy did I feel silly once I realized the quality of website they were seeing! Gotta love my family for their never-ending support of all that I do!
While I found some interesting tutorials to utilize Webfonts, the particular free fonts I had found for download were not available freely as Webfonts. So, I ended up having to go back and recreate my website from scratch and creating JPG images of each header and menu item I wanted that would utilize the particular font I had fallen in love with for my site. It proved not to be extremely painful, but was still time consuming! Good news, is I finally got the font and design for my website that I desired!
Perseverance and patience turned out to be the most important things I needed to tackle this challenge!
- You would not believe how hard it is to get your blog feed embedded in the website you create!
I have spent several hours now working with a variety of tools to embed blog feeds and have yet to be successful! Unlike Google Calendar and other online tools, blog feeds are not as easy to import into your website because of how frequently they are updated. Not to mention, in a sense they are already a tool within a website.
If anyone has any ideas on how to get past this hurdle, let me know! I'll keep you posted if I find a solution that works!
Those have been my biggest challenges so far and I am sure there are more to come! Stay tuned!
You can visit my site here. Please know that it is a work in progress and what you see there one day might not be there the next. As usual, any suggestions, feedback, and thoughts are always welcome!
Anna,
ReplyDeleteI took a look at your classroom website and, wow, it looks great! I especially like the colors and fonts you have chose, it is very visually appealing while not being over the top. It sounds like you have been very dedicated and determined to get it up and running which I'm sure makes it all worth it for you. Have you thought of using a website creator that has templates and makes things "easy" in terms of design? I think it is great that you are able to troubleshoot and practice other skills, just in case you are concerned about time, it may be a good idea! I have used Google Templates in the past.
Good job!
Alix
Alix,
ReplyDeleteWhile I have created a classroom website using both Google Sites and Weebly in the past, but as a future assignment for another class I knew we had to create a classroom website from scratch. That future assignment was my motivation for tackling this project while learning more about the capabilities of Dreamweaver.
However, in researching how to easily incorporate my blog into the site I learned that you can create a template using Dreamweaver and upload it to one of those "easy" hosting sites. I'll keep you posted on how that integration process goes!
Thanks for the suggestion!
Anna
Anna,
ReplyDeleteYou have provided me with a new perspective of creating a website from scratch. I am in the same boat as I have used Weebly, Google, and Webs to create websites which all have provided me with a great experience. I shutter at the idea of creating a site from scratch because I know the time, effort, code, details, etc. will be a pain to create, update, and change over time. I appreciate you sharing your tips, findings and insights you have gained while taking the plunge early! Alix mentioned something about templates... does Dreamweaver provide such things to help a user with formatting?
Overall, your website looks wonderful and I specifically enjoy the font, colors and background you have set up a wonderful digital atmosphere.
Great work,
Monica
Monica,
ReplyDeleteDreamweaver does use templates! They are definitely a great stepping stone when creating your own website. Before I used a template I followed through one of the beginner website creating tutorials offered on the Adobe website and I found that very useful when I needed to troubleshoot the template or wanted to change it as it showed me how templates are created from scratch. Having that deeper understanding definitely made the process a bit easier, especially since I knew how to modify each aspect of the template and was not stuck using any of the pre-existing colors, fonts, and formatting!
My brother (a computer science minor) and I actually had a lengthy conversation just yesterday about the benefits and drawbacks of creating and maintaining a website over time that you have created from scratch. He has had many experiences where all of the workload has fallen on him because he is the only one with the skills to update the site, let alone has the understanding of how it was built in the first place. I think ultimately, I will end up using a host like Wordpress, which I have found does a nice job of allowing you to write code while also making regular updating a breeze, to create my actual classroom website that I will make available to students and parents. At the same time I have reservations about not sticking with my website from scratch because working with it keeps me up to date on html and familiar with the inner-workings of such creations – a skill I am still working on mastering!
Anna