I can build some basic web pages, usually starting with a template I like and then tweaking the HTML to make it do what I want and look the way I want. I was really thrilled when I discovered CSS because I could do so many more things. Did I ever tell you that part of the reason I started blogging was that I wanted to play with the blog design? It wasn't that I actually had something I wanted to say! Of course, I end up saying a lot more than I play with the design...
Anyway, mostly I've done personal web pages and web pages for our church, and I've done a few pages for some organizations. Mostly it's all volunteer because I enjoy doing it, but that also means it isn't always at the top of my priority list. I get to it when I get to it. It's always fun to learn something new, though - like the time somebody wanted me to include a form on our webpage so people could register online. I'd never done anything with a form before, but I pulled out my HTML book, and I figured out how to create a form. Now, of course, Google makes it simple enough that anybody can do it.
One thing I've never learned anything about or had an opportunity to mess with (and there are lots, really) is shopping cart software. Not having any kind of business where I'm trying to sell something, I've never had to learn how to sell online. I've never even sold anything on eBay - which is a different thing altogether, I know. I really should do some research, because I've had a couple people ask me if I knew anything about it, and I've had to tell them no. I can make their web pages look pretty, but I don't know how to make sure they can get the products to the customers. Which is kind of the reason they want a web page in the first place...
Any suggestions for what works best? From what little research I've done, it looks like there are several options out there. The trick is in finding the right plan and then being able to try it. I don't know if they all do it, but this one at 1ShoppingCart lets you try it free for 4 weeks with no risk. Of course I'm not going to try it unless I have something to sell, or somebody who wants to be able to sell online, but it's good to know the option is there should somebody ask again.
Showing posts with label html. Show all posts
Showing posts with label html. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
I Think It Works
Testing the Zemanta Blogger gadget. (It was really simple to add - use this link)
It seems to work!
At least my 'Enter' key is working, and I have line breaks. Oh, happy day (or night)! Sure, I can write my posts in HTML, and I will always need that for the tweaking, but I'd much rather use the regular, visual, 'Compose' mode.
It seems to work!
At least my 'Enter' key is working, and I have line breaks. Oh, happy day (or night)! Sure, I can write my posts in HTML, and I will always need that for the tweaking, but I'd much rather use the regular, visual, 'Compose' mode.
Zemanta is Breaking my Posts
I think I finally figured out my formatting problems with Blogger. It's Zemanta!
I've been using Zemanta for a while and never had any problems until recently, unless you count all my images vanishing when I added related articles in Windows Live Writer - but they fixed that. Overall, I love Zemanta. It sits there right beside my compose window and suggests related images and articles, and links and tags, though I don't usually use those. If it doesn't have anything that catches my eye, I can use 'Refine' to search for specific things. It really is handy.
But now, suddenly, it's causing problems. I never would have noticed if I hadn't disabled it yesterday because it was sitting on top of an email I wanted to read, and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it. Once it was disabled, my formatting and line breaks started working again. I thought Blogger was fixed! And then, I re-enabled Zemanta so I could use it - to add related content - and all my lovely line breaks disappeared! My 'Enter' key stopped working in 'Compose' mode, and I had to go back to the 'Edit HTML' tab to accomplish anything. While writing this post I have enabled, disabled, and re-enabled Zemanta (or is that disabled, re-enabled, and re-disabled?) just to test my theory. Yep, the culprit really is Zemanta.
I've been using the browser extension, but apparently there's a new Blogger gadget, so I'm going to have to figure out how to add that and see if it makes a difference. In the meantime, I would much appreciate it if Zemanta would fix this issue. Thank you.
I've been using Zemanta for a while and never had any problems until recently, unless you count all my images vanishing when I added related articles in Windows Live Writer - but they fixed that. Overall, I love Zemanta. It sits there right beside my compose window and suggests related images and articles, and links and tags, though I don't usually use those. If it doesn't have anything that catches my eye, I can use 'Refine' to search for specific things. It really is handy.
But now, suddenly, it's causing problems. I never would have noticed if I hadn't disabled it yesterday because it was sitting on top of an email I wanted to read, and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it. Once it was disabled, my formatting and line breaks started working again. I thought Blogger was fixed! And then, I re-enabled Zemanta so I could use it - to add related content - and all my lovely line breaks disappeared! My 'Enter' key stopped working in 'Compose' mode, and I had to go back to the 'Edit HTML' tab to accomplish anything. While writing this post I have enabled, disabled, and re-enabled Zemanta (or is that disabled, re-enabled, and re-disabled?) just to test my theory. Yep, the culprit really is Zemanta.
I've been using the browser extension, but apparently there's a new Blogger gadget, so I'm going to have to figure out how to add that and see if it makes a difference. In the meantime, I would much appreciate it if Zemanta would fix this issue. Thank you.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Clay and HTML
Check out this cute little creature Cory made from clay tonight. He's not sure what it is, but it is cute, isn't it? It almost makes me want to try making something from clay...
As I was inserting the picture here I remembered that Cory wanted me to show him how to insert an image with html. But he was busy playing with clay and forgot to remind me. He's taking a web page design class this semester, but the teacher really doesn't teach them much. So he figures if he's going to learn anything, I'll have to teach him.
I know how to insert images, create links like this one to Westgate, make lists, insert lines, and all kinds of other stuff with html. It's really not difficult, and the teacher could teach them all that in the first week or two of class - and then use the rest of the semester to learn even more. It won't happen though. It's more like a study hall for credit. With computers.
I know how to insert images, create links like this one to Westgate, make lists, insert lines, and all kinds of other stuff with html. It's really not difficult, and the teacher could teach them all that in the first week or two of class - and then use the rest of the semester to learn even more. It won't happen though. It's more like a study hall for credit. With computers.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Heads or Tails - Line
Today's theme is:
HEADS - LineFor this week's theme, I thought I'd share the html used to insert a line into your posts, like this:
That's a basic line, and it just goes from one side of your post to the other. To insert one, in your 'edit html' tab in Blogger or in your html view in Windows Live Writer, simply insert: <hr>
It actually means horizontal rule - just a fancy way of saying line. You can add extra code to your line, for instance, if you want your line to only go partway across the window, you can set the width using either a percentage or an actual pixel length. This one is set to 75%. Just add width="75%" to your code: <hr width="75%">
Change the color by adding color="009900": <hr width="75%" color="009900">
You can find the hex codes for the different colors here.
Change the thickness by adding size="5" where your number is the number of pixels you want:
Since it's a line, you probably won't want it to be too many pixels thick. Also, you can align your line - left, right, or center by adding align="left", like on the pink line, align="center" if you want it in the middle, or align="right" like this next one:
It just depends on where you want a line and how you want it to look.
Visit the home of Heads or Tails to see more participants and join in.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
A Couple HTML Tips
It occurred to me as I was writing that last post that I ought to share a couple html tips I use on a regular basis.
First - Mouseover this link: My Flickr page. Do you see that little box pop up? The one that says, "See some pictures I've taken"? I love that little thing. Sometimes I just play with it, but mostly it's a good way to let people know what a link is about before they click it. To make your links do this, use the title attribute. Insert title="this is what this link is about" right after the url, like this:
< a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcmom/" title="See some pictures I've taken">
Be sure to use the quotation marks. A title can also be added to an image.
Second - I'm one of those people who hates to see text right up on top of an image. I like a little white space (or, in my case, purple space) around the image.
To add space above and below the image, use vspace="15" - v for vertical. To add space to the left and right, use hspace="5" - h for horizontal. The number is the number of pixels that will be inserted between your image and your text. It can be whatever you want it to be. Just play with the numbers to see what looks good. If you want more space, increase the number. You'll notice that the numbers do not have to be the same. In this example - an award from Lady Banana, I also used align="right" to place the image on the right side of the post. If I had used align="left" the image would be, you guessed it, on the left side.
So the whole thing looks like this: < img src="imagename.jpg" title="an award from Lady Banana" align="right" hspace="5" vspace="15">
If you're inserting images by clicking on the little Add Image thing in Blogger, there is a whole lot more code, so you'll have to look for the part that starts with img src= and insert it into that part of the code. It's in there, I promise.
Did that help anyone? Hopefully it wasn't too confusing. :P A special Thank You to Lady Banana for the adorable award I used in this example.
First - Mouseover this link: My Flickr page. Do you see that little box pop up? The one that says, "See some pictures I've taken"? I love that little thing. Sometimes I just play with it, but mostly it's a good way to let people know what a link is about before they click it. To make your links do this, use the title attribute. Insert title="this is what this link is about" right after the url, like this:
< a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcmom/" title="See some pictures I've taken">
Be sure to use the quotation marks. A title can also be added to an image.
Second - I'm one of those people who hates to see text right up on top of an image. I like a little white space (or, in my case, purple space) around the image.
To add space above and below the image, use vspace="15" - v for vertical. To add space to the left and right, use hspace="5" - h for horizontal. The number is the number of pixels that will be inserted between your image and your text. It can be whatever you want it to be. Just play with the numbers to see what looks good. If you want more space, increase the number. You'll notice that the numbers do not have to be the same. In this example - an award from Lady Banana, I also used align="right" to place the image on the right side of the post. If I had used align="left" the image would be, you guessed it, on the left side.So the whole thing looks like this: < img src="imagename.jpg" title="an award from Lady Banana" align="right" hspace="5" vspace="15">
If you're inserting images by clicking on the little Add Image thing in Blogger, there is a whole lot more code, so you'll have to look for the part that starts with img src= and insert it into that part of the code. It's in there, I promise.
Did that help anyone? Hopefully it wasn't too confusing. :P A special Thank You to Lady Banana for the adorable award I used in this example.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Basic html Lessons in my Google Docs
I went through my computer and found the lessons I took from Sony 101 on basic html. What I have learned from taking those lessons (besides what they teach) is to save the lessons, either into an html document or a Word (or Open Office) document so that I can refer to them later. Otherwise I can not access them after the course is over. In case any of you are interested, I just uploaded them to my Google Docs, and I'll link to them here. Please note that none of the images work, but all the important information is there.
Basic html Lessons:
I also discovered a new thing about Google Docs. I can email my documents. They gave me a special email address, and I can either start a new document by sending an email, and the subject line will be used as the title of the document and the body of the message entered into the document. Or, I can just send an email and attach the documents I want to upload. I hadn't noticed this before, so I just had to try it. I started an email, attached all 6 of these lessons, and hit send. As quick as that, they were all available in my Google Docs. Then I just had to open them, click Publish, and copy the links here.
Basic html Lessons:
I also discovered a new thing about Google Docs. I can email my documents. They gave me a special email address, and I can either start a new document by sending an email, and the subject line will be used as the title of the document and the body of the message entered into the document. Or, I can just send an email and attach the documents I want to upload. I hadn't noticed this before, so I just had to try it. I started an email, attached all 6 of these lessons, and hit send. As quick as that, they were all available in my Google Docs. Then I just had to open them, click Publish, and copy the links here.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Learning html
I got an email the other day reminding me that January courses are now enrolling at My 101 by Sony. I've taken several free courses there, and I like to check and see what's available. If only I had the time, I would sign up for, and finish this time, the Graphic Design for Non-Designers course. One lesson a week isn't bad, and you get to work at your own pace, but last time I signed up for that one, I just didn't finish it.
I was hoping they were offering a basic html course that I could recommend to those of you who want to learn some html. I took one several years ago, and it was really good. Since they aren't offering that one, I thought maybe this page where you can start learning html would be helpful. Then, after you learn the basics, you can move on to advanced html, if you want to. They have all kinds of information here, whether you want to go through the tutorials or just use it as a reference. And of course, like all good things, it's free.
I'm not sure if he really did or not, but Cory was talking about taking Web Page Design in school next year - so he could get credit for doing nothing. Unfortunately, that's exactly what would happen. Beth took that class last year, I think. It's a one semester class, and it took them the whole first quarter to learn the most basic stuff. Apparently they don't have a text book for this class because there should be enough information on the Internet. Yes, there is plenty of information on the Internet, but the teacher does not go out and find it. They'd be ahead if he just pointed the students to this page and turned them loose. Of course, that is assuming the students have some initiative and aren't just in the class to get credit for doing nothing.
I was hoping they were offering a basic html course that I could recommend to those of you who want to learn some html. I took one several years ago, and it was really good. Since they aren't offering that one, I thought maybe this page where you can start learning html would be helpful. Then, after you learn the basics, you can move on to advanced html, if you want to. They have all kinds of information here, whether you want to go through the tutorials or just use it as a reference. And of course, like all good things, it's free.
I'm not sure if he really did or not, but Cory was talking about taking Web Page Design in school next year - so he could get credit for doing nothing. Unfortunately, that's exactly what would happen. Beth took that class last year, I think. It's a one semester class, and it took them the whole first quarter to learn the most basic stuff. Apparently they don't have a text book for this class because there should be enough information on the Internet. Yes, there is plenty of information on the Internet, but the teacher does not go out and find it. They'd be ahead if he just pointed the students to this page and turned them loose. Of course, that is assuming the students have some initiative and aren't just in the class to get credit for doing nothing.
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