Dec. 19, 2002
Please feel free to invite some of your colleagues from your or another city/county if you think it would benefit them to be part of our group!
Digital Photography Class
Our own Rich Lovett will be teaching a class about
the basics of digital photography through Communiversity, UMKC’s continuing
education program. More on the class: http://www.umkc.edu/commu/art-winter2003.html#Photography2000
CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
Susan Waters' handout (for DreamWeaver
MX):
To create a Cascading Style Sheet:
- Open the New Document dialog box, choose File > New.
- In the Category list, select CSS Style Sheets. The document list to the right, updates with a selection of CSS Style Sheets.
- In the document list, select a style sheet to preview it properties and description, then click Create. A new CSS document appears in the Document window. The CSS Style Sheet opens in Code view.
- Choose File > Save As.
- In the Save As dialog box, browse to the location where you want to save the file, enter a unique filename for the document, and click Save.
Creating a new CSS style:
Create a CSS style to automate the formatting of HTML tags or a range of text. There are multiple ways to create a new CSS Style or style sheet:
In the CSS Styles panel (Window > CSS Styles), click the New CSS Style button (+) located in the lower right area of the panel.
In the text Property inspector, click the Toggle CSS/HTML Mode button to switch to CSS Mode: -css, -html. Then in the CSS Style pop-up menu, select New CSS Style.
Choose Text > CSS Styles > New CSS Style.
Define the type of CSS style you want to create:
To create a custom style that can be applied as a class attribute to a range or block of text, select Make Custom Style (Class), then in the Name field, enter a name for the style. Note: Custom style (class) names must begin with a period and can contain any combination of letters and numbers. For example, .heading1. If you don’t enter a beginning period, Dreamweaver automatically enters it for you.
To define the formatting for a particular combination of tags or for all tags that contain a specific Id attribute, select Use CSS Selector, then in the Selector field, enter one or more HTML tags or choose one from the pop-up menu. The selectors available from the pop-up menu are
- a:active
- a:hover
- a:link
- a:visited
Select the location in which the style will be defined:
To create an external style sheet, choose New Style Sheet File.
To embed the style in the current document, choose This Document Only. Click OK. The Style Definition dialog box appears.
Choose the style options (attributes) you want to set for the new CSS style.
Attributes:
Font sets the font family (or series of families) for the style. Browsers display text in the first font in the series that is installed on the user’s system.
Size defines the size of the text. You can choose a specific size by selecting the number and the unit of measurement, or you can choose a relative size. Pixels as a unit work well to prevent browsers from distorting your text.
Style specifies Normal, Italic, or Oblique as the font style. The default setting is Normal.
Line Height sets the height of the line on which the text is placed. This setting is traditionally called leading. Select Normal to have the line height for the font size calculated automatically, or enter an exact value and select a unit of measurement.
Decoration adds an underline, overline, or line-through to the text, or makes the text blink. The default setting for regular text is None. The default setting for links is Underline. When you set the link setting to none, you can remove the underline from links by defining a special class.
Weight applies a specific or relative amount of boldface to the font. Normal is equivalent to 400; Bold is equivalent to 700.
Variant sets the small caps variant on text. Dreamweaver does not display this attribute in the Document window. The variant attribute is supported by Internet Explorer but not Navigator.
Case capitalizes the first letter of each word in the selection or sets the text to all uppercase or lowercase.
Color sets the text color.
To apply the style, highlight area of text or HTML tag and click on desired style in CSS window or right-click and select CSS Styles.
All font tags should be stripped from your pages before adding styles.
Classes should be in the <p>, <td>, <th>, <li>, <a> tags. (<span> if the style is meant just for a section of a paragraph)
i.e.: <p class=”body”>This is a <a href=”link.html” class=”body”>link</a>.</p>
CSS Web sites:
Web design group’s Guide to Cascading Style Sheets: http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/
CSS Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/cssFAQ.html
W3 Schools CSS2 Reference: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp
Macromedia Contribute
Contribute is a new product from Macromedia. It is
a tool that multiple users in your organization can use to update and create
Web pages without knowing HTML. It is browser based and will use security options
set up by the administrator (you) for each individual. It is NOT A CONTENT
MANAGEMENT TOOL.
For more information, see the demo on Macromedia’s Web site, www.macromedia.com/contribute, or read the article on page 52 of PC Magazine, January 2003.
Chris Audano shared some government pricing quotes with us: $78 each for 5 copies; a 12-month contract for upgrades and maintenance is $31 each, total $99.
For more ordering information, contact Kristy Skeen at Macromedia, (415) 832-5281 or kskeen@macromedia.com.
January Meeting: Search Engines
For January, we will share information about
various search engines. Bring information about the search technology your
site is currently using and any questions you may have about others.
If there is time, the group may discuss experiences working with the trial version of Contribute.
The meeting will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, at the MARC offices, 600 Broadway. Some folks usually do lunch after the meeting. Let the group know if you’d like to join.
If you have any ideas for future topics or guest speakers, please share them with Susan Waters, Overland Park (sjwaters@opkansas.org) or send them via the listserv.
SJW