In my efforts to bring my websites up to date (or at least significantly closer to date), today marks a small but significant milestone.
Today, for the first time ever, I successfully wrote and implemented a style sheet.
Now, this probably seems like a spectacular non-event to most people, but to me it's big. I spent many years relying on FrontPage to determine how my sites looked and behaved, so taking matters into my own hands and writing out the code - in Notepad - felt like a major accomplishment. No, the results aren't published. Truth be told, they're downright hideous, on purpose. I've been cobbling together a "test web" on my computer to play with, so I wanted to see right away if the style sheet took or not. When they did, and when I successfully modified them without crashing anything out, I wanted to cheer. I probably would have, except I didn't want the cats staring at me, wondering what kind of freak they live with and why she can't let them nap. (They stare at me like that enough already...)
No, I don't have a life...
Unfortunately, the fact that I'm becoming more aware of the power of CSS and coding means I'm even more reluctant to rebuild my sites using software that generates junk code - which, evidently, rules out pretty much all WYSIWYG editors. I do still need some software to check coding, though, and I like having tools on hand to help with some of the drudgery of site generation and maintenance (navigation trees, updating/checking links, etc.) So I've been poking around online trying to track down free/cheap HTML editing software. Right now, I'm toying with HTML-Kit, because the free version fits my budget. (It's only 65 bucks to register and get more toys, which isn't entirely impossible - unlike the triple digits some big name site authoring software wants.) Any recommendations on that front would be appreciated, though I'm rapidly approaching decision time: I expect I'll start actively recoding sites in a week or two, starting with Brightdreamer Books before moving on to a complete re-imagining of Skyhaven (which will not be named Skyhaven anymore - no new name yet, but I'm working on it.)
Guess I'll get back at it...
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Yet another pointless blog by another pointless blogger...
Quote of the Moment
"It's never wrong to hope, Byx," said my mother. "Unless the truth says otherwise."
- from Endling #1: The Last, by Katherine Applegate
- from Endling #1: The Last, by Katherine Applegate
About Me
- Brightdreamer
- I am a beast in her 40s, passably resembling a human being, with no clue what I'm supposed to be doing with my life and no money to do it with even if I knew. In the meantime, I review books, daydream too much, write and draw too little, and generally waste space by existing.
Links of Interest
- Brightdreamer's Book Reviews - My Other Blog
- Comic - Brewster Rockit
- Comic - Buttersafe
- Comic - Candorville
- Comic - Cornered
- Comic - F-Minus
- Comic - Fowl Language
- Comic - Loose Parts
- Comic - Maximumble
- Comic - Off the Mark
- Comic - Pearls Before Swine
- Comic - Poorly Drawn Lines
- Comic - Rhymes With Orange
- Comic - Rip Haywire
- Comic - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
- Comic - The Argyle Sweater
- Comic - xkcd
- Education - W3 Schools (HTML, CSS, etc.)
- Free RPG - Kingdom of Loathing
- Humor - Rifftrax.com
- Music - Ambient Mixer (soothing ambient noise soundtracks)
- The Animal Rescue Site - Click To Give
- Writing - Absolute Write
- Writing - NaNoWriMo
5 comments:
Good luck! I have to admit CSS leaves me scared stiff which is why I rely on DreamWeaver (which I got from work - I could never have bought it on my own). I'm sure you'll do well though - you're talented that way!!
PPG - Like most things, it's not quite so scary once you get used to it. It looks to be quite handy, and it can do some stupid little tricks that I like but which nobody else cares about. (Today, for instance, I figured out how to make big capital letters on certain paragraphs, for a storybook effect. Hey, I said I had no life...)
I actually have a version of Dreamweaver 8, but I'm hesitant to use it at this point because I don't know if it's up to current web standards. (I'm also not entirely sure it's a 100% working copy... it's second-hand and came without the box or documentation.)
The nice thing about Dreamweaver is that you can work with it to make the pages, then click to "edit HTML" and further tweak things... so even if you are working with an older version, you'd be able to adjust as needed.
I also use Dreamweaver, I think I was on 5 up until a couple years ago - also picked it up through work so the price wasn't an issue for me. It's the only web software I've ever used so unfortunately I don't have any advice outside of it... but if you find free software at least you can download it and monkey with it without paying anything.
Jade - Hmm... does DreamWeaver "fix" the HTML at all when you try to hand code? (FrontPage always pulled that on me - it kept "correcting" things. I could cut and paste in sections of code, but surrounded it with big, ugly tags that cluttered everything up.)
I haven't had that problem in pasting code in DW... though about the only code I paste in is the "add to cart" button code from Paypal. FrontPage *is* a MS product and, therefore, subscribes to the belief that we should all want things the way MS wants them!
porks - Um, I don't think I'm going to go there right now... might not be flattering to the MS coders.
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