Tag: Web Design

Create a free website using Wix

Wix is a service that will help you build a flash website, and basic ones are free. They come in multiple templates for various themes (corporate, media, etc.). You basically drag and drop your personal media into the templates, and very quickly you have your own site. It’s akin to iWeb, but fancier, easier to … Continue reading “Create a free website using Wix”


Wix is a service that will help you build a flash website, and basic ones are free. They come in multiple templates for various themes (corporate, media, etc.). You basically drag and drop your personal media into the templates, and very quickly you have your own site. It’s akin to iWeb, but fancier, easier to use, and looks less like it comes from a template. You don’t have to know any coding or web design to get started. The only downside is a somewhat limited interface, but considering it’s free and requires no knowledge of CSS or Dreamweaver, it’s a cool place to start for beginners. Check it out!

Todd’s Thoughts: Web 2.0 and the Redefintion of Everything

Ok, so maybe this should be Todd’s Tips, but this is something worth thinking about. With the wild connectivity supplied to us by Web 2.0 technology forces us to re-define our notions of communication and information. As we link, we link ourselves to other people and ultimately to the Web itself. And, as Professor Michael … Continue reading “Todd’s Thoughts: Web 2.0 and the Redefintion of Everything”

Ok, so maybe this should be Todd’s Tips, but this is something worth thinking about.

With the wild connectivity supplied to us by Web 2.0 technology forces us to re-define our notions of communication and information. As we link, we link ourselves to other people and ultimately to the Web itself. And, as Professor Michael Wesch of Kansas State University suggests, we link ourselves to the machine; we become the machine. This notion is perhaps a bit buried in the mythology of the Matrix, but it’s not very far off.

It’s really worth taking a few minutes to watch his video about the way Web2.0 is changing us as sentient beings:

Get Savvy on Dreamweaver – Jazz up Your Assignment

Dreamweaver is one of the most useful of Adobe’s applications. It can allow you to visualize all sorts of code and layouts before you publish your site. It comes with a number of templates for common website layouts. It will even write code for you. One thing that Dreamweaver is no so good at is … Continue reading “Get Savvy on Dreamweaver – Jazz up Your Assignment”


Dreamweaver is one of the most useful of Adobe’s applications. It can allow you to visualize all sorts of code and layouts before you publish your site. It comes with a number of templates for common website layouts. It will even write code for you.

One thing that Dreamweaver is no so good at is helping users with CSS. Often times we get users in the Digital Media Studio who want to create rollover links, or other neat CSS effects and they pound their heads on the wall because it just won’t work. Often times it’s something simple, one bit of syntax out of place and the whole thing is wrecked.
Well, for all those folks with headaches, I have a solution for you.
Check out this website: Entheos.
Its a massive repository of recipes for cool Dreamweaver and CSS effects for your website assignments. And by recipies I mean step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish things. And, in many of the recipes, they give you take-away code. You can’t loose.

DMS Help – Extra Cool Websites for Inspiration

One of the hardest things about web design is trying to decide on what you want your site to look like. It’s true that some of the coding and development can be hairy, but the design can be just as difficult. So here’s some inspiration for you. This first list is a group of rather … Continue reading “DMS Help – Extra Cool Websites for Inspiration”

One of the hardest things about web design is trying to decide on what you want your site to look like. It’s true that some of the coding and development can be hairy, but the design can be just as difficult.

So here’s some inspiration for you.
This first list is a group of rather amazing websites. Many of them employ Flash and other bells and whistles. While some of these may seem to be well beyond your skill level, they nonetheless employ excellent design aesthetics. You can learn from these.
This list is a litany of much simpler sites. Many of these can be done with simple Dreamweaver templates. See our previous blog entries for more on Dreamweaver templates.

Todd’s Tips – Learn HTML and CSS. Now!

Kind of a sad state of affairs, no? I think one thing we can take away from this image is the idea that there are so many WYSIWYG applications out there that actually writing HTML code has become a sort of lost art. But it shouldn’t be. HMTL (Hypertext Markup Language) and its companion CSS … Continue reading “Todd’s Tips – Learn HTML and CSS. Now!”

Kind of a sad state of affairs, no? I think one thing we can take away from this image is the idea that there are so many WYSIWYG applications out there that actually writing HTML code has become a sort of lost art.

But it shouldn’t be.
HMTL (Hypertext Markup Language) and its companion CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) are essential for creating high-quality websites. While the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) applications like Dreamweaver and Front Page can take you a long way, when you really need to alter the page in a minute way to fit your awesome idea, you’re gonna need HTML and CSS.
Let me explain…
A web browser, like the one you’re using now to read this, is built to read HMTL. At least, that was the original idea. HTML allows you to upload text (Hypertext) to the net. In the beginning one could only do the bare minimum of formatting with barebones HTML. But, after a while, CSS came along. CSS is a scripting language that acts on HMTL elements in a page. It can add a number of attributes such as color, size and most importantly positioning. Moreover, it can also be used to position Java Script objects, Flash files and other, more interactive elements. So as of right now the basic developmental elements of a web page are its HMTL base and a linked CSS file that tells all those HTML elements where to go.
So, in order for you to create the best web pages you can, you need to learn these things. And here’s where you can start:
More Basic HTML Tutorials – This website might look crappy, but that’s because it uses no CSS. Despite this, you’ll find that the tutorials are very good at explaining the basics of HTML.
Also, there are a large number of tutorials on HTML and CSS as well as other web-scripting languages such as Action Script, Java Script, PHP, Ajax and Cold Fusion on Lynda.com.

Todd’s Tips – About Web Hosting and a Recommendation

**This recommendation comes strictly from Todd, based on his personal experiences with the hosting company noted below, and is in no way a paid promotion or advertisement.** There are a lot of web hosting companies out there on the web… Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Perhaps you’d like to know what web hosting is … Continue reading “Todd’s Tips – About Web Hosting and a Recommendation”

**This recommendation comes strictly from Todd, based on his personal experiences with the hosting company noted below, and is in no way a paid promotion or advertisement.**

There are a lot of web hosting companies out there on the web…
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Perhaps you’d like to know what web hosting is first before we discuss who does it well?
Every website you see on the net, including this blog, is hosted on a server, somewhere in the world. A server is basically a big computer that does two things, it receives requests and doles out data. When you type in a web address and hit return, what are doing is essentially placing a “call” to the server and asking it for the information that should be displayed on a particular web page. Your web browser (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc…) then translates the code it gets back into a coherent “page.” That’s what you see when you bring up this blog.
So, to have your own website, you need to have a server. Now, you could purchase a server and some server software and setup your own, but this takes expertise and is therefore best left to the experts. That said, you’ll need to pay someone else to host your site.
And to come back to where I started, there are a number of web hosting companies out there on the web. But, before I make a specific recommendation, let me give you a few things to think about when shopping for web hosting:
Cost, obviously. Most companies range between 5 and 12 dollars per month, depending on how many bells and whistles you get.
Storage space. Typically most standard hosting plans will provide you enough storage space for all your pages. The only issue is if you are planning to have a lot of multimedia on your site (videos and the like). If so, you may consider paying for more space.
Bandwidth. This is how much data you can transfer per month. Again, unless you are doing a lot of multimedia then you’re probably ok with the standard plan.
Databases. If you are planning on hosting a CMS (Content Management System) like Drupal or Joomla, you WILL need some databases. Most standard plans now allow 10 to 50 databases on a standard plan, but you’ll need to make sure.
Tech Support. Unless you are a master, things will go wrong on your site and you will not know how to fix them. Make sure the plan you get has tech support, free if possible…
My personal recommendation for web hosting is a company called Bluehost. Their prices are about average for the market, they offer large storage and bandwidth options as well as 50 databases on most plans. Their tech support folks are awesome. And free. I have hosted two sites on Bluehost and both were based on a Drupal CMS; I had no problems with installation or usage of either site. These are good folks.
But, there are a few other worthwhile competitors to Bluehost where I know colleagues have successfully hosted sites. They are:

DMS Help – Using an FTP Client to Upload Files to a Website

While small websites can be built and stored locally, for the real deal, you’ll need to get web hosting. And, once you’ve paid for web hosting, you’ll need a way to get your files from your computer to the host’s server. Often times the hosting company will provide some limp FTP client as part of … Continue reading “DMS Help – Using an FTP Client to Upload Files to a Website”

While small websites can be built and stored locally, for the real deal, you’ll need to get web hosting. And, once you’ve paid for web hosting, you’ll need a way to get your files from your computer to the host’s server. Often times the hosting company will provide some limp FTP client as part of their back-end web-interface. There are alternatives.

In this video (also appears below), learn what FTP is, how it’s used, and what (free) FTP clients might be best for you.

DMS Help – Learn Basic Web Design & HTML

Some folks might think that learning HTML is a little old skool, but it’s the foundation of everything that appears on the Internet; a working knowledge of it is essential for anyone who intended to do anything on the web. In this video tutorial (also appears below), the instructor takes you step-by-step through the bare-bones … Continue reading “DMS Help – Learn Basic Web Design & HTML”

Some folks might think that learning HTML is a little old skool, but it’s the foundation of everything that appears on the Internet; a working knowledge of it is essential for anyone who intended to do anything on the web.

In this video tutorial (also appears below), the instructor takes you step-by-step through the bare-bones creation of a website in Notepad. Again, this may seem a bit slow, but the concepts and terminology you’ll learn here are critical for further work in online development, publishing or promotion:

DMS Help – Simple CSS Tutorial

Lately we’ve had some requests for CSS help here in Media Services. Apparently there are some classes here that have their students hand code CSS for various projects. Moreover, for anyone in the web design, communications or journalism worlds, it’s good to have some idea of what CSS is and what it can do. This … Continue reading “DMS Help – Simple CSS Tutorial”


Lately we’ve had some requests for CSS help here in Media Services. Apparently there are some classes here that have their students hand code CSS for various projects. Moreover, for anyone in the web design, communications or journalism worlds, it’s good to have some idea of what CSS is and what it can do.

This is a great text tutorial that gives a highly readable and easy-to-understand introduction to CSS.