Week 19: Dreamweaver Workshop

Throughout this week I have been at Chichester Observer on work experience. Therefore I was not in the Dreamweaver workshop this week. I have watched some tutorials online for the different aspects which were covered in class whilst I wasn't there. Therefore the aim for me this week was to watch tutorials to update my skills audit on Rollover Buttons, Behaviours, Tables, AP Div Tags and Spry Objects.

Whilst carrying out this task this week I didn't feel as confident as I am usually am participating within the workshop as I was relying on tutorials on YouTube to gain knowledge and skills. Although, because I knew what I needed to learn this week I was able to find simple tutorials so I can learn the new skills and update my skills audit. I found tutorials on each of the different elements listed above. These tutorials for Behaviours, Tables, AP Div Tags, Spry Objects and Rollover Buttons have really helped and were easy to understand. I now know the usage and purpose of the different elements within Dreamweaver.
 By watching the tutorials I was able to take notes as the tutorial played and I was able to pause this to ensure I have understood what was being explained. I have now started to update my skills audit with the new skills and knowledge I have gained through watching these tutorials. A problem which has arisen is the fact that I am unable to gain screenshots for my skills audit as I have not carried out the task within Dreamweaver. Therefore next week I will ensure that I can gain screenshots for the tutorials I have watched this week to add to my skills audit.

On reflection, I have completed the task which I set out to achieve this week. I have also gained new knowledge and skills whilst working independently. I will complete updating my skills audit with the skills I have learnt and how I will use these within my own website.
I believe this activity went well this week and is one which I could repeat in the future, if I am unsure of any skills learnt within Dreamweaver I could watch tutorials to ensure I understand clearly.

Week 18: Dreamweaver Workshop: Image Viewers and Image Slicing

Through today's session the aim was to gain knowledge and skills within Dreamweaver and Photoshop by using Image Viewers and Slicing tools. The aim was to participate within a workshop to be shown the use of image viewers and image slicing tools. I would also learn how Photoshop and Dreamweaver work together to create the webpage with the slicing tools. This will then allow me to update my skills profile with the new skills I have learnt related to these tools and elements.
Our lecturer carried out the workshop and I was able to guided through the processes on the screen. Using the same webpage created in last weeks workshop, I re-defined the webpage to use within this weeks session. To begin with I learnt how to use the image viewer tool. This allowed me to import images in the form of a flash element, I imported images and they played as a slideshow within the browser. I could then edit the image viewer settings within the 'Flash Element' panel for the display of the webpage. In terms of image slicing, I learnt how Photoshop and Dreamweaver work together to create webpages. I created a basic webpage with buttons in Photoshop and then added grids and used the slicing tool to separate the button elements. I then learnt how to correctly 'save for web and devices' settings. This could then be added into Dreamweaver via my 'images' folder within the 'Root' folder. I felt confident whilst carrying out this workshop and I understood the news skills I was gaining.
I believe I have achieved the tasks which was set at the beginning of today's session. This was to participate in a workshop gaining more skills and knowledge within Dreamweaver. I have learnt new skills which will help me when creating my own website and I can document these skills within my skills audit.
I believe this activity went well today and I am confident with the new skills I have learnt. Being a workshop based session, I was being shown step by step the different tools and I believe I was able to keep up well with the lecturer. Therefore I was able to clearly understand what the element does and how it is used. I was also able to take screenshots of the relevant elements to include within my skills audit. I could repeat this activity again, in terms of the workshop by being shown and following the instructions on screen. This method does help me in understanding the different software programmes which will help me to create my own website. I will probably be repeating the workshop session again for different elements which are used within Dreamweaver. I could also extend on the knowledge and skills learnt today by watching online tutorials to gain advanced knowledge, for example on Image Viewers and Image Slicing.
Overall, I understand the new skills I have learnt and developed today and I will be updating my skills audit with these skills.

Week 18: Skills Audit Continued

Through today's lesson I aimed to continue to update my skills audit. The main skills which I will be discussing within the skills audit today was the CSS and Dreamweaver workshop from last Thursday. I have started to write the skills learnt from this workshop and by the end of the session I aimed to complete writing the various skills which I have learnt.
Through carrying out this task today I have been able to reflect on the skills I have learnt in order to write these into my skills audit. Through the process of writing this skills audit I have been reviewing the skills used, how I will use it within my production of my website and image to demonstrate visually the use of the tool. Through writing this skills audit I have been able to ensure I understand exactly the different skills learnt throughout the previous workshop. I can also ensure I am writing the skills audit in the terms that I can understand when I refer back to it when creating my own website. I kept this in mind throughout writing the audit, I have made it clear to myself and also anyone else who needs to use it for guidance. Also, by using images I can visually show screenshots of the relevant elements which helps explain the use of the tool.
By the end of this session I had completed updating my skills audit for the CSS and introduction to Dreamweaver. I was clear about what I had achieved and what I had written. I am happy that I have created a clear table with the tool used, skill learnt & how I will use this skill and an image to demonstrate what I am describing. I am happy that I have shown the new skills I have learnt by describing them within this skills audit.
A strength which I believe I had through updating my skills audit is that I have been able to show and explain the new skills I have learnt within the Dreamweaver workshop. I have learnt many new skills and by documenting it within the skills audit I can visually and simply explain the skill learnt and how I will apply this within my own website. I am confident with the skills I have learnt and I will be able to refer back to this document when creating my website.
Reflecting on today's session I believe I have completed the task set and I understand the purpose of this task. I feel this task went well and I believe I can repeat this task within the future. I will need to repeat this task as the skills audit is a continuous document throughout the production of my website. This is because I am learning new skills within different programmes such as Dreamweaver and I need to continue to document new skills. Therefore I believe I can extend on this task, by continuing and improving the skills audit as I complete it.

Week 17: Dreamweaver and CSS Workshop

Throughout today's session I have been continuing with the web authoring workshops. Today we focused on introduction to Dreamweaver and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The aim of today's workshop was to understand the elements within Dreamweaver and how CSS works. The main aim was to use the new skills learnt within Dreamweaver by creating 3 linked pages including images, background colours and text.
When carrying out this task today I felt confident in the new skills and knowledge I have gained. I understood the different stages of creating the webpages within Dreamweaver. I took notes throughout this task to help me understand the different tools within Dreamweaver and I can also write my Skills Audit with these notes. Throughout this session I was guided through the different parts of the workshop based on CSS. I learnt many new skills and have gained knowledge in terms of Dreamweaver and the creation of webpages, some of these skills and knowledge include:

• Organising Folders- I have learnt the importance of organising the 'Root' folder. I have created 3 folders within this, these include HTML (webpages), Images (images ready to upload to webpage) and RAW (Any word document files). It is important that these files are organised so the webpage file is able to locate the files for the certain webpage being edited. If the saved webpage HTML file cannot locate a file the webpage could potentially be broken.
• Properties Panel- I have learnt the functions of the properties panel which is located at the bottom of the Dreamweaver. This includes the page's font size, font colour, font style, background colour and headings text colour and size. This is located within every page which is created within Dreamweaver.  
• Creating 'New Site'- In the tool bar along the top of the screen is a button for site- new site. I learnt how to create the new site with the correct settings. This involved Dreamweaver going through a defining process to create the initial site page. This involved me selecting certain settings. I can also create a new file (new page) to appear in the same file (Dreamweaver page) so I can edit the different pages at the same time without having to re-open the files.
• Linking pages together- Another skill I learnt was linking the different pages together, so when I previewed these within the web browser I can click on a button (text) to link t one of the webpages. For example, I linked the index page to page 2 and back again to the index page. I did this using the properties panel and using the pick whip tool and select the 'Link' box and drag the tool to the page 2. I added the link to a piece of text within the page and this automatically links the pages together. Another piece of knowledge I gained was the use of the'_self selection' within the properties panel. This relates to the links I have made. This keeps my different pages within one browser window when a link to another page is selected.
• Flash Text- I also learnt about Flash Text, this is a swf file and I used this to create a text link button. I firstly created the text which I wanted to appear on the webpage. I selected the font, colour and size. I created the link button 'Back' within my webpage 2. I added this swf file to page 2 to link back to the index page, I selected this index page from the drop down link menu in the properties panel.

From the above knowledge and skills I have learnt I feel confident about using CSS and Dreamweaver when creating my own website. I feel confident because I am able to explain the different tools used within Dreamweaver for CSS. Reflecting on this task I believe I have completed the task of creating 3 different webpages interlinked using Dreamweaver and CSS tools. I have gained more knowledge and skills which I can improve and develop when creating my own webpages. A strength I believe I had when completing this task is the method of taking notes of the different tools and how they work in terms of Dreamweaver and CSS. This will therefore help me when I write my skills audit for this session and subject area of CSS.
I will continue to reflect on the skills and knowledge I have gained by writing my skills audit for this session. I will include the various elements which I learnt about, their purpose and the appearance of this within the web browser.

Week 17: Skills Audit for Basic HTML Completed

This week I aimed to complete the first part of my web authoring skills audit, the basic HTML which I learnt in last weeks workshop. This skills audit will help me when I create my own webpages because it allows me to understand the process of completing different actions and creating the webpage in notepad. I aimed to complete writing this skills audit this week so I can continue with it in tomorrows session (Thursday) and add the new skills which I learnt.

I created a skills audit table, similar to the table I used for my animation project. This included columns such as Code/ Description, Usage and Appearance in web browser. I understood what is required of the skills audit and within the code/ description I will place information regarding the code which is used to change something within the webpage. In the usage column I explained what the code does and how it appears in Notepad before the page is opened within the internet browser. The last column showed the appearance of the webpage once saved and opened within Internet Explorer. This layout will help me in the future when I create my own webpages, as I understand what the code is, what is does and how it changes the webpage. I was confident when completing this document because I carried out the task (creating the HTML page) within the skills audit. Therefore by carrying out this practically I am able to explain how it works.

By the end of this week I have completed writing the first part of the skills audit. I feel that I understand what I have written within this document and why I have written this. I am confident about continuing with this document with the new skills I learn throughout the future workshops and I am able to continue to include screenshots of the programmes and the certain code I am explaining.

This is a skills which I can repeat within this project and also future projects. I will be continuing to explain the different codes used within web authoring to apply in my own work. The skills audit is a document which will help me and I could also create these for other projects to show my skills within certain software programs.

Tomorrow I will be expanding my skills by using Dreamweaver to use different codes for webpages. I will then be able to continue filling in my skills audit with the new skills I have learnt throughout the workshop.  

Week 16: Web Authoring Workshop

In today's lesson I was introduced to the practical of creating a HTML webpage using codes and tags. The aim of today's session was to create a basic webpage using Notepad with the correct tags and codes for the different elements within the webpage. I also aimed to document the skills learnt to show the development of my own skills related to creating webpages. Another aim was to gain practical skills to apply within my own future web design work.

Through carrying out this task today I have learnt many new skills related to the creation of HTML webpages. HTML was the focus of this workshop, creating a webpage using the correct tags and codes for the different elements on the webpage. This definitely helped me in understanding how to carry out the task. I did carry out this task successfully. I had never been introduced to the creation of HTML webpages before and I now feel confident with the knowledge I have gained today from this workshop. The types of skills which I learnt include creating a simple HTML webpage using Notepad including text, hyperlinks, video, title, background colour and centralising the elements on the page. I created these using the correct tags and codes. One main point which I learnt was to always remember to close a tag once it has been opened in order for the page to display content correctly. I therefore also understand the importance of using the correct tags and codes and especially closing the different tags within the webpage.

I feel confident of the task I have completed today. I am happy and confident with the new skills I have learnt and understand how these skills will help me when creating my own website. I did complete the intended task for today and I created a simple webpage, a screenshot of this is shown below.

The webpage which I have created from today's lesson

The codes for the above webpage. This is how the webpage appears within Notepad
and once this is completed correctly using the tags, the webpage appears, it controls
the layout and content within the webpage (above).

This shows the title, background colour, video, hyperlinks to other websites and text. This task has also ensure me that the knowledge I gained from writing my investigation is correct. I will also be completing a Skills Audit style document showing the different skills I have used to create the webpage, this will be continuous throughout this assignment. I am able to experiment with Notepad and create other webpages and use other tags to expand my knowledge and skills within my own time. Therefore this task is a skill I can expand and continue with over the coming week. Overall, I am happy with the new skills I have learnt and feel confident about learning about Dreamweaver next week.

Week 16: Web Authoring Investigation Complete

This week I aimed to complete my web authoring investigation. I aimed to complete the writing of the investigation; I was completing this document with the help of the research I gathered in the research stage of this task. This week I aimed to write the remaining four web authoring terms into my investigation showing my knowledge and understanding of these. The Deadline for this investigation is tomorrow (5th January) therefore this week I needed to complete writing up my investigation to ensure I meet the deadline.

I believe that this week I have completed this task successfully as I have completed my investigation and I have finished writing about the remaining four terms. The reason why I decided to plan which terms I would write up each week was to ensure I was writing the document to the best of my ability and understanding and gaining knowledge about the different web authoring terms. I feel as though I have gained knowledge to apply in my own work through researching and writing this investigation. I have also used resources such as books and the internet for my research, as I believe research from books is more reliable that information from websites.

Reflecting on this week and the whole investigation I believe I have learnt and gained a lot of new knowledge about web authoring and the terms involved and their purposes within web design. This will therefore help me when I come to create my own web production. I have also completed this task within the deadline time and I have researched and written the investigation to the best of my ability.

Overall, throughout completing this task I have definitely gained knowledge for the future web production and I now understand the purposes of elements and tags. I can now put this knowledge into action and use when carrying out my own web production.