LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 6:25 pm Post subject: HTML Question...

So, I bought an HTML book, "HTML For the World Wide Web" by Elizabeth Castro. This seems to be a very good book and the one that was most highly recommended on Amazon. Now, nowhere does it tell me how to add different "web components" to my webpage (check web page link in my sig). If you'll notice on my extremely proprietary Front Page Express created page, there are links to MSNBC. Is there a way to change those links to, say, CNN using the same format (news top stories, sports, etc) as on my web site) or am I stuck using the MS proprietary crap? Do I need to use a different HTML editor, like Dreamweaver? Any help would be much appreciated. Question

EEps · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 6:37 pm Post subject:

Nice web start... You need to put up more pictures of Wilson. You could even make him a spokes-dog fer yer site, too. Just make sure you "pay" him enough to keep him from suing you...

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 9:15 pm Post subject:

Yeah, his agent is already calling me talking about working out a "deal" for milkbones and Snausages.

I have to put up some new pics of him. I don't have a digital camera, though, that situation will be rectified shortly.

EEps · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 9:23 pm Post subject:

hrbib21 wrote:
I don't have a digital camera, though, that situation will be rectified shortly.

Please don't run his face through the scanner again. I don't think you'll survive his "anger" management... Shocked

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 10:04 pm Post subject:

hrbib21 wrote:
Yeah, his agent is already calling me talking about working out a "deal" for milkbones and Snausages.

I have to put up some new pics of him. I don't have a digital camera, though, that situation will be rectified shortly.

May I suggest the Fuji Finepix 2650? Very nice camera, only $200. I'm EXTREMELY impressed with mine. Comes with 16mb of memory, expandable to a gig in the near future, I believe 256mb is the max now. It uses memory cards smaller than a fingernail. Only thing I have to bitch about is the day after I bought it, Radioshack had it for the same price as bestbuy, but with a free camera bag.

BTW, the ONLY way to do html is with notepad. Simply the best and fatest way.

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 10:54 pm Post subject:

WOW is all I can say. That is a whole lot of code.

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2003 11:15 pm Post subject:

Funny you should mention that, smokin. That is the EXACT camera that I was looking in WalMart today.

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 12:31 am Post subject:

Quote:
BTW, the ONLY way to do html is with notepad. Simply the best and fatest way.

Now, if that's true, then why isn't your site done yet? I've been waiting a friggin year to see it.

Get on the ball there, guy.

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 12:41 am Post subject:

hrbib21 wrote:
Quote:
BTW, the ONLY way to do html is with notepad. Simply the best and fatest way.
Now, if that's true, then why isn't your site done yet? I've been waiting a friggin year to see it.

Get on the ball there, guy.

*cough* I'm a lazy bastard *cough*

Been working on other projects too.

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 3:57 am Post subject:

hrbib21 wrote:
Quote:
BTW, the ONLY way to do html is with notepad. Simply the best and fatest way.
Now, if that's true, then why isn't your site done yet? I've been waiting a friggin year to see it.

Get on the ball there, guy.

actually, I have to agree about the notepad idea.

My dad recently threw together a webspace for himself, and used frontpage. It is impossible tho for him to actually look at the code and understand it. Frontpage throws so much extra crap into the code that it literally is too much effort to read. I opened his page up in notepad, and removed 6k of crap right off the top. He was almost frothing at the mouth until I saved it to a new file and showed him that I hadn't even changed anything. I then completely re-wrote the rest of his page, so it looked the same.

The funny thing is. He can now look at the code and understand what is going on. (of course, I then went and threw in some tables... but he was even able to follow that)

IMHO, if you want to learn how to write HTML, then stick with notepad, or some other TEXT only program (ConText, I noticed, even highlights things for you). But if you use Frontpage, or some other WYSIWYG editor, you will never, ever understand the code underneath it.

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 4:03 am Post subject:

On of the reasons Notepad is so easy is because all you do is copy and paste (a LOT).
Go to CNN.com, view source on their page, copy n' paste a box over to yours.
Of course, you hafta know how to find it and isolate it. Confused

You will need to change some of the linkage, e.g., they have an abbreviated image or ref source as "/images/1.gif"
and you need to extend the full source, "http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/1.gif", since the source is not on your page. Shocked

Here is the code for a CNN/NASCAR Box I put on my Victims page:
Yes, I'm a-gonna make it more Jeff-oriented eventually Cool

)

Code: Select all




<div><img src="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/1.gif" alt="" width="1" height="10"></div>


<div><img src="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.0/main/px_c00.gif" alt="" width="267" height="2"></div>


<table width="267" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">


<tr>


<td width="169" bgcolor="#003366"><div class="cnnBlueBoxHeader"><span class="cnnBigPrint"><b>NASCAR NEWS</b></span></div></td>


<td width="25" class="cnnBlueBoxHeader" align="right"><img src="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.0/misc/diagonal.gif" width="25" height="19" alt=""></td>


<td width="73" class="cnnBlueBoxTab" align="right" gcolor="#336699"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/si/index.html?cnn=yes"><img src="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.0/main/superlinks/sports.gif" 


alt="Sports News" border="0" width="69" height="11" hspace="2" vspace="2" align="right"></a></td>


</tr>


</table>


<table width="267" bgcolor="#DDDDDD" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0">


<tr valign="top">


<td>


<a href="http://www.cnn.com/si/index.html?cnn=yes"><img src="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/prog/tz.daytona.ap.gif" alt="Daytona 500" width="65" height="49" border="0" align="right"></a>


<span class="cnnBodyText" style="font-weight:bold;">SI.com: </span> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/si/index.html?cnn=yes">Daytona 500</a><br>


Full coverage of the race with stories, standings and stats


</td>


</tr>


</table>

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 4:25 am Post subject:

Pretty good start there. Keep it up and don't worry.

Also chuck the "use notepad" advice out the window. In the professional world of page-making PRODUCTIVITY is what counts. The reasons for usong text-based programs is correct though. You DO get better control and you DO understand what you do. But mostly people don't care. If it works it works. Dreamweaver is an excellent program that lets you have it both ways. The text code can be shown in 3 ways: Only text, text and layout, layout only. Dreamweaver also adds very little code on its own - a thing Frontpage does a lot.

Regarding components... I'm not very good at these since i very seldom use them (I mostly work Intranets):
Components (in your case) are a way of fetching information from a server and presenting it on your page. Mostly the info presented must be "fetchable" and most components come pre-made, or at least pre-formatted. Therefore components can be hard to fit into to the page in a way that is pleasing for the eye. (Your counter is a good example - it clashes with the rest). I see components as a mini window to/on another site/server. As such there is not much you can do about them. If the site/server supply them, good. If not, you are out of luck.

What I THINK you want is a way to fetch information from a database and present it. That is a whole other matter...

/Akely

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 4:54 am Post subject:

Akely wrote:
Pretty good start there. Keep it up and don't worry.

Also chuck the "use notepad" advice out the window. In the professional world of page-making PRODUCTIVITY is what counts. The reasons for usong text-based programs is correct though. You DO get better control and you DO understand what you do. But mostly people don't care. If it works it works. Dreamweaver is an excellent program that lets you have it both ways. The text code can be shown in 3 ways: Only text, text and layout, layout only. Dreamweaver also adds very little code on its own - a thing Frontpage does a lot.

Regarding components... I'm not very good at these since i very seldom use them (I mostly work Intranets):
Components (in your case) are a way of fetching information from a server and presenting it on your page. Mostly the info presented must be "fetchable" and most components come pre-made, or at least pre-formatted. Therefore components can be hard to fit into to the page in a way that is pleasing for the eye. (Your counter is a good example - it clashes with the rest). I see components as a mini window to/on another site/server. As such there is not much you can do about them. If the site/server supply them, good. If not, you are out of luck.

What I THINK you want is a way to fetch information from a database and present it. That is a whole other matter...

/Akely

Somewhat true, Akely...productivity is important. But so is performance, and having 10,000 people downloading a file that is 6-10 times larger than it needs to be can stress bandwidth. I don't do much with HTML that isn't presented without a script such as ASP, PHP or JSP, and it's much easier to code those straight text than to try to use a WYSIWYG editor.

They might be good for creating a template or concept design, but at work I have marketing people to do that for me and they use pagemaker. I tell them to show me what they want it to look like, and then I make it look like that.

If you are going to use an editor, Hrbib, I recommend Dreamweaver over Frontpage any day. Only thing worse than FrontPage for code bloat is MS Word's export to web feature...

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 5:11 am Post subject:

Webster wrote:
Akely wrote:
Pretty good start there. Keep it up and don't worry.

Also chuck the "use notepad" advice out the window. In the professional world of page-making PRODUCTIVITY is what counts. The reasons for usong text-based programs is correct though. You DO get better control and you DO understand what you do. But mostly people don't care. If it works it works. Dreamweaver is an excellent program that lets you have it both ways. The text code can be shown in 3 ways: Only text, text and layout, layout only. Dreamweaver also adds very little code on its own - a thing Frontpage does a lot.

Regarding components... I'm not very good at these since i very seldom use them (I mostly work Intranets):
Components (in your case) are a way of fetching information from a server and presenting it on your page. Mostly the info presented must be "fetchable" and most components come pre-made, or at least pre-formatted. Therefore components can be hard to fit into to the page in a way that is pleasing for the eye. (Your counter is a good example - it clashes with the rest). I see components as a mini window to/on another site/server. As such there is not much you can do about them. If the site/server supply them, good. If not, you are out of luck.

What I THINK you want is a way to fetch information from a database and present it. That is a whole other matter...

/Akely

Somewhat true, Akely...productivity is important. But so is performance, and having 10,000 people downloading a file that is 6-10 times larger than it needs to be can stress bandwidth. I don't do much with HTML that isn't presented without a script such as ASP, PHP or JSP, and it's much easier to code those straight text than to try to use a WYSIWYG editor.

They might be good for creating a template or concept design, but at work I have marketing people to do that for me and they use pagemaker. I tell them to show me what they want it to look like, and then I make it look like that.

If you are going to use an editor, Hrbib, I recommend Dreamweaver over Frontpage any day. Only thing worse than FrontPage for code bloat is MS Word's export to web feature...

I sure agree about the performance issue. But I mostly do Intranet stuff. So bandwith is no problem for me. I mostly use ASP (and SQL) with Dreamweaver. The work goes something like;
*do it in WYSIWY(A)G
*test it
*tweek (if necesary) in text mode.

I envy you to have people that can tell you how they want it. [python_joke] YOU LUCKY BASTARD! YOU LUCKY LUCKY BASTARD! [/python joke]

/Akely

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 10:53 pm Post subject:

Well, thanks for all the advice. Certainly is helpful. What I thought I could do by using Front Page is learn as I go. What I mean is, you can view the code in Front Page so I thought that would give me a good start so I can see the code and how it shows up on the site. BUT, I now see what you all are saying about the extra crap MS throws in there. I actually have been viewing a lot web pages in html as I surf, just to see how they are set up. I'm going to try Dreamweaver and see how that goes. It takes a lot of time to learn all this for me since I've never done it before, hence the reason for the book purchase. But I'll get there and be going at it like a pro before long.

Quote:
Here is the code for a CNN/NASCAR Box I put on my Victims page:
Yes, I'm a-gonna make it more Jeff-oriented eventually

NO, you CAN'T be a Jeff Gordon fan, could you TOM? ARGH! Well, you certainly have something in common with my rommate and friend of 12 years. He's THE BIGGEST Jeff Gordon fan there is. He just came back this morning from Daytona, actually. He goes to both races every year and to Darlington. He's got about 75 of those diecast cars (the ones that are like $75.00 each). I don't know how many thousands of dollars he's spent but he's a freak when it comes to Jeffie.