Genealogy Computer Tips & Tutorials

Just released Volume II of Expression Web Tips Ebook containing 26 brand new tips for using Expression Web written by Tina Clarke, Microsoft MVP - FrontPage. Tina is also the owner of the Any Expression Web Tips Ezine which brings these tips to you weekly.

If you miss any of the tips in the ezine, there is no archives and the tips are not resent, however you can obtain them now without waiting and worrying if you are going to miss an Original Expression Web Tip by buying the Any Expression Web Tips Ebook Vol ll for just $7.00.. The ebook is filled with 26 EW Tips all original and comes complete with a bonus Expression Web Query with Tip 49.

Volume I of the Expression Web Tips is also available at the price of $7.00 or you can purchase both Volume I and Volume II for $13.00.

The Interactive Buttons feature in Expression Web generates simple button images and JavaScript for you, and lets you select the font properties, size, color, and interactive behavior for your buttons. Instead of fooling with images and all that script, you can get the same results with HTML and CSS? Read Interactive buttons - a better way using CSS. This is a step-by-step tutorial with screenshots.

A question I hear quite often on the genealogy mailing lists is “How can I get Google to find my site?” Susan Emerson has just written another great article Search Engine Friendly Design.

When looking into having a website created for your business or how you can improve your existing website’s results through the search engines you will often hear and see the buzz words “Search engine friendly”.

The article contains things to watch out for like fancy javascript menu, flash and splash pages. Those of us who design sites for genealogy, or for a non profit or just for our own hobbies need to follow these tips for search engine friendly design as much as businesses do. Thanks Susan for some great tips.

Have you thought about upgrading to Microsoft’s new web editor Expression Web? When it was first released, you had to have a version of FrontPage in order to qualify for the upgrade price. If you have any of the programs listed below, you now qualify for the $99. competitive price. Quite a savings.

You qualify if you are the owner of:

• Microsoft FrontPage (any version)
• Microsoft Office (any version)
• Adobe/Macromedia Creative Suite (any version)
• Adobe/Macromedia Dreamweaver (any version)
• Adobe/Macromedia Flash or Director (any version)
• Adobe GoLive (any version)

For more info see: http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/retail.aspx?key=web

You can also download a free trial of Expression Web.

Make sure that you obtain and use the product key or your trial will end before the full 60 day trial period.

Web Album Generator F*ree Software

Someone on the FreePages Mailing List recommended Web Album Generator as free software to make web albums and photo galleries from your digital photographs. Curious, I decided to check it out as genealogists use lots of image files in working on their website. It is probably the first program I have tried that actually created code that validated on the first try. Kudos, to Mark McIntyre the programs creator.

According to the website, Web Album Generator or WAG for short, the features include:

• Automatic thumbnail creation
• Photograph resizing / resampling
• Photograph rotation NEW!
• Type titles and captions in any language NEW!
• Customizable photo album presentation
• Drag and drop image support
• Add captions and titles for each photo
• No knowledge of HTML required
• XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.0 compliant
• Super-Amazingly easy to use

I have to agree it is a super easy program to use and the code is clean and validates. The program even generates an external style sheet. You can view a sample album created with WAG.

For the full tutorial and how to integrate your album into an existing site created with Expression Web visit the Web Album Generator section of Genealogy Web Creations.

Once you have installed your wordpress blog and it is working as it should, it is time to think about what theme you will use. Remember, not all themes are created equal. For me, this was the hardest choice. I wanted the theme I chose to:

• Validate out-of-the-box or, at the least, have very few errors or warnings
• Have a fluid layout so that it would resize with no scrollbar at 800×600 resolution
• Was easy to customize the style sheet

Lorelle vonFossen has an article Choosing a WordPress Theme on her WordPress Blog that I can highly recommend. There are lots of free themes out there or you may choose to buy one of the premium themes or even have one custom designed for you.

I found most of the features I was looking for in the theme I choose, Misty Look by Sadish Bala. However the header image did not reflect what the subject of my blog was about so I went looking for a new header image. In searching, I found Free Web Page Headers where I found exactly what I was looking for. I changed the colors in the style sheet to reflect the colors of my new header and made a slight adjustment in the widths so that the page resized to 800×600 yet still looked good at higher resolutions. Make sure you check your chosen theme in more than one browser and at more than one resolution.

If you are a new user to Expression Web and tried to use any of the “in box” templates provided as part of the program, you will find that

1. All of the templates use absolute positioning
2. All of the templates create folders for each section
3. All of the templates use two separate style sheets

Absolute positioned elements are fragile and can break easily. Cheryl Wise, Microsoft MVP Expression Web has taken each of the personal and organization templates included with Expression Web and restructured the site so that every folder has a default html page and folders that are highly unlikely to ever include more than one page have been deleted with their single page moved to the root section of the website. She has made these Updated Expression Web “in box” Templates available for F*REE download along with quite a few other templates.

I was busy updating my website Genealogy Web Creations when I came across a resource I just had to share. Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers is a book by Sarah Horton. This book is a primer - a simple and concise introduction to the fundamentals and basic principles about designing accessible and usable websites.

You can read Digital Magazine’s Review of the book here:
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/access_by_design/

And one from Web Reference here:
http://www.webreference.com/reviews/access_by_design/

And you can access the full html version of Access by Design from Universal Usability.

Are you new to CSS? Confused about box models and how to create a CSS based page layout? This Introduction to CSS class is for you. You must be able to write or at least read HTML and familiar with the terms of web design to participate in this class.

Introduction to CSS is another class offered by Cheryl Wise at Start to Web and will begin January 12, 2008.

Class Syllabus:

Week 1 Overview and Basic Concepts

• What is CSS?
• Types of Styles
  • Inline
  • Document Level
  • Linked or External
• Order of the Cascade
• Class, ID and Element Selectors
• Attributes
• Values
  • Units of Measurement
  • Colors
  • Shorthand
• Pseudo Classes

Week 2 Fonts, Text Properties and Positioning

• Font Families, Style, Weight and other font values
• Spacing
• Text-Decoration
• Box Model
  • Margin
  • Padding
  • Borders
  • Size
• The Box Model Differences
  • Between Browsers
  • How Doctype affects the box model.
• Flow
• Absolute
• Relative
• Floats

Week 3 Contextual Selectors & Pulling it All Together

• What is a “contextual selector”?
• Why and when you should use them.
  • menus
  • footer
  • content columns
• How to write “contextual selectors”.
• Media Type Styles
• Final project - 3 complete page layouts

You can read more about Introduction to CSS and register for the class at Start to Web. Cost of the class is $69.95. Readers of this blog may obtain a 10% discount by using coupon code PGfriends.

Expression Web is a new web editor from Microsoft that was released December 4, 2006. Cheryl Wise is the author of Foundations of Expression Web: The Basics and Beyond and is the instructor for this three week course which begins January 12, 2008.

Introduction to Expression Web has been newly restructured to get you up and running with Expression Web in just 3 weeks. While you will not be an expert on Expression Web or a professional web designer you will be able to create and manage small websites and with practice be able to expand on the skills you learn to create more complex websites using Expression Web.

Introduction to Expression Web - The Class

This course covers the fundamentals of standards based web design, including xhtml and css:

Week 1 - Getting Started

• Why Worry About Standards
• Why CSS Layouts?
• Website Planning
• Installing Expression Web
• Interface
• Configuring Expression Web
• Site Settings
• Page Editor Options
• File Menu
• Page Properties
• Structuring Your Page
• CSS Basics
• CSS Tab
• Font Family Tab
• Publishing

Week 2

• CSS Tools
• Fonts
• Block
• Background
• Box
• Positioning
• Lists & Tables
• Applying Styles
• Styles Legend
• Contextual Selectors
• Layout Examples

Week 3

• DWT Overview
• Creating the DWT
• New Pages and DWTS
• Editing a DWT
• Detaching or Changing a DWT
• Preparing an Existing Page for a DWT
• Site Reports
• Report Options
• Slow Pages
• Hyperlinks
• Accessibility Report
• Compatibility Reports
• CSS Reports
• External Stylesheets

By the end of the 3 week course you will have a simple multi-page website that will work on all modern browsers. You will have an understanding of the underlying principles of effective web design that will look good.

If you are interested in taking this class, you can read more about Introduction to Expression Web and register for the class at Start To Web. Cost of the Class is $69.95. Readers of this blog can obtain a 10% discount by using the coupon code PGfriends.