Web Design

Color Scheme Resources

Click here to go to the color scheme assignment.

Creating an Animaged GIF

Click here to go to the animated gif assignment.

Formatting Practice Assignment

For this assignment, create a new folder in your folder on the network and call it "Formatting Practice". Download the following files into it: format_prac.html and old_guitarist_1903.jpg. Then open format_prac.html and follow the directions on the page.

CSS Layout Practice Assignment

Click here to go to the CSS layout assignment.

Camera Settings Assignment

Click here to go to the camera settings assignment.

Introduction to Windows Movie Maker 2

Movie Maker is a video editing program included in XP. You may have XP at home and not even know Movie Maker was there. Using Movie Maker, you will be able to created movies that we can put up on our various web sites. For this unit, complete the following:

  • Go to AtomicLearning.com's excellent Movie Maker tutorial page. I have watched all of these video clips so that you don't have to. Never say I never did anything for you. The one you do need to watch is lesson 2 under section A: "Understanding projects, movies, and source files."
  • Go to Microsoft's Movie Maker tutorial page and watch the video by clicking on the link that says "Broadband: Watch the video now." If you are using a dialup connection, use the link that says "Dial-up:Download the video" instead.

Dropdown Menus In CSS

You have already done dropdown menus using Fireworks, and now you are finding that they have limitations. Well, there's good news: It is possible—even preferable—to create the same effect using CSS.

I am not going to explain this one to you. That's because I couldn't possibly do it better than has already been done in the world-famous "Suckerfish Dropdowns" article. You haven't read it? Come on—everyone in web design has read "Suckerfish Dropdowns."

Well, not to worry. Because now the authors of the original article have improved it and added more bells and whistles. What a glorious time to be alive! Your assignment:

  • Read the new article, "Son of Suckerfish Dropdowns."
  • Work through the article as you read it, creating your own sample dropdown menu about something other than suckerfish. Save it in your folder as "dropdown.htm".

Intro to ColdFusion

Once again, I am going to defer to an online tutorial that has been masterfully written by someone else.

  • Go to Charles Mohnike's ColdFusion Tutorial at Webmonkey.com. This tutorial is kind of old, but it's still really good. This site contains a lot of Flash ads, so if you have a slow connection, you may have to disable Flash to get the pages to load faster.
  • Read through Lesson One, then answer the following questions in a Word doc. Save it as "CFQuestionsXXX" in your folder.
    1. What does ColdFusion do? (Do not tell me that it is "a tool made by Allaire that runs concurrently with most Windows and Solaris Web servers!")
    2. What is a data source name (DSN)?
  • Read and work through Lesson Two, doing the following as you go:
    1. Create a database using Microsoft Access (I told you it had practical uses) and save it as "my_favorite_bands_xxx". Include the following fields: Band, Members, and Release. Fill in data for at least four bands with the "Band" name, the number of band "Members," and the "Release" date of their last album (just guess.)
    2. Create a ColdFusion template file with a query called "bands". Use the "Contents of my Pocket" example as your model. Use the same formatting used in the article (heading, bold, etc.)
    3. Create a second template with a query called "members". Use this template to only select bands that have a number equal to a number of your choosing (use "IS").
    4. Create a third template with a query called "release". Use this template to only select bands whose last release date was during a month of your choosing (use "LIKE").
    5. Create a fourth template with a query called "rocks". In this one, select all records. Your page should display a heading that says "Bands That Rock" followed by a list of sentences that all say "(band name) rocks!" Do not use any fields except "Band."
    6. Go back to your Access database and add a field called "URL". Go online and find the website address of some, but not all, of your bands. Fill those URLs in, and leave the rest blank. Save it. Now create a ColdFusion template with a query called "urls". Your page should display a heading that says "Favorite Band URLs" followed by a list in the format: "(band name) URL: (URL)". For bands that don't have a URL in the database, have the list display "N/A".

Other ColdFusion Tutorials