Wide World Of Web Design

More Blogging, More Videos.
It’s been a busy summer, and the result has been an extended hiatus with regards to this Blog and the Video Tutorials I’ve been posting on YouTube (The Learning Series). But I can assure you, it hasn’t been all margaritas and frolicking on the beach, in fact quite the contrary. In light of the favorable response to the Learning Series Tutorials and the fact that I’ve enjoyed making them, I’ve decided to upgrade this endeavor and direct considerable more time and effort on producing more of the same, only better. To achieve this I’m in the process of making room within my typical work week so I can still maintain some semblance of my current work schedule, as well as what passes these days for my personal life. And then there’s the new website, www.weblearningseries.com, where I’ll be hosting the new tutorials, but which I’m still in the process of setting up . . .

As I touched on in Part 15 of The Learning Series, in order for me to produce video tutorials that are better quality, more indepth, and provide complimentary Lesson Files, they will indeed need to be published on their own website as opposed to posting them on YouTube. Even though I plan to maintain the practice of posting free tutorials on YouTube that cover basic subjects, the Web Learning Series website will feature videos 30 minutes or longer, a User Forums where questions can be posted (and will always be answered), and a Request Form where you can suggest custom Tutorials you’d like to see. Planned tutorials will cover topics such as creating database-driven dynamic pages in Dreamweaver, sophisticated methods of applying CSS, creating graphics in Fireworks, Flash animation and video deployment, and “How To Use Content Management Systems” such as Wordpress and Joomla. Membership will require a small annual subscription fee to cover the cost of producing the videos and providing the overall service.

The videos will continue to target the same audience (which if you didn’t already know, are primarily Novice Web Designers, do-it-your-selfers, and techno-hobbyists) and will appeal to anyone who prefers an easy-to-follow approach that guides you through the learning process quicker than books and written tutorials, and judging from the response I’ve received so far this is becoming the learning medium of choice. By splitting my time between regular duties as a Web Designer and the Web Learning Series, I can deliver fresh content on a consistent basis and make upgrades based on your feedback, especially as my goal is to attract an ever increasing audience.

The same goes for this Blog, where although I’ve tried to maintain a fairly regular posting of articles, it has always taken a backseat to my day job, whereas now it will operate hand-in-hand with the Web Learning Series website to always be insightful, keep you informed, and answer any of your questions related to the Wide World of Web Design and Development.

I hope to have the Web Learning Series website (www.weblearningseries.com) officially launched in October 2008, but I’ll keep you posted through this blog. In the meantime, I recently posted video demonstrations for “The Learning Series” where I look at using CSS Sculptor and CSS Menu Writer, a couple of Dreamweaver Extensions that help you build your own Custom CSS Layouts quickly and easily, which can be a substantial advantage over the minimal, generic-build css layouts that come with Dreamweaver CS3.

So I hope you’ll be patient and stay tuned as I prepare to deliver the Web Learning Series to you, because I’m confident you’ll find it was well worth the wait . . .

CSS Sculptor and CSS Menu Writer work hand-in-hand to simplify the process of creating web standards compliant CSS layouts which can be saved as custom templates, all within Dreamweaver.

I have posted Video Tutorials on The Learning Series to demonstrate how using both of these products can save you a lot of time and coding hassle in the design of your web pages.