Resources

Before checking out these resources, a quick reminder. Don't forget to go through the Evaluation and Conclusion sections. There is valuable Design Help in those sections also.

The resources for Design Help are divided into the following sections:

• Storyboarding
• HTML Tutorials
• Web Page Editors
• General Design: Concepts, Tips and Tricks
• Web Graphics

All links below with the § symbol in front will open the site described in a new browser window. Simply close that new window to return to this web page.

Storyboarding
The following sites show a wide variety of ideas about what storyboarding is and how it is done. You need to decide which way communicates your layout for the web page(s) the best.

§http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/
    (Read pages 1-3.)

§http://html.about.com/
     (Scroll down to the "How to storyboard"
     section. Quite a different idea of how to.)

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HTML Tutorials

These sites link to the best tutorials for learning raw HTML. It is the opinion of this author that it is better to learn HTML first, then learn to use a web page editor. There are many things editors don't do well and some they don't do at all. Knowing HTML will allow you to "fill in the gaps" editors create and also edit web pages that you build with an editor.

§http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/
     (If you complete up through Lesson 9, you'll
      enough HTML to build good web pages. Alan
      Levine is awesome!)

§http://www.davesite.com/
     (Good interactive site; you don't have to do
      all the lessons to start writing HTML.)

§http://www.kn.pacbell.com/
     (Tom March's "Beyond the Son of
      Filamentality" is an excellent tutorial.)

§http://werbach.com/barebones/
      (Not really a tutorial, but a fairly complete list
      of commands. Don't go here until you work
      through a tutorial.)

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Web Page Editors

It is better to learn HTML first, then learn to use a web page editor. There are many things editors don't do well and some they don't do at all. Knowing HTML will allow you to "fill in the gaps" editors leave behind and also edit web pages that you create with an editor. Knowing how to use an efficient editor, however, will speed up production, since a good editor will help you create a web page much faster than writing the HTML. Some editors are very sophisticated at site maintenance once the web site is built. This is only a few of the many editors available.

§http://www.macromedia.com/
     (Trial download of Dreamweaver. T-Spider.Net
      was created, in large part, using this editor.
      Works on both Macs and PCs.)

§http://www.microsoft.com/
      (Trial download of FrontPage 2000. PC only.)

§http://www.adobe.com/
     (Trial download of GoLive.)

§http://www.bbedit.com/
     (For Macintosh only. Scroll down for BBEdit
      Lite--it's free. A basic editor.)

§http://help.netscape.com:80/
     (Running Netscape 4.0 or later? You have a
      built-in editor called Composer. This site will
      help you learn how to use it. Mac and PC.))

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General Design:
           Concepts, Tips and Tricks

This is a very small listing of the mass of general web page design help available on the Web. Using a search engine will reveal almost an infinite number of resources.

§How to view HTML source with MS Internet Explorer and Netscape
      (Other versions of MSIE and NS may be a        little different, but you'll get the idea from        this web page.)

§Templates for WebQuest
      (Use the technique from the "How to view
       HTML source code" links above to insert
       your own content into this template by Dr.
       Bernie Dodge. You should know the basics
       of HTML, by completing a tutorial, before
       attempting this. Creates a basic page.)

§Filamentality
      (Tom March's site will help you build a basic
       WebQuest from start to finish.)

§Little Things That Make a Big Difference
      (14 ideas from Dr. Bernie Dodge about how
       to "spruce up" a web page.)

§Web Design Guide from Dream Ink
      (So many ideas here, be careful you don't
       forget to come back.)

§CNET's Builder.com
      (Ditto)

§Web Page Design for Designers
      (Same as above.)

§Neon Design Tips
      (Same as above.)

§Creating Killer Web Sites
      (David Seigel's concept of a third-generation
       web site is food for thought.)

§HTML Tricks
      (From BigNoseBird.com--need more be said?)

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Web Graphics

This is a very small listing of the mass of graphics resources available on the Web. Using a search engine will reveal almost an infinite number of links. Many of the links in the "General Design" section above have info on graphics as well.

§The Action XChange
      (Do you use Photoshop? If so, you'll get lost
       here. Please come back to T-Spider.Net
       sometime!)

§ZDNet Developer : NetMechanic GIFBot
      (Optimize your graphics for faster loading.)

§Clip Art and Graphics Resources
      (From Free Webmaster Tools and Resources)

§Macromedia Fireworks trial download
      (this software, and )

§Adobe Photoshop
      (this one as well)

§Mouseover Machine
      (If you aren't using an editor, this is a great
       resource for creating mouse rollovers. Scroll
       down the "Cool Tools." A good intro into
       using JavaScript.)

If you've checked out all the resources you need to, go to the Evaluation section by clicking on the "Evaluation" button above on the left.

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