Here is my site after pier reviews.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/final%20project/index.html

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/final_project/index.html

This is the basic outline for the site/main navigation pages. I have to build it out with the left-side navigation. I have a few problems with padding by the pics and some link colors and spacing. I’d like to elaborate on the design eventually, I just wanted to get the structure working first.  But, I did make the first mistake of not putting an underscore in my “final project folder” title. Oops, I’ll have to redo that!

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_06/abouttea.htm

I had quite some trouble with these exercises.  The background is pictured gray, in the book, around the content, but mine only displayed gray around the content and white behind the main content. I went back and changed it in the code instead of the page properties. Then, in the 4th excercise, my tdLogo wouldn’t change when I did the CSS rule.  Therefore, the right navigation wouldn’t expand correctly.  It appears the logo is being grouped with all the sidebar code.  How do I change that?  Also, when it says to right click the <td> tag, it’s never just <td>, it shows <td#tdNavigation>, then “tdNavigation” is not an option from the Set ID from the contextual menu.

http://www.diveintoaccessibility.org/by_design_principle.html

This article made me want to poke my eyes out!  It was not easy to read and did not hold my interest. I don’t think this article is very helpful in describing each of the issues below, in definition.  

Browse tips by design principle:

1. Perceivable. You should ensure that all content can be presented in forms that can be perceived by everyone.
2. Operable. You should ensure that the interface elements in the content are operable by everyone.
3. Navigable. You should facilitate content orientation and navigation.
4. Understandable. You should make it as easy as possible for people to understand your content and controls.
5. Robust. You should use technologies that maximize the ability of your content to work with current and future web browsers, assisting technologies, and other programs.

Perceivable

• Day 12: Using color safely – helps colorblind people
• Day 18: Giving your calendar a real caption – helps blind people
• Day 19: Using real table headers - helps deaf people
• Day 21: Ignoring spacer images – having spacer images is very annoying for the deaf & blind, remove them.
• Day 22: Using real lists (or faking them properly) -using alt text, it helps colorblind and blind people. With real list markup, all the visual presentation is in the CSS declarations, none of it clutters up the page, so both JAWS and Home Page Reader read it.
• Day 23: Providing text equivalents for images - each image should also have descriptive text. Screen readers read it, text-only browsers display it, Google indexes it, and visual browsers can display it as a tool-tip or on the status line.
• Day 24: Providing text equivalents for image maps - every image map and every clickable area of the image map needs a text equivalent.
• Day 25: Using real horizontal rules (or faking them properly) - using alt text
• Day 26: Using relative font sizes - using relative font sizes allow the user to change the font size to be more legible
• Day 30: Creating an accessibility statement - you can create a list of features you’ve added to your site to make it more user friendly, especially for those with disabilities.

 Operable

• Day 13: Using real links -Because 11% of Internet users don’t use Javascript for one reason or another, including many disabled users whose browsers simply don’t support it. These pseudo-links won’t work for them; use real links instead.
• Day 15: Defining keyboard shortcuts - good way for those with disabilities to navigate through the site quickly.
• Day 28: Labeling form elements - good way to navigate through forms, sor the visually impared.
• Day 30: Creating an accessibility statement - you can create a list of features you’ve added to your site to make it more user friendly, especially for those with disabilities.

 Navigable

• Day 9: Providing additional navigation aids- don’t work in IE
• Day 11: Skipping over navigation links- provide an link to skip over your navigation links
• Day 14: Adding titles to links- add titles to your links to show up as a tooltip in visual browsers and it can be presented in non-visual browsers as well
• Day 16: Not opening new windows- don’t do it, it breaks the back button
• Day 27: Using real headers- use real <h1>, <h2>, <h3> tags
• Day 29: Making everything searchable- Put the search box on every page, preferably above the fold.
• Day 30: Creating an accessibility statement you can create a list of features you’ve added to your site to make it more user friendly, especially for those with disabilities.

  Understandable

• Day 7: Identifying your language- tell your readers what language you use… and their software.
• Day 8: Constructing meaningful page titles- Homepage can be title of your web page; Category pages should include the name of your web site, followed by the name of the category; and Individual entry archive pages should include the name of your web site, followed by the entry title
• Day 17: Defining acronyms- for acronyms and abbreviations use the <acronym> tag; Hover your cursor over each acronym to see what it stands for.
• Day 20: Providing a summary for tables- it’s a a longer description than the caption and is exclusively designed for screen readers and speech browsers.
• Day 30: Creating an accessibility statement -you can create a list of features you’ve added to your site to make it more user friendly, especially for those with disabilities.

 Robust

• Day 6: Choosing a DOCTYPE- You start your sentences with a capital letter; start your HTML with a DOCTYPE. It’s just basic grammar.
• Day 10: Presenting your main content first- present your main content first so screen readers say that first.
• Day 30: Creating an accessibility statement- you can create a list of features you’ve added to your site to make it more user friendly, especially for those with disabilities.

This was pretty frustrating for me considering I’m using MX 2004, so then I downloaded the trial CS3, but the book teaches Dreamweaver 8. So I did a lot of back and forth at first. I couldn’t find the layer option in CS3, so I used MX’04. There was no zoom option or guides in MX ‘04, so back to CS3.

In this chapter, we learn to apply a tracing image and add layers.

 http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_09/index.htm

We also used layout tables and layout cells, as well as worked with layout table widths.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_09/layout.htm

In this chapter, we learn how to format text with the property inspector;and managing white space with margins, padding, and line height.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_07/aboutus.htm

We also used font lists.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_07/fontlists.htm

We learned to align text and use ordered, unordered, and definition lists.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_07/brewingtea.htm

And lastly to create flash text.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_07/index.htm

In this chapter we learn to create and add content to a table; change the border of a table with XHTML and CSS; align table content in both; sort a table’s content; set table widths; and create rounded-corner tables. 

As in the first document example, something I’ve run in to quite a few times is when I type text, then hit return, it seems to jump a space (like it is double spaced instead of single spaced) and the example in the book doesn’t show this. I changed the line height, but is there another way to change this, like a default in my program?  Another problem with the first document example is I don’t have an “Add Property” link in the CSS Styles panel, in order to colapse the border. This may be because I’m using a later version. So, I simply typed it into the code.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_08/teapots.htm

In the second document example, it doesn’t tell you how to change the color of header row background (in the CSS Style panel), it is just pictured a different color.  The last blurp in excercise 4 says if you want to change the color of the headings you can, but it doesn’t tell you how to do so.

http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_08/css-teapots.htm

Creating Rounded-Corner Tables:  http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/128b/19/chap_08/rounded.htm

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2168021

The article state to choose your target keywords so search engines will identify your page and hopefully list it in their top searches, top ten preferably.   These keywords are those in which you think people will type into a search engine in order to find your page.   You don’t want to be too vague when choosing these words, make them relevant to the search.  Site them several times will help bring your search closer to the top. You also want to position this phrase of two or more words high on your page.   It is crucial to put your keywords in your page’s title tag.   Also, if your keywords are images, the search engine can’t read it, so make sure you use relevant text also.

I think my biggest question after reading this article is do you really have to submit your page to search engines? And how do you do this?

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/blasting-the-myth-of

It’s funny, I recently have heard this “above the fold” mention several times.  Basically it is the area above the fold of a newspaper, the most important or highlighted information.  In web design it refers to the area which comes up on the monitor before you have to scroll down. I think it’s important to have the “above the scroll-line” design be visually appealing and interesting in order to intrigue people to scroll down the page.  I agree, if there is something I’m looking for I’m going to scroll down the page, it’s never stopped me before.  It’s true, people use a wide variety of monitor sizes and there is no guarantee where the scroll-line will fall.  It is, however, very important to keep the information describing your site above this scroll-line.  You don’t want users to have to scroll down to even figure out what your page is about; they’ll more than likely move on.  Good tips include not cramming your information above the scroll-line, give users a clue there is more to the site if they scroll down, and create something interactive for them when they do scroll down.