Working Hard In PJs

Usually, by this time of night, I’ve posted something on the blog. Today I’ve been very busy. I’ve been working on a new website.

I hinted around about this site before… but it’s taking a long time to get it up to speed. And, as was the case earlier, I’m not ready to reveal much about it… other than to say it will only interest a very small percentage of those reading this blog.

Building a website is like building anything else – you need a vision. The finished product might differ from that early idea, but there’s got to be something to aim for. It has been tough coming up with the vision.

Finally last night, around 4:45 AM, it started to come into focus. I was playing around in Photoshop and found a design for the site’s logo. It was an accident. I did something wrong, but liked the result! It contained enough elements of style and typography to start defining the rest of the page.

As I continued, I was constantly reminded how little I know about web design! The nuts and bolts are done in a few very simple computer languages: HTML and CSS. I am picking up what I need on the fly.

If you’re really interested, your browser has the ability to show you the ‘source’ for any web page you’re on. That’s what the browser sees and what I was writing today. Though there are fine programs for doing this, I chose to write by hand in a notebook program.

Over the past few years, I’ve read about inconsistencies Microsoft designed into Internet Explorer. In some cases IE works opposite the standards! There are workarounds, but the first time you look at your page, and then watch it get mangled when displayed in IE, is very frustrating.

Maybe I’m being a little too innocent, but I think the site can be mostly finished this weekend. That would be great.

Unfortunately, as little as I know about web design, I know less about the next steps! Wish me luck.

2 thoughts on “Working Hard In PJs”

  1. Ah, another web designer who prefers to use Notepad! 🙂

    Actually, after several years of writing code longhand, I’ve finally given in and placed an order for Dreamweaver. From what I’ve seen it generates clean, standards-compliant HTML, and it works well with CSS as well. (It’s not cheap, but if you, like me, have a friend in academia who can get it for you under the educator’s discount, it’s less than half price.)

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