If you are a full-time web developer, you probably already use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to format and layout web pages. However, if your only design experience is creating and maintaining your company’s web site, you are probably still working with HTML. It’s time to think about changing.
CSS works with HTML to improve the appearance of your web pages. Styles can be applied to headings, images, tables, text, or any other object on a web page. If you work with styles in Microsoft Word, the concept is basically the same.
Do you remember what the Web was like back in 1994 when we were all amazed by the Louvre web site? (Remember the Mosaic browser?) Wow, we could actually see pictures on our computer that were in France! This was HTML 1.0 with no support for tables, so all Web pages were one column. Boring! Then tables came along, and all of a sudden, web pages could have more than one column, paving the way for more complicated layouts. A revolution! CSS represents another sea change in web design. Read more…
If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to train users on software (and who isn’t these days?), consider Camtasia Studio, screen recording software from TechSmith. (Price: $299)
Camtasia is easy to learn and fun to use. You simply record what’s happening on the screen as you speak the narration into a microphone. Depending on the length of the video, it’s often easier to record small chunks of your video at a time and then stitch them together during editing. When you edit the video, it’s easy to pan and zoom smoothly, so you can focus on the parts of the screen that are important. During editing, you can also add titles and transitions, edit the audio track, etc. Read more…
One of the new “Mac-like” features of Windows 7 is your Taskbar customization options. The Mac shows your icons at the bottom of the screen. As you hover over an icon, it magnifies. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a difference between an open app and a closed one in terms of appearance.
Windows 7 provides a version of that. First, there is no Quick Launch toolbar. When you drag an icon to the Taskbar, it shows up where the open icons are. The difference is that the open icons have a box around them to let you know they are open. The Word icon in the example below shows that there are three files open. When you hover over the icon, you can see each file and select the one you want.
You can make the icons smaller, which I did initially. I went back to the larger size from a combination of aging eyes and better visuals on the icons.
You can customize the Taskbar and the Start Button as you did in XP and Vista: Right-click on the button and select Properties. You can keep this behavior (combine icons, hide text), turn it off when the taskbar is full, or never use it. Initially, I turned it off and went to small icons. But I find myself liking the new look.
And while we’re at it, the Desktop Preview box at the far end of the Taskbar is kind of cool—hover over it and it makes your windows transparent so you can see your desktop—but there is a slight hesitation before it happens that is annoying. Much faster to press Windows Logo Button + D to minimize everything and Windows-D to restore it. Both of these happen instantly.
After 27 years in the business, you end up with a few observations. Ron Miller, an old friend of mine, interviewed me about Vista, Office 2007, and my observations on technical writing. All opinions expressed are my own, but I did get a chance to say some things. Take a look at the interview: http://www.daniweb.com