Project 9 -- Barbara Johnston

This is my favorite image from the entire class.  It's not the most complex, but I love what the filters were able to accomplish with the colors, and I loved using the floral paintbrush.  The composition gives a real feel for Hawaii.

You can see my completed web page here.

Here are my answers to this week's questions:

1.   What was your experience using Layer Comps? What benefit to using Layer Comps will you continue using them in future web sites? 

Initially I had a lot of difficulty with Layer Comps.  I kept trying to modify the first comp using “fill” and save it as a second comp.  But no matter how many times I did this, the second layer and the first layer looked exactly the same, according to whatever last fill I added.  Through experimentation I finally learned that the second comp has to be changed by adding additional or different layer effects.  Then the saving works as described, and you have two different layer comps.  Because this was so difficult and frustrating, it’s hard to imagine what use I’m going to make of it in the future.  If you are working with a client, I can see some benefit in using them to create alternative versions of particular features, but I will have to become much more comfortable with the tool before I would use it for such a purpose.

2.   After completing Part 1, describe what you have learned that you can apply to creating web assets that complement your website theme in future websites?

The most useful thing I learned is the basic “how to” of creating buttons, horizontal rules and bullets.  I can see that will be very useful in creating a unified or complementary theme for a web site.

3.   What were your biggest challenges in integrating the web assets to your CSS and HTML code? Did you use Dreamweaver?

Integrating the web assets to CSS and HTML was a very big challenge for me.  With a bit of assistance, though, it makes sense where to insert the code to make each asset work properly.  It is apparent that I need to take the XHTML and CSS courses to get completely comfortable with this.  Yes, I did use Dreamweaver.  I had started this whole term with a Dreamweaver template, and it was difficult for me to deal with all the excess code the template generated.

4.   Do all of your web pages link to each other through your navigation? What areas did you need to troubleshoot in order for this to function properly?

Yes, all the web pages do link properly. I had no difficulties making that work. 

Thank you to Patti for introducing a wonderful tool and software package.  Best wishes to all for a very happy, productive and relaxing summer!

-- Barbara