Related Pages:
This Web Site
Purpose & Plan Task List Development History Milestones How to Add a PageMore About...
These Photos Future Plans Independent Threaded Travel Retiring Younger Useful Resources Tips & Tidbits Vagabondboots Story Links this Web SiteGetting In Touch
Tidbits & Thoughts
Learn the standards and implement them from the beginning. It makes development easier.
However, if you are like me and do not fully understand the standards until after you have fallen on your butt a few times....go back and implement them anyway.
Web Site Development History
02/13/2006
Created a task list from what needed to be redone and completed. I'm now working that task list to get back to the point I was at before the Sasser Worm hit.
02/07/2006
Evaluated what has and hasn't been completed.
07/01/2004
Partial Publish Europe 2003
06/07/2004
Completed and published Spanish Immersion
05/10/2004
Completed and published Cycling US East Coast
04/18/2004
Completed and published Central America
03/28/2004
Completed and published Van 2002
02/20/2004
Completed and published Nepal
02/10/2004
Completed travel indexes and navigation
01/31/2004
Completed loading photos into pages and linking the photo log pages to each other. Then added links to the by Destination, by Activity and by Date Index Pages.
01/19/2004
Completed stripping in-line styles from about 250 photo log log pages. Most of the last 4 days was testing that I hadn't broken anything in the process. It feels good. In the process I have settled on the style for the Indexes by Destination, Activity and Date. I am committed to all clean up before I develop the photolog for Asia 2001.
01/13/2004
Another 3 days learning and removing embedded and inline styling in all of 258 pages. I am please with my progress and the results but have some work to do on the final main table. Some of the td tags have style attributes. I need to remove all of that cautiously and test thoroughly in various browsers because this is at the core of the layout and structure. Note: Latin America, Cycling to Niagara Falls and Kayaking Baja content is complete except for a couple of pages.
01/10/2004
I have spent the last few days learning more about CSS and incorporating those techniques throughout my site. I am attempting to remove all tables that are solely used for layout purposes. I removed all the tables in the included content.
01/06/2004
Preparing the home page for search engine promotion. I have been out of town over the holidays. While away I studied CSS by Erik Meyer, Cascading Style Sheets by Molly Holzschlag, Teach Yourself HTML and XHTML by Dick Oliver, Web Design In A Nutshell by Jennifer Niederst and Paint Shop Pro 8 Solutions by Lori Davis. I spent a great deal of time selecting those books and have been very satisfied.
12/28/03
Spent the day trying to get the UL and LI style that works on an html page to work when the content was on a 'FrontPage' Include. It is unpredictable. Or should I say it is predictably different. I tried many combinations to no avail. I am going to leave the tables in place on the included pages.
12/27/03
Propagating updates and clean up from manually edited pages
12/21-25/03
Made a printout of all pages and reviewed them while traveling in Baja
12/20/03
Tested out the new framework with the east coast cycle trip
12/18/03
Refined web based on others input
12/10-14/03
Removed as much presentation and cleaned up as much code as I was able to at one time. I have 134 pages, most of which is 'Latin America 2003'' I will start developing the next travel photo log with the same look, but with CSS to start now that I know what it is all about. I am also reworking the 'masthead'. I like the idea of the page curl and revealing a photo underneath. I am using the z-index and absolute positioning to allow people with different size screens, resolution, browsers or browser window to view more or less of the photo.
12/6-9/03
Implemented CSS and started clean-up of code now that I understand the standards.
12/4/03
Revised text regarding navigation that was confusing (per Buffy)
12/3/03
Hosted site on yahoo and tested time to download...OK!
12/1/03
Implemented navigation suggested by Philip
11/29/03
Tested and reviewed samples of each style of page using various monitor resolutions and browsers. Set standards and conventions to deal with annoyances. Propagated some of the new standards to all pages.
11/27/03
Tested 'Central America' and edited pages for consistency
details.
Developed Central America map.
11/20/03
Designing & implementing logo/home button
11/17/03
Refined the left rail navigation design.
11/14/03
Taking some time to review every page I have developed thus far both in individual detail and as a relational site. I am going to compare the developed pages and the design plan and determine if I want to make any changes to either before I continue.
11/13/03
Completed incorporating 'last line' into every file. I am
also going to start the convention of some general page type references
for the purpose of this document. They may change as I build the sections
about requiring less and retiring younger, but for now they will help
clarify my writing and my thinking.
Level 1 - Home
Level 2 - Index or Overview or Independent
Level 3
Travel Header -i.e. Central America (Jan-Mar 2003)
Level 4
Location Header -i.e. Bocas del Toro, Panama
Level 5 - Location Detail -i.e. Basilio's Boat - Bocas del Toro, Panama
11/12/03
Decided on a bottom line to include file name, copyright and last update date. Started inserting that into every file.
11/11/03
Revised and refined the navigational design within any page of a major travel section. It now includes an arrow to indicate where you are so you don't get lost while you are 'visiting'. I had only incorporated this navigation on the left rail when one was at level 4 (destination within a major travel adventure) Updated all pages.
11/10/03
Decided to us a navigational menu on the left rail on level 4 (destinaton page headers). If one was visiting Chichigastenango and wanted to see Bocas del Toro within the Central America travel it could be chosen directly. I revised every level 4 (header page)
11/09/03
Spent more time than usual walking Chuck through the site so that he could give me feed back. It was exciting and deflating as it always is at this stage of software design/development. I can see some holes. People who do not know how the site is structured are going to difficulty initially. But on the brighter side there are simple solutions and this is the time to incorporate the solutions and retrofit the pieces.
11/8/03
Built the level 3 travel section for Central America (Jan-Mar 2003) and linked all the sections 4s built below in the previous week.
11/7/03
Built the sections on Tikal and Palenque and linked them laterally.
11/6/03
Built the section on Mexico City, the last destination. I enjoyed the on-line HTML so much that I decided to take 3 more on-line courses through Ed2Go ; Web Design, Web Graphics Using Paint Shop Pro and CSS.
11/5/03
Built the section on Panama, the first destination and linked it laterally to Costa Rica. I reworked the navigation between level 5 photo pages and then reinserted that logic into the sections already built. There are a few details that I can't figure out how to do, like making the page you are viewing display a different color in the navigation structure. I thought I knew but it is not working. I am not spending any more time on it because I expect I will learn more about CSS in the mean time and be able to incorporate that 'magic' during the CSS revision.
11/4/03
Built section on Costa Rica and linked it laterally to Nicaragua. I have organized and built the pages based on my photos and journal. I have inserted the photos, but will add the text for all of Central America at one focused time. I think it will flow better that way. Besides, I am still working out navigation details.
11/4/03
Built section on Nicaragua which should link laterally to the section built yesterday. I built the links between the 2 sections. It works but I don't like it and don't have a better idea. I am sure an idea will become obvious, but the more I develop before I discover a good idea the more pages that will have to be reworked. Choosing and ordering the photos is time consuming. I am only using about 5-10% of my photos. Sometimes it is a tough decision.
11/3/03
Decided that the first level 3 (Major Travel) to be developed would be Latin America (Jan-Mar 2003). I propagated the prototype and built the section on Antiqua and Chichicastenango, Guatemala. This is where I choose the photos and order them.
11/2/03
Propagated the prototype pages and developed the 1st draft of level 4 and the related level 5 pages for Cyling from Florida to Canada (2002) - Florida Section. Evaluated the results and then refined the 'Florida' pages and the prototype pages.
11/1/03
Reinserted the photos, replacing the newly reworked jpg files for the old ones and evaluated the results before I proceeded.
10/26-10/31/03
I settled on about 135 x 100 with a 20% compression for my thumbnails and about 360 x 270 with a 15% compression for my larger detail photos. Then I systematically adjusted and fixed each photo and then resized it. I decided to make subfolders, call them 135 and 360 and use the same photo names as the original.
10/25/03
I need to learn more about working with my jpg files. I want them as large and clear as while paying the lowest the price for transmission and download times. They were taking too long to download so I made them smaller. Now I am not happy with the quality.
10/23/03
I can see that I will be in a very tight test and refinement loop. There are many details that need to be finalized at this point and work very well before I move on and propagate these pages. When I am comfortable with them they will become the prototype for other pages at that level. I think that in the first version there will be 12 - 3rd level pages. Each 3rd level will have about 10 to 15 - 4th level pages. Finally each 4th level page will have 4 to 16 - 5th level pages. That calculates out to about 1000 pages if I continue with this design. I have started learning about and embedding style sheets in my pages. At some future point as I learn more and move out of the 'prototyping stage' I will transition to an external style sheet.
10/17-10/22/03
I built the skeleton and links of the below mentioned pages. In testing I saw that the design does not flow as smoothly as I thought. I kept reworking and testing until I now think it flows smoothly. I then built one prototype page at the 3rd level (major travel i.e. Latin America 2003), 4th level (one of many destinations i.e. Guatemala) and 5th level (photo detail i.e. Market Day at Chichicastenango, Guatemala).
10/16/03
I settled on the basics of the home page, master index pages and the pages that will directly link down from the home page.
10/15/03
Started a list of rules, guidelines and conventions to support my goals and objectives.
9/29-10/14/03
I am in a tight design-development-learning cycle. Design a page, build it with FrontPage and evaluate the result. Link one page to another and evaluate the result. Evaluate how long it takes to transmit jpeg files of various sizes. Evaluate the quality of photos as I apply various resizing techniques and compression rates.
9/28/03
Purchased a desktop computer, MS FrontPage 2002 and JASC Paintshop Pro 8. FrontPage would allow me to prototype, test out my ideas and program in HTML. Paintshop would allow me to edit my photos and design some of my own graphics. These may or may not be the best programs available but they are sufficient for my needs at this stage.
9/27/03
I reviewed and refined the Purpose - Philosophy - Goals & Objectives statements. I am now committed in mind to this endeavor.
9/26/03
I now had 3 HTML classes on-line. I am picking it up very quickly. It is like any other programming language I've learned; systematic. Until and unless I learn a different system, I am using my software design and development systems to approach this project.
9/24/03
I reviewed some web authoring software today. I think that this will help me prototype and test out some of my ideas more quickly. I will think about it.
9/20/03
Computers have come down in price since I last purchased. the question now is whether I want a desktop and think shorter term or consider a laptop or other portable computer and consider taking it with me when I traveled.
9/19/03
Realized that I would need my own computer, not the library's or my son-in-law's to build the web site that I envisioned. I researched computers on-line.
9/18/03
Started to organize the content into categories. Revisited my objectives.
9/17/03
Started studying HTML with Ed2Go an on-line education provider
9/18/03
Started an inventory of potential content
9/14/03
Looked at many web sites and identified things I liked and did not like.
9/13/04
Drew some pages with colored markers and mentally tested out some of my thoughts.
9/12/03
Conceived of my web. I had thought about it since we retired but today was the day that I put words to its purpose and my philosophy and some goals and objectives.
Browse...Thumb through the pages
& enjoy yourself here...