December 8 Workshop

We will start of this workshop with a discussion of the recent poll that was conducted to ascertain interest in web technologies.  Then a brief discussion of WordPress blogging.

Finally,  we will start to explore the latest version of the Expression Web 4.0 software.  This will be accomplished by following the latest Sam's book covering the 4.0 version of the software.

November 3 Workshop

In this weeks workshop we will cover how to set up a WordPress blog.  This will include a description of how to prepare a hosting service so that the WordPress (WP) software can be installed on their servers.  The uploading process , to these servers, is accomplished by means of  FTP software which will be demonstrated.

Once the WP software is installed, we will demonstrate how the WP dashboard & editor is used to post new content.  We will also show how WP can be used to emulate a traditional website using the Pages feature.

Discussion of the Expression Web package is put off until December.  We now have the EW 4.0 software but how-to books on the new software are only expected to be available in November and my preference is to follow a book vs improvising in a haphazard way. 

October 6 Workshop

Areas for discussion for this workshop:

• Expression Web 4.0 should be available to demonstrate
• A round-table discussion of web technology subjects that we could investigate which could include:
• WordPress, blogging
• social networking
• downloading youtube videos (as opposed to uploading)
• web statistics, analytics
• open discussion

9/15 Expression Web Worshop

On 9/15 we are resuming the workshop for the fall. We'll start by briefly reviewing the site we built for PC Renew & discuss how to use Photoshop to prepare pictures for the web. Another subject will be loading from & saving the site to a USB drive which will demonstrate how the Publishing feature works. The EW software uses the Publishing feature to load a site from a USB drive.

Also, to be noted is that we have obtained the latest update so we will soon be running EW 4.0. Hopefully, this will make site building even easier. Then I will be proposing that this "semester," we build a site from scratch - not use templates. But this is just a starting point for discussion as to how we want to proceed.

A Date in History - June 30, 2010

The site is finally live! Go to http://www.wpcug.org - then click on the PC Renew button on the left.

It's worth celebrating since we set out on this journey back in September & slowly we completed it.

Thanks for everyones contribution.

Some surprises: Expression Web has no automated way to enter keywords. I had to insert html code manually. Also, the first PC Renew website had seven pictures that were each 600 pixels wide, all on one page & it was obvious that the page took too long to load. A fix was to make these about 400 pixels wide & link them to the larger picture on it's own page & this works well.

There was also a need to improve picture quality using Photoshop & to use its "Prepare for the web" feature which I will demonstrate in September.

June 2nd Workshop

We are very close to publishing the PC Renew website. We just need a few final changes & we are ready to discuss how to coordinate with Nate for publishing the site on WPCUG's web server.

Also, during this workshop, we will demonstrate how to view a website that is sent to you as a collection of files in a zip folder. Yes, a website can be viewed in a browser with proper styling & styles applied without it being published & this will be demonstrated.

Time permitting, we will start a discussion of Search Engine Optimization techniques & optimize the PC Renew website.

May 5th workshop results

This workshop was significant in that it was the first time that Jimmy & Gary got to see the PC Renew website in action & provide feedback about the site. This session resulted in some real time modifications as well as six action items that will be completed in the next week or so. One of these will be coordination with Nate as to how the main site & PC Renew will interact with one another & how to publish the site.

Depending on progress it might be possible to go live at the next EW workshop on 6/2.