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.

May 5th workshop

In the next few days I will be getting the site ready for shipment to the stakeholders. As you may recall, I put the site on my flash drive & this has given me the ability to work on it from home.

Another reason for shipping it out was the fact that at the WPCUG Executive Board meeting, on 4/28, Richie asked me how the development of the PC Renew website was progressing and so I thought it was time to act.

When I send the site to them, I will encourage Gary & Jimmy to provide as much feedback as they can & I expect that the May 5th workshop will include a discussion of their comments as we tailor it to their liking.

April 7 Worshop

First, my apologies for cancelling last month's workshop at the last minute. I wound up going to my local urgent care facility & have since recovered. I hope that people who came to the workshop were not terribly inconvenienced.

Stuff we will cover on April 7

• Save website to a flash drive
• Transfer website to another computer
• Which browsers are used most?: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
• Adding content to FAQs page
• See 2/25 blog for the roadmap

Outline of tasks for PC Renew website

These are remaining tasks for completing PC Renew website:

1. Add content to all pages
2. Run through site navigation behavior
   
3. View site in different browsers & demonstrate multiple browser feature
4. Decide best way to present the website to stakeholders (Jimmy, Gary). Should we use PowerPoint, Word or send site file package, etc?
   
5. Incorporate stakeholder comments & ideas into the website
6. Coordinate with Nate as to how we publish the site on web servers
7. Implement strategy on optimizing site for search engines.
   
8. Once site is published - we celebrate our accomplishment.
   

March 3 workshop

For the March 3rd workshop we will incorporate Joe's FAQs into the FAQs page.

Joe took ownership for the FAQs last month & offered to write them up in a word document.

In addition to the FAQs, we will also make final decisions on which pages to include, decide on a color scheme & populate more of the pages with content.

Welcome

Welcome to the WPCUG Expression Web workshop blog.

WPCUG home: http://www.wpcug.org/

My intention is to post items of interest about this workshop.

As you may know our current project is to build a website for PC Renew. We could have decided to build this site from scratch but in order to make progress as quickly as possible we are instead using one of the templates provided by the Expression Web package.

Please feel free to comment by clicking the COMMENTS link - next to the pencil icon.