Month: February 2008
February 27, 2008
Floating around the universe, are certain universal principles that transcend disciplines. I would like to explore a few of them here, and talk about how they can be applied to web design.
The Three Master Principles
#1 Simplicity
This is such an important principle, that it can easily be made into the top three web design principles, just as location is to real estate:
– location
– location
– location
… we could say the same thing about simplicity in web design:
– simplicity
– simplicity
– simplicity
The important thing to take to heart, is that your web sites should be designed to be as simple as possible. You want to keep it simple for two main reasons:
- To make it easy for you to update.
- To make it easy for visitors to navigate the web site.
The simplicity principle applies to design, structure and the code.
What do I mean by ‘structure’ of the web site?
I am simply referring to the URL structure. So we are talking about directory structures, page names etc. I’ve detailed this in my article on intelligent paths in websites.
I think the other two (design and code) are self evident.
… Now let’s look at principle number two:
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February 27, 2008
I’ve released another video tutorial on Dreamweaver CS3 where I look at the three ways Dreamweaver gives you to edit web pages.
Video: Dreamweaver CS3 Editor Views
You can find all the Dreamweaver CS3 videos in the Dreamweaver section of killersites.com:
Dreamweaver CS3
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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February 22, 2008
Killersites.com is an old site, nearly 12 years old now!
Over that time (as we added more articles and tutorials), our directory structures and file naming styles changed as conventions changed. So now I have a huge mess to clean up.
… There is a lot of information buried in killersites.com that people just don’t find.
🙁
Fortunately, over the last 12-13 years of building websites and web applications, I’ve been able to figure out the best way to organize a website:
In this article, I discuss how to create an easier to maintain, more user friendly website by way of using intelligent paths.
–
So what are ‘intelligent paths’?
I’m talking about URL structures of course! So that means a few things:
- Building a SENSIBLE website directory structure.
- Using meaningful words in page names and directories.
- Using lower case text for page and directory names.
- Using dashes between words in both page and directory names.
… Let’s go over the details.
read more
February 22, 2008
I’ve released part 2 and 3 of my videos on building your first web page with Dreamweaver CS3.
Video: Building a web page with Dreamweaver CS3
You can get quick access to all the Dreamweaver CS3 videos on this page:
Dreamweaver CS3 videos
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
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February 20, 2008
Hi,
I just released a new video tutorial on Dreamweaver CS3. In this video (part 1 of 3) I walk you through the process of building your first web page with Dreamweaver CS3.
This video targets people new to Dreamweaver and people new to web design.
The video: Build a web page with Dreamweaver
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
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February 20, 2008
Because of recent demand, I decided to release my PHP video tutorials in iPod format – that means they play on your iPod.
🙂
… OK, you guys guessed that one.
These video were originally intended for viewing on a computer monitor, so some of the code examples will be harder to read since iPod screens are smaller.
Nonetheless, the discussions may be useful to watch on your iPod as you’re … say, on your way to work or school.
A small note: I’ve added some brief comments (in text) about each video, to give you a better idea of what you will find in the video before downloading it.
You can find the videos on the new iPod video page.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
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February 17, 2008
This is part 3 of 3 of my videos that introduces beginners to PHP sessions.
In this video, I conclude my practical look at basic PHP sessions.
PHP session video tutorial – part 3
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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February 14, 2008
This is the part 2 of 3 of my videos that introduces the beginner to PHP sessions.
In this video, I get into practical examples where we see basic PHP sessions in action.
PHP session video tutorial – part 2
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
read more
February 13, 2008
Hi,
I’ve just released a new beginners video tutorial that introduces people to PHP sessions:
PHP Sessions Video Tutorial
PHP sessions are one of the most important mechanisms in PHP because they solve a fundamental issue in web application development: keeping state on a user.
If what I just says confuses you, no worries, it’s explained in the video.
This is video 1 of 3 on sessions.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com
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February 8, 2008
After a few years of (I must admit) pure laziness, I finally started to work on a new set of Dreamweaver CS3 video tutorials.
… But, to be fair to myself, I wasn’t in a hurry to upgrade my Dreamweaver MX videos since the differences between CS3 and MX are really minimal … most of the changes are ‘under the hood’.
What is new about Dreamweaver CS3?
Dreamweaver CS3 is Adobe’s first official release of the software (Adobe just bought Macromedia) and so Dreamweaver CS3 now has the Adobe look and feel that is consistent across all their products including, Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3 etc …
Beyond that, the following things stand out:
- Better CSS support.
- Better FTP and site management tools.
- Ajax support with the Spry framework.
… There’s more for sure, but those are the things that stand out for me.
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