Upcoming style making class syllabus

[foxfirefey]

Okay, folks, I am going to post the Class Intro next Monday; afterwards, class lessons will be posted on Fridays. This is the tentative syllabus and is subject to change--class mentors and potential students, please review and tell me what you think! I focused on giving everyone a lot of breathing room and a leisurely pace, so that people who aren't as familiar with web design have the time to learn and people who are trying to take their skills to the next level have time to explore.

If you haven't already marked yourself as interested in the class poll, please do so!

Background

Class Intro

A chance for me to talk about how the class will run and try to survey out particular student needs.

S2 Background and the Customization Wizard

Goes into why S2 was created and give a review of the Customization Wizard.

HTML and CSS overview; Examining with browser developer tools -- Lesson 1, Lesson 2

Gives an overview of HTML and how it pertains to styles, a run over of good CSS resources, and how to explore HTML and CSS using browser developer tools (which can simultaneously save you a lot of time and help you learn).

Finding Resources

Good places to find things you can use for your layouts. Feel free to share your favorites!

Core2 and Core2 Based Layouts

A review of the core2 foundation of DW styles and its aims, as well as the current layouts.

Layout Making

The following classes run on two levels: only CSS and CSS/S2. People who only want to learn the CSS side can ignore the S2 sections of the classes and use the extra time to work more on their layouts.

Custom CSS; The formation of a Style and Using the Advanced Customization Area

Talks about Custom CSS options for folks doing only CSS, and reviews how to use the advanced customization area for people who want to learn S2

Basic core2 CSS Strategies

Reviews overall CSS strategies for core2--especially how different classes can change from options in the Customization wizard.

Basic S2 Strategies

Goes over the basics of defining, retrieving, and setting properties; redefining functions and methods; basics the different classes. Reviews resources written about S2.

Primary Layout: Headers, Columns, Footers

Concentrates on putting the overall pieces of the layout into their positions, in two parts: the first focusing on CSS, the second on S2.

Modules

Two weeks, one CSS and one S2, that explain the modules system.

The Recent Page

Two weeks, one CSS and one S2, that lay the groundwork for the recent page--and many other entry pages.

The Reading Page and Network Page

Two weeks, one CSS and one S2, on styling the Reading and Network pages.

Entry and Reply Pages

Custom comment pages! This is an optional section--some layout makers prefer to rely on site comment pages. If you'd prefer, you can focus on refining the other parts of your layout in the two weeks the lessons focus on S2 and CSS.

Archive -- Year Page

One lesson that covers the CSS and S2 for Year Pages.

Archive -- Month Page

One lesson that covers the CSS and S2 for Month Pages.

Tag Page

One lesson that covers the CSS and S2 for Tag Pages

Icon Page

One lesson that covers the CSS and S2 for Icon Pages (a new upcoming style feature that will be ready by this point!)

Finishing Touches

Designed to catch anything the other lessons didn't cover and give people a chance to ask questions they need to wrap up.

Sharing Time!

Hopefully a bunch of people have brand new styles to share!

Comments

[illariy]

... apparently this is the bit where interested students talk about our background? I'm a bit slow today (RL workload) but very interested in reading along and experimenting as time permits. I can do some very basic html to code up entries in the html editor of lj/dw, do a very basic html page by myself, and have done some easy modifications of existing layouts (colours, fonts, borders, such things). Would love to learn more. This is such a great concept for a series of posts, thank you for organising it! *sits on hands and polishes keyboard*

[foxfirefey]

You can if you want! I'm going to do a poll as part of the class intro so I know the different experience levels. We seem to have a wide variety of skill levels, and that's great.

[stephenie_n_lamaina]

Hopefully there will be room for those with no experience. You don't know how happy I am you are doing this. I used to be a computer programmer but it was so long ago my knowledge is useless.

Stephenie

PS - Do we join this group? or follow a certain tag? or something else?

[foxfirefey]

I think having no experience is a really good reason to take the class! People who don't know any CSS will need to study up on it, but I will give good resources for that, and you can always ask questions on anything you struggle on.

If you subscribe to this group, you should be covered--there's not going to be any formal registration. You can also follow the tag "!style making class".

[stephenie_n_lamaina]

Well get ready for the questions. It has been frustrating finding decent sources to learn this stuff or even get a question answered. I learned my first computer language in 1979 (on punch cards) and have formal training in 16 different languages but haven't used any of it in two decades. I think that I am so frustrated because I think it should all be easy and recognizable. I am looking forward to dusting off this part of my brain.

Ready to get my geek on...

Stephenie