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

[dchan]

Ooh, looks exciting. I know enough about CSS and S2 that I don't have much trouble modifying layouts other people have made, but I've never coded a layout from the ground up before so I shall be looking forward to this.

[majoline]

This is quite nifty looking! I'm not unfamiliar with CSS or S2 but I've never felt like playing around past the little bits that I know just because I don't want to have to clean up any experimentation that broke my layout.

I can't wait to get started :D so excited!

[lexicalcrow]

That sounds really cool. I know enough CSS to tweak layouts, but I'm unfamilar with S2. I will enjoy messing about with all of it.

[sharpiefan]

Woo!

I can alter the look - colours and stuff - of an already-existing layout. It'll be fun to make a whole new layout of my own. (Hopefully I'll get to that point, anyway - I only have a very basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and all that good stuff.)

[metawidget]

I come at this as someone who regularly does CSS and managed to hack their S2 layout a tiny bit, without really getting a sense of the language.

This looks very cool — I hope our S2 lessons will include the more programmer-y elements and the conventions used in the current crop of layouts.

[sinensis]

It looks like the topics have been broken into nicely manageable chunks for learning, which is great. I can code HTML and CSS (slowly, and with a lot of revision and looking things up), but know nothing about S2, and am looking forward to learning about it.

[terajk]

This looks cool! I have a very basic understanding of CSS (will probably review before class), know nothing whatsoever about S2, and am really looking forward to this.

[kitters]

This looks really exciting! I'm mainly looking forward to this because, for some strange reason, my imported custom Flexible Squares layout from LJ isn't behaving correctly concerning the Quick Reply function. I originally thought it was just an issue with Opera, but after installing a custom jscript to fix it and testing in Firefox with no change, I'm wondering if a native DW layout will solve the problem.

[emeraldsnakes]

I just recently joined the site, planned to for a while but the recent hacking problems on LJ pushed me to have all my stuff here too.

I'm really excited about this comm and these lessons. I've done some puttering around editing the CSS at LJ but nothing really extensive and this is exactly what I've been looking for.

[tree]

um, monday and fridays in what time zone? when most people say 'monday' and 'friday' it generally translates to 'tuesday' and 'saturday' for me.

the syllabus looks awesome. thank you so much for doing this.

[stealth_noodle]

This looks super-helpful! So far, every time I've thought about creating a new style, I've been overwhelmed by the S2 documentation, so this should be perfect for me. :D

[sphinxfictorian]

Will there be a brief explanatory bit about terms? I must admit to having the most basic ignorance of what CSS actually is, for example. I am very interested in the class, though. I've long wanted to be able to truly customize my page and make it truly reflect my personality and interests.

Thank you so much for doing this!

[without_wings]

Oh I am so excited about this! I'm not a complete newbie to html and css, but every time I've tried to make major changes to my layout I've always gotten stuck on something, so it would be really great to have some instruction.

[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*

[stellastars]

Just wanted to say I am so looking forward to this! It's been ages since I've had a chance to play with any of this stuff -- and lack of knowledge has been holding me back. I think this will be the perfect opportunity and motivator for me!