foxfirefey: Dreamwidth: social content with dimension. (dreamwidth)
foxfirefey ([personal profile] foxfirefey) wrote in [community profile] style_system2011-04-11 07:17 pm
Entry tags:

Style Class, Session #1: Class Intro

Welcome to the DW Styles Class! From the number of people answering the poll, this is going to be a fairly large class, even if a lot of you can't make it. Lurking is, of course, okay! I do want to encourage lurkers to ask questions if they have them, however--you don't have to stay out of sight.

This class is geared around learning by doing. The main project of the class is to create a style of your own! The lessons are tools to help you along the way, so the syllabus is subject to change if I feel we're going over a subject too fast and people need more time to adjust. At the end, I'll have treats for people who share layouts with others at [community profile] dreamwidthlayouts.

Your mentors are, in no particular order: [personal profile] afuna, [personal profile] ninetydegrees, [personal profile] liv, [personal profile] seleneheart, [personal profile] monarchist, [personal profile] exor674, and, well, me. Mentors are here to help me review lesson plans before they go live and help answer student questions--some are CSS only, others know S2. But! If you know the answer to another student's question, please feel free to help them. We all can work together to learn things.

This class is split up into three "tracks" for different experience levels and goals.

Simplified CSS
Designed for people who want an easier introduction in CSS. It involves making style changes to an existing layout with the base CSS included.
CSS only
Designed for people who want to make a layout from scratch based on existing layout HTML--you can do a lot with just CSS. People might need help with an S2 override or two in order to achieve the effect they really want, but overall the goal is to work with CSS.
S2/CSS
Designed for people who want to be experts in changing both the HTML and CSS of their layout, or building in interesting behaviors. S2 is a programming language and once you know it you'll have few limitations (no JS, some CSS cleaning) in making a style exactly the way you want.
Poll #6596 Original Student Desires and Experience Levels
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 151


My class track will be:

View Answers

Simplified CSS
20 (13.4%)

CSS only
17 (11.4%)

S2/CSS
94 (63.1%)

Observation only
18 (12.1%)

I'm interested in this class because:

View Answers

I want to customize my own style
114 (79.2%)

I want to make styles I can share with others
76 (52.8%)

I want to be able to help others with their styles
56 (38.9%)

It's a good way to learn skills I'm interested in, like HTML/CSS or basic programming concepts.
108 (75.0%)

If you have another interest in this class, what is it?

CSS Experience

View Answers

None or very little
47 (31.1%)

Beginner
51 (33.8%)

Experienced
44 (29.1%)

Advanced
9 (6.0%)

HTML Experience

View Answers

None or very little
13 (8.6%)

Beginner
51 (33.8%)

Experienced
69 (45.7%)

Advanced
18 (11.9%)

S2 experience:

View Answers

None or very little
107 (70.9%)

Beginner
35 (23.2%)

Experienced
7 (4.6%)

Advanced
2 (1.3%)

Browsers I use or have access to:

View Answers

Chrome
91 (60.3%)

Firefox 3.x
90 (59.6%)

Firefox 4.x
80 (53.0%)

IE6
10 (6.6%)

IE7
12 (7.9%)

IE8
40 (26.5%)

IE9
38 (25.2%)

Opera
54 (35.8%)

Safari
62 (41.1%)

Mobile browsers/devices
66 (43.7%)

Other
13 (8.6%)

My main browser is:

View Answers

Chrome
26 (17.2%)

Firefox 3.x
56 (37.1%)

Firefox 4.x
44 (29.1%)

IE6
0 (0.0%)

IE7
0 (0.0%)

IE8
1 (0.7%)

IE9
1 (0.7%)

Opera
9 (6.0%)

Safari
9 (6.0%)

Mobile browsers/devices
2 (1.3%)

Other
3 (2.0%)

If you answered "Other" for any of the browser questions, what browser(s)?

Alright students, as your first exercise I would like you to:

  • Say hi, and greet others! Also ask any questions you would like to know before Friday's class on "S2 Background and the Customization Wizard".
  • Fill out this poll--it will help me know who has what experience level, and the different reasons people are taking the course for.
  • Think about what you want your style to look like, if you'll be making a style for the course!

And now, I'm going through and checking to make sure that all people who answered the original interest poll and don't already subscribe get a reminder to watch this community (unless they have different methods of keeping track)! Hope to hear from you all!


Previous: Syllabus

asenathwaite: a rat (claws)

[personal profile] asenathwaite 2011-04-14 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi! I've made color themes and mucked about with html a bit, but nothing really involved. I'm looking forward to learning more.
mmmag: A cotton cloud with drop shaped beads dangling below. (Default)

[personal profile] mmmag 2011-04-14 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I was working on a custom layout/style for someone and another customizable style/layout to post to [site community profile] dreamscapes. I also had other style/layout ideas I didn't get around to coding. I think I became intimidated by having to plug in all the options I gave the layout into the style sheet. Hopefully, I'll understand what I was doing.
sqweakie: It's all fun and games until someone breaks out the Blowtorch (Default)

[personal profile] sqweakie 2011-04-14 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I hadn't decided. I think I'll take your suggestion and start with the simplified css. You are going to leave everything up, right? So later I can go back and explore things more indepth. Thanks.
trixieleitz: sepia-toned drawing of a woman in Jazz Age costume, relaxing with a glass of wine. Text: Trixie (Default)

[personal profile] trixieleitz 2011-04-15 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, I'm Trixie! I've never been able to find a style that has all the features that I want in quite the right places. I've done a little basic copy-pasting of other people's CSS into a couple of styles to get things more how I like them, but that's only got me so far. It's time for me to go back a step and figure this out for myself!
elysandra: (Default)

[personal profile] elysandra 2011-04-15 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
Hi there,

while I have some basic understanding of HTML and have looked into CSS as well a few times, I don't think I really have a working knowledge or anything. I also have no experience with S2 but am really curious about it (and don't like fiddling with something I have no idea of.) So I hope to use this course to get a better understanding and some (any^^) kind of confidence in my abilities. I'll just define myself as a beginner and go over the basics again as well and hope (we'll see how far I get) to get the drift of all three aspects.
trixieleitz: ro-Na from Farscape looking excited. Text "toaster" repeated in small type all over the rest of the image (toaster toaster)

[personal profile] trixieleitz 2011-04-15 09:18 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, there's often lots of little things that only come to mind when I notice they're missing. Things like
  • low bandwidth
  • readable both on a full-size screen and a phone
  • reversed entries on reading page
  • each entry consistently having its own link on the reading page
  • previous/next links at the top and bottom of the page
  • having the reading page entry summary in one column by itself, and that doesn't scroll
  • a bunch of other stuff that I can't recall right now :)
  • a ponie ;)


I've found off-the-shelf styles on LJ that have some of the features I want, but never one that completely fills my wishlist. I'm hoping I can follow along here and figure out how to add some of these myself.
stephenie_n_lamaina: (Default)

[personal profile] stephenie_n_lamaina 2011-04-15 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
foxfirefey,

If you ever do a coding class for DW, I am 100% in!!

Stephenie
poulpette: Tenth Doctor looking away (DW - Ten)

Late to the party

[personal profile] poulpette 2011-04-16 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, I'm poulpette. I hold a PhD in lurking. :D

I do not have a PhD in HTML and/or CSS but I can usually do what I nee with both. Once I have un-rusted my skills that is.

My only experience with S2 was copy-pasting a lovely comment function [personal profile] afuna and [livejournal.com profile] murklins cooked up for my journal. I could probably read a layer with a bit of work but that's about it.

I don't have a particular layout in mind to do during the class, but I might port my current LJ layout.
tifaching: (Default)

[personal profile] tifaching 2011-04-16 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi! Sorry I missed this when it first was posted! I have no experience in most of the categories posted, but I really want to have an interesting layout on my journal.

I can't wait to learn whatever you can teach me, and thank you!

[personal profile] feathertail 2011-04-17 09:42 am (UTC)(link)
Belated hi to everyone, from a tree swallow who just now managed the spoons to get to this class. >.>b I have no idea what kind of layout I want to make; I'm used to just copying other stuff and then tweaking it. Maybe I'll do that with a WordPress layout, like I did for [community profile] becomeyourfursona, and try to make it more professional-like.
chagrined: Marvel comics: zombie!Spider-Man, holding playing cards, saying "Brains?" (brains?)

[personal profile] chagrined 2011-04-18 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
Hi :)

I may not be around/commenting much because I am having a horrible month, but I will try to come back and catch up when I can. I am excited to learn more about S2 in particular.
ldybastet: (Default)

[personal profile] ldybastet 2011-04-26 11:51 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I'm... late. ;) And I don't know if I'll actually have time to do these things as they're posted due to work, lack of spoons, and being away from computer etc, but I will go through the posts at my own pace.

I really, really would like to stop feeling like I'm helpless as soon as I am looking at my journal and think about somehow making it look different! So, I think this place is great! :D
chebe: (Default)

[personal profile] chebe 2011-04-28 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi! I'm late to the party, but don't worry about me, I'll catch up soon as I can.

Years back on LJ I took to crawling through the S2 docs (bookmarked they were), but didn't really get anywhere. And what I did learn I've forgotten! I'm a programmer, but more desktop than web, so will need to refresh everything :D Seems like fun to me!
aedifica: Silhouette of a girl sitting at a computer (Girl at computer)

[personal profile] aedifica 2011-04-29 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm lurking with a time delay. :-) I have no particular goals for this class other than to learn to do something new, and to have a clue about CSS. My HTML is decent, but it's all come from "hey, how can I do that neat thing? I know, I'll google to find out the html code for it!" and my CSS is (so far) nonexistent.
delight: (Default)

[personal profile] delight 2011-04-29 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm belatedly signing up now; I definitely don't know if I can keep to deadlines because I'm moving, have finals and am having surgery, but I need something to get me to change my layout, and this looks awesome. :)

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