Style Class, Session #1: Class Intro

[foxfirefey]

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 dreamwidthlayouts.

Your mentors are, in no particular order: afuna, ninetydegrees, liv, seleneheart, monarchist, 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

View Respondents

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?

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CSS Experience

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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:

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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)?

View Answers

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

Comments

[tyger]

:O I thought that was semi-official! .o/ Cool! :D

[foxfirefey]

Yes, there a lot of people who don't know any CSS and some who don't know HTML, and anyone able to tackle those questions frees up mentors who know S2 to focus on those questions.

Ha, I told you it didn't work yet, but don't worry--fu has implemented the expand function in beta mode and she's planning to do a code push some time at the end of the week.

[av8rmike]

I think it would be worthwhile to post to s2styles. Maybe so it isn't seen as "evangelizing", phrase it like "hey we're doing this styles class over at DW, and even though it's geared towards DW, people just looking to learn general styles stuff can observe (I almost said 'audit') or comment, etc. etc."

Sadly, there's not that many people to be annoyed because there just aren't that many people left posting and reading those communities.

[rahirah]

:late as usual:

Hi! I've done some moderately extensive tweaking to existing styles, but mostly on a piecemeal basis. I'd like to have a more thorough grounding in CSS and any grounding at all in CS2, with the ultimate aim of being able to create styles from scratch.

[kitters]

Sweet. :D

You did? Oops. I totally forgot. Sorry. XDD Well, that's good!

[foxfirefey]

Have you decided what track you're taking yet? Sounds like maybe Simplified CSS would be a good starter.

[foxfirefey]

Any ideas for a style you would want to do?

[foxfirefey]

I'm so excited too!

[foxfirefey]

I'm hoping you will be pleasantly surprised at the provisions DW has made for S2 styles.

[foxfirefey]

Do you have any ideas about what you want to do for your style?

[foxfirefey]

You are not late! I can totally see all the modifications you made to your style, good work. Any ideas of what kind of styles you want to make?

[stephenie_n_lamaina]

LOL, I hope not. I am feeling very gun-ho at the moment.

I know it will be much easier to learn when a whole group is working on the same part at the same time. I learned about all kinds of stuff online. The problem is when you have a question, who do you ask? With this group of instructors/mentors and students there will be plenty of people to ask.

Stephenie

[foxfirefey]

Definitely--another issue that the lessons help is not having to figure out which part to focus on. It can be overwhelming where to start sometimes when you start a topic.

[scribblingage]

Hi, I'm Scribbling and, uh, I don't think I've ever eaten a fish. I don't have a particular style in mind to make, but I thought this might be a great launchpad to get back into playing around with code and maybe start learning about programming.

[twtd]

Hi, I'm twtd. I know a little bit more CSS than I do HTML, but my knowledge of both has more holes than it does actual substance. I can usually poke around enough to change colors and fonts, but I don't know anything about how to structure anything or move things around. I'm really good at, "hey, that bit of code from that other layout looks like it'll do what I want to this layout... Oh, I broke it," and then three attempts later I manage to fix everything enough that it's doing what I want.

[altairtherook]

I'm not very sure yet, but perhaps a smooth, rounded-edges style with pictures in the heading. Perhaps a tileable background, or perhaps a gradient.

I'm thinking about how to put small icons or pictures in the headings above the reply box, but that's just a thought.

[pantswarrior]

Oh man. At my job the other day, I opened a page and was like "...lol, someone used comic sans on a college website." Then I actually looked at the code...

They were using tables to space paragraphs. Like there would be a table, and another table inside that, and another table inside that, and another table inside that, and another table inside that, THEN FINALLY SOME TEXT, then a table would close, then another table would close, then another table would open, then more text, then another table would open, then more text...

Seriously, the filesize was 48k when I started on it. After I cleaned it, it was 3k. THAT'S HOW MANY TABLES. (Even though it was still in comic sans. :()

[stellastars]

That sounds great!

I was thinking back to the last time I was fiddling around with CSS... I remember being very confused with the whole px/em/pt/percent thing, so I'm looking forward to learning more about that, too.

I'm also hoping we will have the opportunity to have some of our mentors and more advanced students to review our HTML/CSS/etc. I'd love to have someone point out places where I could have done it better!

[aine_silveria]

Hello! I'm Aine! Thank you foxfirefey for doing the PM's. I'd probably have forgotten about it without it.

I'm fairly experienced in HTML, used to hand code things in highschool in notepad, but it's mostly due to past classes, so my knowledge may need some updating. CSS, I know a lot of the basic rules for, but a lot of the finer uses, such as using it as the main basis of a design, or some the other extensive uses it has, still eludes me. I know next to nothing about the S2 style system.

I hope this ends up being as much fun as it is enlightening.

[rahirah]

Well, one of the main complaints I've seen from people who are considering DW is that there aren't a lot of 'pretty' styles available. So I'd like to create something which has the ability to integrate a header image into the overall 'flow' of the style as a whole - if I were being really ambitious, make a set if them with different colors and headers.

(I have a history of biting off more than i can chew, can you tell? *g*)

[fulminata]

OMG, you used to hand code in notepad too! ^5 I occasionally wrote out code by hand if I wasn't at a computer too.

[teigh_corvus]

Well, I would like to have a layout that I built and am happy with, of course. But more than that I'd like to *understand* how layouts work, how the coding does what it does.

[aine_silveria]

I did the hand code once, as an exercise for myself and vowed never again. Oh, that was a pain to do. I did a lot of notepad coding at school while I was playing TCG's so I could just do a copy-paste once I got to an internet-capable computer.

[fulminata]

I don't do it anymore either, but yeah! That's why I used notepad. Then I saved on a floppy disc and transferred when I got home. XD

[aine_silveria]

Oh, floppy discs! I had such a collection of them, and kept 'em in my purse on occasion! XD