Web Technology and Design SIG

March Meeting - Tuesday, March 23

At our monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 23, the HALPC Web Design Special Interest Group will address “CSS: A Web Designers Secret Weapon”.

Imagine if you could radically change the look and feel of your entire web site in a few moments by just changing a few items on one page. This is not wishful thinking.  It is reality if you use cascading style sheets (CSS). Proper use of CSS makes web pages lighter, and easier to build, change, and maintain. Separating structure from design is no longer a fringe endeavor. It is the standard by which all website development projects are now based.  Isn’t it time you did too?  Learn about CSS and how it can be the best tool in your web design arsenal.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

January Meeting - Tuesday, January 26

You built your web site but will they come? The hide and seek game now begins. Landing at the top spot of a search engine’s results can help you generate more business. There are more than 150 million people online in the US alone, and 80% of them use search engines on a regular business. That’s why the practice of improving your websites standing on the most popular search engines is a critical element of your marketing plan. An understanding of what search engines are looking for and how they look for it will help get you in front of their eyes.

Find out what search engine optimization is all about. Learn practical tips and techniques that you can immediately implement to optimize your web site and boost your search ratings. It’s important to realize that without actively marketing your website, it will never succeed.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

The Web Design SIG will not meet in November or December due to the Holidays.

We will meet in January and continue our discussion on Flash and search engine optimization.

I look forward to see you January 26.

Happy Holidays!

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

October 2009 Meeting - Tuesday, October 27

Our last meeting of the year will be filled with a variety of different tasty morsels to whet your web development hunger. In keeping with the theme, I will try to squeeze in as many tricks as possible concluding with a long awaited treat.

We will start by discussing how to incorporate a WordPress blog into your current site by making css edits so that your blog is consistent with your current branding.

Have you ever been to a website that has simple instructions in the text boxes to let you know what you need to enter into the text box? The text in the box is usually a light unobtrusive color and it disappears as soon as you place your cursor in the text box. I came across a cool technique that shows you how to add thie polished look to your text boxes for a more professional look. All it takes is a little JavaScript.

Several articles discussing potential changes on HTML 5 have come across my desk that are worth sharing. If some of these changes happen, creating pages might be easier than ever. It may even possible negate the need for Flash. It is too soon to count on that. However, many people have asked me about leading some Flash discussion. Starting in October, I will treat the group to a series of Flash tips for the following months for as long as interest prevails.

I look forward to seeing you on October 27, as we discuss various short topics to fill your Halloween goodie bag this year. If there is something you want me to add, let me know.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

Go beyond the world of static web pages. Join us as we explore the world of database driven websites. It is not as hard as you think. You just need a few tools and you too can have dynamic pages built on a fly.

I look forward to seeing you on September 22 as we discuss Apache, MYSQL and PHP. These three tools are all you need to be ready to go.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

The Web Design SIG will not meet in July or August. In September we will discuss using PHP and MySQl to build your own content management system.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

June 2009 Meeting - Tuesday, June 23

There are a couple of options to adding an event calendar to your website. For websites that use WordPress, there are a couple of add-ons available.

Easy PHP Calendar is another PHP based calendar that is easily integrated into your website and is simple to customize. It supports a flat-file database format as well as mySQL so you can use this application even if your webhost package does not include mySQL.

Mark your calendar. I look forward to seeing you there!

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

May 2009 Meeting - Tuesday, May 26

While Forums may be considered to some people as older technology, they do offer a great way for people to share opinions as a community effort. This month we will talk about some of the most popular forums coded in PHP. We will demo PHPbbb and Vanilla. If time permits, we will touch base on a ASP driven forum.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

April 2009 Meeting - Tuesday, April 28

PHP is a popular server scripting language for building dynamic web pages. From simple form action scripts to robust applications such as a WordPress blog, Drupal and Joomla content management systems or a PHPbb forum, there is a lot to choose from.  Understanding the basics is immensely useful when expanding the capabilities of your website.

Katrina Niolet, our guest speaker for April, will guide us through the basics of PHP. She will discuss how to install an Apache server, MySQL database and PHP so you can test your code before you go live. Then she will provide an overview of server side scripting vs markup vs client side scripting as well as an introduction of variables and functions.

Katrina leads classes often and is a software engineer at KDAB.  She is quite knowledgeable and her presentation is sure to be worthwhile. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader

March 2009 Meeting - Tuesday, March 24

In North America, a staggering 250 million, or 74% of the populace, is online. Nearly 1.5 billion people access the internet on a daily basis and new sites are launched every day. Improving your visibility with the search engines, therefore, is critical for increasing your traffic to your website and ultimately your sales!

Michelle Wicmandy returns as our guest speaker in March. She will address methods on increasing the visibility of your web site. In order for your web site to be noticed, it needs to rank on the first two pages of a key word search. Ideally the first page.

Join us as we discuss how to find the phrases that will increase your search engine rankings. Learn about keyword research tools, keyword selection and keyword analysis that will help you in marketing your web site.

Rita Trelewicz
Web Design SIG Leader