Coming Soon…New Web Portfolio Class

Hello All!

This Chanel from STS

As the season begins I’ll be starting my summer project building curriculum for a new web portfolio class for artists! As a recently graduated art major, I realized how much the artist community at UW-Madison is in need of a class that can push their portfolios to the next level of professionalism.

A good friend of mine shared some amazing resources with me last summer on how to build a successful art portfolio and included this recommended WordPress theme shown below. I’ll be investigating this little nugget of potential artists’ gold…

I encourage all of you to take advantage of all STS classes during your summer break! Take this time to finally put together your portfolio elements and enhance your work with our resources at STS

See you in class!

<3 Chanel

A highly recommended theme for Artists Portfolios on WordPress

Dreamweaver: Technology in Times of Crisis

Hello Friends,

My name is Chanel- I’m a trainer here at Software Training for Students. I am mixed Japanese-American, and the current crisis in Japan along with deep concern for my family in Japan,  has motivated me to join the new student organization on campus Japan Tsunami Relief.

I joined STS with a background in Graphic Design, Video Editing, and Publication, but I’ve always wanted to learn how to build websites. It’s such a powerful skill! Since I began at STS I’ve had the opportunity to take  and assist Dreamweaver classes that have finally given me the skills to make and upload functioning websites.

Please check out the Japan Tsunami Relief site I’ve recently made! And please consider making a donation to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts for people deeply affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis in Japan. 

I encourage all students to empower themselves with the ability to use technology, like Dreamweaver, to spread the word about whatever cause or student organization is important to them! We’re here to help you!

Juice Up Your Presentations with VUVOX

We here at STS teach a lot of PowerPoint, in timetable courses for faculty members and in our evening classroom courses, however, we have also recently started teaching VUVOX. VUVOX is an online presentation tool that allows users to incorporate text, video, sound and time lines into their presentations.  A little more snazzy than what we are used to seeing in PPT presentations, eh?

Check out a VUVOX project made by a UW student here.

Interested in setting up VUVOX training for your classroom? See this page!

Finding Seamless Background Patterns for Web Designs

For those Web Designers, or aspiring Web Designers, who have not yet explored the amazing colourlovers.com, please, do so now.

This site is a social community that allows users to create color palettes and seamless patterns (yes!), share them, then get feedback on how amazing (or not amazing) your design is.

What I find the site is best used for: exploring patterns and color combos that are highly rated, then putting them together and using them in my own designs. There are over 1 million to choose from.

You don’t even have to have an account to use the art! Just opposite click on the image and save and pattern or palette you enjoy!

To explore patterns, click here.

To explore color palettes, click here.

Learn CSS Dynamically!

Know a little bit of CSS but need a little practice space to test out your skills? Try out CSSDesk.com, by description, the website allows users to experiment with CSS, see the results live, and share your code with others.

This little online tool is a handy dandy way to understand a what-can-be-confusing code.

Don’t know CSS yet, but want to learn it? Sign up for an STS class here!

Adobe Fireworks. Seriously. It Rocks.

For some time we at STS have been teaching a course called “Graphic Design for the Web,” which teaches course attendees to use Adobe Fireworks to create great user interfaces (see this link to sign up for a class).

What I find interesting about our class is that we don’t call it Fireworks. Our Photoshop classes are called Photoshop, our Illustrator classes are called Illustrator, so why not call the Fireworks class by it’s name too? The answer is simple. No one knows what Fireworks is or how powerful it can be.

From my own experience, I know that I use Fireworks to slay all my web designs in record time and with style, but you don’t have to take my word for it.

The good folks at Smashing Magazine recently published an article called “The Power of Fireworks: What Can You Achieve with It?” The article not only discusses what Fireworks is and how it can be used, but it also gives quite a few friendly tips on designing.

Check out the article here!

IE9: It’s Here!

Check out the latest version of Internet Explorer from Microsoft here: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

It boasts some snazzy new features for HTML 5 and “Pinning” your favorite sites!

The browser is in a “test drive” now, so try it now and let us know what you think!

Launchlist: A Must Use Tool for Website Makers

For those of you who have been working on websites and are ready to upload it to the Interweb, you should check out Launchlist!

Launchlist is simple one page website that helps you keep track of all the editing you need to do prior to uploading a nasty typo or bad code onto the web. The list helps remind you of everything from spelling to SEO to browser compatibility.

Seriously, even if you don’t use it as intended, the list itself is simply a good reminder of everything you should be checking.

See Launchlist here: http://launchlist.net/

This website compliments the STS “Getting Your Website Online” class quite well… you can sign up for the STS class here: https://www.doit.wisc.edu/training/student/course.aspx?id=160

CSS Tips

The following link provides great tips for coding Cascading Style Sheets (CSS):

www.noupe.com/css/15-css-habits-to-develop-for-frustration-free-coding.html

Apparently, Google Doesn’t Rule the World!

While surfing tech news everywhere today, I came across an article that told me that Yahoo! Mail still is “king” of email, adding 6 digits worth of new accounts monthly, thus, killing Google’s Gmail by about 70K new users per month.

If you would have told me this fact over dinner I would have called you a liar. After spending many a day on the UW Campus it seemed quite clear that Gmail ruled the electronic message delivery system.

Goes to show you that I don’t know everything after all.

The following is from Cnet News: