July 24th 2008
Posted under Fenixworks
Well, I finally got all the ducks in a row and jumped through the appropriate hoops. I’m happy to say that we now accept American Express in addition to Visa and MasterCard.
Archive for the 'Fenixworks' Category
July 3rd 2008
Posted under Fenixworks
We’re hosting a Biznik Event on Monday night, July 14. It’s based on our “12 Things You Can Do to Get Your Website Noticed” workshop. If you are a Biznik member, you can sign up for $15 on their site (which is a steal, since this workshop normally retails for $99), and you can get an additional 10% off of any regularly scheduled workshop if you sign up while you’re here that night.
Since this is an event, more than a regular workshop, there will be time for networking with other local professionals and we’ll be supplying bevies and light food from Habibi.
Not a Biznik user? Not to worry - anyone can join Biznik at their website for free. Just be sure to select “Portland” from the “more” menu near the top or you might end up getting invites to all the Seattle events.
So run, don’t walk, go to their site and sign up, seating for this one is limited to 25 attendees.
June 23rd 2008
Posted under Dreamweaver & Fenixworks
This is a step by step description of the options in the CSS Rule Definition dialog from Dreamweaver CS3. Today we are covering the options related to the "Background" panel where you set up behaviors in the background of your elements.
You can download a PDF version of this article here.
CSS Rule Definition: Background
This is the basic rule definition dialog for Dreamweaver CS3. It has 8 categories down the left-hand side. Each one will present you with a range of options in the main part of the dialog. This paper describes the "Background" section.
Background Color
The most basic setting for this section is the Background Color. You can use the drop-down menu to choose a color from Dreamweaver’s template, or you can type a number directly into the empty field next to the color selector. If you do type the number directly, be sure to include the # sign at the beginning!
The palette that shows up under the cursor is set to display "web-safe" colors by default. In the olden days on the web (just a couple of years ago!) we always stressed using web-safe colors, but they are becoming less important in today’s world. Note that web-safe does not promise the colors will be the same on different computers, only that they won’t be dithered.
Early computers often could not reproduce a full color spectrum, so they cheated by dithering the colors, or by putting different colors side by side to blend and make our eyes see colors that weren’t really there. For example, they may have put a pixel of red next to a pixel of red to make us see orange. Web safe colors gives us the guarantee that if we see orange, all the pixels are orange.
Anyway, computers sold today can display enough colors that web-safe is no longer an issue.
An added benefit of the eye-dropper cursor is that you don’t have to select colors from the palette itself. You can move the eye-dropper over any color visible on your screen to pick up that color for this space. You can sample colors from photos, other places on your Dreamweaver document, even out of icons on your desktop, as long as they are visible when you choose the drop-down.
Finally, when you are choosing a background color, make sure it’s dark or light enough to provide plenty of contrast with your font color or people won’t be able to read the text on your web page.
Background Image
You can type a fully qualified URL (one that starts with http:// ) or you can click on the browse button to select a graphic image from your hard drive. If the image is not contained within your web structure, Dreamweaver by default will offer to copy the image in for you when you are done.
Keep in mind that busy or high-contrast images and patterns make it difficult to read the text on your page. You should keep background images low-contrast, or "washed out," so that your site is easy to read.
By default, any image you place here will be placed in the upper right corner and then repeat over and over all the way down through the visible parts of the page.
Repeat
If you have an image in your background, repeat tells the browser how to repeat it when you don’t want it use the default. The four options are: "repeat," which makes the image repeat across and down the page; "repeat-x," which makes the image repeat only across the page; "repeat-y," which makes the image repeat only down the page; and "no-repeat," which makes the image display only once with no repeating.
The default is "repeat" in both directions, but remember that any HTML element can inherit directions from its parent element (the element that encloses the current element), so if you have complex embedded elements, it might be worth it to explicitly say "repeat" if that’s what you want it to do.
Attachment
If you have a background image, this property will determine whether the image scrolls with the page or not. If it is set to "scroll," the image will scroll with the rest of the page as it move. If it is set to "fixed," then the image will not move as you scroll the page.
Horizontal and Vertical Positions
If you have included a background image, you can use the position settings to offset it from the upper left corner of the browser window. In the image above, it is set to display the upper right corner of the background image 100 pixels from the left hand side.
June 12th 2008
Posted under Fenixworks
We’ve added a Dreamweaver Lite workshop that meets one time for $99.
In teaching the Dreamweaver workshop for the past couple of years, we have run across several people who aren’t interested in setting up a website, they only want to manage the one they already have.
So in Dreamweaver Lite, we don’t talk about making templates, and we don’t talk about the overall structure of the site. We concentrate on how you can log into your site and change content.
If you’ve inherited website maintenance when someone else quit, or your web contractor doesn’t return your calls, or even if you were planning all along to have someone else do the design and let you keep up with the changes, this course is the one for you.
We’ll be offering it a number of times every month, so sign up for the one that’s most convenient for you. Check out the current schedule here.
June 9th 2008
Posted under Testimonials
Check out the Cascade Commercial Real Estate website, it was designed by a Fenixworks grad.
Created by Crawford Vining over the past month or so, it’s his first commercial gig.
Crawford says:
Fenix made it easy to understand what was needed to start designing websites. This is the first of several websites I’ve already started working on.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Crawford, and let us know how the new company is going!
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April 8th 2008
Posted under Testimonials
Jeff Menzel over at Menzel Design has posted his website. He went through the Dreamweaver workshop a couple of months ago and has now finished his website.
Jeff Says:
The actual construction of the site was rather easy - thanks to you and the instruction you provided! Pulling together all of the images and creating their little layouts was the most time consuming. Also, please be sure to keep me on your list for when you may start a Dreamweaver 2 class. The more I think I learn, the more there seems to be to learn!
Thanks again,
Jeff
Check out his website at http://www.menzeldesign.com.
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March 13th 2008
Posted under Announcements
Fenix is getting ready to add a round of workshops in May and June for teaching people who want to learn to blog how to get the most out of Wordpress.
If you’ve considered blogging, or if you’ve already dabbled a bit, this course is being designed for you. I’m setting it up to discuss both the philosophy of blogging and the mechanics of making it so. I’ll not only discuss how to set up your own free blogging space, but your other options as well.
I am also toying with the idea of inviting some guest bloggers from the Portland blogging scene to discuss some of their routines.
Right now I’m considering setting it up as a two session workshop that will discuss things like google-bating, blog aggregators, rss feeds, writing skills and strategies, selling ads, managing comments, using different templates, and other basic things everyone should know about when they start a blog. I am also considering adding an optional third session that discusses how to build your own Wordpress Templates, or at the very minimum how to tweak the ones you already have.
If this seems interesting to you or if you have any other ideas we should throw in as we develop the workshop, please let me know in the comments below. And, of course, you can always contact me directly if you don’t want to post your ideas in a public forum.
February 23rd 2008
Posted under Fenixworks
When you are registering for a workshop, you now have the option to choose “Pay by Master Card/Visa” or “Invoice Me”.
Using the Master Card/Visa option to pay for the workshop immediately has always been the only option. The new option for an invoice allows you to automatically generate an invoice that you can submit to your company.
When you use the “Invoice Me” option, feel free to mail your check in, or simply bring it along with you to your first workshop (and save on postage!)
Up until today you’ve had to call and get an invoice generated on the phone. We’re very happy to have added this functionality directly to our website.
January 7th 2008
Posted under Announcements
We’ve taken a big step for our small Portland company today. We’ve started advertising on the radio!
You’ll now hear about us several times a day on KPOJ. I have to say the folks at KPOJ have been very easy to work with and I’m very pleased with the campaign they’ve helped me put together.
Carl Wolfson, one of the morning show folk, will be attending several classes over the next few months as well. So we’ll be getting personal testimonials instead of just canned speeches.
In addition to the on-air announcements, we’re featured on their website in a couple of places. We have a banner ad and we are on the contests page.
All in all, I’d have to say I’m pretty excited about the direction that Fenixworks is going.
November 28th 2007
Posted under Announcements
We’ve posted the calendar extending into the first week of February on the site now. This is a perfect opportunity for you if you have money for training in your budget but you are in danger of losing it at the end of the year. The simple solution? Pay for a workshop now.
We also have gift certificate and workshop vouchers that you can purchase now for future classes. Contact us directly at the office for more details. The phone number is 503-336-4712.
