Babble v1 130

babble-digest Tuesday, January 13 1998 Volume 01 : Number 130

In this issue:
Re: PhotoShop Training
Re: Animated Image replacement
Web Designer wish list
Re:designers wish list
Using Actions in PS4
Re: Web Designer wish list
Re: Pre-caching HTML
Netobjects
Re: vector graphics & the web
Re: babble-digest V1 #86
what direction?
Creative Resumes
poster-sized web colour chart
stadium mode
Javascript, babble
IE4 table widths
Pre-loading images
Re: Using Actions in PS4
Re: PhotoShop Training
Re: what direction?
Re: IE4 table widths

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 10:25:21 -0600
From: "Karl M. Hassrick" <karlh@macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: PhotoShop Training

The URLs (Windows and Mac, respectively), for interested folks:

http://www.metatools.com/kptips/wintips.html
http://www.metatools.com/kptips/mactips.html

Best,

Karl

At 11:11 PM 1/12/98 -0800, Christopher wrote:
>The best training for PhotoShop anyone can do is to print out Kai's Power
>Tips (somewhere on the web, probably at metatools.com) and spend *a lot*
>time for you and your computer following the tips and doing your own
>variations. This is one of the best ways to learn the program.
>
>Christopher Schmitt
> new media design & consultant
> http://www.christopher.org/

- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Karl M. Hassrick | Web Development
karlh@macc.wisc.edu | Office of Academic Affairs
hassrick@engr.wisc.edu | UW-Madison College of Engineering

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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 10:32:55 -0500
From: Andrew Zimmerman <zimmerma@hear.net>
Subject: Re: Animated Image replacement

there is an example of this technique at www.pform.com. I am not sure if
they looped it a lot, but it is a very nice use of the idea.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 10:00:03 -0800 (PST)
From: focal@intergate.bc.ca (Nina Kabatoff)
Subject: Web Designer wish list

>Caleb Fuller wrote:

>1. A poster size chart of the web safe color palette to stick on the
>wall. Lynda Weinman has a great chart, with the colors arranged usefully
>according to hue, and RGB and hex codes written on each one, available
>for download. I want this thing 3 foot square and stuck on the wall.

I heard of a mousepad with a web safe color palette on it.
Nina Kabatoff
FOCAL PRODUCTIONS "GET TO THE POINT" http://members.aol.com/focalpro
focal@intergate.bc.ca

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 11:52:21 -0600
From: Adam Strong <adam@cityscape.net>
Subject: Re:designers wish list

The poster would be nice for reference, however you can't print a poster
in RGB and it wouldnt tell you how different those colors are on a
screwball monitor. : )

Adam
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 11:59:50 -0600
From: Darrel Austin <daustin@isd.net>
Subject: Using Actions in PS4

There has been various talk about using PS4's actions for indexing images
to the smallest pallette and slicing up larger images. I have problems,
though, with PS "remembering" exact dimensions in some of the steps in the
actions.

For instance, to creat a GIF with the smallest possible pallete, I wrote an
Action that 1) converts an image to INDEX using the WEB PALLETTE 2)
converts the image back to RGB 3) Then converts to INDEX again using the
EXACT PALLETTE

In theory, this should work, but it wants to always use the original EXACT
pallette in step 3. For instance, if the first image I index (to create the
actual action) only has 3 colors in the EXACT PALLETTE, every conversion
after that will force an image to use an EXACT PALLETTE of only 3
colors...even if the image has 50 colors.

This applies to other actions as well. For instance when creating a new
action that cuts part of on image and pastes it into a new one, Photoshop
will always make that "new" file the exact same dimensions as the original
file the action was made from rather than creating the new file the same
size as the clipboard.

So, my question is, has anyone found a "fix" or workaround for this?

Thanks,

- -Darrel
daustin@isd.net

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 12:03:21 -0600
From: "Karl M. Hassrick" <karlh@macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: Web Designer wish list

I feel like the URL man today. <g> You can find the mousepad with the web
safe palette at:

http://www.r35.com/direct/

HTH.

Karl

At 10:00 AM 1/13/98 -0800, Nina Kabatoff wrote:
>
>I heard of a mousepad with a web safe color palette on it.
>Nina Kabatoff
>FOCAL PRODUCTIONS "GET TO THE POINT" http://members.aol.com/focalpro
>focal@intergate.bc.ca

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 10:07:01 -0800
From: Luis Cota <softech@inreach.com>
Subject: Re: Pre-caching HTML

Andy Meng wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> One of our clients wants us to construct some mostly text web pages (very
> minor amount of small graphics) to be served via 9600 baud connections
> (don't ask - this is a done deal). They will be browsing with current
> versions of Netscape. We want to speed up the browsing experience by
> pre-cacheing HTML pages so that while the user is reading the current
> page any pages that are linked from the current page are downloading to
> the browser cache in the background and can be displayed very rapidly
> when the link is clicked. I found a way to do this with graphics using
> javascript but I haven't figured out how to do this with HTML pages.
> Anyone know how to do this?

I have never ever done this before, so i am coming up with this on the
fly. if anyone out there sees errors in my work, point them out. oh, and
don't take this as totally correct. try it out and let me know.

anyway, why don't you make a frameset with one of the frames 100% of the
window. then, load the html file that you want to preload in the other
frame with the Onload event handler. it may work, and i hope it does.

good luck,

luis cota
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 10:38:56 -0800
From: "Jorge Hurtado" <hurtado@exo.com>
Subject: Netobjects

Hello..
Is there anyone out there using NetObjects fusion?
I understand this application writes unnecessary code but it really has some
awesome features and it is so easy to use!

We are trying to get Netobjects to connect to a Lotus Domino server with a
connector called RIGA and we are having some trouble.. has anyone attempted
to do this?

thanks in advance.

jorge

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:10:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Ostroth <marost@vangogh.bergen.org>
Subject: Re: vector graphics & the web

On Sat, 10 Jan 1998, Richard McLean wrote:

> > I use PS3, and it can very much "handle" the EPS file (it opens it), it's
> > just that the file, when opened, is very aliased. What site can I
> > download ScreenReady from? It would be very useful.
>
>
>
> Hmmm...I'm not sure what version of Illustrator you are using (I'm not sure
> it makes that much difference) but rather than using EPS and opening it
> with Photoshop, just drag and drop from Ill to PS. A dialog box will come
> up with options to place as pixels or paths, and anti-aliased or not.
>
> The best option is to resize the Illustrator elements so they drop into PS
> at the correct size. Then they will look great! I've done this with PS3 &
> Ill 6, PS3 & Ill 7, and PS4 & Ill 7. The only cavaet is that PS3 doesn't
> support stroked text, so you have to convert to paths to retain it.

So far, I don't have Illustrator, and the problems I have been explaining
before have pertained to Quark Xpress (a very nice page layout program).
If I need to buy Illustrator, I will, but making sites with Quark would
really do the trick for me. So to clarify my question: How do I tackle
aliased EPS graphics, exported from Quark, and opened with Photoshop 3?
Will I need to buy Photoshop 4?

Mark Ostroth
marost@bergen.org

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 13:26:37 -0600
From: Steve Digre <sdigre@sparc.isl.net>
Subject: Re: babble-digest V1 #86

babble-digest wrote:

> the designer of the site knows that there are 200 pages, but how can people
> know that and is it important?

I have altered the Search button on my site to "Search Over 800 Pages"
Very effective with users and upper management

http://www.exhibitornet.com

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 98 14:38:41 -0400
From: Matt Snow <snow@portland.com>
Subject: what direction?

Hey all-
Hope everyone remembers to breath and stretch. Please do so now.

Where is the web headed? ha ha ha ha....no, really?
What I mean is that I am a multimedia designer, but what does that mean
now? What skills are you guys trying to gain and still feel like an
artist/designer? I am not a good programmer, but do I have to become one?
Why?
Can you see your own future?
If so, and you really wanted to be a designer, what happened? Are you
still a designer, or did you have to evolve into something completely
different?
Why did you evolve? In order to get paid, or that there was no such thing
as web design?

I want to continue to be a multimedia designer with a concentration on
the web, and yes, I will always feel behind, but where do I draw the line?
Am I to be a Jack of all trades, Master of none in this world of
specialization? Where do I draw the line and concentrate on one thing?

Sorry if this is too philosophic for anyone, but I am sure others feel
this way. I hate being a worry-wart, but it comes with the job.

Matt "I feel a nightmare coming on" Snow

________________________. matt snow
_________________________.. designer
___________________________... new media development group
______________________________.... http://www.nmdg.com
___________________________________..... snow@portland.com

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 15:00:15 -0500
From: Rick Whittington <rwhittin@mail.vt.edu>
Subject: Creative Resumes

Hi. I am trying to write a resume, and I want to list all of the sites I
have done. Does anyone have a template of a "creative resume" or some
ideas? Thanks!

Rick Whittington
rick@nms2000.com
Principal and Web Design
New Media Services, Inc.

Want the secrets to a successful web site?
Visit us at http://www.nms2000.com.
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 15:11:51 -0500
From: Tari Akpodiete <tari@sympatico.ca>
Subject: poster-sized web colour chart

Regarding your wish for a poster-sized web colour chart...

How about a mousepad sized chart?

Raymond Pirouz, author of "Click Here" (currently one of my favourite
Web design/development books) has developed a neat little mousepad
product called "the webColor Pad" which lists the official 216 colours.

For info on the webColor Pad, see
http://www.r35.com/direct/

For the "Click Here" book site, see
http://www.rpirouz.com/click/

For a review of "Click Here", see
http://members.aol.com/thewprg/htm/bksweb/wsdsgnbk.htm#CLICK

- --
...Webmaster Training Coordinator at Digital Media Studios......
...http://www.h-plus-a.com/dms-itdc/studios/studiow.htm.........
...Creator of The Web Publishing Resource Guide (aka TheWPRG)...
...on America Online - http://members.aol.com/thewprg/ .........
...ICQ Internet Pager - http://wwp.mirabilis.com/2131290 .......
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 22:03:36 -0000
From: "Howard Shaw" <hjs@hetleys.co.uk>
Subject: stadium mode

A couple of people have asked me to clarify the code (which came from
the Project Cool dhtml list) for 'stadium mode' - ie. fullscreen, no
toolbars, etc. The full code for launching page is (remove comment
tags):

This will launch abc.html in a new window which expands to full screen -
no sight of desktop or browser whatsoever(inc. Win95 taskbar). Remember
therefore that unless abc.html has a way of getting back then the only
way out is to ALT-F4 to close the window. This may severely annoy users
unless ample warning and exit routes are given.

HTH
Howard

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:20:22 -0800
From: Chuck West <webtamers@webtamers.com>
Subject: Javascript, babble

Hi There,

I read your message in Babble about using javascript to mouseover an
animated image.
You pointed us to your example. However your example doesn't work as an
actual link.
(Obviously you assumed the person at least had some knowledge of javascript.)
I really have a need for this with a site I am currently working on.
Unfortunately I am
"javascript challenged" can you send me a quick example of what you would
use to
link the image? I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance...

Where you have:

</SCRIPT>

Chuck West
WebTamers
http://webtamers.com/
Phone 209-388-1348
Fax 209-726-1352
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 17:24:57 -0500
From: Dave MacLeay <dave@digitalfrontier.com>
Subject: IE4 table widths

I have the folowing table, which is set to fill 95% of the browser window.
The numbers are the widths and (colspans).

+-------+---------------+-------------+
| 130(2)| 100% | 220 |
| | | |
+-------+---------------+-------------+
|34| 96 | 100% (2) |
+--+----+-----------------------------+
|34| 100% (3) |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
+---+---------------------------------+
\________________ 95% _________________/

It has always been my understanding that specifying width="100%" would
cause a <td> to fill all the available horizontal space in that row
(provided that it isn't bound by absolut-width cells in other rows). In
the above example, this works correctly for NN 2.01 though 4.03, as well as
IE 3 (Mac). Imagine my horror when I installed IE 4.0 and loaded this
table (which is used extensively throughout a client site that I am
currently developing), only to find that the table flows off the right side
of the window, images in <td>s don't align correctly, and <td>s with
absolute widths expand (something IE 3 did _not_ do).

After a little experimenting, I discovered that I could appease IE 4.0 by
replacing <td width="100%"> with <td width="*">. Cool. Except that
Netscape doesn't recognize "*" and just resizes every <td> as it sees fit.
Ditto for leaving the width attributes out altogether. Using <td
width="100%" width="*"> or <td width="*" width="100%"> causes both browsers
to simply use whichever is listed first.

The problem may stem from the fact that my "100%" cells each span a
different number of columns (although they all overlap, in theory (and
previous practice) they work). IE 4 behaves correctly with any single row
of this table, and in this case I can break it into three separate tables
without too many ill side effects. However, I would prefer to find a
workaround that allows me to keep everything in a single table.

Any ideas?

- -Dave

o--------------- Dave MacLeay --+
o----------- Digital Frontier --+
o--- dave@digitalfrontier.com --+

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 22:25:48 +0000
From: David Leader <d.leader@bio.gla.ac.uk>
Subject: Pre-loading images

I tried to post this at the end of last year, but it somehow got lost.

I have some questions that are peripheral to design - that is preloading
images so that your audience doesn't go away while your complex page loads.

Q1. Do people use preloading into single pixel size on a waiting page, or
is there a smarter javascript way of doing this.

Q2. What about Rollover images? Can one preload them on a previous page and
is it worth it.

Answers or pointers to relevant sites would be appreciated.

David Leader

http://www.laceguild.demon.co.uk
http://www.ski-glasgow.demon.co.uk
http://www.biochem.gla.ac.uk/BMB.html

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 18:29:52 -0500
From: Porter Glendinning <pglendinning@cen.com>
Subject: Re: Using Actions in PS4

At 11:59 AM 1/13/98 -0600, Darrel Austin wrote:
>There has been various talk about using PS4's actions for indexing images
>to the smallest pallette and slicing up larger images. I have problems,
>though, with PS "remembering" exact dimensions in some of the steps in the
>actions.
[snip]
>This applies to other actions as well. For instance when creating a new
>action that cuts part of on image and pastes it into a new one, Photoshop
>will always make that "new" file the exact same dimensions as the original
>file the action was made from rather than creating the new file the same
>size as the clipboard.

One thing you can do, although it's certainly not optimal, is to activate
the dialog box for those steps in the action where this happens. (You can
do this by expanding the view of the action and clicking in the second box
- -- the one with the little icon of a dialog box, not the check mark -- next
to the actual step you're dealing with.) If you don't, Photoshop will
assume that you want to use the values that it stored when you created the
action.

- - Porter

- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Porter Glendinning pglendinning@cen.com
WWW Developer http://www.serve.com/apg/

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------------------------------

Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 00:35:22 +0100
From: Marc Elmlund <marc@wineasy.se>
Subject: Re: PhotoShop Training

At 10.25 -0600 98-01-13, Karl M. Hassrick wrote:

>The URLs (Windows and Mac, respectively), for interested folks:
>
> http://www.metatools.com/kptips/wintips.html
> http://www.metatools.com/kptips/mactips.html

This might work better:

http://www.metacreations.com/community/tips/index.html

Marc Elmlund
xponent media
Stockholm, Sweden
marc@wineasy.se

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 15:47:54 -0800
From: Luis Cota <softech@inreach.com>
Subject: Re: what direction?

Matt Snow wrote:
> I want to continue to be a multimedia designer with a concentration on
> the web, and yes, I will always feel behind, but where do I draw the line?
> Am I to be a Jack of all trades, Master of none in this world of
> specialization? Where do I draw the line and concentrate on one thing?
>
> Sorry if this is too philosophic for anyone, but I am sure others feel
> this way. I hate being a worry-wart, but it comes with the job.
>
> Matt "I feel a nightmare coming on" Snow

regardless of my age, i have some feelings about where it is going.
first, to say what you should concentrate on is not for me, or anyone
else (IMO) to say. the reason for this is that the web is new, and is
now finding new paths to the same end: communication. essentially, in
the future, there will be lots of components to web site creation, more
like commercials, if you will. but then again, that is my opinion and
being that i am very young, can change very quickly. also, programming
will become more important, as more web apps come to being. personally,
i don't really like this idea, and i hope it doesn't come to be, but the
media has played around with it so i felt compelled to mention it here.
anyway, to say what you should concentrate is not an easy thing: work on
what you do best. mainly, i think animation and good graphic layout will
play a large role in the future.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 98 15:51:39 -0000
From: brian pink <brianp@gofullcircle.com>
Subject: Re: IE4 table widths

you said this: =)

>I have the folowing table, which is set to fill 95% of the browser window.
>The numbers are the widths and (colspans).
>
>+-------+---------------+-------------+
>| 130(2)| 100% | 220 |
>| | | |
>+-------+---------------+-------------+
>|34| 96 | 100% (2) |
>+--+----+-----------------------------+
>|34| 100% (3) |
>| | |
>| | |
>| | |
>| | |
>| | |
>| | |
>+---+---------------------------------+
>\________________ 95% _________________/
>
I might try to either set a concret width to keep the windows aligning or
try breaking the tables up so as to keep your images aligned...i'm
currently struggling with trying to align images across frames in every
frames-capable browser and it's kinda pissin me off....ie4 is the easiest
to work with on this occasion.

brian p.

brian pink
minister of propaganda
.........................................

you can take my mac...
when you pry my cold dead fingers off the mouse!
.........................................

full circle! marketing, design & printing
.........................................

Voice: 509.525.3466
E-mail: brianp@gofullcircle.com
Web: http://www.gofullcircle.com

.........................................

------------------------------

End of babble-digest V1 #130
****************************

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