| Archive for The Potting Shed A forum to discuss Crafts, Cooking, Gardening, Countryside, Livestock and Pets |
| Kathy |
Web design help (JELLYCAT)I've got the framework of the school website done and after the last meeting they have asked if I can do downloadable forms, i.e School Handbook, application form, pricing guidlines etc. Anyone know of any online tutorials for this, or can give help themselves? They also want a calendar function and some sort of bulletin board if possible.They've also asked for a scrolling banner with "Latest News," I'm going to try and talk them out of this, I think they look a bit cheesy to be honest! Please let me know if you spot any mistakes, or broken links, constructive criticism welcome. 
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| lloyd |
Looks good Kathy. The BBC website has breaking headlines which scroll horizontally and looks good? |
| Libby |
Nice, fresh and positive. Wish my girls had gone to a school like this 
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| Lizzie |
That's looking great Kathy - well done you 
Downloadable forms - do they mean forms that can be printed off and filled in offline, or forms to be filled in online? The first is easy, the second would need some sort of database behind it to store the information, or would need code to capture the information and email it to someone, in which case it wouldn't look like a form any more....the same goes for a bulletin board I think (although I work with databases all day and haven't really investigated other solutions). There are loads of calendar making things on the web - typing 'html calendar module' into google produces a bewildering array! This one looks pretty good. Again, I'm used to developing this sort of thing with a database behind it so I haven't tried it... The scrolling text is very old fashioned but dead easy to do (if they insist!) with a marquee tag like this: [marquee]scrolling text here[/marquee] but with angle brackets instead of square of course... Have fun! I'm here if you need me
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| Flowerlady |
Love the look of the site Kathy  ... especially the ghosted backdrops!
One thing that comes to mind ... Child Protection ... do you have permission from the parents to put photos of their loved ones on the net? We work in IT and this is a HOT cookie!! |
| Lizzie |
Good point Flo... |
| Kathy |
Thanks for the positive comments, Greenman (my son) did start it off and is responsible for the backgrounds (children's artwork scanned in). We're using Microsoft Frontpage by the way, he found it the simplest to use although I used Dreamweaver when I did websites a couple of years ago.
Child protection was one of the first things we thought of Flowerlady before Greenman went into the school to take photos. We've got written consent from all the parents, teachers and helpers too, and the head teacher checked with the relevant bodies. Sad that we have to do this really isn't it. Database, don't even go there!! I did databases (and programming) as part of my computing degree, apparently my logic is back to front and I'd real difficulties with these bits! I LOVE databases and the concept behind them, find them fascinating and would liked to have done more work in that area. Perhaps when I retire! 
Anyway, Jellycat, it's downloadable forms, just to be printed off to be completed offline. I'll need to clarify the bulletin board bit, it's really just a forum these days isn't it. I could use any of the free forum hosting sites for that couldn't I? There is a news and events page, maybe a scrolling banner would be a bit of an overkill, it's not like we have breaking news every day. The BBC one is discreet though Lloyd so if they (school board) insist I'll ask for help again.
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| Cabbagepatch |
It looks good Kathy. What a wonderful place to go to school.
I think I would fit in quite well there, do they take mature students?
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| Kathy |
Funnily enough one of the parents has just completed her training and is now working in the school, I'm sure she must be in her 40s. |
| Lizzie |
OK. For downloadable forms, you'd need to save the form (in Word or as a PDF maybe) on your webserver somewhere and link to it on the site. If you saved them in the root folder, you'd have a URL that would be something like http://www.thesitename/myform.doc and when someone clicked on it, it would ask if they wanted to save or open the file.
As for a forum, yes, there are any number of places you can that from, including the one we use for the Potting Shed, which is pretty good. I've never used Frontpage or Dreamweaver - like I said, all our work is database driven and written in SQL and ASP. I like them too - they appeal to my tidy gene
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| Kathy |
Thanks Jellycat, it's easier than I thought then.
I've downloaded the trial version of that calendar and got that uploaded to the website with dates so they can decide whether to purchase or not.
I liked SQL but as I said, things just went back to front with me and I couldn't understand the logic of it. What seemed perfectly straight forward to me just didn't work. One of the guys had to really work hard to help me with this while I typed up essays for him, a LOT of bartering went on!
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