Action Envelope has redesigned their website and will be giving Envelope Mall and Jam Paper a run for their money. Not only did they make it easier to browse, they added sample ordering and a HUGE new selection. Now, if they would just increase their selection of presentation folders, they would be my newest favorite vendor of all good things.
Beautiful design and brilliant functionality by Alexander Interactive.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
CSS: I love it, I hate it
Last night I sat down for my first attempt at programming in CSS all by myself. I hunkered down at the library, plugged in, opened up BBEdit for the very first time and thought this'll be fun!
Now so far, I've logged about 20 hours of classes in both HTML and CSS since late December. Unfortunately, very little of this included hands-on programming. Lots of notes, yes, but not too much trial-and-error testing, which I've discovered is what will KILL you.
My first two hours were spent trying to do the most basic CSS stylesheet: turn a paragraph red. I did an inline style, no problem. Embedded style, a breeze. But when it came to actually linking a couple of external CSS stylesheets (with @import, no less), I was befuddled. I spent a good half an hour trying to turn my darn paragraph red that I was nearly red myself. On the verge of tears (WHY DOESN'T THIS BLANKETY BLANK PROGRAM WORK?!?) I discovered it was operator error: I was pointing the file to the wrong set of .css files. Paragraph? Red! Now we're coookin'...
But what about the border? Wasn't it supposed to also have a border on it (that was part of the second linked stylesheet)? Yes, there it is, right in the code:
(border 1 px;)
But alas, no border.
I checked the book. I checked the code. I checked the book again. I checked the code. I checked the HTML. I checked the book again. I checked the CSS again. I stared into space wondering WHY DOESN'T THIS BLANKETY BLANK PROGRAM WORK?!? And then, another half an hour later, I realized my (again) mistake : Yes, a colon. It was missing
(border: 1 px;).
This CSS thing takes attention to detail to an entirely new level. Today, it wasn't something missing, it was a slash that was there when it should not have been making none of my pages link to each other. Another half an hour and I still don't understand why. I figured out the problem and how to solve it, though, and that's an amazing feeling.
So at the same time that I am utterly flustered by all this, I am absolutely amazed and elated to be learning it. I can feel my brain trotting down entirely new neural pathways. It makes me happy to be learning something new, and something hard. I can't wait to fully understand it so I can start really admiring the beauty of good code. It's a long way off, but it IS going to be fun.
Now so far, I've logged about 20 hours of classes in both HTML and CSS since late December. Unfortunately, very little of this included hands-on programming. Lots of notes, yes, but not too much trial-and-error testing, which I've discovered is what will KILL you.
My first two hours were spent trying to do the most basic CSS stylesheet: turn a paragraph red. I did an inline style, no problem. Embedded style, a breeze. But when it came to actually linking a couple of external CSS stylesheets (with @import, no less), I was befuddled. I spent a good half an hour trying to turn my darn paragraph red that I was nearly red myself. On the verge of tears (WHY DOESN'T THIS BLANKETY BLANK PROGRAM WORK?!?) I discovered it was operator error: I was pointing the file to the wrong set of .css files. Paragraph? Red! Now we're coookin'...
But what about the border? Wasn't it supposed to also have a border on it (that was part of the second linked stylesheet)? Yes, there it is, right in the code:
(border 1 px;)
But alas, no border.
I checked the book. I checked the code. I checked the book again. I checked the code. I checked the HTML. I checked the book again. I checked the CSS again. I stared into space wondering WHY DOESN'T THIS BLANKETY BLANK PROGRAM WORK?!? And then, another half an hour later, I realized my (again) mistake : Yes, a colon. It was missing
(border: 1 px;).
This CSS thing takes attention to detail to an entirely new level. Today, it wasn't something missing, it was a slash that was there when it should not have been making none of my pages link to each other. Another half an hour and I still don't understand why. I figured out the problem and how to solve it, though, and that's an amazing feeling.
So at the same time that I am utterly flustered by all this, I am absolutely amazed and elated to be learning it. I can feel my brain trotting down entirely new neural pathways. It makes me happy to be learning something new, and something hard. I can't wait to fully understand it so I can start really admiring the beauty of good code. It's a long way off, but it IS going to be fun.
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