That's it. I mean it this time! I've finished the last video course.

This was a course on Web Accessibility. I thought I should make my site more accessible to people with disabilities and come up-to-date. My, what a can of worms. Just when I thought I had my site planned this comes in as a low baller. What I'm struggling with is the drop down menus I have planned. Screen readers can't navigate them very well nor can people who are not able to use a mouse. I might have to come to some sort of compromise on this.

There's always one Lemon.

Well that had to be the worst video tutorial on the planet. 9 hours of puerile babbling by a guy called Richard John Jenkins. OK so he had some relevant points but it could have more effectively been condensed into a maximum of 2 hours. Unfortunately it was the only course on Search Engine Optimisation available on Lynda.com but it left a lot to be desired.

Still wading through tutorials

I've finally completed the last of the Dreamweaver cs4 video courses that I'm going to do but I have now spied a SEO course on Lynda.com that I shall also take advantage of while I have access.  I only have a few days left on my pass so I might as well make the most of it.  Having said that, I have made a start on my wed sites new look.  My home page is almost complete.  The mock-up below shows roughly how it will look.

Just one more.

Nearly finished.  I've just completed a video course on using Spry assets.  I'm not sure I'll be going into such detail with them on my new site but at least I know what they can do and I'll probably use some of the more basic ones anyway.  I have one more video course I want to complete before I get down to the serious business of putting it all together and designing my new look web site.  That course is an in depth course on cascading style sheets.  If I get these sorted out right when I build the new site then looking after it and making changes in the future should be a piece of cake.  Unfortunately this is a really long course, 12 hours of it!  Fitting it all in will take a couple of week I imagine plus I'm definitely going to have to recap on a few of these tutorials.  I might just have to extend my membership to Lynda.com

New Logo v1

Well I've been at it all day.  Loads of scribbles on scraps of paper, several rejected Photoshop files plus unteen cups of tea and finally I think I've come up with a new logo.  It might still change it or just tweak it a bit before I start on the new look web site but at least I feel like I'm getting somewhere.  So, what do you think?  Does it fit the bill?
Back in the days of Windows95 a pencil was the first item I managed to draw digitally using the Paint program that came installed with it.  Of course, I was just doodling then.  Little did I know it would lead me onto starting my own business. Quite appropriate then, that a similar image should form part of my new logo.  At least I think so :-)

Out with the Old

For any of you who have been following this blog, you might be wondering when my promised web site changes are going to happen.  Well, one thing I have learned from the training videos is that a web site has to work on paper long before anything is done on the computer.  I'm still at the ideas stage, plus there are a few more tutorials I want to get through.  One thing I have decided is that my logo, seen here, has to go.  These fritilarias are a left over from when I was a garden designer as well as photographer.  I never got around to creating a second logo for the photography side of things which was a big mistake.  I'm not sure yet what I shall use instead but I have some rough ideas floating around in my head.  A good logo is priceless but changing a logo, even if it's a bad one, is not a good idea as it is a major part of a companies branding.  If I'm to change it I will have to make sure it is worth while by coming up with something really good...Ideas on a postcard please" :-))

Second Course 'in the bag'

The second course I took was about presentation and site structure. It was interesting and very relevant but I was not impressed by the teaching style so am unlikely to watch any of it again. Still, I learned a few tips and ideas.

First Course Completed

As I mentioned, I've been taking a video course in learning how to build my web site the right way. Well, I'm pleased to say I've survived the first course and probably have enough knowledge now to get on an re-plan my site. There are loads more courses available which will go deeper into various aspects such as cascading style sheets and Spry widgets so while I have access to the tutorials I think I'll fill my boots.

Serious Website Rebuild

When I built my web site initially I found out how to do it by learning
as I went along. The result is it works but I have no idea why and the
coding is very messy. I have now embarked on a series of training video
that tell me how it should have been built. Ooops! Now I'm realising
that the site is a total mess and needs a complete re-build. Don't
worry, it wont be taken down. I'll rebuild the pages on my PC and only
upload them once I have the site finished although I might just tinker
with the current version to make some temporary changes in the mean
time. The up-side of all this is that it allows me to incorporate some
new features if wished. So, if there is anything you think that would
improve my site just let me know. No rush, this will take quite a time
to complete but your input in this as a viewer and user of my site is
important to me. So please, do add a comment below if you have any
suggestions.

All Change

I've been making lots of changes to my web site and this will probably be an on-going project. If you have any suggestions about improvements I could or should make to the web site please add a comment below. After all, it no good me creating this site just to fit my ideas when it's you, my site visitors, that I need to build it for.