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Sunday June 10, 2007 6:40 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:24 Sunset 21:37 Hours of daylight: 16:13
A. Morning Musings
6:40 am It is +12 C with a high forecast of +20 C.
Here are the news.
CBC Headline: Flooding eases but threat remains in soggy B.C.
Swollen rivers levelled off Saturday, giving a brief reprieve to flooded areas in northwestern British Columbia, but officials warned more rainfall or warm temperatures could bring more trouble. Hopefully this will be the end of the difficulties.
Canadian Headline: see above
Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Sheik Hilali resigns as mufti
Outspoken Muslim leader Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali has stood down as Australia's mufti. The controversial Islamic cleric was reappointed mufti at a meeting of Muslim leaders in Melbourne today, but declined to accept the position. Hopefully this will help improve relations with the muslim community in Australia.
B. Actual/Notes
6:45 am The wind is up this morning. We have a few household chores to attend to this morning but the first item is to get the coffee brewing. Then I will continue my morning Dreamweaver activities as I look at cascading style sheets.
Technology 18
June 10
7:10 am I plan to carefully read and make notes for chapter 6 of "Dreamweaver 8" by Short & Green.
Here is a mind map of the overall book (with expansion of the subtopics for chapter 6):
I think that this is the key chapter for the book. Once I have the basic ideas of CSS and how they are created within Dreamweaver I am optimistic that the rest becomes detail.
Chapter 6 Cascading Style Sheets
The W3C has released several recommendations for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS 1 was formalized in 1996, CSS 2 in 1998 and CSS 3 has yet to be formalized. Most browsers do not yet support CSS 3.
"The cascading part of CSS refers to which rules the browser follows when it encounders conflicting CSS information. ... Understanding the cascade and specificity (how specific a rule is) can be a complicated and daunting subject." [p. 109]
"A the very core of CSS are rules. Rules consist of two parts: the selector and the declaration block. A declaration block can contain multiple declarations, which are each made up of two parts: a property and a value, followed by a semicolon. A colon separates the property from the value." [p. 110]
selector {property: value; property: value; ...}
Exercise 1 Understanding CSS and Page Properties
Done. Easy. This was the first time that I have used the Page Properties button on the Properties Inspector window. The exercise showed me how to create an embedded style sheet which is fine if I only want to use the rules for that page, but usually one wants to use the rules for almost all the pages within a web site.
Exercise 2 Exporting and Linking External CSS Files
Done. Easy.
This exercise does a great job of showing the power of external style sheets. A quick change to one external style sheet can immediately change all of the pages that use that style sheet.
The exercise takes an internal style sheet (created in exercise 1), exports it to the assets folder (thus creating an external CSS file), deletes the internal style sheet from the original page and then applies the external CSS flle to all the pages in the site.
Exercise 3 Creating Type Selectors
Done. Following the steps is easy, but the actual values used requires a much deeper understanding of what the various choices mean. The power of making a change to the style sheet and seeing it affect all of the pages is indeed impressive. This exercise illustrated how to change the properties of a simple type selector (e.g. a heading such as h1 or h2, or a paragraph p) .
It also showed a cute trick of using a border command to create a small square bullet in front of a heading.
This section focuses on the CSS Styles panel.
"The CSS Styles panel is one of the busiest and most useful panels in the Dreamweaver 8 interface." [p. 128]
"Type selectors are probably the most efficient way to declare CSS formatting rules. A type selector redefines how to render a particular XHTML tag." (e.g. <p> ) [p. 129]
"You can group as many selectors as you'd like by separating the selectors with commas." [p. 129]
Exercise 4 Creating ID Selectors
Later.
Exercise 5 Creating Class Selectors
Later.
SUMMARY of the session:
9:15 am I was right. This is the important chapter. I now have a clear idea of the power of the CSS approach but am still intimidated by the number of choices that I have for the various rules. Nonetheless, I am excited by the power that will soon be at my fingertips. The next topic of an ID selector will be useful as I learn how to work with an image that I want on each page (particularly the thumbnail image of myself at the top left corner of each page on this site). I have been at this for 2 enjoyable hours. There is something satisfying about sinking one's teeth into a good steak. Now for a break and a little digestion.
C. Plan
Immediate Literature Begin reading "Oxygen" by Andrew Miller Technology Read & make notes for chap. 6 from "Macromedia Dreamweaver 8" Science Read & make notes for "The Canon" by Natalie Angier Mathematics Write a paper on mathematics education Later Technology Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac" Learn how to attach a digital camera to my spotting scope Burn backup of images onto DVD Mathematics Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems Continue reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman Read "Symmetry" by David Wade Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1 Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves Model Trains Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt Continue assembly of coaling tower Purchase DCC system History Begin reading "Maya" Read Watson "Ideas" Philosophy Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell" Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer Literature New York Times easy crossword puzzles GO Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" Puzzles The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals Learning Review week's pages each Sunday Review all pages for the month at the end of each month Technology Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006 Model Trains Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software Install DCC on model train layout GO Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level Drawing Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper). Mathematics Continue to play with mathematics. Literature Continue to read Literature Bird Watching Continue to engage in bird watching activities.
D. Reflection