I hope this works

Hi Everyone;

You’re not going to believe I was given the code to easily post by e-mail! I’m not going to say much in case I’m just talking to myself. If you see this, tell me and I’m in babies!  Now I’ve learned how to write a blog just by editing an existing one in dashboard.  Funny how as you learn, doors start opening up for you; an excellent observation of how faith can move mountains:  Hebrews 11:1 states ” Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, though not yet seen. ”  I had no idea how to employ PHP yet here I am.  Look for new posts in Web-Site Design   how to employ PHP via email posting so you never need worry about how to access your site after a prolonged absence and your site has gone inactive; plus take advantage of all the blogging features email posting has to offer :0)

Entering the collective consciousness…

Introduction:

I hear of a lot of people expressing their dreams to be something in this life, only to give up after trying it, because they just didn’t know what they were in for!  Nowhere can that be more aptly expressed than within the field of website design!  These days, it is extremely difficult to construct a fully operating website; gone are the days of simple software and hokey designs!  Not only do your designs have to be good now, they have to jump out at you!  The must have talent to read what your potential customers want said on their pages is all important!  And the answer is, not a whole lot;  just the fundamental links need be expressed. 

So you have to clearly understand what your customer is selling above all else!  It has to look stylish and elegant.  Not a simple task!  Then you need to slice it all up and provide working URLs for your links that light up or dance or God knows what else!  Then you have to get it up and running with Daffy programs like Dreamweaver, that complicates rather than simplifies the problem!  It would be more understandable to a seasoned Programmer I’d say…

Here are the results of a few websites I’ve finished, out of hundreds I started but haven’t added the links to yet.  They can be easily made workable in Adobe Fireworks!  There are up states, and down states for your button.  You’ll need an identical sized button that looks like it lights up when you mouse over it, and assign the URL.  Anyway, I’d appreciate any feed back from up and coming would be Designers.  I’d prefer an ‘honest’ opinion, thank you!  I could only complete four of these over this last weekend.  Hey!  It’s enough for a slide show…

The stupid olive-green plaque behind the header would have to go, and the header’s width shortened.  And I can do that using the tiff file for this page, which is comprised of over 30 layers, believe it or not!  What’s right about it, is the classy fonts on the left hand side.  The simple statement: ‘Going Green’ and the picture, immediately tell you what this site is about.  You’ve got to grab people’s attention right away, or all is lost…  Enjoy the slide show:

What’s Your Backgound?

Introduction:

You can easily experiment with any of these backgrounds, without actually changing your background.  Here’s how…  Go to your admin. page.  Choose ‘Appearance/Background.  Place your cursor over the little view of your background.  And the command change will appear.  Select that.  You’ll be taken to your media library.  Choose select image from there and go get one of these backgrounds that you liked, and select it.  It will appear as a preview on your blog.  If you don’t like it, just choose the little close ‘x’ in the upper left hand corner.  You’ll be asked if you want to leave the page…  Say yes, and your default background will remain untouched.  If you like it, choose: ‘Save and Publish’ on the preview page.  Just click back and forth between these two tabs, to follow these instructions…

You will find all of these backgrounds are very light for a few reasons. 1) Some blogs don’t have a strip down the middle for text.  And b) You want to make your backgrounds as UN-obtrusive as possible…

These military type camouflage, blurred backgrounds go over very well.  Unless you use the very colors on the pattern, text will show up very well indeed!  And it’s nice and bright for sunny days.  With some clocking in at much less than 200 k., they allow your site to load up lightning fast.  Most of my backgrounds do.  Some of the patterns that aren’t blurred, depending…  The polka dot one won’t take long to load for instance.  Use your own discretion.

Here’s the polka-dot one.  It always goes over well with the girls…  I guess you can see why.  These are all so light and unobtrusive, they tend too look like they’re fading if I look down at them on my monitor…

This is one of my favorite stripe backgrounds!  Loads fast!  I may even try this one on my own blog…  It rocks for style!  All the striped ones are my own creations!  But all are free domain and free to use :O)

Perhaps the Artiest in you speaks to this one…  It does have that ‘brushed on’ look.  It looks unilateral too.  It works well for a guys or a gals site!

Conventional stripes are always good to go with; neat, serious, looks like bedroom wallpaper!  LOL!  Anyway, many of these will be to your liking!  Many of these will co-ordinate well with the headers I posted previously…  Just mix and match.  See what grabs ya?  If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them for you…  Enjoy the slide-show!

 

 

Getting Ahead with Your Header…

Introduction:

I know what you’re thinking: [Sparty wants me to mess around with my header!  Then I’m gonna brake my site, and I won’t be able to fix it again!  That way he can get rid of all his artsy fartsy competition!]  Yes?  Well have no fear, it’s break proof!  First, so you’ll see just how easy it is to experiment with your blog’s header and background, without a spring going Boeing!

https://en.support.wordpress.com/customize/

First impressions count!  And the first thing people see, is your blog page, which does not look customized, other than with widgets  Wouldn’t they be impressed right away if they saw that you have hand crafted your own site?  Why half the fun of starting a blog, is making it your own; going mental over just what header will match what background, and how will you put your personal info. in the header  And don’t worry, I know headers are to be 960 px. by 250 px.  Please, one thing at a time!  You’re over whelming me!   BACK OFF!!  JUST BACK OFF!!!

Though this header is 960 px. wide, it’s 390 px. tall!  My theme however has an unusually tall header by default.  I chose to do this one because it looks simple.  All the parts were just white before…  And flat…  Very flat!  No shine either.  I added the two white lines as extra, and left the logo in because it looks cool!  And I put in my other WordPress address.

This header IS the right size…  I made this one one night when I was plotting to take over The Galaxy!  Fortunately, I was detained due to leg cramps!  Tip: (If you ever wake up with leg cramps, grab your toes and pull them toward you hard!).  This does kinda give you that military feel…

This is just the header that would go with the camouflage background on my other blog.  I could do that because it has a black strip in the middle to write on.  This blog does not, so I have to approach it differently; though I’m not through experimenting just yet.

On this one I lines for emphasis.  And if you look at the colored part on top, it looks like a convertible.  A vivid imagination and good color co-originating skills, and a working knowledge of Photoshop’s blending options dialog box, is all you need to muster up one of these obviously self made headers…  That is, you know WordPress doesn’t provide them!

Here’s one that says ‘PHOTOGRAPHY’ right on it!   All I did was double space the letters…  Look, it’s easy!  You just go onto your admin. page, choose ‘appearance’ on your left, and it’s sub-menu: ‘Headers’  It’s very user friendly.  It just gives you a dialog box to go on your drive and get it.  So if you find one you think might go well with your blog as it is.  Just remember where you save it to…  And if you don’t like it, choose ‘Default’ to get the old one back.  It’s as simple as that. 

Look through the slide show, and save any ones you like, because next time (and I’ve already done the work, we’ll be matching these up with some really cool and unobtrusive backgrounds!  So have your headers ready to use…  Class dismissed!

 

 

Using Gradients for Perspective…

Introduction

The latest trend toward making quality websites is to make breakthroughs using 3D design ideas.  I will attempt to accomplish this for you in this tutorial.  Make no mistake, if you need something for a website or to beef up your blog, I’m your guy!  The background and header on my site are both my own inventions…  If you’d like to experiment with your own headers and backgrounds, it’s perfectly safe.  WordPress saves the original for you if you feel too uglified, and don’t know how to turn back!  I’m the guy for what you need on the Internet, but don’t have the time to construct yourselves!  There are people out there in cyber-land paying $1000 for what I will bestow upon you for FREE!

Illustration is an entirely different animal, so don’t be asking for an Abstract, The Twilight Zone, or a Rembrandt, that’s not what I do.  I have the capacity, software, and tablet for this, and will eventually add this talent to my already extensive list of blogging talents; that is, if I one day grow into a superhero blogger filled with actual hoards of people!  For those of you who are new, I actually figure this to be the most unique part of my blogging experience I can offer to you, so please take full advantage, since you DO have a ‘customizable blog’…

As I said, the full virgins are always made available to you in the gallery following the tutorial.  It’s my sincerest dream that I may see one or two of my inventions popping up here or there!  Adding a unique flavor to your blog will bring you added traffic, and can become the part of your blogging experience that you will have the most control over.  To experiment with headers and backgrounds like mine, you’ll have to go to the ‘designs’ category there at: http://lidtop.wordpress.com

It’s all about your ‘Splash Page’…

This represents the earliest part of the series…  Eventually, a front floor will appear, and a 3D effect with it as well.  OK! DON”T TURN INTO A MOB!  LOL!  I bring your attention to what I made.  I made the silver, metal strip on your very left,’CYCLOTRON’, the door knob, the plaque, and the rest is a background I did not make, but used.

I bring your full attention to the 3D design (plaque) on the door.  I’ll point out first that by leaving all the room on the left for any ‘requested’ objects or writing, they can also be used as wallpaper, with plenty of room for your icons…  Believe it or not, the metal plaque on the door started out as a plain, black, motif I first used a mirror filter on, and then a I gave this flat black object a radial ‘metal’ gradient and adjusted the the scale slider to compliment the design, added a drop shadow and that’s it…  Took me about 2 minutes in all!  And all from the ‘Blending options’ icon fx symbol at the bottom of your layers pallet in Photoshop.  The door knob, and the plaque would both be made active zones in a program like Adobe’s Fireworks, to enter the site…

Here I have jumped to a new level of sophistication… Yet I still wondered if a sidewall should be necessarily, or could a 3D floor do the trick?

Ah!  That’s better!  And lots of information space on both sides of the plaque on the wall.  But how did I get the 3D effect on the floor?  Easier than you might think.  Go into edit/fill for this.  Do not use the blending options fx symbol or it won’t work!  Place a tile you can find that might look floor like and insert it in the selected space ( the little square selection tool in your tool box, at the top).  Then make your picture at 33% original size so you have room to drag out your floor beyond the edge of the picture sufficiently.  Then select Edit/Transform/Perspective, and drag the little bottom left hand, little box, hold down, and drag it as far left as you can.  Then hit Enter…

In this one, I decided to go hi tech with the door and upgraded to an elevator…  Yes I did use the dreaded pen tool for the division in the center of the door.  Notice the sidewall is gone!  It only makes the design look like it has limited space.  The motif was not mirrored.  It is at the brushes full size and has no gradient effect applied to it.  Yet the perspective on the floor still maintains the illusion.  In retrospect though, for added depth, I would have blurred the background.

Finally, to give it a little animation, I added a subject to the picture.  The far left could have Splash page at the top, in large font…  And several buttons down the left side of the page, with text describing various web pages, on topic with your product of choice.  That will complete the splash page, except for activating it.  That’s another tutorial altogether.  For now, the left side of this page is your project for those willing to tackle it.  Even post the results on your site if it looks good!  You’ll find this in the slide show as a full sized page.  Notice the plaque behind the sun is where I put my superhero?

OK, I couldn’t resist!  Perhaps instead of splash page, you might wanna just say: ‘ENTER’…  Either way, though business sites may look all flat and organized, it never hurts to have an exciting 3D splash page, to rev. people up, and get them all excited about entering your site!  Each set of pictures in the slide show, can comprise different sections of different web sites.  All in all, I nibbled at this for just about a week to completion.  Try your hands at the headers and backgrounds too…  You may just surprise yourself!  Make sure ‘vertical tiling’ is selected for backgrounds.  You’ll be given a dialog box to retrieve the work off your drive, so make sure you put them where you’ll remember. Make a folder called: ‘Blog Site Items’ and for now, sub-folders called ‘Headers’ and ‘backgrounds’.