Archive for the ‘Web Designer’ Category

In the last video in this mini site creation series I showed How to Design a Mini Site in Fireworks. In this video I show how to slice the image and export the image into HTML and then modify it into a very basic mini site.

There is nothing advanced in this tutorial, it’s just a very basic slice and export process with very minimal editing. This is to assist someone who has very little knowledge and experience with HTML. Basic understanding of using word processors and editing documents is all that’s required.

Please visit W3Schools to learn basic HTML programming.

I’ve created the two menu pages seen in the design image and created a link to the exported HTML mini site. You can view it here. I haven’t added anything to it that isn’t in the video. It is exactly how it was when I designed it in the video.

In the last video series, I went through the process of How to Create eCovers (eBooks) and in this video I show how to design the mini site that compliments that eCover.

Mini sites are a pretty easy way to quickly create a website that is e-commerce ready. You can find tons of them on the internet in almost every genre imaginable. More commonly, the mini site serves the purpose of selling informational products, such as “How-to Make Money Online“. A somewhat horrible industry, due to the fact there is a lot stupid information available. I think most of that information is recycled garbage, modified by someone who promises riches, but has no idea what they are doing.

Nevertheless, the mini site is a powerful web site formula and not to be overlooked by someone with real talent and real knowledge. Understanding the formula and how to design and create the mini site is a valuable asset, as it can be used in many ways by both the entrepreneur and the freelancer.

The image below is the end result of this design video.

I use Adobe products for many things. I’m not a graphic artist, so I’ve never been able to master or even make good sense with Photoshop. However, Adobe Fireworks is easy to learn and a very powerful tool for me as a web developer.

In this video I use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks to create an ebook cover.

To create modern day Web 2.0 style ebook covers, most everybody uses Action Scripts of some sort. In this video I am using Cover Action Pro scripts (a commercial product).

This video is about 25 minutes long and shows every step I took to create the eZine eCover in this post. My style might seem goofy to some Photoshop experts, but I’m a Fireworks user and all scripts that I am aware of at the moment are for Photoshop. So, I design the eCover in Fireworks and run the Photoshop scripts on the design.

Sometimes when creating reflective images in Adobe Fireworks using the menu driven method, there are pixel lines on the sides that aren’t completely faded out.  If you experience this problem and are unable to successfully touch it up, you can use another method to create that mirrored image effect.

You can use a vector object to create the mirrored image reflection simply by applying a gradient effect and adding some transparency effects.  This video shows you exactly how to do it.

This video presentation shows exactly how I made this shiny red download button, using Adobe Fireworks.  It’s rather a simple process and only involves a few objects and some very commonly used properties.

If you would like to download the .PNG file for editing purposes in Fireworks, just click the download button.

Not being a graphical artists and not having any special training or schooling for web graphics,  I’ve always found Adobe Fireworks to be the easiest to use.  It’s simple and effective.  I have trouble getting around in Photoshop, but I’ve always been able to use Fireworks to help create modern day images for my web sites.