Almost Ready to Launch

Google Sites and I have spent a lot of time together this past week. I have decided to use Google Sites to host my portfolio. It’s been a week of amazement and frustration. What you can do these days without knowing how to code websites is impressive. Conversely, it’s so frustrating when you want to do something, and you don’t have access to the HTML or CSS.

I learned how to make a website in 1996. I used Pico and coded line by line. No syntax coloring, no auto-close for tags, no responsive layouts, and no 12 or 16-column grids. In the late 90’s, I was using Microsoft FrontPage just as it was becoming mainstream. I also remember using Dreamweaver during that time as well. In the late 2000’s, I learned PHP and MySQL for creating web pages in Dreamweaver. I got my partner teachers on the web with WordPress classroom websites and eventually Google Sites. They were using TeacherWeb.

I am used to more control when creating websites. However, I know the tradeoff for control is convenience. Using a 12-column layout and drag and drop makes it easy to get a design without thinking about what CSS is needed in each tag. It’s been a lot of trial and error as I try to get Google Sites to do what I want, and I have been learning along the way. The price is right, and I have the time, so it’s been a worthwhile adventure. I’m thrilled with what I have created thus far and can’t wait to share it with you.

The other thing I learned this week is how to round the corners of my graphics. Looking carefully at the screenshot, you will see my rounded corners on the thumbnails. Of course, once I learned how to round corners, I went back and rounded the corners of all my graphics.

It’s exciting, and I plan to go live with my portfolio next week. I’ve been working hard and want to share what I have been up to the last couple of months. What have you been working on? Do you have any early web programming stories to share? Please let me know in the comments below.