UPDATE - 9/2/98 -

On my latest update, life is a beach, I used a few new tricks. The first was the logo heading "life is a beach". Using Micrografx Picture Publisher, I created text the same color as the background ( the off blue - be careful not to lose it, usually there is a laso around it so you know where to click) then go to the options and choose drop shadow. You then pick the "halo efect" and a percentage ( I used 5%) as well as the color you wished to be haloed!

Next came the cool effects for the photos - these are called image edges which Picture Publisher comes standard with. There is a Wizard that handles it, I used 7 different types, infact you can even create your own edges or buy stock ones from other companys! Well I hope this helps those budding webmasters like me!

Well many of you will doubt that I have been doing my own graphics and HTML work, especially looking at my old webpage on AOL but I have been working on this a lot!! Also since I am interested in building webpages and graphic after I graduate I figured real life experience is the best.

Many of you may be curious about the graphics, though they look fancy, it was real easy to make. I am a fan of MicroGraphics Picture Publisher 7.0 rather than Adobe photoshop. There are many "wizards" that help create effects for people like me who do not have much experience. So I colored the photos in what is called a Emerald Tone. This gives it the old fashion, greenish tint. Then I use another wizard called, make button. ( I wonder what that does??? hehe) then I shrunk them all down to the same pixel size width wise. And voila we have a fancy webpage. The background was done the same way, except I just faded it out so it would not obscure the rest of the page. Once of the problems I see on a LOT of webpages is they use too busy of a background and thus it is hard if not impossible to read the text on the webpage.

As many of you who have followed this site know, I used to use Netscape 3.0 gold as a WSIWG editor, but it had some limitations. I am now using Macromedia's Dreamweaver. It is awesome!! A friend of mine who I met online recommended it, so I downloaded a free copy from there site. It will expire soon, so I am looking forward to buying it!! I think it is a must in any webmasters toolbox.

Of course I use CuteFTP to upload the files to my new server, which is much different then AOL, thank goodness.

Well that is it for now. If you have any good tips, or hints, or good links let me know and I will post them here. Or if there is enough interest I can create a chat board to discuss HTML and the joys of being a webmaster/mistress!

-Beth