This is a multidimensional course and you will need multiple resources. Although all listed publications make excellent reference, I would like to urge you to purchase the two in the CMS and WordPress section. They will be at the heart of what we will be doing during the semester. You will find answers to many questions that will arise and they will also give you ideas to pursue in your projects.

Core reading and resources

For CMS and WordPress, these are required reading and reference

• Heather R. Wallace, “WordPress 3 Site Blueprints“, Packt Publishing (sitepbk)
• Brandon Corbin, “WordPress Top Plugins“, Packt Publishing (wordtopbk)

For the Marketing Dimension

• Seth Godin, The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better

Recommended resources

For General Design Dimension

• David Dabner, Sheena Calvert, The New Graphic Design School: A Foundation Course in Principles and Practice, 4th Edition
• John DiMarco, Digital Design for Print and Web: An Introductionto Theory, Principles, and Techniques

For the HTML/CSS/Web Dimension

• Elizabeth Castro, HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide)
• Elizabeth Castro, Creating a Web Page with HTML: Visual QuickProject Guide

The following readings

• A. Cemal Ekin, Information, knowledge and the Internet
• A. Cemal Ekin, Web Site Design
• A. Cemal Ekin, Do We Need a New Approach to Classifying Products?
• A. Cemal Ekin, A product is born (on the Net)
• A. Cemal Ekin, Content is King
• Daniel Horne, Innovators (not necessarily first movers) will win the Web!
• A. Cemal Ekin, What Price Privacy?

(Not directly used in class but you may find them useful depending on your interests. Do not rush out and buy the books below. Wait until the groups are formed where you may share resources and related costs.)

• Eric Myers. CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training (Hands-On Training)
• Eric Giguere. Make Easy Money with Google: Using the AdSense Advertising Program

Technology tools WWW Browser

We will use Firefox as our official browser. Of course, you may use other browsers on your own computer if you wish. You should keep in mind that even different versions of the same browser may render Web pages differently. There are important differences between Microsoft Internet Explorer which you should find and learn. Because of these differences, they may render your pages differently. When you use browsers and develop HTML documents for them, remember these differences and test your work on as many browsers as you can. In general, Microsoft Internet Explorer is more forgiving than Firefox in rendering faulty HTML. In some instances you will find the opposite, IE will simply not support some CSS constructs. So, make sure to check it in Firefox which will alert you to the HTML problems more readily. Your documents must render in the modern browser like Firefox an in IE7-8 properly.

We will spend time learning to use Firefox browser. You will find that there is more to using a browser than “clicking” here and “clicking” there. I expect that we all become highly proficient in Firefox and its many options that users may configure to suit their needs. HTML and Web tools

Plain Text Editor

Although there will be only a small amount of HTML knowledge covered, you need to understand and apply the basics of HTML. Learn how to use an HTML editor, and use it as needs dictate. Although I will cover the basics of a couple of editors, you will learn how to use it on your own.

HomeSite is one of these editors and is installed on the computers in the labs. When you are using your own computer that will not help you much. For that purpose, I recommend that you download and install NotePad ++ (plus-plus) from SourceForge.

In addition to being an excellent HTML editor, HomeSite is also a good reference source with its extensive HTML help system. NotePad++ is also an excellent editor with syntax aware color highlighting in HTML and several other languages.

CSS Editor

Although you can edit CSS files in HomeSite or NotePad++ an editor designed for this will make your life so much easier. On the lab computers there is one installed, TopStyle Lite 2. You can download the latest version TopStyle Lite 3 and install it on your own computers, it is free of charge. There is a paid version of this software but you will likely not need the extra features of it to justify its cost (about $80).

Image Editors & Manipulators

The need for designing graphics will be modest and simple software will suffice. There are many image editing software available, from the mighty Photoshop to free Picassa and many in between. If you have a digital camera, you may already have some software for image editing. If you want to try others, here is a short list.

• Corel Painshop Pro Photo X2 (30-day trial available)
• Adobe Photoshop Elements (30-day trial available)
• FastStone Image Viewer (Free)
• Picassa (Free)

If you must have access to a scanner and cannot find one, I may be able to help if you are willing to drive down to my house. The Academic Media Services in Feinstein has many tools, if you make an appointment you may also receive help from the people there as well.