Okay. So my buddy Janelle at Sapling Design Studio is learning how to build websites. She’s an amazing print designer. She will be an amazing web designer if she is patient.

We’re learning about absolute positioning now. And I made her a bunch of screen shots to show her how the “draw Layer” tool works on our admittedly old but still-Macromedia-and-not-Death-Star-Adobe-Version copy of DreamWeaver. It’s a great way to understand how DW writes CSS and what you’re actually doing when you move things. It doesnt matter if you have a new copy of DW, code is code. Learn the -code- Do not be held hostage by software. Beat it into submission. Then you too can point and laugh at people who use DW in design view.

So I will share, for other lost souls wrestling with a WYSIWIG, what the #$%$ thing is actually doing.

The context here was that she was trying to place an image. I told her to make a new div and then place her image within it. She didn’t quite get there…

(and yes I know she should add this to the unordered list and position it and use image replacement, but bear with me. She needs to learn to position first.)

first, we find the layout bar and choose the right button. Draw Layer.

Draw the layer, it will grow handles when you are done. Doesn't matter where you put it. This is absolute positioning.

Move the layer with the handles. Resize it. Put your image inside it.

Give your layer a unique name in the properties inspector. This is the name that comes after the # sign in css.

Now open split screen with the layer still selected in design view. Notice your layer is a div. Notice the css in the header of the html.

Place the button where you want it in design view. Your div in code view will stay in the same place.

Now cut and paste the div code to put it inside another layer, so it moves with the page.

Your layer will have moved in design view. Put it back where it was ..in design view.

Test it by previewing in the browser

Notice your CSS is different. That's because you moved the div. DW writes your CSS.

Cut and paste your styles to your main style sheet and save!

Hopefully now you have a basic understanding of how Dreamweaver uses the design view to write your css, which is really what you need to make a web layout. Since you’re going to learn the code, eventually you will just write the css yourself, but sometimes it will still be faster to use design view and it’s good if you do, to understand how it works so you know how to fix things when something goes awry.

cheers.

Had a meeting this week with a business owner who wanted to know if we understood marketing in his field. His field is different than ours. Suspicion is understandable.

Here’s the thing though? Some ideas are applicable to every industry. Basic principles about marketing are global. Marketing is really about getting yourself into the position to be at the right place, at the right time.

What we believe about marketing in the B2B space is pretty simple. You are good at what you do. You tell the truth about yourself, what you think and in some cases what you are doing as loud as you can, in as many formats as you can. You make friends. You make friends online, using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (or whatever channel applies to your industry.) You make friends in local groups as well. Those channels are sort of like ongoing conferences. You blog, which is where you let people in, online. Let them get to know you.

When you connect with others in your industry, you occupy their mind space, even if they just see your name. You do favors, answer questions. You be a friend. It’s important to go to conferences and networking events to meet people face to face too. But basically, you do good work and work on people -knowing who you are- in your field.

This is marketing. It’s not going to see an immediate return. But what will happen is all of these things, daily things that you choose to do consistently, build a wave for you. The wave translates into work and sales.

Did you hear me say consistently?

One of the things we do for our clients (try to do) is to help set them a routine. We want to program the people and give them a tool to use (the routine) so they can stay consistent in their marketing. If they don’t follow the routine, we email them, write persnickety blog posts knowing they will read them…as a reminder. We might bet them or challenge them to do the routine for a few months, with a hard deadline to check back in and see what happened.

Because we know, if they use the routine, they will see results.

We know you can’t just program tools, you have to program people. It’s the people who use the tools. Ultimately it’s their habits that will determine their success or failure. If you have a beautiful website and a wonderful blog but you don’t tweet, write or post? If you’re not making friends, taking part in the global conversation going on online?

Well, you’re not marketing. That’s what we think.

You have to be consistent. Consistent does not mean you try Tweeting for two weeks and quit. Consistent means you commit to a regular routine for a year. Yes, I said it…a year. Marketing builds a wave and that wave doesn’t happen overnight.

That doesn’t mean you have to do those things daily. You just have to do them regularly. You determine what regular is for you. The most important thing is to begin, to find your voice and to use it.

So do we know how to market for your industry? Maybe we don’t know which cliques are important in your field or the industry jargon that you use. But we do know the landscape and the habits you need to get results.

Try it. What do you have to lose?

Visual Design is a language. It’s a form of communication as earnest and necessary as any spoken word. It can resemble body language in its subtlety and philosophy in its profundity. It can affect people at primal levels, without their conscious realization. Design wheedles, provokes, dispels and comforts. It is like a really amazing song in its ability to affect opinions and attitudes. Visual Design impacts. Design encompasses everything from a printed page to a package to a software UI, and may (or may not) have anything to do with pleasing aesthetics. You see, design is not just about the message communicated, about persuasion. Design is also about solving problems. Whether the problem is one of opposing ideological perspectives or one of the most practical usage of a tool, with effort and thought, design can resolve it. Design matters.

The primary question in visual design then, is “What are you going to say?” In the design, the tone and manner of approach can buffer a harsh message or emphasize and amplify one that might be lost in the daily noise of life. The next relevant question then is, “What problem do we need to solve?” Once you answer those two questions, you get your tools out. Some of the tools used in design are rhythm, balance, line, dominance, color, weight, proximity, alignment, focus and …the grid. The tools are used to convey the message, solve the problem. But if you don’t know what the problem is, don’t know what the message is?

Well, then, design will be just about making things pretty. Sort of like putting silk on a pig. It might be a really cute pig, but it’s still a pig.

How are you using design?