I easily caught on to the basic CSS structure of coding: linking, creating CSS selectors and assigning attributes. Where I struggled at first was the layout and assigning positions to DIV elements. I found that the results can be quite unpredictable for a beginner. I have noticed a pattern in my research. I first look for sites which have done something similar to what I want to do. Once I have found a few examples of the required elements, I go back to W3Schools to study the HTML and CSS elements and put the puzzle pieces together in my CSS Stylesheet with some trial and error. 

The CSS stylesheet I create in unit 3 is for the desktop version of my website. I tried to do adjustments using CSS @Media, but I wasn’t quite satisfied with the results based only on screen resolution. I am hoping the JavaScript I will learn combined with small CSS tweaks of the original stylesheet will enable me to make dynamic pages as I want to. I did not create a sidebar as my original plan intended. I found that it made my page feel cluttered. I would consider a sidebar to be valuable should my page be more complex, with many sub-pages or advertisements. In this case, I simply opted for a clean and simple design.  

I tried my best to do DRY (don’t repeat yourself) coding by appending some defaults to classes which shared common specs. I did have to add quite a few DIV containers as unit 1 didn’t focus on layout and looks.  

I am quite happy with the result of my efforts. However, I would still appreciate comments and suggestions offering a different perspective on what I have done.  

Unit 3 version: http://student.athabascau.ca/~michelde10/unit3/ 

Mapping Activities 

• Created the required desktop version of my website, for Kelly using Google Chrome, Ester using Firefox, and Jimmy with his Windows desktop. 

• CSS stylesheet provides a casual and informal feel as planned. 

• Created a riding tips page with a video for Robert and Jimmy to learn new skills. 

• Created a maintenance tips page with a video for Jessica. 

• Decided on a simple font, Times New Roman as it exist in most systems. I attempted other fonts, but results were unpredictable between Windows and different Linux distributions. I opted for simplicity to help guarantee a standard compatible look between operating system and devices.