Reflection and conclusion to my multimedia problem

As I have now come to the end of writing my web site to inform readers about being a technical author, I am now going to reflect on my work.

What did I learn during this project?

These were my intended goals:

1. Learn how to create a web site in Dreamweaver

I achieved this goal and produced my very first web site using Dreamweaver.

2. Learn how to create different style sheets (css) in Dreamweaver

I achieved this goal; I created four style sheets and wrote a function and java script to allow the user of the site to switch between the styles.

3. Learn how to write some functionality that allows users of the site to switch between the different style sheets, without altering the content of the current page. This will probably be a javascript calling a function.

This is as per point 2 really.

4. Learn how to publish my web site on to WordPress.

I did not manage to do this; I had not realised there were some restrictions as to what you can post on Word Press. I intended to use a server at the University but this did not come to fruition. I therefore emailed the web site for assessment. The positive side of this is that it has taught me about the different types of files you can and cannot upload to WordPress.

In summary, I went from being a complete novice user of Dreamweaver to producing a web site with content and hyperlinks and one in which the user could change the style at the touch of a button.

Has the project been successful?

I therefore feel my project has been a success and am happy with the knowledge and experience it has given me.

Any limitations or things I’d do differently

The site is limited in content because it is a prototype; I felt that although the content is important, I really wanted to concentrate the maximum effort on learning about style sheets and writing the javascript and function that allows the style of the site to be changed. So maybe I’d include more content if I was doing this project again. It would be interesting to get some feedback on how useful the site actually is for the intended audience.

I would have also liked to rename the styles as themes and think about some meaningful titles for the styles.

Further things I’m going to investigate in Dreamweaver after this experience.

I’m going to see if I can find out a way to allow the user to keep with the same style once they have changed from the default and clicked an inline link. I will investigate further online and also see if I can find any books about it in the library.