[PLUG] Eye candy Web pages

Quentin Hartman qhartman at gmail.com
Thu May 3 19:56:57 UTC 2007


On 5/3/07, Ed Sawicki <ed at alcpress.com> wrote:
>
> I'm updating some web sites so they don't look like
> they were designed by an oaf with no eye for style (me).
> For the BizNix site, for example, I'd like something that
> scrolls words and phrases in some sexy way. If you look
> at the main page (http://biznix.org/) now, I have a
> Javascript text scroller that minimally does the job.
> It doesn't look great.


There are about a million different ways to skin this cat. I'd bet if you
spent some time browsing one of the many javascript repository sites out
there, you'd find a script that does what you want elegantly.
Dynamicdrive.com has a number of example scripts that might get you started.
Depending on what exactly you're looking for, it might just need some CSS
love to look good.

I see that the Javascript scroller places quite a demand
> on the CPU at the browser side (of course). I'm wondering
> whether Flash would be a better choice. I have no
> experience creating Flash content. What does it take to
> create Flash content on Linux or the iMac?


As the amount of "flash" you want to have increases, so does the
appropriateness of Flash. Personally, I consider Flash a last resort. As far
as authoring, there is not a whole lot on Linux, though there is some.
Unfortunately, the specific names of the projects escape me at the moment. I
seem to recall them being less than fully baked, however. On the iMac, you
have lots of options, Adobe's entire line of tools should be available.

Or should I consider some other way of producing this
> content?


I think you should stick with JS until you are sure what you want can't be
accomplished with it. It's generally more portable and accessible than
Flash. I find it useful to do non-functional mockups of sites to get the
design done before I try to implement it for real. Use whatever tool you're
most comfortable with, be it photoshop, inkscape, openoffice, or NVU. Get
the design where you want it, then try to tackle the implementation
obstacles. If you find something you can't get past, revisit the design
mockup and change it accordingly.

-- 
-Regards-

-Quentin Hartman-



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