Megabytes

Colorzilla is a great little add-on to Firefox that provides color information for the web page you are viewing. It includes an eyedropper and color picker, and now with version 2, the Webpage DOM Color Analyzer and Online Palette Viewer.
Both of these are useful additions to an already handy web developer tool. Quickly find out the hex color code for a particular item on a page. With the Color Analyzer you can find out what CSS rules specify a given color. The Online Palette Viewer allows you to create a color palette based on the colors of the web page.
Here you see the Color Analysis for my blog, Megabytes. When you hover over any color square in the palette at the bottom of the screen, the tool tip provides both RBG and HEX color info. Further, the item(s) on the page which use this color, are highlighted. Click on a color square to see the CSS rules that specify that color.

I recommend installing Alex Sirota’s Colorzilla into Firefox. Oh, and using Firefox - well, that’s a given!

Yet Another Dreamweaver CS3 Tome

O’Reilly Dynamic Learning series: Dreamweaver CS3, pub Sept 2007, by Fred Gerantabee & AGI Creative Team, $44.99

(This review was previously published in PMUG’s March 2008 issue of Mouse Tracks)

O’Reilly Media has one of the most comprehensive collection of computer software books. Within their roster of titles are 14 different series, many of which will include a title on a particular subject in more than one series. Such is the case for books on Dreamweaver CS3. I already own Portland author Dave McFarland’s Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing Manual. When Dreamweaver CS3 Dynamic Learning came to PMUG’s office, I was curious to know how it was different from The Missing Manual book.
Dynamic Leaning on a DVD
Each Dynamic Learning book comes with a DVD; the Dreamweaver CS3 DVD contains video tutorials, a few promotional PDFs for AGI Training, and lesson files. I was looking forward to the video tutorials, eager to know if viewing them would feel as if I had my own personal instructor. I copied all the files to my hard drive and read the instructions in the book for playing the video tutorials.
I think it is fair to expect that playing videos on my Mac is a simple double-click-the-file experience. Unfortunately, O’Reilly chose to format the tutorials as Flash video. Unfortunate because now it is not so simple to view video. It quickly became apparent why the book includes instructions for viewing the videos at all!
When I am surfing the internet in my Firefox or Safari browser and their built-in Flash player, I don’t have to do anything special to view videos on YouTube and other sites that employ Flash video. So why did the tutorials folder contain an index.swf file and not a index.html file? If I double-clicked on an HTML file, my browser would have opened and the resulting web page would begin playing the first video. Instead, instructions ask you to Control-Click the index.swf file and choose Open > Open With > Flash Player. Followed by what to do if you don’t have Flash Player.
Once I got the videos playing, they were quite informative and well worth viewing. There is one video for each chapter, intended as a supplement to the written lesson, not a replacement. These are good quality videos of the computer desktop (sometimes Mac, other times Windows) running Dreamweaver with a voiceover describing the activity. Table of Contents
Before going to a specific chapter, I read through the table of contents. As a long-time Dreamweaver user, I wanted to know what topics were covered and if there was anything new I could learn. The 13 chapters ranged from ‘Jumpstart’ which explains about web servers, browsers, file transfer protocol (FTP), among other items; to ‘Managing Your Web Site: Reports, Optimization & Maintenance’ which includes how to test your site, running site reports, and some good information about search engine optimization.
What surprised me in the TOC was Chapter 8, Working with Frames. In the very beginning of that chapter, the author lists the advantages and disadvantages of frames. Now, if you have to make a pros and cons list about a topic, and the lists come out against the topic 6-to-3; then why are you still including it? I would have preferred a chapter on Spry Widgets (not included) or the XML tools (not included.)On the plus side, the book expands upon the subjects of Flash, using CSS for layout, and making your workflow efficient. The Flash chapter not only demonstrates inserting Flash content, but other media content as well. Dreamweaver creates its own SWF (media player) files, so inserting some Flash Video on a web page means you only need the FLV (Flash Video) file. Learning New Tricks
Scanning through the book, I learned a few things that I was able to put to use right away.
1) The Insert Toolbar has a Text tab that has a drop-down menu making the insertion of special characters easy-peasy.
2) Using the Insert Image command (or drag-and-drop), you can place a PSD (Photoshop) file directly onto a web page and optimize it from within Dreamweaver.
3) Similarly, you can open text files in Dreamweaver and copy and paste content, thereby avoid having another app open for the text files.
Real Dynamic Learning
At the close of each chapter, there is a review section, with questions and answers pertaining to that chapter’s subject matter. If you really want to test yourself, be prepared to place your hand over the answers as they are on the same page as the questions.
Just before the Q&A is a section called Self Study. Here, the student is given some optional, extra-credit homework. Mostly, these short assignments are suggestions about exploring further in one particular area of Dreamweaver. Occasionally, the reader is advised to explore other programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, like Fireworks, Flash, and Photoshop.
Heavy use of screen grabs makes it easy to understand an article in a glance. This increases the likelihood that this book can serve as a reference even after you have done the tutorials.
Throughout the book important tips are denoted by the use of a push pin icon. These are valuable, pertinent tidbits, not to be missed. Sidebar information appears contained in a light gray box with a green background headline. In the CSS chapter for example, a sidebar appears explaining a bit about the naming of classes and IDs.Bottom Line
Overall, this is a fair book containing worthwhile information, rating 3.5 out of 5 stars. People who learn better visually will appreciate the video tutorials but may wish for more video material. I found the Dynamic Learning book lacking detail by just touching the tip of the iceberg on many topics.

Portland Macintosh Users Group (PMUG) has put together another wonderful lineup of Mac classes for the biannual MacCamp; held April 18-19-20 at Silver Falls Conference Center in Silverton, Oregon.
The six classes (2 each on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning) are:

1. Customizing Photoshop Workflows
2. Converting Analog Music to Digital
3. iLife Overview
4. iStopMotion
5. Bento
6. iPods Fully Loaded

You’ll need to choose between Photoshop and Digital Music; iLife and iStopMotion; and Bento and iPods. As you can see from this program, there is something for almost everyone.

For as low as $179, you get 3 classes, 2 nights bunking in a cozy lodge (six 2-person rooms share a cozy common area), delicious meals from Friday dinner to Sunday lunch, Mac networking, and Mac companionship, all in a beautiful, natural environment.

I’m looking forward to the iStopMotion workshop. That app was included in the recent MacHeist bundle (14 apps by Mac independent developers for one low price), which I purchased. I was also eager to explore Bento until I learned it requires Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), which I haven’t upgrade to yet. That’s alright, I now own an iPod after wanting one for years, so I can take that workshop.

Register now! The $179 rate for Mac User Group members goes up to $189 after March 1, and further increases to $199 after April 1

Have you ever wanted to put a © mark on a page in Dreamweaver, but couldn’t remember the HTML character code? For example, the HTML code for the © symbol is

& copy ; (without the spaces)

or you can use the keyboard shortcut option-g on a Mac.

That one is a simple, almost logical code to remember. The special character codes always begin with an ampersand, followed by the letters or numbers associated with the character, and close with a semi-colon. Remembering copyright as ‘ampersand’ ‘copy’ ’semi-colon’ isn’t too hard of a stretch. It becomes a little challenging to remember that

& rsaquo ; (without the spaces)

is the code for a right side close angle bracket.
Dreamweaver has two ways to help you with these special characters.
1) using code hints in code view
2) using the Text Insert bar

When in code view, type an ampersand and the code hints menu appears with a list of characters and their associated codes. You can scroll to the one you want and select. Typing the next letter in the code if you know it is a quick way to go to a specific part of the list. It IS a long list.

Using the Text Insert bar is much simpler. On the Insert Toolbar, select ‘Text’. On the Text Insert toolbar, select the character symbol, the last item on the right. There is a drop-down menu with the more commonly-used special characters and an option to see more characters.

I learned about this toolbar in the book, Dynamic Learning Dreamweaver CS3. I am reviewing it for the March issue of Mouse Tracks, the Portland Macintosh Users Group monthly newsletter.

I just downloaded and installed Codeweavers‘ Crossover for Mac. As a Mac-using website developer, I need access to the Windows environment to view my websites through the filter of the dark side.
I have been using Parallels since I purchased my Intel Mac this summer. And it’s great. Fast. Secure (with a few extra steps). And easy to use.
Just one drawback, without installing another Windows partition on my Mac, I can only run IE6 or IE7 in my Windows XP environment.
It was at a MacForce class on running Windows on a Mac that I heard about Crossover and decided to give it a try.
My plan was to run IE6 in Parallels and IE7 in Crossover. However, I’ve needed to readjust since learning that IE7 does not work in Crossover. Instead, I will switch that around and run IE7 in Parallels and IE6 in Crossover.
IE6 installed flawlessly in Crossover. I chose the minimal installation. I must say, it is a little unnerving to see the Windows dialog boxes on my Mac screen. Did some minimal surfing to known and trusted websites. No problems.
Now to install IE7 in my Parallels Window environment. Easy. Again I surfed some known and trusted websites in IE7 and had no problems.
I have not tested keeping both programs open and going back and forth between IE6 and IE7 in the two environments. In the Codeweaver forums, I read about a possible runtime interaction issue, machine “getting confused about whether to relay packets to the virtual machine in Parallels vs. IE running natively on your Mac.” Although this individual, a staff person at Codeweavers, says he does run Crossover and Parallels at the same time without ill-effects.
Another day, I will try that. For now, it works well for me and achieves the results I was looking for. Looks like I’ll be purchasing Crossover after my trial runs out.