Free WordPress Themes: 2011 Edition - Smashing Magazine
CSS Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design
So What is This About? There is a continuing need to show the power of CSS . The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. CSS allows complete and total control over the style of a hypertext document. Participation Strong visual design has always been our focus. You may modify the style sheet in any way you wish, but not the HTML . Download the sample HTML and CSS to work on a copy locally. Benefits Why participate? Requirements Where possible, we would like to see mostly CSS 1 & 2 usage. Luckily, designing this way shows how well various browsers have implemented CSS by now. We ask that you submit original artwork. This is a learning exercise as well as a demonstration. Bandwidth graciously donated by mediatemple .
Fudgegraphics
Creating an Executive Summary
Word includes a special tool that creates automatic summaries of your documents for you. This tool is called AutoSummarize, appropriately enough. The summary can be any length you specify, and you can save it to a new document, add it to the beginning of your document, or simply highlighted it in place. This feature allows you to quickly create a starting point for an executive summary. Notice that I said AutoSummarize creates a "starting point." This is because the summary is based on what Word can figure out about your document. To use the AutoSummarize feature, follow these steps: Load and display the document you want to summarize.Choose AutoSummarize from the Tools menu. Figure 1. In the Type of Summary area, specify which of the four summary types you want to create.In the Length of Summary area, indicate by using the Percent of Original drop-down list exactly how long you want the summary to be.Click on the OK button. Do More in Less Time! Comments for this tip: -Allen Thanks,-Ross
Library
Accessibility Specification
These are DRAFT specifications that are being authored by a joint Open University (IET-OCI-VLE) working group. The document specifies improvements to the accessibility of the Moodle course management system for version 1.7. Please post comments in the RFC - Moodle Accessibility Specification forum discussion. People Working group members: Chetz Colwell, Accessibility in Educational Media (AEM), Institute of Educational Technology. Other interested people: Stephen Bradley, LTS – Media, OCI. Diary Initial meeting, Thursday 8 June, afternoon. Moodle Accessibility Specification Introduction This accessibility specification has been developed by accessibility experts and Moodle developers at the Open University (OU), UK. There are well established design principles for accessibility in software design and electronic content. Scope The intended scope of this document is to set out an accessibility specification that applies to all elements of Moodle. Modules: Resource page, quiz, forum.
Photoshop Mastery: 25 Techniques Every Designer Must Know
One of the best things about Photoshop is that you never stop learning. I’ve been working with the software for about 12 years, and I always stumble across something I didn’t know, whether it be a new feature, or just a new, better way of doing something. There are countless tips and tricks to help boost your productivity and work flow some are obvious and easy to find while some you have to dig a little to seek them out. In this post I’m going to reveal 25 of the best advanced techniques to help you design faster and better within Adobe Photoshop. Keyboard Shortcuts for Layer Manipulation Note: These shortcuts refer to the “Cmd” key on a Mac keyboard. Create a new layer As your working in PS adding layers to your canvas is essential. New layer with dialog box: [ Cmd + Shift + N ] New layer without dialog box: [ Cmd + Shift + Alt + N ] Zoom in and out zooming in and out is a necessity when designing a piece with lots of detail, or working on a large print piece. Fit to window: [ Cmd + 0 ]
Accessibility
Websites built with accessibility in mind are flexible in meeting different user needs, preferences and situations. Though these methods can increase usability for everyone who uses the Web they are often legally required to be implemented in a specific effort to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. Starting points These are some readable introductions to accessibility that cover; what accessibility is, why it is important, as well as practical advice. Moodle-related accessibility coding guidelines Use CSS, but still use headings, strong and emphasis It is generally a good idea to separate a document's content HTML from how it is presented using CSS. Avoid using background images for important information Users of non-visual browsers cannot see images. Image alt and title attributes An alt attribute is required (even if empty) on all images. Links and buttons should be selectable and easily click-able Support dynamic interaction with ARIA attributes Use labels with inputs
