Week 7: WordPress Workshop, Plus a Taste of Tables

February 24, 2012 by Quinn Warnick

Now that our first exam is behind us (hooray!), we can shift our focus back to the print-to-web conversion project. At this point, you should have added all of your content for Unit #2 to your WordPress site and you should be “cleaning up” the text as needed. (Translation: paragraph and line breaks should be accurate, there should be no extra spaces in your text, list items should be enclosed in the appropriate HTML tags, etc…) If you haven’t completed these tasks already, that’s your main homework assignment for this weekend. When we meet again on Tuesday, you should be done building your website so you can focus on styling it.

Here’s a quick overview of how we’ll spend our time in class:

On Tuesday, we will quickly review the results of the first exam, then we will spend the rest of class working in WordPress. Please read “Technology vs. Content, or Why Teaching WordPress Is Frustrating,” by Tom Johnson, before you come to class. In addition, please make sure that you have installed at least three viable themes on your WordPress site and be ready to show these themes to your classmates.
Since we’ve been neck-deep in CSS for the past several weeks, I thought it only fair to spend some time on Thursday with our greatly neglected friend: the table. Tables have fallen out of vogue in recent years, but you shouldn’t leave this class without understanding why they’re used less than they once were and, more importantly, how to use them effectively for displaying tabular data. Please read Hour 7 in the Sams book and “Bring on the Tables,” by Roger Johansson, before you come to class.

As you can see, both of our class sessions will be packed next week, so much of your work on the print-to-web conversion project will need to take place outside of class. Due to a commitment with the ENGW program, I need to cancel my office hours on Monday morning, but if you would like me to give you some one-on-one feedback on your project, I will make time to meet with you at a time that’s convenient for both of us. Just drop me a line if you’d like to meet.