December 2006 - Volume 2, Issue 7

In this Issue...

INTRO | Looking Forward to 2007...

Our last newsletter of 2006. It has been an interesting year, but I won't go into the details. I'm going to keep this intro short and just say, "PixelMill is looking forward to an exciting 2007!" We have a number of new products, services, partnerships, and opportunities brewing for launch early in 2007. Keep watching for these exciting announcements.

In this month's newsletter, Corrie Haffly delivers two more excellent tutorials. The first tutorial shows you how to convert your FrontPage link bars to basic text links in Expression Web. We found with the official release of Expression Web that the link bar feature has been removed, but we also found that this feature was still in SharePoint Designer 2007's official release. If you decide to go the Expression Web route, we recommend this tutorial if your FrontPage site contained FrontPage Link Bars.

Corrie's second tutorial provides another excellent Photoshop tutorial on how to make last minute Christmas cards or how to simply add a border effect to the images on your site.

Looking towards next year, we introduce you to the many opportunities we have opening up at PixelMill. With all of the new products and services we'll be delivering in 2007, we're looking for some talented individuals that can help us with these projects. Here's your opportunity to pick up some extra work, additional training, and more exposure in the industry. Take a look through the We Need You! section in the right column to learn more.

In closing, we would like to Thank You for being our valued customer in 2006. We wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

by Jason Reckers, President & CEO - PixelMill Inc.

TUTORIAL | Converting FP link bars to Basic Text Links for Expression Web

FrontPage Link Bars have been well-used in the past for their easy-to-modify nature; unfortunately, they do not validate and they are no longer a usable feature in Expression Web. Expression Web does not provide any way to actually edit the link bar properties; also, Expression Web does not have a "Navigation View", so you cannot even change the order or text on a FrontPage link bar.

Instead of using FrontPage Link Bars, use an include page that holds text links to achieve the same text link bar effect that was available in FrontPage:

Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

In Expression, select the FrontPage link bar on the page. If the link bar is within an include page already, you are halfway there! Open the related include page and perform steps 2 and 3 below within the include page, then skip to step 5.
You will want to replace the link bar with your own text and hyperlinks. Delete the link bar component (or leave it up for reference and delete it at the end of this step). Start typing your navigation link text. Select the text and go to Insert > Hyperlink to change the text into a link. Link the text to the appropriate page. Separate your text with the vertical line character. You'll send up with a text navigation bar similar to the example shown above.
Now, select all of the links you just created -- that is, highlight your new manually-created "navigation bar." Type Ctrl-X to cut the links.
Type Ctrl-N to create a new blank page. Type Ctrl-V on the page to paste your links onto the page.
Save this new page. You may name the filename something like "include_menu.htm" or some other name that will allow you to easily recognize it. (If your link bar was already within an include page, you simply have to save the include page and you're done!)
Now, insert the include page onto your actual .htm or .html pages. Go back to the original page that you had open -- it currently doesn't have any links on it because we deleted the link bar and then cut the links that were created. Put your cursor in the empty spot where the navigation links should be, and then switch to Code view.
Paste this code into the HTML code. You will want to replace the filename with the filename of your newly created include page:

Save the page. The include page should be included onto the page, with your new text navigation bar in place!
On all your other pages, simply delete the FrontPage link bar component, then paste the HTML code into Code View and save.

To add or remove links from the link bar in the future, simply open the include page and edit the page with your new links. Once you save your include page, all the other include pages will be updated.

More learning resources...

Are you a "see-and-learn" person? I'll be demonstrating this very topic in an online webinar. Click "Register Now" to register today!

Replacing FrontPage Link Bars in Expression Web
Expression Web does not give you the ablity to edit and modify FrontPage Link Bars. Corrie Haffly shows you how to replace FrontPage text link bars with CSS-formatted link bars in include pages. This webinar is an essential building block for understanding how to format navigation links using CSS and will continue in a second seminar, Using CSS to Format Navigation Links.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST

Take your new Expression Web "link bars" one step further with advanced CSS styling to make your links really look like buttons!

Using CSS to format navigation links
This webinar continues from a previous webinar, Replacing FrontPage Link Bars in Expression Web. Corrie Haffly demonstrates the many ways that you can use CSS to format navigation links, from basic rectangular buttons to faux "push buttons" to using a combination of images and CSS for a graphical button effect. Users of FrontPage Themes will be able to apply the techniques to maintain easy-to-change graphic buttons in Expression Web. Non-FrontPage and non-Expression Web users will find this topic engaging and applicable to future web sites, as Corrie covers the CSS how-to's for formatting navigation links.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST

Finally, we're working hard on getting more resources on Expression Web at PixelMill. Visit our brand new (and growing) support area on PixelMill for Expression Web!

by Corrie Haffly, PixelMill Staff Writer

FEATURE | Online Webinars, Seminars, and
One-to-One Training...

Last month we announced our new education Webinars, Seminars, and One-on-One Training offerings. We're seeing participants receiving and commenting on the value of these events. We have recently launched our new landing pages for these offerings, and have developed the first in a series of surveys to learn more about your education needs.

Survey
We ask that you take a few minutes to complete the following survey of seven questions to give us an initial idea of your educational needs. We'll use this as a guide for Webinar scheduling and follow-up surveys. To show our appreciation, we will provide all survey participants (who provide their PixelMill username or email address) a $5 store credit for a future purchases. Click Here to take the survey!

Webinars & Seminars
Webinars are large group events where a speaker will present on a broad set of topics in one area of expertise. Seminars will be small group classroom-like environments where the speaker will focus heavily on one or two solutions to a specific problem. These will be more like a lab where attendees will be able to see how to accomplish a specific task. Attendees of both types of events will receive a free recording of the session for post-event review.

Bookmark our Webinar & Seminars Landing Page to stay informed about upcoming events.

Upcoming Webinars::

Replacing FrontPage Link Bars in Expression Web
Expression Web does not give you the ablity to edit and modify FrontPage Link Bars. Corrie Haffly shows you how to replace FrontPage text link bars with CSS-formatted link bars in include pages. This webinar is an essential building block for understanding how to format navigation links using CSS and will continue in a second seminar, Using CSS to Format Navigation Links.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST

PowerPoint Overview: My First Presentation
Do you have PowerPoint but never feel like you have the time to sit down and try to figure out how to use it? In 30 minutes, Jason Reckers shows you how easy it is to get started with your first presentation. Jason will also give you a sneak preview of the new features that will be available in PowerPoint 2007. There will be an optional 15 minute question/answer session after the initial 30 minutes.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
10:00 AM - 10:30 PM PST

Using CSS to format navigation links
This webinar continues from a previous webinar, Replacing FrontPage Link Bars in Expression Web. Corrie Haffly demonstrates the many ways that you can use CSS to format navigation links, from basic rectangular buttons to faux "push buttons" to using a combination of images and CSS for a graphical button effect. Users of FrontPage Themes will be able to apply the techniques to maintain easy-to-change graphic buttons in Expression Web. Non-FrontPage and non-Expression Web users will find this topic engaging and applicable to future web sites, as Corrie covers the CSS how-to's for formatting navigation links.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST

PowerPoint Design Graphics Basics
Jason Reckers goes over the basics on adding and modifying the built-in PowerPoint design graphics, including: grouping, ordering, animations, and color. This half-hour presentation will surprise you with how much you didn't know was possible in PowerPoint and will help you to improve your own presentations. An optional 15-minute question-and-answer session will continue after the main presentation.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PST

Long distance charges may apply. Broadband connection recommended. Utilizes GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar solutions.

One-on-One Training
The cream of our support offering. We have designed our new one-on-one training service to connect you with an experienced professional to help guide you through your questions. Better than just paying someone to do the work for you, this service helps teach you a new skill or technique that may have been a challenge in the past. You will receive individual attention, plus a recording of your session allowing you to review it any time you need it. To learn more or take advantage of this offering visit our Education & Training Landing Page.

Educators Wanted: Are you interested in sharing your knowledge and experience? We're looking to fill an aggressive training & webinar calendar in 2007. Please contact me at jreckers@pixelmill.com for more information.

by Jason Reckers, President & CEO - PixelMill Inc.

TUTORIAL | Quick Photo Border Effect

Need a last minute Do-It-Yourself Christmas card? Make a quick collage of photos in a Photoshop document and print them out yourself or have a local photo service create the photos for you. (I like Costco's Photo Center services -- you can get normal prints in less than an hour, or create photo cards for in-store pickup!) Our online tutorial will take you through how to create a photo collage with a photo border effect to end up with what's shown below. While this wlll be more of a "print" tutorial rather than a "web" tutorial, the same concepts apply to web graphics, allowing you to create web graphics with faux photo borders!

Completed card

Click here to read the online tutorial!

You can learn many more tricks and tips in The Photoshop Anthology, my new book. I hope you enjoyed this one -- and if you're looking for more, visit sitepoint.com to order the book...