Updating my portfolio website and need help with web navigation, images, hosting and more.
October 5, 2009 12:04 PM Subscribe
Updating my online portfolio and need help with web navigation, images, hosting and more.
I would like to update my online writing portfolio, which is currently a blog hosted by Blogger. Each post is a thumbnail image along with some introductory copy. The thumbnails link to large jpg images
stored on Flikr. I want to spend a minimum of time updating my site, and I need to be able to make updates with ease. I have old versions of Photoshop and Dreamweaver at my disposal. Can you help me with these questions?
1. Navigation: On Blogger, new posts appear in date order rather than being organized by category. I am not happy with this navigation limitation. Is there any way around this without creating a whole new website independent of Blogger? I have been thinking about purchasing a domain name and then using an HTML template, but it would be easier if I didn’t have to do this. If I do need to move to a different site format, what would you recommend for a simple template and/or host?
2. Photo storage: My thumbnail images, which Blogger creates, link to Flikr photos. However, the type in these larger images isn't fully readable until the user clicks a second time (after clicking on the thumbnail), to enlarge the image to full size. I’m afraid some readers won’t do this. Is there a good solution to this? Where should I store my photos (if not on Flikr)?
3. Photo size and format: What are standard image sizes? If I abandon the blog format and create a new HTML site, how should I go about creating all of the JPGs I will need (full size, thumbnail)? What is the standard size for full size images and thumbnails and what do you recommend for a naming convention? Would PDF format be preferable? If so, what software should I use to create my PDFs, are there any standards to these, and where can I store them?
4. Should I allow people to download my writing samples, either as JPG or PDFs?
I would like to update my online writing portfolio, which is currently a blog hosted by Blogger. Each post is a thumbnail image along with some introductory copy. The thumbnails link to large jpg images
stored on Flikr. I want to spend a minimum of time updating my site, and I need to be able to make updates with ease. I have old versions of Photoshop and Dreamweaver at my disposal. Can you help me with these questions?
1. Navigation: On Blogger, new posts appear in date order rather than being organized by category. I am not happy with this navigation limitation. Is there any way around this without creating a whole new website independent of Blogger? I have been thinking about purchasing a domain name and then using an HTML template, but it would be easier if I didn’t have to do this. If I do need to move to a different site format, what would you recommend for a simple template and/or host?
2. Photo storage: My thumbnail images, which Blogger creates, link to Flikr photos. However, the type in these larger images isn't fully readable until the user clicks a second time (after clicking on the thumbnail), to enlarge the image to full size. I’m afraid some readers won’t do this. Is there a good solution to this? Where should I store my photos (if not on Flikr)?
3. Photo size and format: What are standard image sizes? If I abandon the blog format and create a new HTML site, how should I go about creating all of the JPGs I will need (full size, thumbnail)? What is the standard size for full size images and thumbnails and what do you recommend for a naming convention? Would PDF format be preferable? If so, what software should I use to create my PDFs, are there any standards to these, and where can I store them?
4. Should I allow people to download my writing samples, either as JPG or PDFs?
Response by poster: To answer your question, I use images of copy from ads and catalog I've written.
posted by mintchip at 7:56 PM on October 5, 2009
posted by mintchip at 7:56 PM on October 5, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
1.: No idea, sorry.
2.: Self hosting is pretty cheap these days. I use pair.com, but there are plenty out there.
3.: Thee isn't a standard size. All depends on your layout, etc.
As to 4.: Have you looked at Creative Commons licensing?
Drop my your URL if you don't mind.
I'm not opposed to blogger sites, but I think a wordpress install, or a CMS like ExpressionEngine is probably the way you want to go. You can customize to a degree not possible with a blogger site (to my knowledge).
If you have your writing as jpg you will not get google crawled effectively, unless you are a nut with alt and title tags. Much better to use plain text, learn some CSS, and have fun with your design.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:43 PM on October 5, 2009