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?
posted by mintchip to Computers & Internet (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I'm slightly confused. You're using jpg to display text? Why not just do it in text? Also, you don't mention if you are wanting things to be dynamic or if you could care less.

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


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


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