Website

Well. Google Site Creator turned out to be a really user-friendly program, as soon as I stopped trying to use Internet Explorer to operate it. While using IE, it took several minutes to update the page or save changes and I thought I was going to pull my hair out. Once I switched to Mozilla Firefox, things went much more smoothly.

For planning, I wrote all my sections out (longhand, with an actual pen and paper!) on note cards and arranged them in the order I thought made the most sense. I had issues determining how to modify the text in the navigation bar but eventually realized if I just selected "do not show header," it would simply show the title of the page I was linking to. I had to open the html to get the links for my weblinks page to look like I wanted. I HATE seeing a URL and then a page title listed seperately; people don't need that, and I think it's sloppy. Some of my clipart is sort of dorky, but it's not my real class page. Also, I'm pretty sure something happened when I tried to link to our class calendar (which is, in fact, my actual Google calendar with some fictitous important dates added). I linked to the calendar via the gadget the Site Creator offered me, but when my mom opened that page it only had the Google login, so I don't know if I did something wrong or if it just decided not to work for me. I will have to go back and look at it.

Overall, the process was easy. It was simple to insert images, which I think is fantastic; I hate having to upload a picture to picasa or weblogimages or something and then add it to a page that way. It just takes too long and I can never remember my passwords for any of my photo hosting sites. While I think I would use Google Site Creator if I were in a hurry, it's still a little hokey. I can be a real snob about websites, though. I just don't think it can produce a really professional product--it does, however, do the job quickly, and sometimes that's what you need.

My Website