So this week for my post I'm giving some helpful sites and tutorials to help learn and use PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, and InDesign. These are all parts of the Adobe Suite and are key in the business world. First lets start with PhotoShop.

A great place to start is www.planetphotoshop.com. This site pretty much covers almost anything and everything you will need to know for at least the basics of the program.

This next video gives the basics on how to work with layers and creation of new layers. It is the very basic starting points that everyone needs to know.

Dreamweaver allows the user to create websites in many different ways. You can code in HTML or you can use photoshopped pages to create hot spots and links instead of writing everything in. www.dreamweavertutorial.net has many videos and basic works that will help you through the process of creating a website.

The video posted below is one very helpful and creative way to help make your site look even better. It gives you step by step on how to add shadows behind boxes and images. I'm finding this very helpful in another site I am working on currently and hopefully it is useful to you as well!

InDesign is very helpful for creating posters, magazines or books. This is a link to a site that has a multitude of many of the best and most informative tutorials about InDesign, http://designm.ag/tutorials/indesign/ . It covers almost every topic you could think of and had many great examples on other works done in InDesign as well.

One video I found was very interesting. Instead of putting up another tutorial video I found that this video show'd one users 5 favorite features. Its a nice change of pace and not only tells you about the new features but also how to use them with video examples.

Sources

DreamWeaver Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9veq8_UECw
"Dreamweaver Tutorial." Dreamweaver Video Tutorials. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 June 2012. <http://www.dreamweavertutorial.net/>.
InDesign Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAELj3n2QMM

Snell, Steven. "40 High-Quality InDesign Tutorials - DesignM.ag." DesignM.ag. N.p., 21 Sept. 2009. Web. 28 June 2012. <http://designm.ag/tutorials/indesign/>.

PhotoShop Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EooYoYYTQ
"Photoshop Tutorials, Tips, and News | Planet Photoshop." Online Photoshop Tutorials, News and Tips. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 June 2012. <http://planetphotoshop.com/>.

This could be the start of something epic and momentous but who knows at this point. This may last for years or just for the duration of the class I'm taking at Western Washington University. For all purposes of formality I shall be known as Gerrit. I'm a Senior at WWU and have already been here for 4 years, in other words I'm going to be a super senior. Super is good right? Currently I've subjected myself to taking summer classes which has brought me to this blog. For a communication 350 class at WWU this blog will be my mission for the next 6 weeks(hopefully its enjoyable and I continue after I'm out of this class). Today I'm suppose to list the top 10 rules of website design so here we go and hopefully I can find ways to make it interesting.

RULES OF WEBSITE DESIGN

1. A great start to this list comes from Business Week stating that "Thou shalt not clutter". Make sure that the site you are designing is easy to navigate and information on the site is easy to find. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2008/id20080623_750025.htm

2. Content is VERY important. Yes style and appeal are important BUT content is the reason why people are traveling to your site. Without good content there is no reason to have a site.

3. Make sure that your website is working in all browsers. Without consistent performance it will not attract the views and ratings that you want. If is has trouble running in Internet Explorer or Firefox something needs to change. If Google Chrome can't run it properly you know you have a big issue on your hands. Make sure you or whoever is doing the coding knows the ways to make it compatible with all browsers. 

4.It is important to make sure all of your pages are consistent
  http://www.sharpened.com/web_design_rules

5. Make sure you check your site for errors and that it is functioning properly before launch.

6. Your content is the most important part of the site, go figure, so let it be known what exactly you are promoting and that it is the base point of the site.

7. Being brief and to the point is key

8. Be careful of CAPS LOCK
http://suite101.com/article/netiquette-guidelines-a26615

9. Easy Navigation

10. OBEY THE LAW!

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful and best of luck!