Harless Weblog

Weblog #4: Feb. 22

  The saga continues! I have spent over three hours per day since last Tuesday trying to create a decent webpage. I will leave it up to my fellow students to determine whether or not I have succeeded. (Comments are encouraged and welcomed.) The first obstacle had to do with the endnotes. I finally went back to one of the pages that included endnotes from my 697 project and duplicated the process for this assignment. A second hurdle had to do with the "call out." I checked all our books and articles to see how this was done but no avail. Eventually I sought outside assistance at CHNM and was shown how to do it and was amazed at how simple it is. The third problem was how to create a decent header. I wanted to include a flag and was able to "borrow" one that I liked from a commercial website that sells flags. I also had some problems with the size and type of font for the header. Although it might not be suitable for mid-20th century project, I really liked the lithograph font I found in Microsoft Word. As for increasing the size of the font, I again had to find out how to do this at CHNM.

Weblog #3: Feb. 15

  While reading the article on the "Difference Between Print Design and Web Design" I ruminated not just on design issues but on the nature of both the web and print. There are a number of very interesting questions regarding the future of both media. I think it's safe to say that the web is here to stay but what about print? If we look far enough into the future (100 years or more) will we see a world in which books and newspapers are merely artificats to be seen only in museums; and that begs the question as to whether museums themselves will be housed on websites rather than in buildings.
  Most newspapers and magazines now have websites in which readers can read many of the same articles that appear in print. I think it's possible that, even now, many people who might buy newspapers fail to do so because of these websites. The website is free whereby the print version does have a price. Of course, many would argue that the convenience of a newspaper and the ease of accessing articles by simply turning a page is worth the cost of the paper. However, the article does point out that the "differences [between print and the web] are not fundamental." In the not too distant future, navigation will be so quick and screen resolution so sharp that it might even be preferable to access a newspaper on a computer rather than at the newstand.
  Of course, the obvious advantages of the web over print have to do with accessibility and interactivity. Books and newspapers can be made available to even the remotest populations using the web (assuming the availablity of computers). The interactive nature of the web enables a level of engagement with the material that print has no way of matching. The article challenges web designers to find ways to exploit the unique nature of the web rather than trying to duplicate what is done in print. It seems to me that there have been major strides in doing so since this was article was written in 1999. For the forseeable future, however, it would seem that print and the web will continue to co-exist as each tries to establish its role in the world of "new media."

Weblog #2: Feb. 8

     The Himmelfarb article, "Where Have All the Footnotes Gone?" raises some questions that I have recently thought about.  When I started doing research papers using Microsoft Word I discovered that, for me at least, doing footnotes was a tedious and frustrating process. The way I write often causes me to go back to make changes in papers and even to insert additional citations. Using Word, I discovered that trying to make changes in footnotes was complicated by the need to have the footnote on the same page as the cited reference and the need to go back to change the numbers on the notes that were subsequent to the change.
     Because of this, I started using endnotes instead of footnotes which at least eliminated the need to worry about notes being on the appropriate pages. Even with endnotes I still have to make changes in the sequence of the notes but if I wait until the paper is finished and then make the necessary changes, it is fairly easy.
     I had been concerned that my professors might prefer footnotes but, uniformly, they stated that it didn't make any difference whether students used footnotes or endnotes. This was somewhat surprising because obviously footnotes are much more convenient for the reader than endnotes. Professors also seem to be indifferent regarding the format of the notes as long as the format is consistent throughout the paper. I also have been surprised, when reading other students' papers, that they prefer footnotes. Maybe they know something that I don't.
     Himmelfarb seems to be saying that substituting endnotes for footnotes is a "slippery slope" that might someday result in the replacement of "endnotes by no notes." She undoubtedly knows more about such trends than I do, but it is hard to imagine that standards of scholarship would ever slip to the extent that such a thing would be tolerated. In my case, I have to blame Microsoft for the need to use endnotes. Perhaps future versions of Word will eliminate that need.

Weblog Entry #1 (Feb. 1, 2005)

          As with most new things, I struggled initially with creating an HTML page. However, each time I worked on it, it seemed to get a bit easier and I'm actually starting to enjoy working on it. I was able to fairly easily master the process of entering the text and was able to change the first heading ("TV DEBATES") into a larger font than initially appeared and to change the second heading ("Introduction") so that it is smaller than the first heading. However, I have not been able to figure out how to center the title or avoid skipping lines between paragraphs. I was able to italicize the quote from Theodore White and to boldface the years of the debates.
          I was able to add color to the background and add color to the text. I was unable to include one of the debate pictures that I have collected even though I thought I used the correct protocol: <img src="Great Debates">. All I got when I did this was a square with an X in the middle which indicates that I failed to do something that would have enabled me to successfully include the image. I included a list of the debates just to see if I could get the kind of list I wanted. I wanted a list with bullets for each item without skipping a line between items but did not get it. Since this was to be an ordered list, I used <ol> two ways. I put <ol> at the beginning and </ol> at the end of the list and the result was several lines with items shown sequentially. Then I used <ol></ol> for each item and got a list but no bullets.
          Not too bad for a first attempt but I obviously have a lot to learn.