sparkl-ing

ljubavje.com new redesign

2007-10-29T19:20:00.000Z

We have finally put new design on our web-page ljubavje.com.

This design is completely different than before. Colors and contrast between colors are stronger. Font is different and also the placement of content.

Frontpage is lot more flexible. It has random content on it, as well as the newest articles and placement for article which we want to draw special attention to.

Users can register now and we are still working on some changes on forum. As soon as we will finish, users will have opportunity to ask and chat with each other about love and sex topics.

We are also working on creating more usefull content for our users. I'm hoping to attract sponsors which will be of big help with that.

So far, I found sponsor for Creative Corner and therefore I expect to work more on that section in next few months.

Things are maybe going slowly, but I'm happy with what we have achieved so far. This weekend we discovered that we finally have PageRank. Site has jumped from 0 to 4 PageRank. Nice, huh?

Beside google ads, we started using WidgetBucks and started playing with Amazon store and Commision Junction, although, I expect to have the biggest profit from Croatian companies which will be interested in advertising on ljubavje.com...

And it will take some more time for that...

Patience is what we all need when we want to achieve more!

Croatian blogger arrested for publishing secret state informations!

2007-10-19T11:30:00.000+01:00

Journalist and blogger Željko Peratović was arrested few days ago under the suspicion of publishing some secret state information. Police bursted into his apartment and took him for questioning around 14 o'clock. In the evening they came back and arrested him!

They searched his apartment and confiscated 3 laptops and computer as well as the documents which they thought were politically important.

According to Željko, the reason for his arrest were some documents and information which he published on his blog few months ago, but those documents and information were already published on other news portals!

Police also searched the offices of Blog.hr, blogging service Željko Peratović is using for blogging, and ordered deletion of "secret" files from his blog which are important for this case.

This incident is currently top story in Croatia. Bloggers are angry and wonder if they will be the next to get arrested. Will Croatian bloggers be censored?

Journalists convicted this act as well as politicians because we are in front of elections!

Our law grants us with the freedom of speech, but cases like this one gives us the opposite feeling. What can we do to fight for our freedom of speech?

Nothing but to raise our voice against this kind of oppression and to tell the whole world what is happening!

Please, spread the word!

Mod_html for Joomla

2007-10-12T09:21:00.000+01:00

My favourite Joomla module which I use on every project based on Joomla is definately module-html.

It's a module which is made as a regular notepad so you can put every single piece of code which you desire in this module (including javascript).

It's the best thing for google adsense, stat counters and other widgets or similar stuff. And yes, you can multiply it as much as you want to.

It works perfectly and you can install it thru regular Joomla module installation proces. Download mod_html here or find out more about it.

The only problem that you might have with this module is to come to the point when you want to use it for everything. Fight that temptation and use this module only when there is no other great module for such thing.

I will be reviewing some other modules and components too so stop by again...

Top 25 free icon set sources

2007-10-06T11:05:00.000+01:00

1. Crystal Clear Icon set

2. Website Icons

3. Ganato Design

4. Color Cons

5. Kombine free set

6. Greyscale icons

7. Twotone Icons

8. Sweetie Icons

9. Bitcons

10. Marko's free icon set

11. Silk icons

12. Mini-pixel icons

13. Proxal Icon Set

14. IconArchive - collection of icon sets

15. Design Magus

16. Mini Icons

17. Feed iliti RSS icons

18. KNeu Icon Set

19. Tango set

20. Drunkey Love Iconset

21. Strawbee Tiny Little Icons

22. Markup mIcons

23. IconBee

24. Iconfinder - search for icons

25. InterfaceLIFT

General mistake that Joomla users do

2007-10-04T10:54:00.000+01:00

I haven't been writing here for a while because I was on vacation and when I got back I had to work on redesign of one of my blogs.

But I'm back!

Today I would like to point out the general mistake that people often do with Joomla and other CMS.

Most people that start using some CMS don't know much about JavaScript, PHP and other programming languages (I was also one of them). They think that it's enough to install Joomla, to learn from Joomla tutorials and that everything will be OK.

That is maybe true if you use only the Joomla itself without extra add-ons which are available, but as soon as you start using add-ons for Joomla, you see how little you actually know.

The point is that most free add-ons that you can find online are made by different persons and with different programming language and some languages "don't like each other".

For example - if you install module for Joomla which uses prototype and later on install some other component which uses mootools, one of the add-ons or both will not work or will not work properly.

So, if you have your Joomla installed nicely and are installing bunch of other add-ons, stop for a second and reconsider which modules and components do you really need and how are they made? Do they correspond to other add-ons which are already installed?

And if some add-on is not working properly, contact the person that made that add-on, try to see why it's not working for you. Don't just give it up. The mistake doesn't have to be in that add-on.

Loader Generator

2007-08-29T07:45:00.000+01:00

Crazy about Ajax and those load buttons?

Here are some cute loaders which you can customize and download for your fancy web pages...

LoadInfo.net

H1 element in Joomla 1.0x

2007-08-24T07:56:00.000+01:00

Have you ever noticed that Joomla doesn't use H1 element, but instead, it uses .componentheading and .contentheading?

Do you want to use H1 as heading on your Joomla page?

If the answer is yes, then read on...

If your not sure and think "Why should I use H1 in headings of my content?" then you should read more about SEO... In short, Google loves H1. Content that is surrounded by H1 tags is the content that it is important for that page. An what is more important than headlines of your articles.

So, in order to define H1 in google you have to do the following...

Using your FTP manager, go in backend of your Joomla folders... Joomla/components/com_content

You can see two php files there. In both of them search for "heading"... there should be a few contentheadings and componentheadings. Put H1 tag there, so that it looks something like this:

In your css file define the look of the headings...

Off course, you can define H2 or H3 tags in the same way. It's all up to you...

CSS Global Reset

2007-08-23T09:57:00.000+01:00

If you ever tried to design a web page, you know kow hard it is to make it look the same in all browsers. One thing that all experienced designers suggest others to do is to make a global css reset.

Why you should use global reset?
Because every browser has its own way of interperting your css + they have their own css style which they use when you open some page in their browser. The biggest problem is different margins and paddings.

What is global reset?
It's a part of code which you put on top of your css file. Some of designers offers deifferent solutions for global reset, but for me, after trying most of them, I decided that the best is the simpliest:

Sign * applies for every single element in css so for me, this is the only thing that can be called "global reset".

Google Sky

2007-08-22T12:18:00.000+01:00

So, here comes a new feature from Google... Don't have to wait long for new stuff from Google, don't we?

Not only can you travel the earth with Google Earth, but now you can also travel the sky.

In new version of Google Earth you can switch your view form Earth to Sky and watch at the stars...

Download the new version of Google Earth

DesignFloat.com

2007-08-22T08:08:00.000+01:00

Here is another digg-a-like in its unique version. This one is targeting designers and since I'm a "web designer wannabe" I think of this place as my new place to surf every day...

DesignFloat.com

You can find here all the latest news about fonts and desings to whole bunch of usefull tips and tricks... Well, see you there...

Google Invasion

2007-08-21T08:10:00.000+01:00

First, lets get something straight - I love Google. "Google is my friend."

I use Google every day in every way...

And all of my friends use google...

If someone is not using it and ask me a stuid question, I send him a link to google or justfuckinggoogleit.com ...

But, I started to think about it... Shouldn't we be concerned about the way Google is crawling into our lives?

Something that started as nothing but a search box, suddenly is browsing not only web, but 90% of our lives.

You don't believe it? Lets take a look...

1. We have a google search. Most of people that I know of don't use any other search. And not only that, but the word google is a synonym for search... We don't say "go and search for that", we say - "go and google it", even on my native language - croatian, we say - "proguglaj" referring to the google search.

2. Do you use gmail? I do, my friends do, everyone I know - do... Even if they mostly use some old e-mail address from yahoo etc., they have gmail also... You can be sure of that... I have more than one official e-mail address, but I handle them through gmail.

3. Do you have a blog or web-page? You are using google adsense, aren't you?

4. Now, there is still a lot of google applications for which you maybe haven't heard... YET... But they are still here... Just waiting to become a part of our lives...

Lets see some of them:
Google Desktop - google brings news to your desktop, google brings weather and all those small gadgets which we love... You can even have your own virtual plant on google desktop...

Google Earth - why going out? You can see far away countries right here on your screen... In your comfortable chair without worryng what visa do you need for that country, do you need vaccine, how to get there etc. etc. etc.

Google Finance - business info, news, interactive charts

iGoogle, Maps, News, Notebook, Google Video, Code, Labs, Blogger, Calendar,
Docs&Spreadsheets, Picasa, Talk, Translate, Mobile, SMS, free software, web
accelerator...

Whatever you want, whatever you need - they have it... GOOGLE HAS IT ALL...

They even have a worldwide store... I can already imagine shopping everyday groceries in Google store and having them delivered in my home... And all of them with google logo... :D

Doesn't that seem scary to you?

Where are those paranoids with conspiracy theories now?

Doesn't it seems like Google is taking over the world?

Bit by bit he is crawling inside of our homes... Bit by bit with their spiders...

On the other hand, lets try to imagine the world with Google taking it over
(according to how they treat their employees - at least as much as I heard):

Everyone woulf work when they like and in the field that they work the best... We would all have pools... :D

Food would be delivered right to our homes so that we dont waste our time on buying grocieries in the shop. We could go out in restaurants only if we want to mingle and socialize face to face. Everything that we would need would be "free" because there would be no money any more. Our money would only be a figure on our Google account. When we work, the figure would grow, when we spend, the figure would go down. Cause, google would own everything... No need to pay with cash...

We would have more time to spend with our children because we could all be online together. They could even attend schools over the virutal classrooms... Hell, we would even socialize online and go to virtual restaurants...

No thieves, no crime, because google would make a better place for everyone and
we would all work our best to stay that way...

Hm, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing, wouldn't it? :D

Ok, ok, I know, I'm exaggerating, but I think you got the point...

Now, what do you think about all this?

Create web2.0 badge online

2007-08-20T12:30:00.000+01:00

I found another usefull and easy-to-use online generator. This one helps you make your own web 2.0 badge. You can choose shape, dimensions, colors and text caracheristics.

It's fun, It's easy, It's usefull...

Don't you just love online generators?

I know I do... ;-))

FreshBadge.com

StripeGenerator.com

2007-08-16T11:30:00.000+01:00

You want your site to look more web 2.0? Why not try adding some stripes... They are new must-have for web 2.0 sites.

And you can make them very easily with this StripeGenerator :-)

Joomla free templates and not so free templates

2007-08-16T08:31:00.000+01:00

If you want to download a free template for Joomla, here is the list of my favourite sources.
I want to emphasize that free templates for Joomla are not always as good as they can be but they could be a nice template for further development of your own design.

JoomlaArt free templates - 13 free templates so far
Free SiteGround Joomla templates - 55 free templates
JoomlaHut free templates - over 300 free templates
Free Joomla templates from 9templates - cca 180 free templates
Free Joomls-Skins templates - cca 80 free templates which are very nice (you have to register to download)
The biggest Joomla free templates gallery - cca 1750 free templates
Joomla24 free templates - more than 1400 free templates
djoomla free templates - there are some that you can find on other sites too, but maybe you'll find something new... - 213 free templates

If you would like to see what profesionals can do with Joomla design, try checking out the templates which are not free, but for sale - maybe you'll find an inspiration. I must say that the price is not always high, so you could consider buying one if you don't know how to make it yourself but really wants a nice and profesional looking template.

Here are the sources that I prefer:

JoomlaArt Demo
RocketTheme Demo - there is also 3 free templates
TemplatePlazza Demo - also 2 free templates
JoomlaDesigns Demo - a few free templates is also available
MamboDesign Gallery - they are compatible with Joomla 1.0x
PixelsParadise.com - very nice templates
CMSlounge.com - also 13 free templates
JoomlaAwards - submit your Joomla site to this gallery and maybe you'll be voted for site of the month
YOOTheme Demo - very web 2.0
Dezinedepot joomla templates - and a few free templates

This post will be refreshed as I find new cool resources so bookmark it ;-))

Joomla - sections vs. category vs. content

2007-08-14T10:16:00.000+01:00

One thing that is very confusing when starting with Joomla are sections, categories and content or in short - their relation with each other.

And it's really quite simple if you visual it in a right way, so I'll try to help you with that and I promise you won't have problem with sections and categories again.

So, when you install Joomla, first thing you need to do is to figure out what you want to have on your site. What kind of content?

Will that content be categorized?

Lets suppose that you are making a web page about pets. You want to separate dogs from cats, fishes from birds etc. But you also want to separate the content for each pet by food, play, health etc.

In that case, your tree diagram would look something like this:

In this case you will have 4 sections (Cats, Dogs, Birds and Fish) and each section will have 5 categories (Food, Breed Guide, Health, Training, Other).

Now, to make this even more simpler, try to imagine that you are taking 4 big, thick folders and writting on each, the name of each section.

In thick folder named "Cats" you are putting 5 thin folders (categories) with names "Food", "Breed Guide", "Health", "Training" and "Other". You make the same folders (categories) for each section.

Now, when you are writting a content about some new breed of fish you put that content in section "Fish" under categorie "Breed Guide".

As simple as that...

Any questions?

Sk-rt.com

2007-08-13T09:18:00.000+01:00

My boyfriend reads Digg.com all the time. Every day he has to see whats new. He's my typical geek. The geek that I love.

I also like Digg and I read it from time to time, but although I'm also in the computers, web design etc, I'm a woman. I needed more...

And then I ran into sk*rt.com last Friday and I fell in love... Now I have my own digg. Digg for girls - sk*rt... And I Love it!

Gimme some link lovin'

2007-08-10T10:51:00.000+01:00

One of our colleague blogger Kassper is holding a contest in which he is giving out a lot of linky love for anyone who writes a short post or a review of his site.

All you have to do in the post is link ONCE to his blog which is all about Blogging Tips on how to Make Money Online and link ONCE to any of his posts. This is my favorite: Get In The Google Top 10 - Post Title Optimization.

In return you will get more than 50 backlinks to your blog.

So, what are you waiting for... Lets spread some love... :D

How to make Joomla template - part 2.

2007-08-10T07:25:00.001+01:00

So, here it comes - part 2.

If you haven't read part. 1 - go to How to make Joomla template - part 1.

All the rest, go on reading further...

So, after we end up making index.php, we are ready for css. In the folder named "css" make a file called "template_css" and save it as .css file.

In this file you can define the look of your layers, fonts, backgrounds etc.

Be carefull with Joomla. After you define all the significent pieces of your index.php, there is a whole bunch of classes which are defined form Joomla for their modules, content and components. Every module that you additionaly install, also has its own css defined look. You need to find them and change them all.

Here are a few of the classes which you also have to define if you don't want that Joomla use its own:
Off course, these are just a few of them. To understand importance of css specifity (which CSS rule will be applied in browser if you have more of them applied) read this great article from Smashing Magazine - CSS Specifity - things you should know.

All the images that you use in your css file, put in folder "images" (which we created in part 1. of this tutorial).

After everything is done and you are happy with your design, make a list of all the files in your templateDetails.xml file which we also created in part 1.

It should look something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?><mosinstall type="template"> <name>Joomla template</name> <creationdate>2007</creationdate> <author>sparkl-ing.com</author> <copyright>This template is released under the GNU/GPL License</copyright> <authoremail></authoremail> <authorurl>http://www.sparkl-ing.com</authorurl> <version>1</version> <description>A clean template with a touch of green.</description> <files> <filename>index.php</filename> <filename>template_thumbnail.png</filename> </files> <images> <filename>images/back_all.gif</filename> <filename>images/back_all1024.gif</filename> <filename>images/back_mainmenu.jpg</filename> <filename>images/footer.jpg</filename> <filename>images/footer1024.jpg</filename> <filename>images/indent1.png</filename> <filename>images/indent2.png</filename> <filename>images/module_bottom.jpg</filename> <filename>images/module_left_bottom.gif</filename> <filename>images/module_left_top.gif</filename> <filename>images/module_middle.jpg</filename> <filename>images/module_right_bottom.gif</filename> <filename>images/module_right_top.gif</filename> <filename>images/module_top.jpg</filename> <filename>images/right-bottom.gif</filename> <filename>images/right-top.gif</filename> <filename>images/module_middle_wide.jpg</filename> <filename>images/module_top_wide.jpg</filename> <filename>images/module_bottom_wide.jpg</filename> <filename>images/submenu_back.gif</filename> <filename>images/back_search.jpg</filename> <filename>images/back_verlauf.jpg</filename> <filename>images/banner_back.jpg</filename> <filename>images/content-top.gif</filename> <filename>images/content-top1024.gif</filename> <filename>images/headmenu_left.gif</filename> <filename>images/headmenu_right.gif</filename> <filename>images/headmenu_left_hover.gif</filename> <filename>images/headmenu_right_hover.gif</filename> <filename>images/logo.gif</filename> <filename>images/readon2.gif</filename> <filename>images/readon.gif</filename> <filename>images/module_head_back.jpg</filename> </images> <css> <filename>css/template_css.css</filename> </css></mosinstall>

Also, don't forget to make a thumbnail preview of your template and save it under the name template_thumbnail.png in the same folder with your index.php.

This complete folder you can upload online to your online Joomla site by ftp manager or you can zip it and install it thru Joomla backend.

Thats it.

Quite simple... ;-))

If you have any questions, feel free to ask...

How to make Joomla template - part 1.

2007-08-09T09:04:00.000+01:00

When I started working with joomla, one of the most hardest thing to find was a tutorial on how to make your own joomla template. There was a bunch of templates which you can download for free, but I didn't want them since they all look the same to me. I wanted to make my own.

Although, I knew html and css pretty good, back then, php code was a matrix code for me.

Eventually, I found some tutorial for working in DreamWeaver, but since I don't usually work with DreamWeaver, I couldn't follow all the instructions, and had to made up my own proces. There are some tutorials on how to make a joomla template but you have to pay to download them...

This tutorial is here for FREE!

ATTENTION: To follow this tutorial, you need to have some
preknowledge of how Joomla works. You can get tutorial about that on Joomla official webpage. This tutorial is
based on Joomla 1.0xx, not for Joomla 1.5 which is a little bit different.
Preknowledge of css and html is also required to follow these steps.

Now, lets get started...

1. Installing - First thing you need to do is to install XAMPP and Joomla on your computer (they are both FREE to download and use)

2. Creating folders - After you installed Joomla succesfully, go to folder templates and create a new folder "mytemplate" or whatever you want to call it...

Inside of "mytemplate" folder create two more folders with names "css" and "images" (these names have to be "css" and "images" and not anything else)

In folder "mytemplate" create file index.php and file templateDetails.xml (use exact names as written here).

3. Making your index.php file - Now, lets start with index.php

Open it with notepad or any other program which you usually use for coding.

First, you need to start with DOCTYPE which determines how a browser should interpret CSS.

Save the upper code in your index.php file

4. Start layering - I suppose that you have prepared some design. If not, first go to my post 8 steps for making a great web design

If you have it, start making layers as in usual html design.

Example:

When you're done with creating a skeleton html, you need to add php code for joomla.

This is when you need some preknowledge of how joomla works. The point is that Joomla has determined module positions which you can also create by yourself in backend of Joomla

Now, in your index.php you need to "call" these position with php code so that they will be shown in the layer that you want them to be shown.

Example:

You can have as much modules as you want, but try to keep it simple.

In backend of Joomla, publish your modules in positions that you want and you will now see them on your page in browser.

So, php codes which you might want to use in joomla are:
for modules

for maincontent

for date

for pathway

Only thing that is left to do now, is to play with css :D

More about that in part 2. - coming up in a few days, so stay tuned or sign up for rss or whatever... ;-))

Image Mosaic Generator

2007-08-08T11:27:00.000+01:00

This generator is a great way for making an original photos as a gift to your family and loved ones. Just pick a photo, upload it and this generator will make a great mosaic with photos from their base according to the photo you upload it.

Try it here - Image Mosaic Generator

But it only works in firefox!

Top 15 CSS galleries

2007-08-07T11:12:00.000+01:00

I love css galleries because of the following reasons:

1. I can admire other peoples work
2. I can dream about the day that one of my designs will be up there
3. I can find inspiration in other people's work

Therefore I hate css galleries with lowsy search options or bad browsing categories or with a preview of one corner of the page instead of the preview of whole page...

And because of all that I made this list of the best css galleries including nice thumb previews and nice browsing options.

1. CSSMania.com
This is the one that I have already wrote about... It has nice design, nice preview thumbs and interesting category organisations. You can even browse gallery by home country of the designer...

2. CSSDrive.com
Browse by the layout (two-column, three-column, mixed cols and rows) or by the look (clean&clear, dark or black, high contrast, corporate, unconventional etc.)

3. CSSHeaven.com
Not to big, but very cute css gallery. You can browse by categories, by month of upload or by search option.

4. CeeSeS.com
CSS gallery from my homeland Croatia so the web sites uploaded are also from Croatia... Its nice to see how we are developing web 2.0 and modern CSS design...

5. Screenalicio.us
Definitaley one of the best css galleries online. Beside 9000 added web sites, this gallery offers color scheme of every web site in it which is very usefull if you can't decide which color scheme to use for your web site. Only minus is that the web site are not categorized. You can search by keywords or go page by page... Hope that they will change this eventually...

6. CSSElite.com
You can browse it by 9 categories or by month or go page by page... Plus is that it's easily scanable, but big minus is that you can't know how many pages there are to the end. I don't know about you, but thats very annoying to me...

7. CSSImpress.com
Easy to browse, navigate and scan... Hope that they will have more entries soon...

8. CSSGalerie.com
As their web masters wrote - just a galerie, thats exactly what it is... simply and nice css gallery with a few categories and new refreshing designs which you can't find in other galleries since this is (I think) french css gallery...

9. CSSDump.com
It does look like a dump, but a modern one... It's dark with a lot of colorfull "trash" which can easily be scaned. Browsing is available by tag cloud on the bottom of the page, or by pages... Minus is (again) that I don't know on which page I am and how much to the end...

10. CSS11.com
They say: "Nothing, but nothing, but kick-ass sites", I say: "I love -filterbytag- menu"...

11. CSSNature.org
It's all about nature here... So, there is a finally one themed css galleries. All the designs and web sites are based on nature... If you love nature, you'll love this gallery...

12. CSSdesignyorkshire.com
As simple as it can be... You have year 2006 and year 2007 and all the web sites from the year you choose on one page... It can't get simpler than that... Can it?

13. CSSgalerie.net
And here is a one Czech gallery... And it's quite nice... 349 web sites at this moment... Interesting to see what my neighbours are doing :D

14. CSSReboot
I can not miss to mention this CSS reboot event with extraordinary gallery. Don't miss it!

15. CSSBlue
Australian CSS Design & Inspiration - nice categories, nice design and easy to scan... Love it!

Off course, there is more of them, and more of them are being "born" every day, but these are the ones that I like to glance to... But, if you didn't had enough and want more, go to the list of 89 css galleries

CONCLUSION: My definite favs are CSSMania.com and Screenalicio.us, but if you have made a great template and want to promote your web design skills then add your webpage to as much as css galleries as possible...

8 steps for making a great web design

2007-08-07T09:49:00.000+01:00

It's not always easy to make a great web design, especially for yourself. I found it much easier making a web design for others, than for my own web projects or blogs. (thats why this blog has this simple design so far, untill I come up with something perfect for it...

Anyway, there are some steps which can help to make the process of designing much easier and more succesfull.

Lets get started.

1. Content - maybe surprising for some of you, but the most important thing for succesfull web design is to figure out what you want to put on your page, what parts of the content you want to emphasize etc. I noticed a lot of designs which looked really, really nice but when I tried to browse thru it and find some information, it was totally useless...

Thats ok if you are an artist or graphic designer and wants to emphasize your creativity, but if you want to offer some content to your readers, then make a list of the content you want to show... For example: menu, text, links, banners, ads, photos...

2. Positioning - when you made a list of everything you want to show on your homepage and other pages, you need to position them in order to emphasize things that you want to be spotted first and thing that are not so important.

If text is the most important, put it in a center - let it be the first thing that a person can see when he/she comes to the site.

3. Navigation - it is proven that a person stays on one page from cca 5-30 sec. In that time, an individual scans thru the page in order to find things that interests him. Therefore, you have to make sure that your page is easily scanable and that it has good navigation menus for quick browsing.

This will prolong the time that the person will spend on your page, possibility that he find something interesting and come back again.

4. Colors - when you have previous steps taken care of, try to imagine what kind of feeling do you want people to feel when they come to your web. For something serious and dramatic pick red, black, gray and white combination. Find out what each color means and use it according to the theme of your web project.
The thing that works the best for me is to find web designs which are similar to what I want to achieve as well as a bunch of photos which I would like to use.
Then I make a collage out of all them, and the colors which pop up the most, are the one I use in finall design.

5. Photos - its always nice to include a great photo in design. It can really emphasize the whole web page, just be carefull what you choose... Let it be a visual description of the page.

6. Design - when you have decided about content, positioning and colors you are ready to start designing the "big picture" around it. At this point its much easier and the final result will be much more satisfying. You can design it on a piece of paper and then edit it in any drawing editor that you usually use. To keep in touch with the "latest trends" in web design, surf around css galleries and find the inspiration... Remember, its all about details. If your page is mostly about content, you don't have to make a wow design, but pay more attention on the details which will emphasize the content...

7. Coding - now that you have put it all in, its time for coding. For me, the best way to do it is to make a skelet of the layers, then put it in html form, and then in css. I'm working in firefox first, and when it looks ok there, I go and fix it in other browsers.

8. Validating - sugar comes at the end... :D
When we are all done designing, its time to validate. Although the only people that will check out is your page validated are other designers, its good for You to do this. You will check the mistakes, fix it, and will be able to say that you really did it correctly...

Tutorom.com

2007-08-06T13:52:00.000+01:00

One more web page that is worth of taking some time to explore is Tutorom.com - online elearning... What is it all about?

It's about people with certain knowledges who are making tutorials with video or written material and upload it on this page to share it with others...

Although it could seem like a usual DIY page or tutorial page, Tutorom.com is unique because the variety it offers... It has everything from PHP to Cake Decorating, from bicycle maintenace to cat health... Whatever you need, its probably there, so don't waste any more time to google for How to make this or that, just go to Tutorom.com...

Off course, you can also sign up for free and share your own tutorials with others...

RoundedCornr

2007-08-06T08:03:00.001+01:00

Finally a roundcorner generator that I was looking for... RoundedCornr.com has it all...

Rounded corners in one color, rounded corners with gradient or rounded corners with a border... Whatever you desire, you can have it... Just input informations about what you want and it will generate html/css code and images for it... RoundedCornr.com is definitely going into my favs...

CSS Mania

2007-08-03T11:56:00.000+01:00

In the sea of css galleries, this one really stands out...

At the moment I'm writting this, there are 7842 websites in the archive... I needed 3 working days to browse thru it.

It's really incredible and it seems as every page that "means something" is there...

So, what are you waiting for? Check it out...

CSSMania.com

Socializing

2007-07-31T14:18:00.000+01:00

MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, del.icio.us, Digg, flickr, StumbleUpon etc. etc. etc.... all of them are asking you to socialize and are giving you a thousands of options how to meet, mingle and socialize with people from all over the world...

And then it cross my mind how old folks said that internet is for associal people... Yeah, right...

Before the WWW, people met other people in kindergarden, school, maybe college, work, bar, thru other friends etc... if they were social enough to introduce themselves...

At some point, they got married, had a few kids and thats it... Thru one life time period they had maybe 50-100 "friends"...

In this era of WWW we can all easily meet and chat with cca 10-20 new people every day!

We can stay in touch with them much longer then one summer, one school year etc. and have much more fun and quality talk then seating in a bar with a group of friends.

All that I do all day is involved with socializing online... I surf from page to page, thinking - "Hey, I could send this to my boyfriend", or, "Hey, this could be interesting to xy..." and so on... I surf on Digg, I write a few blogs (yes, a few :D), I bookmark on del.icio.us, sometimes stop by at myspace etc... socializing all day long...

So, can they still tell me that we are antisocial?! :D

IconFinder.net

2007-07-31T12:53:00.000+01:00

I was planning to make a post with some of my favourite free icons, but then I found this page.

All the free icons that I use, are allready in there + some new, so, as far as I'm concerned, this is my new favourite place for free icons...

Only minus is that you can not browse icons by complete sets from one author, but only by name or tags...

I hope they will fix it in future... Enjoy!

IconFinder.net

Feed My App

2007-07-31T12:02:00.000+01:00

Whatever the name means, FeedMyApp is actually a new web 2.0 directory.

And I simply love it... Why?

1. Design - it so refreshing and simple, isn't it?!

2. Easy to use and navigate - I don't have to scan it 10 minutes to find a gallery, it's right there in front of me the whole time...

3. Preview + short description - I can preview the design of the site and I don't have to visit it to see what they do, there is a short description above every thumb.

Therefore, I can use it to browse new sites and to find some which I don't know how I would ran into otherwise, but I can also use it to find an inspiration for new designs!

Oh yes, off course, you can also suggest your web 2.0 site and get some more traffic... ;-))

Color Pickers/Converters

2007-07-30T14:11:00.000+01:00

I'm always having a hard time finding the right color picker or converter online. Sometimes I run into some that I find very usefull, but next time that I want to use it, it's lost in the sea of bookmarks.

Therefore, I google a little, tried various color pickers and converteres and here is the list of the ones I found most usefull.

1.) Zoltech Color Converter - you can select color name and see its RGB or HEX code, or you can write RGB code and convert it into HEX code (vice versa). Each time you select a color, background changes into that color. Handy and simple to use.

2.) PCMan Color Converter - this one has a HEX to RGB color converter, RGB to HEX code color converter, RGB to VRML color converter, as well as Web Browser Safe Color converter which chooses the closest web safe color to the one that you entered. Nice, but with one big minus. You can not visualize the color you're entering, nor the web safe color which he suggest until you put it into your css code or wherever you want to use it.

3.) Forret Color Conversion - Offers CMYK, RGB, HEX converter + shows websafe color next to the one you chosen and a matching greyscale tone + gradient from chosen color to white or black + complete RGB color chart with official names. Definitely my No. 1.

4.) Draac.Com's Converter - Color Chart, Color Cube, Rainbow text and Color Converter HEX/RGB. Since I am a visual type of person, I like this page cause when I choose the color I want, it shows as background color. Among these color tools, page offers lots of other usefull tools, so it's good to mingle around a bit and see if there0s something you'll need.

5.) ColorMatch - Ok, this is not ordinary color picker or color converter, but it's usefull when you can't decide which colors would match with the one that you like to put on your website.

6.) ZSP Super Color Chart - Great tool - pick a color of your text and color of your background and see how they match together.

7.) PageTutor ColorPicker - My first color picker, so it deserves a place on this list. Pick a color of your text, link, visited link, active link, hover link and color of your background. Bad thing is that you can't write your hex code, it only supports 216 websafe color chart.

8.) Color Schemer - very simple and nice design. You pick a color by hex code, rgb value or from color-chart directly on site and he shows chosen color as well as 16 matching colors. Special bonus is that you can choose to lighten or darken complete scheme.

9.) Color Scheme 2 - I love it. You can pick a color that you prefer and choose between Mono, Contrast, Triad, Tetrad and Analogic Color Scheme as well as lighten, darker, pastel pallette and so on.... According to that he gives you color pallette.

10.) Dr Pete Jones color calculator - you can choose to enter HEX code, RGB or HSV value and find the others. Background swithces to color you choose. Special tool is that you can choose sample colors from list, or click random button.

11.) DeGraeve color picker - just a simple tool to write in hex code and find 16 matching colors. Nothing special, but this site offers some other tools like color pallete generator, favicon maker, buisness card generator etc.

And for the end, this is not actually a color picker nor converter, but it's worth to see: KrazyDad

That's about it. I hope you'll find this post usefull since there's a tons of color pickers around the web and it's really hard to choose which one to use.

Please, feel free to comment or to add more links of your favourite color pickers/converters etc.

Joomla Open Source CMS

2007-07-25T09:25:00.000+01:00

Sparkl-ing.com is using Joomla CMS as a base for our web projects.

Although there is really a lot of Open Source CMS to use for free, Joomla has the best support and thanx to a huge popularity there is a bunch of extra components and modules developing each day.

It takes some time to learn it and to fully understand all the features its providing, but once you are into it, nothing else can satisfy you :-))

So, if you need a free open source CMS solution, Joomla is the right thing for you.

My favourite sources for Joomla packs, components and modules are following:

extensionsJoomla
onestopJoomla
croJoomla

Take the money and run iliti Uzmilovu.net

2007-07-18T08:35:00.000+01:00

Available only in croatian language!

Uzmilovu.net je još jedna meni draga stranica iz vrlo jednostavnog razloga. Radi se o popisu svih (ili gotovo svih) aktualnih nagradnih igri, a ja obožavam nagradne igre.

Stranica ima oku ugodan dizajn i što je još važnije, pregledna je...

Na naslovnici su prikazane najnovije nagradne igre, a možete ih pregledavati i po kategorijama - last minute, sms, instant, radom do nagrade, nagrade iznad 5000Kn i sl.

S obzirom da se nove nagradne igre gotovo svakodnevno organiziraju, stranica često ima novosti. Nagradnu igru za koju ste čuli, a niste našli na uzmilovu.net ili ste je sami organizirali, možete putem obrasca na naslovnoj stranici vrlo brzo poslati uredništvu na uvid.

Zaključak: Za sve ljubitelje nagradnih igara, ova stranica je MUST SEE!

Tag-a-feed.com

2007-07-04T07:53:00.000+01:00

I just love this project.

It's simple, it's usefull, it's cool.

So, what is tag-a-feed.com?

It's a web site where you can register, add some of your feeds, which is extremely simple - you just have to add a link to the site you want to add, not thinking about which rss or atom feed does it use and is it compatible with this service.

So, when you add your feeds you can read the posts from them so there is no worries anymore will you miss some important news.

You also have widgets for your site. With a little java script code you can add to your page latest 20 posts from your feeds with headlines od posts or with names od the feeds.

I also have an inside information that there will be new features available soon, so you will be able to put on your site only those which you want to be shown, or make a list of latest posts from your blog etc.

And the last thing that I need to mention here is that you can receive feeds by mail or you can read them on your cell phone.

Nice, huh...

So, if you're not registered on tag-a-feed.com yet, what are you waiting for?

CONCLUSION: I like tag-a-feed.com

Monitor.hr

2007-07-03T14:17:00.000+01:00

Available only in croatian language!

Monitor je, ili je bar jedan od, najstarijih portala na hr webu.

Prati ga (čitaj: imaju iste vlasnike) i forum.hr kao jedna od prvih i najjačih socijalnih mreža na hr webu pa ne čudi da su i dalje najposjećenija stranica u Hrvatskoj.

Ono što mene čudi je da je izgled monitora i dalje ostao isti, a mijenja se samo sve veći broj reklama i sponzoriranih članaka. Za razliku od nekad kada smo tamo mogli naći pokoju zanimljivu informaciju, sada možemo naći sponzorirane linkove, sponzorirane vijesti, par uvodnih rečenica koje te vode na članak na drugoj stranici, pa još sponzoriranih vijesti.

Pa neka anketica sastrane, pa sponzorirane reklame, pa flash vijesti koje opet vode na druge web siteove, pa popis tema na forumu (dakle, samoreklama), pa opet malo internet marketinga i onda, pazi čuda - još reklama...

Pa se sad ja pitam, tko još dolazi na monitor.hr? I po što točno? Jer sve što mi oni mogu ponuditi je nekoliko sponzoriranih članaka (dakle, koji su sponzori napisali) i hrpu linkova - bilo direktnih, bilo sa uvodom.

I to ih naravno ne sprečava da naplaćuju slijedeće cijene svojih usluga:

Primjer: za 60.000 prikazivanja mjesečno u periodu od 3 mjeseca cijena je
75 kn za 1000 prikazivanja ili 60 x 75 = 4.500 kn/mj. Za plaćanje unaprijed
odobravamo 5% popusta. Reklamnim agencijama odobravamo popust od 15%.U navedene
cijene nije uračunat PDV.Oglašivač ima stalni uvid u statistiku prikazivanja
(broj prikazivanja, broj klikova na banner).

Sponzorirana vijest - vijest na naslovnici Internet Monitora vidjet će
radnim danom više od 70.000 internet korisnika, a vijest je na naslovnici
vidljiva još 3-4 dana zbog dužine stranice (koja se zbog svoje strukture
svejedno učitava vrlo brzo). Cijena jedne vijesti iznosi 2.500 kn plus PDV.

itd. - za sve cijene pogledajte ovdje.

I recite vi sad meni, tko je tu lud? Oni koji posjećuju stranice na kojima zapravo nema konkretnog sadržaja, oni koji takvu stranicu vode ili oni koji im reklame plaćaju?

Zaključak: ljubomorna sam - hoću i ja tolike pare, a da niš ne radim.

Zaključak 2: Monitor.hr se šlepa na temeljima stare slave, ali pitanje je do kada.

Hoola web stranice

2007-07-02T12:05:00.000+01:00

Available only in croatian language!

Već davno sam čula za HOOLA izradu web stranica, ali nekako me put nikako nije nanio da ih isprobam. Sve do danas... Pa ih eto na recenziji.

Dakle, ideja je zgodna. Odeš na njihovu stranicu i možeš probati demo verziju ili se registrirati pa dva tjedna isprobavati besplatnu verziju, a onda odlučiti da li je to ono što vam odgovara ili ne.

Fora je u tome da sam izabireš template, sliku, boje, fontove i slične pizdarije bez ikakvog predznanja html-a ili css-a ili drugih matrix kodova kako ih moj prijatelj zove.

Zaista pregledno i lako za upotrebu. Ali to je ujedno i jedini plus ovog servisa.

Već kod prvog pogleda na demo uočila sam nedostatke...

I to, ni manje ni više, nego u samom dizajnu template-a. Ako pogledate neke kvalitetno i profesionalno napravljenje stranice, uočit će te da je prostor maksimalno iskorišten. Kod Hoola template-a prostor je rascjepkan i poluprazan - dakle, loše iskorišten. Ili se sastoji od jednog stupca, teksta i velikog bannera što je karakteristika običnog blog dizajna.

Newsletter koji mi se također činio kao prednost ovog servisa je ništa drugo nego html mail kojeg vrlo lako možete napraviti u bilo kojem mail pregledniku.

Ukoliko ste zaista totalni tutlek i želite web stranice samo zato da bi mogli reći da ste online, u očekivanju da ljudi nađu vaš broj telefona na toj stranici pa vas kontaktiraju, onda je ovo odličan servis za vas, mada jednaku kvalitetu možete dobiti i otvaranjem potpuno besplatnog bloga na bilo kojem blog servisu.

Ukoliko pak želite da vaša stranica približi proizvod kupcima, da ga predstavi na profesionalan način, te da je redovito punite novim informacijama, onda vam Hoola web jednostavno nije dovoljan.

Zaključak: sve ima svoju publiku

Ljubav je... iliti Love is...

2007-06-27T09:03:00.000+01:00

Available only in croatian language!

Prvi projekt koji vam želim predstaviti je portal posvećen ljubavi, ljubavnim vezama, romantici, ali i sexu, pod imenom Ljubav je...

Na portalu možete naći tematske članke, sex-guru rubriku, ljubavne citate i sms poruke, riječi i video isječke poznatih ljubavnih pjesama, kao i neke ljubavne stihove.

Iz rubrike Print-e-Raj možete isprintati ljubavne i sex kupone koje zatim možete pokloniti voljenoj osobi; pitanja za parove koje možete rješavati sa partnerom i sl.

U rubrici Savjeti i ideje možete naći razne ideje za poklone, a u kreativnom kutku i upute kako da neke poklone sami izradite.

Dakle, sve na jednom mjestu.

A kako se stranica razvija, bit će i novih mogućnosti - npr. u izradi je forum, kao i novi, moderniji, dizajn stranice.

Stranica je danas bila prezentirana na HRT1 u Dobro jutro, Hrvatska

Dostupna je samo na hrvatskom jeziku.

sparkl-ing.com

2007-06-27T07:50:00.000+01:00

Sparkl-ing.com is a web-designer duo. We are working with html, css, php, javascript etc. in order to create eye-catching and functional web site for our clients. Besides that, we work on our own projects. Some of them are already online, and some are still in development proces. We will use this blog to inform you about our projects, as well as write some tutorials and write reviews on other people web projects. We hope that you will find this blog usefull, as much as interesting. You can check our official web page on sparkl-ing.com (only on Croatian language for now, but if you have any questions, feel free to contact us on sparkl.ing@gmail.com)

Croatian version:

Sparkl-ing.com je dizajnerski dvojac koji se, zasad samo u slobodno vrijeme, bavi izradom web stranica za druge klijente.

Uz to, sparkl-ing.com vodi i nekoliko projekata uz nekolicinu koja su tek u pripremi. Na ovom blogu ćemo objavljivati informacije o pojedinim projektima, unositi tutoriale koje smo sami pripremili, raditi recenzije tuđih web projekata isl.

Nadam se da će vam ovaj blog biti jednako koristan, kao i zanimljiv te da ćemo se ugodno družiti.

Sva pitanja možete postavljati direktno u komentarima ili na našu e-mail adresu sparkl.ing@gmail.com

Našu službenu web stranicu i portfolio možete pogledati na sparkl-ing.com