It's late, so I'm not really sure which day to count this as, but we are out of the design stage, and I've started developing the front page. It's still pretty rough, but it's starting to take shape.

It’s time to actually start roughing in the page design. Here is a list of my standard tools.

• Notepad (text editor)
• Photoshop (graphics)
• Visibone
• sketches of the ideas
• the Internet
• pad and paper

I started off the design by hitting the Internet to see if I could find any base templates, that were close to what I wanted to do. Namely, a three column layout with a fixed column on each side, and a center area that dynamically resizes that spans the height of the page. I google, and locate this site, which has some great info. There are a number of elements that aren’t quite right, but the main philosphy works for my design.

I highly recommend starting with a base whenever possible. Each web browser renders HTML a little differently. Right now, most of the folks that visit this site use Internet Explorer, which unfortunately is the most un-compliant browser, and often requires tricks and hacks to get it to display information similar to other browsers. By having a sample to start from, you can focus on getting your design started.

From here, I started to tweak the code and graphics. I still haven’t decided on the color scheme, so I am using temp graphics for now. At this point, I’m much more concerned with the structure of the page, and figuring out how everything lays out. I’ve tested in Internet Explorer and Firefox tonight, at 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. There are still some issues, and my code isn’t validating yet, but I’m confident that we’ll get there.

I've also placed colored outlines around the different key components. Each of these outlines represent an important div or container that holds something. I usually keep these outlined until I am happy with the placement. It just makes them easier to keep track of.

Next on my list is to format the text, based on the sketches.

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