HTML Writers Guild Newsletter Volume 7 Number 4, 02 March 2001 http://www.hwg.org/ mailto:editor@hwg.org Table of Contents 1. Board Appoints Guild Officers for 2001 2. Carole Gay Helms Gutenberg at HWG Project 3. Get the Scoop on New Classes! HWG-Education List Launched 4. March Town Hall: March 22 5. A Gift For All Seasons: HWG Membership Gift Certificates 6. Black of White: Which HWG T-Shirt Do YOU Want? 7. Upcoming Online Classes: Flash, Web Writing, Web Promotion and more! 8. The HWG-News FAQ: About Your Newsletter Subscription 1. New Guild Officers (Fred Barnett, Secretary, secretary@hwg.org) The HTML Writers Guild Governing Board has appointed the 2001-2002 office slate. Your Guild officers are: President Frank Boumphrey frank@hwg.org Vice President, IT Joe Cline joe@hwg.org Vice-President, Marketing and Outreach Marshall Jansen marshall@hwg.org Secretary Fred Barnett fred@hwg.org Treasurer Chris Higgs chris@hwg.org The Board would like to thank Joe Cline for all his hard work as the outgoing President, congratulates Frank Boumphrey on his new role as the Guild's President, and welcomes Chris Higgs aboard as our new Treasurer. Also, many thanks to Marshall Jansen and Fred Barnett for their continued service to the organization. 2. Project Gutenberg (Frank Boumphrey, President, president@hwg.org) The HTML Writers Guild is pleased to announce our new Project Gutenberg director, Carole Gay. Carole is a long-standing member of the Guild and the instructor for Introduction to HTML and HTML Level II. HWG oversees a project that marks up Gutenberg documents as XML. What better way is there to leave a gift to future generations than to mark up documents in XHTML or XML, and who is better to do this than members of the worlds largest organization of 'markup professionals', namely ourselves. Why XML? Plain ASCII text has several downfalls, the most obvious being that it only covers the western alphabets, omits potentially crucial illustrations, and vital formatting is difficult, if not impossible. Marking up documents in XML will solve all these problems. Get involved in the Guild's Gutenberg project at http://gutenberg.hwg.org/ 3. Educational Announcement Mailing List (Gretchen Lowerison, Online Education Director, classes@hwg.org) If you have ever been disappointed because you found out about a class too late to enroll, consider subscribing to our educational list. This list will generate an email to you each time we post a class. The list can be found at http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-education/index.html 4. March Town Hall Meeting: Thursday, March 22nd (Fred Barnett, Secretary, secretary@hwg.org) Town Halls are informal affairs, where you can talk to the governing board, ask questions, and generally let your opinions be known in a more public forum than email. We hope to see you there! The details on the March town hall meeting are: 22 March Town Hall Meeting Date: Thursday, 22 March 2001 Time: 6:30 p.m. PST, 9:30 p.m. EST Server: HWG Interactive, http://interact.hwg.org/ IRC: irc.hwg.org, port 6667 Channel: #townhall To connect, either go to the URL above and use the Java-based client available via the web, or use your favorite IRC client and join channel #townhall. 5. HWG Membership Gift Certificates (Chris Weiss, Controller, treasurer@hwg.org) The HTML Writers Guild is proud to now offer gift certificates! http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/giftmember.html You can purchase a Gift Certificate good for one year of full membership in the HTML Writers Guild, with all of the benefits that membership provides. You can also personalize the gift for any occasion! Give someone you know a membership today! 6. Show your support! Buy a NEW Guild T-shirt! (Marshall Jansen, HWG-News Editor, editor@hwg.org) We offer Guild-logo shirts in both black and white shirt colors. The black t-shirts are going fast, and our size selection is getting limited, so order soon! These shirts are high quality, and feature the Guild logo and URL screen-printed on the front. The shirts are $24, shipping included ($28 for foreign shipping), and you can get an order form here: http://www.hwg.org/opcenter/guildwear/order.txt You can see the T-shirts here: http://www.hwg.org/opcenter/guildwear/ Show your support of the Guild by wearing the logo! 7. Upcoming Online Classes: Take an online class! (Gretchen Lowerison, Online Education Director, classes@hwg.org) Through a web-based interface, we offer a broad series of online classes designed to teach you the skills you need, in a way that fits your busy schedule. Our instructors are your fellow Guild members, chosen for their expertise in their field and their willingness to pass along their experience to you. Upcoming courses you can take in March include: Business Writing Basics March 5, 2001 - April 29, 2001 (8 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/b101.12.html In the perfect world, Web developers have the support of other specialists when building sites -- copywriters, graphic designers, network administrators, and so on. In the real world, we all know this rarely happens. Often, you'll get saddled with creating the whole site, including writing the text content of the pages. This course will help you feel more comfortable with that task. --- Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets March 5, 2001 - April 15, 2001, 2001 (6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/h151.16.html Cascading Style Sheets have become an important component of new W3C recommendations. HTML 4.0 Strict relies on Style Sheets for all stylistic presentation, the Web Accessibility Initiative makes use of CSS for improving access for the disabled, and new work on HTML and XML will continue to make heavy use of CSS for the future. --- Introduction to JavaScript March 5, 2001 - April 15, 2001 (6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/p151.14.html Designed for the student with little to no working knowledge of JavaScript. Students will learn JavaScript structure and syntax, how to interact with environment variables, use event handlers, perform form validation, create rollover effects and receive an overview of working with cookies. --- Advanced Web Writing March 5, 2001 - April 29, 2001(8 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/b201.3.html In this course, students will work intensively on the copy for a web project and get the feedback of fellow students and the instructor. We will review subjective and objective tools for identifying and analyzing the audience for a web site. We'll compare and contrast the advice experts give on writing text for the web, along with a variety of web style guides available. --- Sites that Sizzle: Web Animation with Macromedia Flash 4/5 Dates: March 19, 2001 - April 29, 2001 (6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/a231.4.html This class sheds a needed light into the complex world of web animation. Don't know what Flash is? Visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/ and rush back here to get into what is considered to be the most important revolution in web design these days. --- Beginning Programming with Perl March 19, 2001 - April 29, 2001(6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/p101.9.html Learn the basics of the Perl programming language, popular for CGI programming, system administration, and a variety of other tasks. The course will cover the fundamentals of the language, such as variables, looping and conditional structures, regular expressions, modules, database communication, and system administration. --- Introduction to HTML 4.0 March 19, 2001 - April 29, 2001(6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/h101.27.html Designed for the student with little to no working knowledge of creating HTML files "by hand." If you're looking to learn HTML from scratch or move beyond using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing tool, this is the class for you. --- Web Site Promotion March 26, 2001 - May 6, 2001(6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/b301.2.html This is a course in Basic Web Promotion for students with existing Web Based businesses and/or offline businesses to promote on the Internet. The course covers the basics of developing a marketing plan, branding and positioning , web-based promotional strategies and how to use traditional marketing strategies to supplement or enhance an Internet marketing program. --- FrontPage 2000 March 26, 2001- May 6, 2001(6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/a141.2.html Microsoft FrontPage 2000 is designed for the student who already has some basic knowledge of the HTML tags used to create Web pages and would like to learn a rather quick and straightforward way to develop and manage Web pages. The course is taught by an Industry-experienced teacher who uses FrontPage on a daily basis. --- Active Server Pages for Non-Programmers March 26, 2001- May 6, 2001(6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/ms101.5.html This course is designed for students proficient in HTML but with little or no programming experience. The programming techniques of ASP introduce interactive dimensions to static web pages. To employ these techniques non-programmers will develop some basic programming skills in VBScript. --- Introduction to XHTML March 26, 2001 - May 6, 2001(6 weeks) http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/h401.1.html XHTML is the "bridge" between HTML and XML. If you are interested in learning how to hand-code Web pages that will transition into the XML future while still remaining backward compatible with current Web browsers, this class is for you! --- Get more information at: http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/ COURSE FEES Course fees are based on membership level; Full members receive a discounted tuition price, while Trial members pay the standard price. Full membership is only $40 per year, so upgrade your membership before registering, and save money! Payments may be made online via secure transaction; all figures are in U.S. funds. A certificate of completion is available for an additional $5; the request needs to be made at the time of registration. A certificate can be requested after class is completed for $10. Textbooks (when required) are separate and may be purchased through the Guild's online bookstore, The Bookmark. Books should be purchased before the first week of class! In addition, students should have regular access to the web and the ability to post completed assignments on a public (non-Intranet) web server. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of HWG-News is sponsored by: Advertise your company or product here! Contact advertising@hwg.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Why Did I Get This Email? And Other HWG-News FAQs (HWG-News Newsletter Editor, editor@hwg.org) This newsletter was edited by Kef Moulton . Some questions you may be asking: Q: Why did I get this mail? A: You received this newsletter because you are a member of the HTML Writers Guild. This message came from HWG-News, the Guild's mandatory mailing list for all members. If you need more information about HWG-News, please see the List Charter at: http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-news/index.html Q. Why doesn't this newsletter talk about web design or HTML more? A. The newsletter is the Guild's administrative bulletin to the membership; beyond the HWG News Tips, we don't include specific information on web creation. If you are interested in the topics of Web design and HTML, then you might want to subscribe to some of our discussion lists devoted to those topics. More information on the Guild's offering of discussion lists can be found at: http://www.hwg.org/lists/mailinglists.html Q. How can I find out more about Guild activities? A. The Guild has set up a one-way announcement list, HWG-Announce, that carries bulletins of day-to-day Guild business. For details on how to subscribe, please see: http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-announce/ Q: How do I unsubscribe from HWG-News? A: Since this is a required list in order to maintain your Guild membership, unsubscribing is the same as resigning from the HTML Writers Guild. If you have your Member ID and password, to resign your membership in the Guild and to unsubscribe to HWG-News, visit: http://www.hwg.org/member/resign.html Fill in the pertinent information, and submit it. If you don't have a Member ID, or have forgotten your password, send mail to: mailto:lost-password@hwg.org with a Subject of: Resign membership. In the body of the message, provide the following information: * Your email address(es) * Your member ID if you have one. * The list of discussion lists you are on. Please remember that unsubscribing to HWG-News automatically resigns you from the Guild. If you have problems with unsubscribing, please contact the password support team for help. Q: How do I change my email address for Guild mailings? A: Full members can update their membership profile at any time by going to this page: http://www.hwg.org/member/profile.html. If you don't know your password, contact the password support team for help. Trial members can send email to to change their email address. Q: Can my company advertise in the Guild's newsletter? A: Yes; the Guild is offering sponsorship opportunities in HWG-News on a limited basis. If you are interested in advertising your web related product or service here, please send email to advertising@hwg.org. Discounts are available to Guild Business and Corporate members, as well as for multiple placements. The Guild's newsletter reaches over 124,000 web authors worldwide each month. (Note: The Guild does not make our member database available for third party use. We have a strong privacy policy and will not release our members' personal information; our mailing list is not for sale. Any questions regarding the Guild's advertising or privacy policies can be directed to advertising@hwg.org.) Q: What if I want to comment on this newsletter? A: The HWG-News Mailing List is a "Read-Only" list -- please do not try to reply to this message directly. If you wish to contact the editor of this newsletter, you may do so by sending email to editor@hwg.org. Each article begins with the contact information for the author as well. Copyright 2001, HTML Writers Guild, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Published twice monthly via email and WWW.