"Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Talk with others about anything shrine-related, be it presentation, content or something else.
Chibi
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"Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by Chibi »

Here's another question for you guys! I was curious, so I decided to ask and open a discussion, haha.

Anyway, here's what I want to ask: do you use any "tools" to make your shrines? Is there any particular way or method in which you do them?

By "tools" I mean any kind of software or stuff like that. I'll tell you what I do, so I can explain better what I mean. When I make a shrine, I don't write the pages in HTML, but I just write them in a simple text file, so I can get a better feeling of how they'll look once the product is finished. I actually used to build "pseudo-websites" or "information pages" on my favourite anime/manga in Word documents when I was little, so I think this is why I do this, haha. Recently I've started using Evernote though instead of text files, so that I can write and edit my shrine pages pretty much anywhere, anytime; so I'd say Evernote is now my "tool" to make shrines.

What about you guys? Do you write your pages directly in HTML or first in a text document? Is there any other way you make your shrine pages? Any "tools" you like to use? Do you think you might consider using some "tools" or changing your method? Discuss away! :D
nyxmidnight
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by nyxmidnight »

Evernote, what a great idea.

Personally I used to write a basic HTML page and stick my section titles in there to make like an outline of what I wanted to do and go from there. Doing that in text files, however, grew to be a pain in the butt. I moved to Dreamweaver, but now my version of it is super old and can't cope with the new HTML and CSS.

Therefore, I am making the transition to SublimeText 2. It's a code editor that works with all kinds of programming languages, including HTML(5) and CSS(3). It has intelligent syntax highlighting, which make separating code and text easier, autocomplete, multiple cursors, and Emmet. Emmet allows me to write code faster. I can type div>ul>li*5, hit tab and it's give me a div with an unordered list containing 5 items automatically!

However, I still had to write my own code. This changed when I discovered Bootstrap recently. Now the CSS, JS and page structure in HTML are prewritten, I just have to insert content in headings and paragraph tags and maybe had a predefined class or two for easy styling, which allows me to right away built a nice and easy structure for my content. Of all the frameworks I have tried out, Bootstrap is by far the simplest and most intuitive, without being overly simplistic and weak. You can get a website with a responsive grid-base layout working in no time at all, and all you need to know is how many columns wide you want your stuff to be! It even includes a theme right out the box, you just have to add one line of HTML to include it and you have colours!

The only thing left is to find an easy way to share the pages I write between my work computer and my home laptop that doesn't involve emailing back and forth.
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Destinie
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by Destinie »

@Nyx *high fives* YEAH BOOTSTRAP!

So I use googleDocs to write my shrines, now. It's easy to keep track of what I have and organize them. It also doesn't take space on my HD and I can update them anywhere when I think of new ideas.

For coding, I recently downloaded Notepad++ which I would highly recommend. (Where have you been all my web-coding life?) It's great! I love how it auto-indents and how clean it looks and how it color codes everything. It's like Notepad but way easier to actually read your code.

SO glad I changed my method because it is much easier now. :D

For web-stuff: I've recently been using Bootstrap and FontAwesome (for icons, it's great). Using more jQuery and things. I should have used it more in my most recent shrine but I probably will use it more the next time I revamp a domain. It makes everything look so mod and slick ;P
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Camy
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by Camy »

Way back, I used to use Notepad. Then Dreamweaver since it helped me immensely with the color coding, especially when I missed an ">" or a quotation mark. It also gave me basic templates, which I still use to create my sites. Just wish they would use ID's and not classes >> Unless they fixed it already in CS6 lol

I heard about Brackets though which pushes HTML and CSS changes to your browser. You can see this video. You can also edit CSS and other code that is linked in the main document without switching tabs. I have yet to try it but I definitely will since I'm so sick of going back and forth between tabs and the live updating is great too since I hate reloading to see changes xx

I also heard about Bootstrap - in fact, we used it a little in my Web Design II class two semesters back. It was pretty slick but I haven't dabbled with it more. I could, however, probably use it for a simple fansite that requires that slick look...
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Crystal
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by Crystal »

I do everything first in html with the layout done so I can see what it looks like when it is finished and then when I'm done I'll convert all the pages over to php. Sometimes I'll put all the content in one html file and other times I'll do multiple files. I kinda like doing the single html file because it makes things easier plus all my content is in one place.

Also I use Notepad for everything because I'm too lazy to learn how to use a program that does it all for me. >.<
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by Larissa »

I swear by Notepad++, personally; I can't live without it. Having all of my open files in tabs is a godsend. I also really need its syntax highlighting, because it helps me read my pages much easier.

Listography is actually my biggest tool right now; I organize all of my site to-do lists there. I also write sitemaps there because it's the one page I won't lose them. I used to use Google Docs for everything, and would probably keep site stuff there if I was using multiple computers at present, but since I'm always on my laptop right now I can just keep everything offline or upload it to my domain for safekeeping when I work on sites. So listography is where all my notes end up right now, at least until I build the actual sites.
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Mikari
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by Mikari »

I take screen caps usually with a You Tube app, or Crackle or similar app. I mostly use Gimp for the layout. I type html into notepad to see what the layout will look like. I have a couple of programs but I find that I slow down looking for the right place to click and keep thinking "this would be so much easier if I could just type the code" so I'm sticking with notepad. I late copy and paste the header and footer into php files.

For the written parts I write on Word at first so that the spell checker can give me a big red line if I make a typo. I have it set so that it doesn't change things without permission, so any real but incorrectly used words that may slip I admit are my fault. XD I also use the notes on iOS if I'm not on the PC at the time, or just feel like using something other than the PC. The spell checker on that one is merciless, but I'll paste it into Word later anyway. Next up is proof reading, or rather proof listening in my case. I find it much easier to catch mistakes by having the computer read to me, I use TTS for that.
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by dubiousdisc »

Chibi wrote:I actually used to build "pseudo-websites" or "information pages" on my favourite anime/manga in Word documents when I was little, so I think this is why I do this, haha.
Holy shit, I used to do the same!! Then later that morphed into my first site. :D
nyxmidnight wrote:The only thing left is to find an easy way to share the pages I write between my work computer and my home laptop that doesn't involve emailing back and forth.
Dropbox?

---

I use gedit (works almost exactly like notepad++, with tabs and highlighted syntax). I have a sort of a personal framework from which I always start, then I fill in the rest.

I usually start the content in a txt file but later do it directly in the site pages. I use a cloud-based thing for making a list of quick notes (Wunderlist) but since my only device is this laptop it's only slightly more convenient when it's quick notes, if it's something longer than that I might as well go type in a txt.

In more advanced stages of making the site, I use Firebug to change some stuff directly in-browser so I can do finer adjustments and quick tests in case I decide to change things.
dragoneyes
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by dragoneyes »

I start with...*drums roll* paper and pencil! Specifically, I use them to write a list of things that I want to be part of the shrine (mostly content sections) and to sketch a drawft of the layout.

Then I move on to Photoshop and Dreamwidth to start working on the layout and code. Once I finished everything I start with the concent. Since by this point I've the whole code done, I tend to write the content directly in the appropriate pages without the aid of Word or any text editor, especially because I tend to check the pages preview often to make sure they don't become too wordy. The only additional thing I do at the very end is to copy-paste everything on LibreOffice to check the spelling and grammar and then re-copy-pase back in the pages.

I'm not much of a fan of using any cloud-like services like Google Drive like some of you mentioned, since at times I'm in places where I don't have an internet connection. I tend to use USB drives a lot because of that.
Mikari wrote:Next up is proof reading, or rather proof listening in my case. I find it much easier to catch mistakes by having the computer read to me, I use TTS for that.
That's actually a very good idea! I tend to miss mistakes even when I re-read the content several times, so I might actual start to use your same metod from now on °_°
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Emma
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Re: "Tools" and ways to make your shrines?

Post by Emma »

I use TextWrangler now - I used to use Textpad before I got a Mac and I still miss it, years later. But TextWrangler is fine, and I'm used to it now so I don't want to change. I usually code the index page in html to test the layout, and then convert to php, and I write all the content in TextWrangler because I like to see how it looks in the layout and I can figure out if I need to break up huge blocks of text or whatever as I go.
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