In collaboration with the PowerWatts Team I proudly present the NEW POWERWATTS website, featuring multiple web 2.0 features such as collapsible and tabbed panels, Dom Scripting, Google Maps and a Blog.

A nice success considering that PowerWatts was indexed on Google page 1 even prior to its launch!

One of the challenges I encountered was using Adobe Spry together with JQuery. Unfortunately there is no synergy between these 2 JavaScript libraries and the call to both libraries in the header section of my HTML file created a mayor crash in Dreamweaver (running on Vista).  After spending days on Forums and Blogs I reinstalled Adobe CS3 and could isolate the one HTML file on a computer running XP Pro and an earlier version of Dreamweaver.

If you are interested come visit :
powerwatts.com
and comment if you like

Recently I stumbled upon “Bulletproof Web Design” by Dan Cederholm. Attracted by the title I set out to discover the holy grail. As I am already used to working with the standard compliant table-less, Css approach (whenever possible) I did not really need any further convincing but liked how Dan explained the float theory and the approach towards IE hacks. Great book, read it!

The second book I found interesting is “Dom Scripting” by Jeremy Keith. A nice refresher in JavaScript and how to use code in a clean, nicely degrading way. I hope this approach becomes mandatory in web design classes.

Working on French and English versions of educational booklets early this year required updating huge amounts of Illustrator and Photoshop images from inside the native InDesign documents.
Being used to working with multipage layouts in QuarkXPress I was extremely surprised and happy with the recent version of InDesign. InDesign is streamlined with Illustrator and Photoshop and not only do the Interfaces look similar but commands have same shortcuts and image updating from the links pallet is so well organized that it was a pleasure to see this miracle of technology at work.

And then there is the one feature that is still lacking from the File menu of the most recent version in Quark->”Save as PDF”.
This option alone is worth switching.

Much has been written about freelancing. A great source for information that I like to consult is
freelanceswitch.
Subjects covering inspiration, remuneration, client types (most interesting) are treated in interesting and sometimes humorous fashion.

As a freelancer the web is an extension of my office and I fully use its potential as a resource.

After my disaster with the upgrade of WP 2 to 2.5, sleepless nights figuring out why my updated blog cannot connect to my DB I had no choice but starting over with a fresh installation of WP 2.5. and a new DB.
Which means all previous entries and comments are lost.. for now

So here we are, starting over in WP2.5 with a brand new WP theme.