Get rid of the white margins of the YouTube video player.
If you have a website and you want to embed a YouTube player on a colored background at a particular size, you may find it rather frustrating. When pasting the code supplied by YouTube you will get a player at a specific size (probably too big for the div your pasting into) and when you grab the handles and size it in Dreamweaver, it will show up on your browser with awkward white margins that look awful on top of your page background color.
Here’s how to make the background of the player margins transparent and size the player to fit:
To create the player:
You must have a named playlist in YouTube of your selected videos.
To create a custom player: log in the your Youtube account, go to the command line of the browser and type in:
http://www.youtube.com/my_players. Click on “create custom player”.This will take you to the creation page.
Select the options you want and click save player at the bottom. Copy the code provided.
Open you web page in Dreamweaver and paste the code in the div. You can apply css to the div later to position the player.
Sometimes you can get lucky and size the player by grabbing the handles (holding Shift for proportional) but if that doesn’t work, size the player by doing a little remedial math. Subtract the number of pixels you want less (or more if you want it bigger) from each of the width and hieght values in the code. They are in two places.
To make the background transparent:
Insert the wmode parameter for transparency in the <embed> tag as follows:
<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/cp/vjVQa1PpcFNCZ8iysbqWXB07SYnKnLO8POPlfBZ6OoA=” width=”546″ height=”302″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent”></embed>
Below is an example of how well the video will blend into your color scheme:
SlideShowPro is a photo and video sideshow player that can be embedded at any web site. SlideShowPro is distributed as a component for the Flash authoring application, as a web gallery extension for Adobe Lightroom, and in standalone form for embedding / customizing without the need for a third party application.
I have recently used this software to create an online website portfolio for a wonderful painting contractor, Wine Country Painters. I was really impressed with it’s flexibility, and with the simple addition of a Photoshop script, how easy it was to produce a professional on-line presentation.
You must understand the Flash interface to use this software. It is added as a component in the Flash program. Once you have installed the extension in flash, you can speed up the process of creating your photo image and thumbnail content by downloading the Photoshop script. Follow the instructions to place this script in your Photoshop presets/scripts folder. I found the on-line training to be generally good, except for the Photoshop script which came with little or no instructions. If you get the script- You Do Not have to create the folders (or the xml file) in the SSP Quick Start instructions, the script creates them for you!
To produce the slide show- Create a root folder for it, perhaps in the local directory of the website you are going to use it on. Collect your images in Photoshop in the order that you would like them to display. You don’t have to size them. Go to: File/Scripts/SSP Export Images. Click on it and you will be prompted to fill in a series of options. Put in the location of your folder, and the size of your images and thumbnails. Click when your done and watch the magic happen!
Next you will create a FLA in Flash and save it to the Slide Show root folder. When you drag the component to the stage, customize and publish, the images will all be there.
This post updated 4/5/10
Ever wanted to add a movie to your topic to embellish your brilliance? The clever marketing wizards at YouTube have made it childishly easy for the blogger (or shameless web designer) to link to their site and therefore forward their relentless pursuit of world domination. We can assist their evil plan and promote our own selfish interests at the same time by using tools cunningly created by YouTube minions for our use.
The following is primarily for Wordpress blogs, see links following instructions for other sites.
First you need a freshly created post (or a moldy old one, it makes no difference) Get on YouTube (you need to have an account) and without getting too distracted (impossible) find the video of your choice ( I chose a funny Mac ad- but then Apple pulled it, so put in a classic anti-Mac ad instead!). Look under the video. To the right there is a selection entitled “embed”. Click it and the empty rectangle below will fill with code. This is the code you will use to create your video.
But wait! Before you select your code, you will want to avail yourself of the player formatting tools. You can select the color of your player and it’s size. There are other selections there, but I don’t want to talk about them.
Go back to the embed box, highlight all of the code and copy it. If I have to tell you how to do this, I wonder how you came to have a blog in the first place.
Return to your post (sounds like your a sentry) and click on the HTML tab at the top of the edit window. Place your cursor where you would like the video and paste it right there! Don’t forget to “Update Post”. When you view your blog the video should be embedded with all the lovely bells and whistles kindly provided by your sponsors at YouTube.
I have just changed the theme on my blog. I found, as so many fellow bloggers and developers have found to their dismay, that the old one had none of the features I required. I am currently running a fairly popular free theme. In the mean time I will continue searching for a great theme that allows design and function flexibility.
I have run across a theme called Thesis. Like anything worth having it is not free. A single user option is $87. If you want to get a multiple use developer license, it’s $167. Looking at the gallery of sites and the variety of designs the users have developed, I have to admit I got rather inspired.
The idea of having control over columns and fonts outside of the PHP code was exciting to me. Even though I’m rather OC, and sometimes enjoy the process of trial and error that is customizing the appearance of a blog, it’s easy to get lost. Before I know it, I’ve screwed up, it’s 2 am and the blog is jumping all over the screen.
Thesis promises a relatively PHP-free environment: a happy world where birds sing, water turns to wine and your making award-winning sites with the touch of a button. It adds controls to the Dashboard for layout and text formatting, which I think is totally bitchen.
Perhaps my dream of creating a fully functioning blog that matches a website design is attainable.
The English Language- Who speaks it- really? Does it matter how well we use it?
Are these dumb questions? Not at all! If you’re designing web pages, you had better know the answers. If you don’t, proceed at your peril.
Q. Who speaks it?
A. According to Wikipedia, English is the second most widely spoken language in the world, with over 1.5 billion speakers worldwide. By comparison, Spanish has a paltry 417 million users (including those who speak it as a second language). English is the language of science, business, communications, radio, and diplomacy. You can’t sing real Rock & Roll or belt out the Blues without it.
Q. Does it matter how well we use it?
A. It’s hard to believe I know, but good English is actually written, uploaded and hopefully, read all over the web. If you’re discriminating, you can find it gracing web pages and blogs everywhere. As a result, some readers have abandoned print altogether for the much more accessible and blessedly cheap haven of the internet.
There is however, (RANT COMING…) a plague of horrible usage on the web, much of it perpetrated by commentators on YouTube. Do not read the comments on YouTube unless you want your brain to rot! (END OF RANT).
It is pointless to put hours of work into a website or blog only to have it ruined by embarrassing composition and pathetic spelling and punctuation mistakes. The truth is that no matter how amazingly clever you are, you will miss things. Don’t look retarded! Hire a copy writer: like my friend Carolyn Alcott who did such a wonderful job picking nits on my site. If you’re cheap or as is often the case nowadays, broke; bribe an educated friend to run their peepers over your work. Perhaps they’ll be flattered that you asked. If not, buy them beer.
I have spent the last week hacking my way through the Search Engine Jungle trying to sort through the overwhelming amount of advice and drivel connected with improving website rankings.
The game has changed folks. No longer can you slap a few keywords in the header and hope for the best. Nowadays, you need more than content- you need exposure! Get on the social networking bandwagon and join some groups- facebook, linkedin (my current favorite) yahoo directory, zoominfo to name a few. The more the better. These create opportunities to receive “inbound links” to your site.
There seems to be a huge industry that has sprung up almost overnight populated with fiery young hotshots jostling to sell you advice on the social networking phenom. To those of us with real lives however, so much of this Twitter sounds like Twaddle. What’s really useful is an updated view of the web. Take what’s really working and don’t exhaust yourself with fads. It’s just good old-fashioned back-scratching with a new method. More to come.
PS: The following image has absolutely nothing to do with SEO, Web 2.0 or inbound marketing. Enjoy
I had “secret coffee” (I can’t reveal the origins of this activity,I can only say it has something to do with avoiding cranky husbands) with my good friend and super-talented singer Paula Bradman. Paula is also a client. I designed the logo for her production company- Sweet Pea Productions. It was actually one of the favorite things I did this year and was inspired by Paula- who is truly sweet.
You can listen to her delightful jazz style and find where she’ll be appearing in the Bay Area at her website.
This Friday March 6th 7:30-10:30pm she’ll be at Servino in Tiburon
Featuring musicians Michael Smolens, Fred Randolph and Russ Gold…….
Hi I’m Julia Roh, creator of After9Design. This is the begining of the after9design weblog. Soon to follow: images, website developement, artwork, photos, illustrations and thoughts.
I promise, promise not to be boring!
I promise to have lot’s of pictures.
I can’t promise not to be shamelessly self promotional
My current projects are websites for Perfect Prime Music and FPCdrums. I am particularly pleased with the subtle use of Flash animation on both of them. Perfect Prime is a consortium of talented Bay Area musicians brough together for everyones listening pleasure by the lovely, charming and entrepreneurial Jeanette Isenberg. Perfect Primes site is designed to create a mood of fun, excitement and occasion.
The creative boys at Future Percussion Concepts are the brains behind the “slammin” KickPort drum insert, the innovative device that was the buzz of all the drummers, many of them stars of the industry, at the NAMM show this January.
It’s fun and inspirational to work with such talented people.
good luck!
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