Resource Exploration

Resource exploration:
By Betty Graff

The first learning resource I use is pretty much a cliché. But I love Lynda.com.
Although this class is moving much more quickly than the Lynda.com tutorials, I have been able to use a couple to get a different viewpoint at something we are learning.
But what I really like is the quick looks at a wide variety of things I can find when I need them. I jumped around in InDesign to produce a catalog type directory for a list of church members. When I forget something in Photoshop because I don’t use it a lot, I go back to Lynda.com. But my biggest smile was a recent addition of how to do envelopes and labels in Word. I had been stumbling through that task in about four versions of Word and now someone is explaining it. (Parts of Lynda.com are free.)

The second is more oriented toward html and css. But Smashing.com has proven to always have something interesting including some freebies. And recently I found out about kinetic photography. In which you toss (not really!) your camera around.

Third I find myself going again and again to colourlovers. com. Colourlovers is a creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes and patterns, discuss the latest trends and explore colorful articles. If you are every lacking for a wild inspiration for a combination of colors you never thought it would work. This is for you.

Fourth is 43 folders, which although it isn’t about flash, it is a techie’s guide to caring about what you create and about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work. Try it out at 43folders.com.