A Word About This Site

I had been toying with the idea of creating a web site to tell Adam's Story ever since I began writing it in December 1998. We mailed out the 1998 story, basically as you see it here (without pictures) with our Christmas Cards that year. I managed to squeeze it onto 12 closely spaced, double-sided pages. It took several evenings to print out all the copies on my inkjet printer (HP 855).

Next year would be different, I vowed. The story would be on the web and our Christmas Cards would simply tell everyone where to go see it.

But how to get Adam's Story published? My free time was limited. Even though I was working with computers and networks every day, there had never been a need to create a web site by our group at work. Therefore I knew next to nothing of how to go about it. I only knew one thing. I did not want to spend a lot of time learning a complicated application and HTML. At least, not yet.

I briefly tried to use a few of the templates that some of the free hosting sites provide but did not like the restrictions.

From time to time I had come across articles about Trellix in the numerous journals I like to read (like Infoworld and PC Week). The software sounded like it might be what I was looking for and I kept the thought in the back of my mind to try it.

Finally, I realized I needed to start doing something if this idea was going to get off the ground in time for Christmas 1999. Right at this time I read another article about Trellix Web. I decided to investigate.

When I visited the Trellix site I was pleasantly surprised to find very reasonable prices for the software. Or even free if you use Tripod or another affiliated host site. Wow, I thought. Trellix is free, Tripod gets fairly decent reviews as a host site, plus they allow 11mb of space for your web site. So I downloaded the software to give it a spin.

I downloaded it early one evening, not intending to accomplish anything. After installing it I decided to take a look. Everything was clean and intuitive, including the process of signing up with Tripod, which is integrated within Trellix Web.

"How can this be so easy?" I thought. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was designing the structure of my web site. I already had a lot of the text part of the content. Just add pictures. The evening suddenly went by before I knew it. In about 4 hours I had my Adam's Story site in good enough shape to publish the 1998 part. No manual needed! There were occasions when I looked up items in the help file, but that was it.

Since then I have really enjoyed expanding and refining my original design. It has grown much larger and many pictures have been added. A lot of time has gone into this site, but it has all been productive.

My goal is to keep it simple and use as much of the default Trellix designs as possible. I am not interested in anything fancy. I just want to be able to tell Adam's Story. Trellix Web allows me to do it effectively and easily.

Trellix Web is perfect for my needs. I highly recommend it for anyone who is thinking about trying to create a site but is unsure of how.

Thank you, Trellix. I don't think I ever would have gotten this project completed for 1999 without Trellix Web.

What I used to create this site:

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Trellix Web 2.5

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Ulead PhotoImpact 4.2 to edit the images and GIF animation

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ACDSee 32  and IrfanView for image sorting, viewing, and filing

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Canon Pro 70 w/380EX flash digital camera for all photos beginning in July 1999

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Minolta X-700 w/Sunpak 433D SLR and Pentax 928 cameras for all photos prior to July 1999

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HP Photosmart Scanner to scan negatives and slides

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HP Scanjet 6200 scanner for larger scans

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Microsoft Word 97 for creating the story content