In Closing

I had very little expectations going into this course.  I knew I wanted to take a Maymester course my last year and this one fit the bill.  A coworker of mine went through the Valdosta program and said he really enjoyed this class.  But I had no idea the kinds of things we would be learning or the amount of work that would be involved.

Oh boy, was I in for a ride.

I have learned about everything from social media campaigns to website design to wikis to trying to wrap my mind around semantic web.  I have a blog, a Twitter, a website, and a poster to show for my efforts, as well as a group of friends I got to know very well "in the trenches" of Twitter late at night as we all struggled to finish our assignments alongside each other.

The only thing I would have done differently about this course would be to make it a full length summer course and to add a bit more material.  I know it sounds crazy, but the compact nature of this course actually helped me focus a bit more on the subjects for each week, but maybe spreading it out a bit more would help me enjoy it in the moment more.  As for topics, I would love to have been able to talk about some of the more library-specific technologies that are popular in libraries currently - such as Electronic Resource Management software or Discovery layers.  I realize these probably have their own course and that's why we didn't cover them, but all the same while we were on that path, let's dive in!  I also wish we had been able to get a bit more into website development and had more time to really make our sites shine - maybe have a period of a "rough drafting", followed by instructor and classmate feedback, and then a polished "final product" stage.

All in all, I have enjoyed this Maymester experiment and wish you all a happy summer!  I'll be taking Academic Libraries if anyone wants to "hang out" again :)

See you around!

- Ashley

Screen Casting and Capturing in Libraries

Screen casting and screen capturing software are dynamic tools that can be applicable in many settings, from professional to personal, but are also a great fit for libraries.  Screen casting is the process of recording what is happening on your computer screen, allowing you to demonstrate mouse movements, menus opening, and so on (Resources – screencasting).  Screen capturing is the process of taking still pictures of your screen, usually in a series that demonstrates a process.  With good screen casting or capturing software, these videos and images can be annotated with voice-over, text, circles and arrows, or other symbols that help highlight steps in a process.  There are many versions of screen capturing and casting software, such as free or paid ones, web-browser based or desktop download, Mac-friendly or Windows exclusive software (Resources –screencasting).  This software opens up a world of possibilities for libraries to reach patrons where they are – whether as distance education students or simply patrons on the go using their mobile phone.

Example of an instructional video using screen casting

Literature Review

Much of the literature on screen casting and capturing focuses on the choice of a software.  There is a variety of functionality in screen capturing and screen casting software.  Common features include the ability to record audio commentary over the pictures or video, the ability to insert text or symbols such as arrows or circles, and the ability to edit out or move around video footage or pictures to create a more cohesive narrative (Wales & Robertson, 2008, p. 374).  Some software, such as Adobe Captivate or Camtasia Studio, allows the screen caster to only record a predetermined section of the screen (Wales & Robertson, 2008, p. 374).  Jing is a popular free program, however it limits videos to five minutes in length (Resources – screencasting).  Many of the programs are free, however full versions of programs like Camtasia Studio can cost around $300 (Carlson, 2009, p. 154) and Adobe Captivate costs almost $700 (Resources – screencasting).  In addition to the software, libraries might also purchase a headset with a microphone for recording (Carlson, 2009, p. 154).

Screenshot from Jing, a free screen casting and capturing program

There are several technical considerations for cast or capture creation.  Video should be recorded at a screen size small enough to be viewed comfortably and without scrolling on a variety of screens.  Wales & Roberston (2008) recommend resizing screen casts to 800 x 600 pixels for this reason (p. 375).  Most of the surveyed screen casting or screen capturing software used Adobe Flash Player, but could also output files in formats suitable for Windows Media Player, Quicktime, DVD-ready AVI, iOS devices, RealMedia MP3, or animated GIF formats (Carlson, 2009, p. 154).  Some software such as Jing offers hosting of videos for easy sharing, however several libraries have found YouTube works just as well for this purpose (Resources –screencasting).  For some of the more technical software such as Camtasia or Adobe Captivate, it’s useful to collaborate with IT department staff in using the software (Carlson, 2009, p. 156).  However, it is best if librarians produce the actual videos, as librarians know best how their users navigate the website and have a better pedagogical understanding for how to instruct users (Wales & Robertson, 2008, p. 371).

Screenshot of Camtasia, a more advanced screen casting program

The literature also discovered several best practices for planning out the production process for more advanced screen casting projects.  Production time for videos can be reduced by planning detailed storyboards in advance, as well as creating videos in small chunks that can be interchanged in other videos (Wales & Robertson, 2008, p. 372).  For example, the same segment of video demonstrating how to navigate to the library’s web page can be used in nearly all videos.  The literature suggested several variations of steps, but nearly all included some stage of preproduction (creating the script, mapping out the path of the mouse and the images to include), production (taking the screen captures or recording the screen cast), and post production (editing the footage, annotating with voice, text, or symbols) before publishing the final product (Notess, 2012; Carlson, 2009).

Use of Screen Casting and Capturing in Libraries

The most obvious use for screen casting software in the library is during remote interactions with patrons, such as those that occur through virtual reference chats or emails.  One of the challenges of virtual reference is the length of time necessary to conduct a thorough reference interview, walk a patron through the problem, and help them find their answer – all over text messaging.  The use of videos, images, or audio can enhance the reference experience and cut down on the amount of time spent typing.  According to Brietbach & Demars (2009), “…it is often less time consuming and easier to ‘show’ a patron how to use a database than to provide instruction with static text,” (p. 86).  At the time of the virtual reference chat, a librarian can use screen casting software such as Jing to create short videos in response to patron questions on the fly (Brietbach & Demars, 2009). 

With more thought and planning, libraries can create asynchronous videos for library instruction or demonstrations of common library webpage processes such as requesting a book through interlibrary loan.   Libraries can use more advanced software such as Camtasia or Camstudio for these projects (Brietbach & Demars, 2009).  Because of the length of time involved in creating one of these videos, the literature advises that these types of videos be general in nature and use interchangeable video segments.

Challenges and Issues

The major issue with using screen capturing software to communicate with patrons remotely – either in real time or asynchronously – is that of technical difficulties.  Many of these problems are with the patron’s computer itself, resulting from the way the patron set their up their personal computer (Breitbach & Demars, 2009).  Another technical problem is the size of video files created by screen casting and capturing software.  Wales & Robertson (2008) advocate using a series of many screen capture still pictures strung together with annotations, voice over, and simulated mouse clicks instead of a real video recording (p. 371).  This results in a much smaller file type.  Another general problem is the use of FlashPlayer, which is not compatible with Apple iOS mobile devices.  A possible workaround for this would be to upload the completed video to a common video sharing service such as YouTube, which works across a wide variety of platforms.

Another issue with using more sophisticated screen capturing software such as Camtasia is the length of time and technical expertise necessary to create them.  According to Wales & Robertson (2008), “The storyboarding and production phases combined took 100 [hours] over a period of six months to produce 6 [hours] of study material,” (p. 375). Because of this, videos of this caliber are often general in nature to reduce production time (Brietbach & Demars, 2009, p. 86).  Wales & Robertson (2008) found that audio commentary was onerous to create and modify, as well as unnecessary in cases where text commentary on the screen would suffice (p. 371).  Another cause of wasted time is overlap with general reference videos already made by the database vendor or other librarians that are freely available online.  Libraries should always check YouTube or other libraries’ websites for content that can be repurposed to answer general reference questions to avoid duplicated efforts (Brietbach & Demars, 2009, p. 87). 

Conclusion

Screen casting is an attractive addition to a library’s technology repertoire because it is usually easy to do, costs very little, and greatly enhances the instructional value for patrons at a distance or using mobile devices (Screencasting:  Basics).   Though deciding which software to use can be overwhelming, nearly all programs offer the same functionality of screen capturing and annotation.  This type of software would be an easy addition to any library type, and with a little practice could make a significant contribution to the library’s virtual reference and instruction.

References

Breitbach, W. & Demars, J.M. (2009).  Enhancing virtual reference:  Techniques and technologies to engage users and enrich interaction.  Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 14, 82-91.  DOI: 10.1080/10875300903256571

Carlson, K. (2009). Delivering Information to Students 24/7 with Camtasia. Information Technology & Libraries, 28(3), 154-156.

Notess, G.R. (2012).  Libcasting:  Screencasting and libraries.  Blog.  Retrieved from:  http://www.notess.com/screencasting/ 

Resources – screencasting.  (n.d.)  Retrieved June 4, 2015 from the lib20 Wiki: http://lib20.pbworks.com/w/page/16753986/resources-screencasting 

Screencasting: Basics.  (n.d.)  Retrieved June 4, 2015 from Michigan State University Libraries Research Guides:  http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=96723&p=626868 

Wales, T. & Robertson, P. (2008).  Captivating Open University students with online literature search tutorials created using screen capture software.  Program: Electronic Library And Information Systems, 42(4), 365-381.

The More You Know, The More You Know What You DON'T Know

This class has been an ever-present, humbling reminder of how little I know about technology.

Sure, when we started out I was feeling calm.  I'd blogged before and used to have a Twitter.  I continue to be an active Facebook-er, so social media wasn't really an issue for me.  Even when we started drifting towards web development, I at least knew the parts I didn't know.  I knew ish what CSS and HTML were in so far as I knew what they did and that I didn't know how to make them do those things.  I could manipulate images for website headers and logos and compose some content -- no problem.

But then some of the things in the articles stopped making sense.  I could no longer smile and nod as I read along, neatly brushing under the rug the few things that didn't make complete sense to me before (Oh sure... those server things... those get hosted, right?).  Suddenly the entire article stopped making anything but the smallest modicum of sense to me.  Open-source software, something about SQLs -- just plain forget semantic web.

Prior to library school I was under no illusion that I know a lot about technology, but this class has been a helpful reminder that I need to push myself to step outside of my comfort zone and learn new things.  One of the articles we read this week about millennials overestimating their knowledge of technology really resonated with me.  I have to remind myself that I don't know as much as I should know to be the best at my job that I could be.  Libraries are run on complicated systems, databases, and codes.  And someone out there has to run them.  Not saying it has to be me, but the least I can do for the people who do is understand what it is they have to do to run them.

One area I would like to learn more about is website development, particularly HTML and CSS and such things.  I enjoy the creative aspect of it as well as the opportunity to incorporate my graphic design hobby (which is very, very fledgling) and writing.  Does anyone (who knows about these sorts of things) have any books or web courses they would recommend on the topic?

CMS Profile: OU Campus in Action

For this week's assignment, I chose to follow up with the topic of a previous post and investigate the transition between my library's current website development tool, Adobe Dreamweaver with a tiny bit of help from Drupal for the library's internal staff Intranet, to the university-wide mandated OU Campus CMS.  As I discussed in my previous post, our website librarian is not too keen on the fact that he was not (and continues not to be) consulted in matters of decision-making and that he will have to submit every change to a higher power in order to edit the website.  I sat down with him this past week and talked to him about this new process and how he liked working with the new CMS.

My questions and his answers are paraphrased for the sake of cohesion and flow.

Me:  Tell me why you were hesitant about the switch over to OU Campus.

[Website Librarian]:  It's nothing personal against OU Campus itself.  In fact, I was already considering switching to a CMS before this process started because it makes it easier to have multiple people working on the same site at the same time.  That's one of the benefits of a CMS - you can set multiple permissions for different contributors so that I can work on more advanced features of the website using code and other librarians who might not be as familiar with web design can still edit content.  We aren't able to do this with our current system, Dreamweaver, which uses mostly code.  So in that respect, it's great that OU Campus allow multiple permissions levels - the problem is that my own permissions are set so low by the university web master.  Here is the chart of permissions level for OU Campus - our web master is the highest, a level 10, and I'm only a level 5, which is in the Editor category.  This means I can edit content, but I can't really manipulate the design or functionality of the library website, which means I have to submit all change requests through the university.  As the library's website manager, I'm essentially going from having complete control over our site to only being able to edit a few boxes.

Me:  What CMS were you considering before the university told you it had to be OU Campus?

[Website Librarian]:  I was considering an open-source CMS like WordPress because I've worked with it before in the past.  I've also worked a bit with Drupal, but found it to be clunky.   

Me:  Any reason you were interested in an open-source CMS over a paid one like OU Campus?

[Website Librarian]:  Well, mostly I was thinking about cost.  But with open-source CMSs you can usually customize sites to a greater degree.  However, third-party modules and extensions add in a wild card element that doesn't always work the way they're advertised to.  With a paid CMS you have a vendor there for IT support, but in essence the functionality is the same as with an open-source CMS.

Me:  Can you tell me about OU Campus' functionality and workflow?  What is its learning curve?

[Website Librarian]:  If you've ever worked with a CMS before, OU Campus is pretty easy to learn.  And considering I don't have very many permissions, there wasn't much for me to learn at all.  Here's what it looks like when I go to edit a page.

I can't alter where the boxes go because that's above my permissions.  I'm allowed to edit anything with a green box over it.  As you can see, I also didn't have any control in how the menu bar for the website will look.  This menu bar is standard on every single university web page, so the library's menus will have to go on the side now.  I'm allowed to add new content to these menus within the range of a few templates.  These are the options I have below.

I can add pages, site sections, and library department pages.  There's only one top level page - the library's main page - so I would never have to add another page like that.  Here's what the "back end" looks like for me.

Here's where I can store elements of the pages before I publish them.  OU Campus has several staging areas for sites before they're published on the web.  In addition, while I'm working on a site I can "check it out" to myself so that no one else can edit it while I'm still working on it.  When I'm done, I can "check it back in" to allow others to edit it.  It keeps people from stepping on each others' toes.  Another feature is the creation of "assets".  If I create an asset, say the Library Reference Chat Box, I can easily add it to multiple pages at one time.  

Me:  This looks pretty user friendly.  Much easier to use than the product we tried, Joomla.

[Website Librarian]:  It is easy to use, but again, like I said before, with my permissions level I am not able to edit any of the HTML, CSS, etc.  If I want to edit something beyond what I've just shown you, I have to put in an order for the university web master - and they won't always approve it.

Me:  Are there any other features of OU Campus you want to talk about?

[Website Librarian]:  Like many current CMSs, OU Campus uses what's called "responsive design" - this means that you only have to design one website and it will work for any size screen or mobile device.  When I upload a picture, I designate it to be "medium" or "large" instead of a certain pixel width.  This tells the program how to resize it so that it takes up the same percentage of the screen no matter how small the screen is.  This feature still has some flaws so it doesn't work perfectly, but it makes it easier to make a mobile site.  What I don't like about responsive design is that it makes scrolling almost impossible to avoid.  With our old website, you could view the entire homepage in one browser window on a normal sized computer screen.  Now, you have to scroll down to see the part on the bottom.  I don't like that.

Me:  Are there any examples of library websites made with OU Campus you can show me?

[Website Librarian]:  Yes.  The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga made their entire site, including the library, with OU Campus.  Georgia Regents University Libraries as well.  You can see that one of the distinctive features of the OU Campus design is the big picture across the top of the page.

Head in the Cloud

It's hyperbole, but it's almost entirely true that I keep much of my head -- or at least the important contents -- in cloud storage of some sort.  My embrace of the cloud began after a series of unfortunate coffee spills left my poor laptop gutted and left out to dry in the desperate hope that not everything was erased.  I was able to get the thing on life support long enough to extract a few files, but a lot went the way of the dinosaurs.  I started using a few different types of cloud storage, which I'll discuss here.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of those services that I hesitated before trying, but now completely rely on.  I was concerned about privacy and permanency of cloud storage for starters.  How did I know this service wasn't just some fad that was going to go out of business in a year or two and delete all of my files with it?  I'd had this problem using photo gallery sites in the past that had gone out of business and deleted my (thankfully, backed-up elsewhere) photos along with it.  I've since come to trust Dropbox for files that won't get my identity stolen, like school papers, creative writing file back-ups, and back-ups of some pictures.  I especially like uploading PDFs of course readings into Dropbox so I can read them on-the-go on my phone.  On my computer at home I have Dropbox's app downloaded so that I can - you guessed it - drag and drop files into it directly without any fuss.

With the free account you get 2GB of storage, and thus far I haven't outgrown it.  I'm not sure I'd ever need the $9.99 1TB storage plan, which is the next upgrade, or the $14.99 business unlimited plan.  But either of those seem relatively affordable for a library who might want to have some cloud storage for their staff.  

Google Drive

Google Drive

Formerly just Google Docs, Google Drive was one of the first cloud storage and collaboration software programs I used.  The best part about Google Drive is that if you have a Gmail account (which many people do), you already have this built in.  No separate passwords to remember!  Inside Google Drive is the original Google Docs, which was a life saver in that post-college pre-job period where I couldn't afford Microsoft Word (which also has a new cloud storage service called One Drive that I haven't tried yet). There is also a basic spreadsheet and slide sharing service.  The things I don't like about Google Drive for my personal use are a bit nit-picky.  I don't like how you can't right-click to copy and paste (instead you have to use keyboard short cuts) and I don't like how all the formatting and fonts available in Microsoft Word get converted when you upload a Word document to Google Drive.  This is pretty petty when you consider that the service is free, so I'll leave it alone.  One thing that does need improving is their mobile app, which got all kinds of confusing when they decided that Google Drive and Google Docs were like, two different things now.  My family uses a Google Doc to keep up a running grocery list that we share with each other, which is our favorite use for it.  I also use Google Drive all the time for collaborating with classmates.

As far as organizational use, our library has been relying on Google Drive pretty heavily during its consolidation with Southern Polytechnic State University.  The downside is that I have to use my personal Gmail account instead of my work email, which seems iffy to me.  I don't like mixing personal life with business, especially when it comes to files.  Libraries that use Gmail as their official work email should have no problem though.  The other problem is that unlike a Dropbox, Google Drive really doesn't work as intended if you only have on institutional account.  To collaborate, comment, and otherwise edit documents together everyone ideally should use their own account.

Carbonite

The final program I have experience with is Carbonite, a service that will back up your secure documents and entire computer for a fee.  We tried doing this with our home computer, which is chock full of years and years worth of high-resolution pictures, home videos, and downloaded music and movies that we store in iTunes.  I have heard that a lot of people have success with Carbonite, but during our first year of service the company was not even able to upload half of the contents of our home computer.  Granted, our computer has external hard drives full of data as well, so we are an extreme case of data hoarders.  If you're interesting in a solution to backing up secure files, I'd look into this as I've heard others have had positive experiences.  The basic personal plan is $59.99 a year though, so if your files aren't that secure you might consider going with a free cloud storage service like Dropbox instead.    

There are limitations for cloud storage, but so far I have appreciated the ease of access to my information as well as the ability to easily share the information with others.  I can access my information on my work computer, home computer, mobile device, and even on a public computer.  Neither software requires downloading anything, although Dropbox does have a downloadable option.  I am in the market for a robust, high storage photo back-up site if anyone has any recommendations?

Does Your Link Stink?

Today I'm going to be talking about all the fun ways to jazz up your site links in social media.  Because no one really wants to type in a link the size of a Tolstoy novel.

QR Codes

I don't know why, but QR codes have not really caught on with me.  I admit they make sense for translating something physical into something digital - say if you wanted to create a business card that had a QR code for your website on the back so people could go directly there without the possibility of typing in the address wrong.  I just have never really bothered with them until now.

I made this nifty hot pink QR code for my blog using the nifty BeQRius service.

The service allows you to customize the look, shape, and color of your QR code (hence the hot pink) so that you can make it unique for your brand.  They also allow you to track usage of the QR code so you can get statistics on how effective certain advertisements are.  Most of these services are not free, mind you, but if you were running a business (or starting an aggressive marketing campaign at your library) this service might be worth investing in.

Bitly

Another service that used to do QR codes (but no longer, apparently) is Bitly.  But their main service is link shortening, which is AWESOME for Twitter.  It can take a link like this:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2013-11/most-beautiful-libraries-trinity-college-mushashino-bodleian-sainte-genevieve-article/_jcr_content/par/cn_contentwell/par-main/cn_pagination_container/cn_image.size.libraries-22-st-florian-monastery.jpg

and turn it into this:

http://archdg.st/1J2unwH

Which one helps you with your 140 character limit?

Some links, such as the Architectural Digest link above, even get their own branded Bitly link that resembles their company URL, but the majority get the generic bit.ly link.

Picture Links

But while we're talking about links, did you know you can turn a picture INTO a link on your blog?

Click the picture!

Simply upload or paste the picture into your blog editing form, highlight it, and then click the "Link" button at the top of your editor.  You can add in the URL just as you would for a link behind text.

Yay for linking!

#JoomlaProblems

This is going to be a lengthy post because after a traumatic experience such as this, I find it helps to talk out all of my feelings on the subject.

For this assignment, we were tasked with the creation of a website using the open-source CMS Joomla.  I decided to build an author page for my Mom, a published romance author whose own webpage wasn't looking that great.  (She made her site using a paid version of WordPress, by the way.)  Let me break down the experience below.

We were using the demo version of Joomla that did not require the full download, which I believe may have contributed to some of the initial confusion when the demo videos did not reflect the menu screens I was seeing.  However, I was able to follow along and create some of the basic pages such as the home page, products page (in my case "Books"), and contact page.  The basic process of adding any page to Joomla is their 1.) Create 2.) Add 3.) Show method, which creates lots of opportunity for fun errors.  First, you have to create a Category, such as "home page stuff" or "books page stuff".  Of course, you'll want to name this as closely as possible to your Menu and Article titles so you can confuse yourself later on /sarcasm.  After you create your category, you write "Articles" that contain all of the content you need.  I downloaded the JCE Editor WYSIWYG extension to help out by making my article creation page look like a familiar blog word processor.

JCE Editor WYSIWYG extension in action

The demo also showed us how to style our text into headings that we wouldn't be able to customize in our free demo version, but wouldn't be able to realize that until much later in the process and lots of hair pulling.  However, the basic process of typing text, adding pictures, inserting hyperlinks, etc. was fairly standard for blog software that for some reason did not come standard with Joomla.  My only confusion at this point was I wanted to add a Facebook link, but that required an extension that was not working with my demo version, so I settled for the cheap solution of finding an image of a Facebook button, highlighting the button picture, and making it a hyperlink to her Facebook page.

After you have created the Article and named it - you have to then assign it to a category you've already created - in my case I had created one for About that contained this homepage and the page for the About Evelyn section.  After you put the article in a category, you have to create a Menu to assign it to.  This is the Create (category), Add (article), Show (Menu) process.  It seems pretty redundant to assign an article to both a category AND a menu, but it made sense later for the Books page, where instead of assigning individual articles to a page I basically told it to display all the articles assigned to a particular category.  This method is called the Blog Category template for Menus, and it's probably the feature that was the nicest about this process.

The "Category Blog" makes a great Products/Books page

Thankfully one of the video tutorials specifically explained how to create this Category Blog page, which allows you to show small images and a brief description of an article that then links to a fuller article.  It's perfect for displaying a list of things, such as products or books.  As with my Facebook link frustration, the Amazon Cart required a type of extension I didn't have, so I had to settle for writing out the word Amazon and turning it into a link to her book on Amazon.com.  All in all this page took a TON of work, but it's the page I like the most.  Clicking on the title of her book brings you to a bigger picture of the cover, a longer description of the book, and an excerpt.

You can use this same Menu template to create an Events page, however you have to sort the stupid things manually because Joomla does not have a built-in calendar extension that can intelligently read dates and sort by them.  Instead I used it again to create the Just for Fun photo gallery page for the website.  I could have done the same process I did for the books where each image was just a small thumbnail that linked to a larger version on another page, but because of the sheer amount of images I wanted to upload (12) that process was much too involved.  The result was an image gallery with static images that do not let you click on them.  Sorry.  There were several photo gallery extensions I tried to download that did not work - I'm assuming because I did not have the full version of Joomla.  I really think that Joomla ought to come standard with an image gallery, as many other free CMS programs do (such as WordPress, for example)

"Category Blog" menu template used to make a Poor Man's Photo Gallery

The final page I made was the Contact page, which I used the video tutorial to make.  Unlike the other pages, Contact pages do not use articles, but rather a special component that makes them confusing as sin.  My main problem was that as an author page and not a business page, I didn't want to include a mailing address, so I just put the email address in the Contact form and tried to hide the headings that went above the missing Contact information.  This is actually impossible to do (at least on the demo version) unless you find the CSS code section and do a "Language Override" to tell it not to show the other headings.  I only found out how to do this by Googling the problem and finding this set of instructions.  It worked.  I don't know how, but it worked.  So let's leave it at that.  I also followed the video's suggestions and installed the reCaptcha plug-in that prevents robots from spamming the contact form.  I installed it, but was unable to test it because the Contact Form does not actually work.  I don't know if I did something wrong or if this is another symptom of having the demo version.  I give up.

Contact Form with reCaptcha Plug-In
(Spoiler alert - it doesn't work)

The final thing I wanted to do was customize the look of the website.  This is probably one of the worst features of Joomla.  Unlike basically every other free CMS that I've used (Google Sites, Blogger, WordPress, etc) you cannot just drag features of the webpage around to where you want them.  If you want to create a column on the right or switch the position of the menu bar with the header, you're going to have to go to this weird version of your website by typing "?tp=1" after the URL to get a confusing screen that looks like this:

Magic secret page that reveals module positions - SO USER FRIENDLY, RIGHT?

After you determine the position numbers, you can then go back in and edit what position certain modules like the image bar, menus, or columns go in.  I was able to find the image bar they were using and replace it with a border I had created.  I duplicated the image bar and put it at the bottom of the website as well.  Then I tried to do something I thought was going to be relatively straightforward - add a header image instead of the site title.  So I created a very basic image header in PowerPoint that was the size I figured was the correct width for the website (1020 pixels, or about 14.72 inches).  Except whenever I tried to upload the header image into this stupidly basic and unhelpful menu, it kept resizing it to 720 pixels wide.

Really? This is the ADVANCED menu?

After yanking out most of my hair, I thought:  screw it - I'll just create another image bar module like I did for the border.  It also only uploads 720 pixels wide, but it did let me stretch the border to the right width before.  So I did this, which made my header distorted a bit because it had degraded the image quality (yay...), but at least it fit across the width of the screen.  However, then it wouldn't let me delete the site title from the top.  After lots of Googling and frustration, I found out that the reason I couldn't edit some of these more advanced functions was because I was using the demo version.  I really, really hope that on the full version you would be able to edit some of these features or maybe even *GASP* add a background image instead of a plain color.  I'm not even going to get started on the fact that to choose a font for my headings I had to look them up myself in Google fonts without even a preview screen in Joomla.  Wow.  (I mean, they know that every other blog site has a font menu, right?)

A header that is not a header - plus the site title that won't go away

So that's it.  I wanted to add in the WordBridge extension that would allow me to integrate her WordPress blog as a RSS feed in one of the menus, but - again - I could not install it because I was using the demo version.  Ha.  Hahaha.  I give up.

The final torture feature that I wanted to try out was the Akeeba Backup extension that Joomla recommended I download, but somehow didn't come standard with...  Because the video walked me through how to install and enable this feature, I did not have any major problems with backing up my site.   The only weird thing was it told me to download my backup in case something went wrong, but my computer doesn't have program that could read the backup, so I just kind of shoved it into a folder I hoped I wouldn't need later.

Akeeba Backup extension in action

So that's it.  This is my finished product.  So would I recommend Joomla to a friend?  Only if I had a sadistic sense of humor.  The entire point of a CMS - unless I'm mistaken - is to be a cheap way to make website development easier for people who don't know how to use HTML.  This CMS failed miserably.  Its three-prong 1.) Create 2.) Add 3.) Show method is overly complicated for novices and leaves lots of room for user error.  However, most insulting is this software isn't any easier for advanced web designers either because it makes finding and editing the CSS code SO difficult!  The one time I tried I realized you couldn't even use your browser's CTRL + F find feature to find the line of code you wanted, because they put it inside of a little box THAT WASN'T SEARCHABLE.  HA...ha...no.  This combined with the fact that even the most basic extensions that a website would want (WYSIWYG editor, photo gallery, calendar, blog) do not come standard with the software.  All of these features require a plug-in or an extension from a third-party, which opens you up to the risks of downloading something that works terribly or does not play nicely with the other plug-ins or extensions you downloaded.

My advice?  If you really don't know what you're doing, use WordPress or pay for a SquareSpace instead.  It may not be as powerful ultimately, but at least you can throw up a half-way decent and functional site without bursting any blood vessels.