About the site

I experimented a lot with clean corporate styles using whites, greys and so on but I didn't feel they were friendly enough. I think colours can often make a site more welcoming and I'm not a corporate entity, I'm an individual.

Mainly because I try to avoid designs that are too image-dependant. Also, in the past I've spent ages creating shiny panel-type things and then got bored of them within a week. What can I say? I'm fickle.

I've ensured that the majority of text resizes gracefully using the browser settings although at very large sizes the design starts to get messed up. This is more or less inevitable in most designs until CSS is supported in full in all browsers. I will try to ensure tutorials also adhere to this standard.

I've also tried to avoid harsh black on white contrasts for the content area (this bit), opting for a slightly lower contrast presentation that tries to maximise readability.

If you have any suggestions or complaints regarding improved accessibility I'd be happy to hear from you.

When I have the time, the inclination or the interest.

This is a personal site and I will never write tutorials on things that I have no interest in. For example - I'll never write an article on Perl, dairy-farming or economics.

Video-based or interactive tutorials

You may not copy my tutorials and place them on your own website. This is for a number of reasons such as:

• I make changes to my tutorials as and when the need arises. Some examples include fixing mistakes, adding information and (in the near future) I'll be adding audio to them. Having the tutorials in one place ensures that the users always get the latest version.
• It takes me a number of hours to produce each tutorial for this site. Please respect that and produce your own tutorial for your website instead of stealing mine.

I'd be delighted if you link to my tutorials as long as:

• You link to the HTML page and not directly to the video or Flash file
• You don't embed the video or tutorial in your own website.

Document-based tutorials

You can print them for your own personal use and, subject to the conditions below, you can print them to help others to learn too.

Other websites

You can publish my tutorials on your website as long as:

• You do not change the tutorial content at all - e.g. to include in part of your own tutorial.
• You do not try to claim that you wrote it.
• You must include a link back to the original page you got it from on this site (in case I change or update it).
• You must also give me full credit as the author.

Printing

You can print a copy of the tutorials for your own personal learning. If you want to print it for others, you must follow these rules:

• You must not change the content at all (e.g. to include it in part of a larger work)
• You do not try to claim that you wrote it - I must be named as the author.
• You include a link back to this site (http://www.philemerson.co.uk)
• You give me full credit as the author
• You are not publishing it as part of a commercial publication (although this can be discussed)
• If you're a teacher/tutor I don't mind you printing my tutorials as handouts (that's what the PDF link is for) as long as you follow these rules and leave my copyright message and URL on the document.

Most of the tutorials that will appear here fall into one of two categories:

• Something that interested me enough to make me want to write a tutorial about it.
• Something that my students needed additional support for.

I have no current plans on writing a series of tutorials on any specific subject.

Well, actually I do but I'm not going to reveal any plans until I've thought about it a bit.

To be frank, I don't have that much time (especially if I keep playing World of Warcraft).

Hi, I'm Phil Emerson.

I'm a lecturer at a college where I teach programming, web development, game design and computer graphics - which is why most of the tutorials on this website will be about those topics.

First, I wanted to be able to support my students with a resource that they could access at home that I could freely update when I wanted to. I also like being able to present my tutorials in a style and format that suits me.

Second, there seems to be a shortage of good tutorials on some subjects so I thought it would be nice if everyone had access to the tutorials I create.