04-28-97

08-14-95

"The Police Notebook" is the latest version of the OUPD website. In early 1995 we were one of the first law enforcement websites in the nation. The first title for our site was OUPD On-Line. Here's a look at the old banner graphic that once graced the top of our web pages:

Not too bad for a first attempt with only Paint Shop Pro and Corel Draw 3 at my disposal.

At the time everyone was into "backgrounds" and I prided myself on using the widest variety of page backgrounds I could design. Unfortunately I learned later that "backgrounds" weren't all that easy on the eyes, particularly on some of our "large" documents. But, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

This newer "1997" version -- The Police Notebook -- sticks with white backgrounds for the text and a fairly uniform look throughout the site. While there are a lot of graphics on this site and the main menu is fairly "slow loading" due to the graphic content, I've tried to speed things up for the slower browsers/pipes by putting a "Quick Menu" on the left edge of each page.

Using smaller graphics, each sub-menu off the Quick menu is fairly quick loading. You can also just go to the Index; while a large text file, it is sparce on graphics and thus loads more quickly.

The only major compromise I've made is to use mostly hi-color graphics thoughout the site (mostly .jpg files) so for 256-color viewers much of the color/detail is lost or poorly approximated, but for systems in 65,000-color or 16.7-million color modes the graphics look as intended.

As with previous versions of the site, 99% of the work has been off the clock and purely a volunteer effort, so I've been allowed a fairly free hand in the graphics I've chosen to create and how I've constructed the site. Thus, if you like it, thanks, and if you don't, virtually none of your tax dollars are at work here. (Note: As of Spring of 2004, my job has been changed to full-time webmaster and graphics designer, so quite a bit of "future" site changes/features WILL be done "on the clock".)

There are over 100 "articles" on this site involving safety/security issues, with the whole site involving about 650 pages of html to be converted and over 2000 graphics. The "workroom" offsite has about 28,000 graphic files as masters or versions of the "finished" graphics you see here on the site.

For those who are interested, here are "the nuts and bolts" of how this site was created: As for how the graphics were made, I have used a number of commercial packages, including:

Ulead Gif Animator 1.5 & up (currently v5)
Adobe Photoshop 3.05, 4.x, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and CS*
JASC Paint Shop Pro 4.12
Corel Draw 3, 6, 7
Adobe Illustrator 7.0 and CS*
Adobe GoLive 6.0.1 and CS*
Adobe InDesign 2.0.2 and CS*
*—Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe Acrobat Professional 3.0, 4.0, and 6.0
Adobe Pagemaker 6.5
Fractal Design Painter 4
The Black Box and Eye Candy
    (and many other 3rd-party Photoshop filters
    such as Extensis, Andromeda and Digmarc)
Kai's Power Tools
Kai's Power Goo
Kai's Photo Soap
Bryce 2
Ulead PhotoImpact 3.01 (and PhotoImpact SmartSaver)
Live Image 1.27b
Corel Capture 7
AnalogX Capture 2.01
JASC Professional Capture Series - 32bit
LView Pro - 32bit
and Instant 3D 1.0

(At least those are the major tools. I have used others sporatically.)

I try to work mostly in Photoshop but many things are easier (at least for me) to create or adjust in other programs and then dump into (or back into) Photoshop before I save them to a layered Photoshop file and then export them to .jpg or .gif files using ULEAD SmartSaver compression utilities.

Most of the "static" art falls into one of three categories: Fully original art, original art that includes or is based on vector, bitmap, or photographic sources, and in a few cases the art of others either as public domain or through approval of the artist. Almost all, however, is original.

Several of the stock-art sources I've used have been the Corel Draw libraries included with versions 3 thru 7, IMSI Classic Art 100,000 image collection, and MetaTools, PhotoDisc and other clipart collections I have purchased for this project.

(NOTE: Most of the design software and clipart used to create and maintain this site was purchased by me, personally, and represents no cost to the taxpayers.)

The fonts for the text on the site, if your browser supports specified fonts, are either Arial, Helvetica, Verdana or other sans-serif font. The text products here are either original by me or other OUPD staff, or used by permission of the original artist or agency, as required, or are, in a few cases, off-site links used with permission. We don't generally maintain any "lists" of links here, choosing generally only to link to "lists of links". I'd rather link our site to people do who build good link "lists" than try to take the many, many hours it takes to maintain a good link list myself. There are only so many hours in a day...

Prior to August 19th, 2004, 99.99% all of the HTML on this website is hand-coded using MS Notepad or WordPad. Unfortunately, the latest versions of MS Notepad/Wordpad tend to "tweak" files unexpectedly, trouncing things like Javascript by removing linebreaks they don't think are necessary. I've finally started to experiment with, and use with good results, several simple (at least the way I use them) freeware text editors, including CPad v0.24E, Notepad++ v2.2, HAPedit v3.1(Build 11.111), CopyWriter v3, and two "HTML editors": —Alleycode v2 and Matrix Y2K XT 2004 (Build 070204). I also use several search and replace utilities, both freeware and commercial.

I have the HTML add-on for MS Word 97, as well as licenced copies of MS Front Page 97 & 98, HotDog, Web Factory Pro, Web Edit, and several other HTML page writers, but my experience has been that all the fancy (and often costly) HTML authoring products I've bought and tried have various shortcomings and usually it's far easier (at least for me) just to write all the HTML by hand.

Most of the "animations" are original, but some are either licensed for my use and modifcation, public domain, freely used by permission of the artist, or used here only by permission of the artist.

The Java applets and animations, the Shockwave animations, and similar add-in features of this site are either public domain, freely used here by permission of the author, or specifically purchased for use here by me, or coded by me, at no cost to the taxpayer. And no, I didn't take any tax deductions for the thousands of dollars it has cost to produce this site. When you work for a state agency sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do things out of your own pocket to give a project thee quality it needs.

The midi and wavs files used here are either original compositions I created using Microsoft Music Composer, public domain, or with the permission of the original artist, arranger, and/or copyright holders.

My gracious thanks to the following artists and authors for their permission in using art, animations, and musical compostions on this site:

Animations:

Bill Graham
(Tongue Monster animation)
Phil Baker
(Sunflower animation)

Midi Composers:

Andrey V. Spasibozhko
Tom Barrett
George Villiers
Chuck Okada

Misc:

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC java applet)

  If I've left anyone out, please let me know!

Thanks for visiting the OUPD website (The Police Notebook) and drilling deeply enough into the site to find this page.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit! Since you've taken the trouble to read down this far, click here to see some nice logos I did, prior to the current one, for our site. They didn't make the cut because they were either too complex or too large, but they're still nice.

If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Richard Hamilton, OUPD Webmaster

The Police Notebook, Copyright © 1999-2005,
the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma.
All rights reserved.