Over the course of this quarter, my knowledge and ability in regards to hypertext has grown exponentially with each project.  The first project, I was just trying to get my head around the Dreamweaver.  The second project, I was beginning to understand how to use tables and invisible borders to make each page look clean and organized.  Finally for the third project I was able to expand on the use of tables as well as improving my use of rollovers.  From this class I have learned that hypertext is the media of the future.  It’s more convenient and, in a lot of ways, more in depth than any book or magazine could ever be.  It has the ability to link a website to other sources that provide useful information that the original website was lacking.  A hypertext can also include multiple types of media within it, including audio and video.  Hypertext will only become more developed and in depth as the years go by.
My first hypertext was about sports in the Bay Area, specifically the 49ers, Giants, and Warriors.  Ironically it was about how bad these teams are and have been, but then the Giants went on to win the World Series only weeks after my hypertext was finished.  Because this hypertext was my first, it was very basic and simple.  I used background images to give it a theme, and the colors of the pages correlated to the colors of the team each page was about.  All of my tables were visible, because I did not yet understand how invisible tables could make a page look so much more professional.  I also included all my links in my navigation bar, making it way too long and confusing.  Of all my websites though, this one was the best organized, because of its simplicity.  There were three major topics, each with two subtopics.  Of my three hypertexts, I think this one had the best actual writing because I was most passionate about this topic.  It was my longest hypertext, and it took me the least amount of time to write.
I modeled my second hypertext after Facebook, because my topic was about the inverse effect of technology, one of the subcategories being how much Facebook distracts me.  By modeling my hypertext after Facebook, I learned a lot about using tables within tables to organize my pages.  There was a lot of trial and error in mimicking the website, because even though it looks simple, it is extremely complicated for a beginner like me.  It also has more color changes then what I initially anticipated.  This time around I realized that I needed to just put the main points on the navigation bar, and the rest can be left to internal links, making the page look more professional.  Once I had finished my writing for the paper, I noticed that it still didn’t seem like Facebook, so I created fake statuses of people in our class to make it a little humorous, which I think was responsible for people voting it the most visually appealing hypertext, because the rest of it really was not as advanced or technical as Michael Ho’s website.  Overall, making this hypertext helped me learn so much, and I’m really glad that I chose to take on this endeavor.
For my final hypertext, I tried to combine the simplicity of my first hypertext with organization and technicality of my second.  I wanted it to look simple, while being user friendly and look professional.  I wanted my navigation bar to be relatively small and simple, linking my remaining pages through internal links.  This was by far the hardest hypertext to write because it was based on a topic that I didn’t have too much prior knowledge about.  The first two hypertexts were almost completely written based on my own thoughts and ideas.  This one was about interpreting my research and data, objectively presenting it to my audience, which was a very difficult task.  It was also difficult finding enough academic sources to use, because the most useful sources I found were websites run by the government that had useful statistics that I used in my hypertext.  My academic sources provided mostly background information, every once in a while providing an interesting statistic or idea.  This hypertext was the most difficult one by far.  It took every ounce of my writing skills as well as my hypertext creation skills.  It really pushed my limits and helped me to understand where I am in my development as a student in the world of hypertext.
All in all, I think I learned a lot in this class.  While I thought the workload was quite heavy, it did improve my skills both as a writer and in presenting my ideas in a clear and accessible way. If I was going to make another hypertext, I would continue focusing on making my pages look clean and professional, because the overall layout of the website gives credability to the actual content.