Remember, this is my first attempt at any webdesign. And, I have no previous graphics experience and basically know just enough to get myself into trouble with FP and Image Composer.

It is also a volunteer job as I'm learning along the way (an hour here an hour there).

All that to say, "be constructive but nice, please" also - talk in baby talk because I get lost when you guys go techie on me.

The things I know at this point are that the home page loads slow and the navigation is a real pain.

A few changes that I would like to make are: have a consistent bar navigation menu on the left with mouseover effects, along with a top and bottom border. Also learn how to get the graphics to load faster. And the all consuming task of Search Engine submission.

One question. Is it better to use the border function or just use tables for each border and copy them onto each page?

One word of gratification. THANKS! I never would have gotten this site up and running without this forum. You guys and gals are great!

Jim

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When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.

www.mycalvary.com

[This message has been edited by jrrnow (edited 06-04-2001).]

Hi Jim, although I'm a rookie too, I thought you did a great job even if it was your first effort, Well Done!
I'm sure the more experienced will give you the finer points, but well done

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If you can't laugh at yourself you might be missing the joke of a lifetime.

You are also using secondary navigation...groups of pages on a level below the main level. Designate a place in your layout where those kinds of links will always occur on the pages that need them.

Include pages are an excellent tool to use for navigation bars or any other areas that will remain consistent throughout the site or even on several pages.

I noticed a page that had large, colored dots. Those should be saved as .gifs. Jpg is for photos and graphics with gradients...where a color fades out or into another color. This will also help the file sizes of those graphics.

Finally, this is personal opinion so take it for what it's worth. I would caution you to be careful with the way you portray your pastor. You know him. Those accessing your site may not. Maybe I'm old (43), but he is striking me as immature and a little flaky, not someone I would come to with a problem, for sure. God has a sense of humor (just look at some of us) and "invented" fun, but proper timing is also important. Think of the people who may be looking for a church in your area via the Internet. Many of them will be looking for a secure place to raise their families or a place to find assistance in spiritual, emotional, even physical areas. The first impression is a lasting one.

Besides adjusting his bio page, I would recommend getting another shot of him for the home page. Many dark haired men get their 5 o'clock shadow early in the day and it is exaggerated in photos. See if you can get one of him early in the morning, soon after he has shaved.

...just my 2 cents

Best wishes,
Sandy

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Stu Reilly Design
Allegheny Web
Dreamweaver Sites

Thanks Shan and Sandy.

I know the graphics are slowing up some of the pages. I'm in the process of changing them.

What are "include pages" and secondary navigation? And could you point me to a site that uses them.

About the pastor and his portrayal. He does have a gotee, although it is not too defined.

And yes he can be a little flaky at times.

You make some good points about the portrayal of him and I will keep that in mind and maybe move the silly pic to another part of the site.

thanks again and any other critiques would be helpful.

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When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.

www.mycalvary.com

1. On the pages of your site, leave a table cell empty for your navigation bar. You may need to place a clear .gif space holder therein to hold it open to the proper width, especially if you are using textual navigation.

2. On a new page in your FP web, design just the navigation bar. It can be in a table if it will facilitate the layout, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Save the page.

3. Back on your pages with content, click in the reserved cell, then--Include > Component > Include Page > browse to find the newly created nav bar page > OK.

4. You will need to do this for each page.

I have started a church site, too. It's not finished. No critiques allowed, yet. But I have used includes in a couple of places...the footer information and the scrolling text in the right column: http://www.highpointbaptistchapel.org/ I tried and tried to get my navigation to work in an include, but it just wouldn't because of the way it is done. grrrr Yours will work, though, I promise.

Secondary navigation--Picture in your mind your navigational structure like a chain-of-command structure or a family tree. Top-most will be the home page. Under that will be a row of pages. The home page would be the parent page and those under would be child pages. That is your main navigation. Links back and forth between those pages need to appear on every page.

If those child pages also have a row of pages under them, that would require secondary navigation.

For instance, a business site could have a Home page and under that, About, Products, and Contact. That's the main level.

Now, if he has individual pages for each of his products...T-Shirts, Jeans, Sneakers...those would be secondary and he would need to have links also back and forth between those pages.

Maybe from the About page he wants to tell about his employees on individual pages...Joe, Amy, Dan. Again, secondary navigation. He needs to provide links between those pages. The links for the employees should appear on the same place on the About, Joe, Amy, and Dan pages that the individual product links appeared on the Products, T-Shirt, Jeans, and Sneakers pages.

Hope this helps.

Sandy

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Stu Reilly Design
Allegheny Web
Dreamweaver Sites

[This message has been edited by Goober (edited 06-04-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Goober (edited 06-04-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Goober (edited 06-04-2001).]

Also, having just gone through a similar experience, I cannot stress enough the absolute value of using a template. Outfront has a number of them available, reasonably priced starting at $15. This can save you lots of valuable time and stress.

Well, there's my two cents.

Bravo on your attempt. Keep plugging away.