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Any Views Please????

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All Forums >> Web Design >> Site Critiques >> Any Views Please????

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wsh Posts: 35 Joined: 8/31/2004 Status: offline	Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 9:37:31 Would appreciate your views on my new site which is under construction. I know the search engine doesn't work but I'm using AOL and I'm unsure if I should download the Microsoft Server Extensions? Will the added components then work or will it mess my whole FP system up?


womble Posts: 5526 Joined: 3/14/2005 From: Living on the edge Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 9:58:36 M$ server extensions aren't downloaded, they have to be enabled on the server you site's on (your host will be able to tell you if FP extensions are available and installed if you're having any difficulty with it). If you're using FP compotents then FP extensions have to be enabled otherwise they won't work. Oh, and if you'd like views on your site, a url might be helpful. _____________________________ ~~ "A cruel god ain't no god at all" ~~ (in reply to wsh)


wsh Posts: 35 Joined: 8/31/2004 Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 10:34:45 Silly me! http://members.aol.com/MarchellStud I am using AOL as my server.I don't think my site is 'hosted' ? I just used FP to create it and uploded it to my web space. Extensions are enabled (tick the box) but not sure if AOL recognise them??? (in reply to womble)


wsh Posts: 35 Joined: 8/31/2004 Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 12:42:26 No One? ! (in reply to wsh)


womble Posts: 5526 Joined: 3/14/2005 From: Living on the edge Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 13:35:05 Your menu's a big improvement on the last one - but you have a big problem in that it's image based, so doesn't resize if a user resizes the text. Also if the images don't load for any reason (or they're switched off), as you have no alt tags, there's no way of navigating the site - and is also an accessibility problem. The second level nav is in a totally different font, and although the 2nd/3rd level nav does resize, resizing the text breaks the menu (but that always tends to be a problem with pop-out menus). That background is still black - waaaaay too dark for your subject matter. Something more like the colour on the 'previously sold' page would be much better. On the previously sold page though, lovely though your photo gallery is, using the M$ FP photo gallery breaks the layout in just about every browser apart from IE and while IE still has the highest market share, the others are gaining ground - the W3C suggests almost 20% of users are using Firefox. Also on that page, and some of the other incomplete ones you've got the back background on the menu as well. Fonts wise, you seem to have a mix of styles, with sans serif on the menu and serif in most other places. Serif fonts such as Times New Roman aren't the easiest of fonts to read on screen, particularly if they're bold, as you have in a lot of places, and you still need to lose the animated gifs on the links page. Animated gifs rarely add anything to a site. _____________________________ ~~ "A cruel god ain't no god at all" ~~ (in reply to wsh)

wsh

Posts: 35
Joined: 8/31/2004
Status: offline

RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 13:46:00

quote:

and you still need to lose the animated gifs on the links page. Animated gifs rarely add anything to a site.

have to admit - that page has not really been touched, so point taken.

quote:

Your menu's a big improvement on the last one - but you have a big problem in that it's image based, so doesn't resize if a user resizes the text. Also if the images don't load for any reason (or they're switched off), as you have no alt tags, there's no way of navigating the site - and is also an accessibility problem. The second level nav is in a totally different font, and although the 2nd/3rd level nav does resize, resizing the text breaks the menu (but that always tends to be a problem with pop-out menus).

um! I don't really understand what you are saying here ( as you have gathered I'm a total novice) All I do is insert 'pictures' alongside text, am I going wrong (in simple terms please!)

Point taken about the font - what is the best Font to use for the web then?

Photo gallery - yes having problems with it!!!! Either too wide (impossible to keep it to browser page size so I have read or thumbnails don't appear? Can you suggest another system bearing in mind that my site has so many pictures? The other layouts in FP don't really appeal as the required text is 'messy'

Really appreciate your help.

(in reply to womble)


Kitka Posts: 2515 Joined: 1/31/2002 From: Australia Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 14:40:51 quote: Can you suggest another system bearing in mind that my site has so many pictures? Here are a few to consider: http://www.ornj.net/software/webalbum/ http://jalbum.net/ http://www.webreference.com/programming/css_gallery/index.html _____________________________ Kitka It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. (in reply to wsh)


Nicole Posts: 2830 Joined: 9/15/2004 From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 15:01:17 The things I noticed were that when you page is viewed at 800 x 600 screen resolution, your banner takes up half of the screen, the left menu (especially when expanded) takes up a lot more and there's very little visible content. I'm also of the opinion that the expanded menu (light green and white) doesn't suit the rest of your site which is using a nicer more "country" colour scheme of browns, darker greens etc. I also found your font-size to be a bit large, but that's just a personal preference I guess. Arial and Verdada are good fonts to use instead of Times New Roman. Overall it's a very clean layout, neat and tidy and easy to read and navigate. Nicole _____________________________ (in reply to Kitka)


wsh Posts: 35 Joined: 8/31/2004 Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 18:10:30 OK, I have revamped the colours on the navigation bar.Any good? On my screen (quite small!) when fully expanded the navigation background just covers the word PERFORMANCE on the first page.Is this the same for others? I have changed the font (on the index page only at this stage) to Arial - views appreciated please.Although on looking at other web pages they appear to be Times New Roman? Have had a look at the photo gallery and the top one looks promising.Text and a slide show Any views on FP extensions anyone? AOL being next to useless (as usual) . I take it it is the server that is the problem and there's nothing I can do to install them? (in reply to Nicole)


Kitka Posts: 2515 Joined: 1/31/2002 From: Australia Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 18:27:52 quote: Any views on FP extensions anyone? My personal opinion is that it is best wherever possible to avoid using FrontPage components that require FPSE. If it is a search engine you require, there are some other options to look at. One is to install a free script locally, but for that you normally need a database and I don't know if AOL provides them. If it does, I have one I can recommend. Another alternative is www.master.com who provide a 3rd party search facility for free. The advertising is only a very minimal 95x26px logo. Here is one of their demo pages that shows how it can be integrated into your site design: http://thecowcorral.master.com/texis/master/search/mysite.html?q=cows&s=SS < Message edited by Kitka -- 11/26/2005 18:33:51 > _____________________________ Kitka It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. (in reply to wsh)


Nicole Posts: 2830 Joined: 9/15/2004 From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 18:29:47 The font looks a lot better, but i'd ditch the coloured words and huge capital letters that are trying to mimic the banner. They don't replicate the text in the banner and why should they anyway? It's a professional site and quite frankly I believe coloured text and those capitals look a bit amateurish. If other sites are using times new roman then good for them. Viewers will appreciate your site more because it's easier to read. There's also discussion in the Outfront Lounge at the moment about black backgrounds and white text. You may like to read it, and also if you look at my site which I've just updated and put up for critique here, I use #0b0b0b for the background and #cccccc for text just to take the brightness off both. Overall I think your site is good, it's neat and tidy and not overly crowded, but again I feel it just needs "pulling together". For instance the menu seems a long way away from the body text, the banner looks misaligned as it doesn't line up with the nav bar or the body text. It's looking good though, keep working at it. Nicole _____________________________ (in reply to wsh)


dpf Posts: 7121 Joined: 11/12/2003 From: India-napolis Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 18:56:09 quote: but i'd ditch the coloured words and huge capital letters that are trying to mimic the banner. They don't replicate the text in the banner and why should they anyway? It's a professional site and quite frankly I believe coloured text and those capitals look a bit amateurish I like that look! also, I think his nav graphics are unique and while I know there are other ways, many many sites still use graphics - why discourage a newcomer? what I dont think fits is the expanded panel in the navigation - looks out of place _____________________________ Dan (in reply to Nicole)


Nicole Posts: 2830 Joined: 9/15/2004 From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 19:40:58 I'm not trying to discourage anyone Dan, I just believe that coloured text like that can look less professional than if it wasn't like that. Now I know I wasn't the one who made comment about the nav menu not being able to be resized, but in Firefox you can resize the pull-outs and if the text is resized twice in that browser, the menu looks like this. People don't have to design for other browsers besides IE, they don't have to take text resizing into account if they don't want, but how many of them actually know how their sites appear on other monitors, in other browsers unless its pointed out? I don't believe highlighting how things appear in the second most popular browser when a very popular function like resizing text is applied is scare mongering, or discouraging, but if others do then that's fine by me too. Thumbnail Image Attachment (1) _____________________________ (in reply to dpf)


dpf Posts: 7121 Joined: 11/12/2003 From: India-napolis Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 20:00:21 Nicole: all I was addressing is discouraging someone from using images as navs - I dont even know who said it - doesnt matter. fact is, his images are a rarity - sort of cool the way they "hop out" when you mouse over. Everyone..repeat..everyone when they design their first sight uses them - partly because its so cool to lean how!! I just think sometimes we dont let new web makers evolve naturally through the various stages we did. so, in that context, I (and this is MHO) would encourage him to keep those graphics _____________________________ Dan (in reply to Nicole)


womble Posts: 5526 Joined: 3/14/2005 From: Living on the edge Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/26/2005 20:05:24 That was me Dan, but I don't have a problem with the nav graphics, just the lack of any alt tags or text links anywhere. (The colour of the pop-outs is much better now btw). I just think it's imporant people are aware of the possible problems with using images and ways to overcome those problems. I did actually write a post a couple of hours back in the midst of fighting with a form (did I mention I hate forms?! ) but accidently deleted it and hadn't the energy to write it all again. The problem with the nav is that it seems to be done with Xara menu maker?, which after downloading a trial of it and having a play around I discovered doesn't seem to have any options for including alt tags, and the urls seem to be buried in the javascript, so if the image doesn't load for any reason etc., no nav. The actual style of the nav I like though (I was investigating some other dhtml nav generators, best of which seems to be OpenCube's package which is standards compliant and lovely etc, but $139 - needed a break from the &$%! forms - did I mention I hate forms?). There's nothing wrong with the look of the nav IMHO, and it fits in very well with the subject matter, but I'd suggest putting some plain text links somewhere on the page to overcome the possible problems with the nav being image based etc. I agree in part with Nicole on the coloured words, mainly because for me they seem to somehow fade into the background, and perhaps the big capitals could do with being a tad smaller. As Nicole says though, the site's got a nice uncluttered feel to it (and I think it's definitely better with the Arial font), but I'm afraid I'm just not a fan of black backgrounds though. It's looking good though, and it's got a lot of potential. _____________________________ ~~ "A cruel god ain't no god at all" ~~ (in reply to Nicole)


blankbandit Posts: 21 Joined: 11/24/2005 Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/27/2005 3:38:59 Hey kitka, can you recommend that free script that you were talking about? Thanks, David (in reply to womble)


Kitka Posts: 2515 Joined: 1/31/2002 From: Australia Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/27/2005 3:50:50 Sure, it is iSearch, which is a free PHP script. But there is also a paid Pro version with full support. The free one has been sufficent for all my needs in the last couple of years: Local to your site Ad free Customisable Logs all activity and auto emails logs to you Admin panel via a web page Search term highlighted in results Is constantly being improved by author (not stagnant). http://www.isearchthenet.com/isearch/ Enjoy _____________________________ Kitka It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. (in reply to blankbandit)


wsh Posts: 35 Joined: 8/31/2004 Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/29/2005 17:01:03 Me again (female by the way!) I have now changed the two photo galleries (thanks for the advice and link Kitka) and hopefully all the text too! Am I correct in saying that you all think I need to add text based anvigation links in case my navigation bar in the shared border does not appear in some browsers? (I think that's what you are implying anyway ) Re the applet on the page http://members.aol.com/MarchellStud/erwfforch_dewin_diruedus.htm is it too slow to load and is there some way I can inform browsers of what's coming?? Any futher suggestions re site much appreciated eg do I need a site map tried the search engines but beyond me I'm afraid any other suggestions? ta (in reply to Kitka)


Taz Posts: 2827 Joined: 7/6/2004 From: U.K (Formerly outer space.) Status: offline	RE: Any Views Please???? - 11/29/2005 20:08:41 http://www.google.co.uk/searchcode.html I think Google offer a sitemap doofah too. _____________________________ Smiley T-Shirts and other Geeky fun stuff, Smileys and phpbb Smiley paks. (in reply to wsh)