|
| |
|
|
themekings
Posts: 19
Joined: 6/25/2007
Status: offline
 |
ThemeKings - 8/17/2008 20:03:54
Making a hard push to get my freelance site going and wanted some input. Matching forum under construction.
http://www.themekings.com/
Please let me know your thoughts! TY!
|
|
|
|
Tailslide
Posts: 6270
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Out here on the raggedy edge
Status: offline
|
RE: ThemeKings - 8/18/2008 3:53:56
Sorry, don't want to sound discouraging but the site and themes look a bit... "old school".
* too many coding errors
* tables for layout
* banner and navigation won't work with high security settings
* can only navigate with a mouse
* small serif fonts centred on screen
* grammatical errors
* shop design should be integrated with the main site design
That sounds really negative - sorry.
Since you're right at the start of this venture, I'd look at moving into more modern techniques and designs possibly aimed at just the Expressions market as MS has begun the process of dumping FP. Look at CSS layouts rather than tables to keep your costs down and add flexibility.
Good luck with it!
_____________________________
"My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it"
Little Blue Plane Web Design | Blood, Sweat & Rust - A Land Rover restoration project
| |
|
|
|
themekings
Posts: 19
Joined: 6/25/2007
Status: offline
|
RE: ThemeKings - 8/18/2008 7:26:59
quote:
ORIGINAL: Tailslide
Sorry, don't want to sound discouraging but the site and themes look a bit... "old school".
* too many coding errors
* tables for layout
* banner and navigation won't work with high security settings
* can only navigate with a mouse
* small serif fonts centred on screen
* grammatical errors
* shop design should be integrated with the main site design
That sounds really negative - sorry.
Since you're right at the start of this venture, I'd look at moving into more modern techniques and designs possibly aimed at just the Expressions market as MS has begun the process of dumping FP. Look at CSS layouts rather than tables to keep your costs down and add flexibility.
Good luck with it!
No I appreciate the input. But I have a few questions regarding your input which may take a little time on your behalf.
I obviously use MSE too, but have been use to using MSFP to create my sites. You suggested CSS layouts rather than tables. Why is that?
Thanks for looking for me. Thats why I came here.
| |
|
|
|
Tailslide
Posts: 6270
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Out here on the raggedy edge
Status: offline
|
RE: ThemeKings - 8/18/2008 10:16:16
It's for several reasons.
Basically it's all mixed up with the web standards movement etc. The idea is that all you should have in the .html page is the content plus the absolutely necessary tags (e.g. H#, P, IMG, UL etc etc). Then in the stylesheet you add all the presentational rules that apply to the website. You can also add Javascript in separate scripts to control certain behaviours of the site.
The basic premise is that content is separate from presentation and behaviour. Why? Well apart from the very boring semantic argument - it will save you time, it will speed up the download of the page, it will make the page more accessible than nested lists.
Just imagine - you've got your basic template content (header, title, sidebar, contents, footer). Now from your stylesheet you can control the lot - move the sidebar left or right just by writing left or right. Change widths, fonts, colours everything basically in one edit. No more having to go through each page and juggling table cells. It's literally a case of:
#sidebar {float:left; width:20%;}
Ok change it to:
#sidebar {float:right; width:20%;}
The drawback of switching over to CSS layouts if you've already been doing table layouts is that it does take a certain shift of thinking away from table cells. There are certain things that you take for granted with tables that can't be done with CSS - directly anyway. There are sneaky ways around most things. Plus you're able to do more clever stuff with CSS anyway.
There are also some browser bugs (mainly IE) to avoid - but frankly it's not too difficult, the answers to pretty much any bug are out there. It just means testing in various browsers as you go along to avoid being given a heart attack at the end!
It's not something you'll learn in a week (probably a few months to get to grips with and a year or so to be really comfortable) and it really does require hand-on in the code as most WYSIWYG editors aren't great with CSS.
Long term it will save you time and therefore money. It'll mean your sites are easier to maintain and lighter-weight therefore faster. It will also mean that the sites will become more accessible (although it's easy enough to mess this up with CSS just as with tables!).
It's the future of HTML...
Have a look here: http://www.csszengarden.com This is the same HTML just with different stylesheets attached to each version. Now while this is a long long way from useful day to day designing, it does give an idea of the power of css.
_____________________________
"My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it"
Little Blue Plane Web Design | Blood, Sweat & Rust - A Land Rover restoration project
| |
|
|
|
themekings
Posts: 19
Joined: 6/25/2007
Status: offline
|
RE: ThemeKings - 8/18/2008 11:03:50
After reading your first responce I opened MSE and began a new template using the same theme however. ( http://www.themekings.com/09TEMPLATE.htm ) I used WDG HTML Validator and found "0" errors. (YEAH!!!) However I still used tables for the layout. Are you 100% opposed to using tables?
I also tinkered with CSS when doing so and I certainly see the benifiets for changing over. I appreciate all your input. I do strive to be an outstanding web designer and I'm learning more and more everyday. This will help guide me into the modern method of designing.
As far as the grammer I write a lot when the "ol' lady" goes to bed (hehe) so I get kinda tired and rush myself. I seen quit a few errors and made some changes there, as well as removed the shop link for now in my banner.
BTW, with the experimental page above (09template) created using MSE, the flash banner will not play the preloader even though its the same .swf file. Any idea as to why that isnt working correctly? (I used Flash 8)
I'm very humbled that your taking the time to assist me. It means a lot to me!
| |
|
|
|
Tailslide
Posts: 6270
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Out here on the raggedy edge
Status: offline
|
RE: ThemeKings - 8/18/2008 12:39:32
There's not one of us that hasn't been through this so please don't worry.
Personally - I would only use tables for tabular data (you know - like a timetable for instance). Using them with CSS is better than no CSS but it removes a lot of the benefits of the CSS itself (e.g. being able to swap great chunks of the page around just from the stylesheet without touching the html).
CSS will be a headache to start - it's a completely different approach so expect to get frustrated with it to start but perservere! Once you've got to grips with this you'll be able to expand what you can offer - for instance, WordPress templates!
Not sure about the flash file I'm afraid, very rarely use Flash at all. When I do, I tend to use SWF Object to play all flash stuff, don't know if that helps at all?
_____________________________
"My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it"
Little Blue Plane Web Design | Blood, Sweat & Rust - A Land Rover restoration project
| |
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Printable Version 
