Website suggestions

[_msnobody]

I strongly suggest that you make ALL pages look like your home page. Specifically:

1. On your home page, your background image stays fixed as you scroll. Make all your pages like that.
2. On your home page, you have all text superimposed on a white text box. Make all your pages like that.

I very much so agree with Shades about making all your pages look like your homepage. I think the uniformity of it will stick in people's minds and they will better remember your site/site contents.

Plus, you can use the same basic page and then insert the text for the various pages you want to create. When I did this, I also included a simple menu on the left linking to the pages of the website. Nothing fancy, just words that linked to a page. I used a two column table for mine, but I understand a lot of people don't like to use tables. You can do those with or without borders.

Perhaps include a sitemap. And, make the front page an encompassing explanation of your site on the front page. Keep it simple.

There! There is my 75 cents worth. Remember you aren't going to please everyone. I think uniformity, ease of navigation, and making it to where it isn't too busy for the eyes is important. I'll hush now. :-P

[_Jersey Girl]

by the way, I'm going to hold my breath until someone tells me how funny, cute, adorable, clever, witty my lolcats are. Or I'll just keep posting more.

Is everyone without mercy on this thread? Heck, beastie could croak herself right on the thread and you all are still muttering on about formats! Her head could explode!

beastie,

I adore your lolcats! They are, without question, the most funny, cute, adorable, (copying verbatim from the text above so I don't leave anything out and so beastie won't threaten to off herself on the thread again) clever and witty images I've ever seen on the Internet bar none! You're a genius for posting them here! Thank you so much for showering us with your lolcats! Post more, beastie! Post 'em till ya can't post no more!

Yer blog's gud 2.

Jersey Girl [/ 911]

[_Bond...James Bond]

LOLcatz are quite good. Not up there with ancient mesoamerican porn, but then what is?

[_beastie]

About time! I slept all night while holding my breath, and I tell ya, it wasn't easy.

Ok, I'm going to spend some time re-familiarizing myself with stupid frontpage in an attempt to white box all text, even if I thought it was readable on the background, put sidebar links, and divide up the longer pages into "chapters", and fixing links. I'll work on a site map. I'll try to figure out the margin thing but may need help on that one.

I don't know how to make the backgrounds fixed like the first page, however, so unless Scottie or some other technically literate person can explain that, I can't follow up on that one.


TD, your Q/A page is a good idea, but that might be more of a long term project. I have considered attaching a blog, but remain ambivalent about the time involved. Can't commit on that one yet.

Man, it really sucks there is no God who is giving me brownie points for all this altruistic work. See, this is why I need effusive lolcatz praise as compensation.

[_beastie]

Does anyone know if I can box a citation within the overall white text box?

[_Dr. Shades]

Ok, I'm going to spend some time re-familiarizing myself with stupid frontpage in an attempt to white box all text, even if I thought it was readable on the background, . . .

Well, it is readable on the background, but it's not easily readable on the background. It's not uniform with the front page, either.

To pull that off, simply make a table and copy-and-paste all text into it, then make the background color of the table white.

(If FrontPage doesn't give you a button for changing the background color of a table, then I'm sure you have a tab or button that lets you "View HTML Code" or something like that, right? If so, then in the < table > tag, change it so that it looks like this: < table bgcolor=ffffff >, without the spaces, of course.)

. . . put sidebar links, and divide up the longer pages into "chapters", and fixing links.[/quote]

I vehemently disagree with dividing them up into longer pages or "chapters." If you do that, then if someone wants to print the document to read off-line, then they'll have to print X different times (where X is the number of pages you've broken it down into) instead of just clicking the "Print" button once.

As for me, I FAR prefer to know just how long the document is--and to be able to judge my progress--by judging from the vertical scroll-bar rather than having to guess how long the last "chapter" is.

I'll work on a site map. I'll try to figure out the margin thing but may need help on that one.

For your margins, if FrontPage doesn't allow you to do it automatically, then in your "View as HTML" tab/option/whatever, go back to your < table bgcolor=ffffff > and change it to < table bgcolor=ffffff cellpadding=15 > (without the spaces, of course).

I don't know how to make the backgrounds fixed like the first page, however, . . .

I'll see if I can dredge up the HTML tag for you; give me a few minutes.

Does anyone know if I can box a citation within the overall white text box?

You certainly can. Even within a table, just type < blockquote > in front of your boxed citation and < /blockquote > after your boxed citation (without the spaces, of course).

[_beastie]

Thanks, Shade. I have tried the frontpage help site, but the language it uses is confusing. I need UberDummyWebsite 101.

That is a good point regarding not dividing the longer pages. Maybe a good compromise would be to figure out how to provide links that go to one section on the page (on the site map or the Q/A page). Of course, I don't know how to do that, either.

The useful rule of thumb in giving me website advice is to not underestimate my website stupidity.*

*hey, that's a good sig line for DCP, all he'll have to do is take out the words "website".

[_Dr. Shades]

Thanks, Shade.

Well, it's actually "Shades," but you're welcome.

I found the html tag for fixing a background image for you:

In "View HTML" view, near the top of each page you'll see a < body background=IMAGE.gif > or something similar, like
< body bgimage="IMAGE.jpg" >. Add the following text to the inside of that tag:

bgproperties="fixed"

That way, it'll look something like:

< body bgproperties="fixed" background="IMAGE.jpg" >

Without the spaces, of course, and switching out "IMAGE" for "horse," or whatever the name of the graphic is that you're using. Also, keep the file extension the same, such as ".gif" or ".jpg."

If you find that confusing, let me know and I'll give you a specific example.

That is a good point regarding not dividing the longer pages. Maybe a good compromise would be to figure out how to provide links that go to one section on the page (on the site map or the Q/A page). Of course, I don't know how to do that, either.

Here's how to do it: First add bookmarks where you want a link to lead. To do this, add the HTML tag
< a name=bookmark1 > (or something like that), with a new name for each bookmark. Then, to create a link to that bookmark in another page, simply add the HTML tag < a href=MESOAMERICA4.html#bookmark1 >.

[_beastie]

That's right, beat me up for a typo!

I think I get it, but I can never be sure until I try it. I actually made progress this morning by forcing myself to open frontpage and skimming over it. So maybe by the end of the day I can force myself to try one of these suggestions.

[_beastie]

Ok, I fixed the background on frontpage (I'm not going to upload the changes until I'm all done).

Now I'm trying to fix the margins it will all fit on smaller monitors. The instructions online didn't help. Here is my code for my margins on my home page:

{margin:5.0pt 0in; font-size:18.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}

What should I change to make the margin bigger? I'm assuming I'll change the 5 to something, but I have no idea what.

Wait a minute, the next page says this:
margin-left:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-top:0in}

I have to admit defeat on changing the margins. When I increased the margin to 1 inch, it messed up all my blockquotes.