dropfaith Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 http://www.lawrenceguide.org/ so i gave up with the grey as it washed out way too much and went with a more festive fall layout.. looking for advice on how to improve it text styles and so on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 The color/contrast is very hard on my eyes. I find myself squinting when I look at it. If you plan to use columns, they should be clearly defined with either a different background or some type of border. The left menu just stops and there is no separation for your content area. I also don't understand why you have two menus, usually in this case one menu will be context sensitive to the section. And what do you really plan to get out of those google ads, are they necessary or just a space filler? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropfaith Posted October 1, 2008 Author Share Posted October 1, 2008 the left menu is based on which section your in already ill add a border to it tho i was thinking about that anyways. hrmm i see the colors fine thats kinda odd and as for the google ads to be honest they are space fillers for now i want to make it with local ads but needed to set up the space in which the ads go so my google account filled the gap until i get it ready to luanch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropfaith Posted October 1, 2008 Author Share Posted October 1, 2008 apperentlythe laptop im using has been said to be brighter then most hrmm ill need to do some browser shots to work out a contrast of view it from another comp my brightness settings must be set higher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropfaith Posted October 1, 2008 Author Share Posted October 1, 2008 is it just the links that are hard to read i guess i can see that maybe but the text is clear as hell on my screen any suggestions on a color to go with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkWater Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 That made me kinda dizzy. Also, I don't like the two menus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Aesthetics aside, I keep seeing people putting the W3C validation logos on their sites when there are issues with site validation. dropfaith, you have the CSS validation link that goes to the blank CSS validation page. You homepage CSS doesn't validate. And your XHTML link leads to a page declaring that the page cannot be checked. What I do in my website is that I make sure everything is bug free prior to adding any kind of validation links. When it all checks out, I have PHP dynamically read the current URL, and plug that into the URL part of the validation link. The end result is that no matter which page you are on, if you click on any of the validation links, they lead to the validator of choice with the current page as being checked and the end results are displayed from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropfaith Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 what i just checked the xhtml link and it passed from home page im working my way thru the links still im sure ive missed a few but most validate the css i havent looked at the error but im pretty sure i know why it happened my server removed part of the file when downloading it(no idea what happened) and as for the two menus how else should i do it each section has like 3 to 10 links and growing depending on the section..im not sure how else i can post that many links on a page without a second menu.. okay i found a few that dont validate due to user submitted data which i have no idea how to fix yet.. but which link showed as couldnt check? i just tried like 15 links and they all pass css also all passes now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 what i just checked the xhtml link and it passed from home page im working my way thru the links still im sure ive missed a few but most validate the css i havent looked at the error but im pretty sure i know why it happened my server removed part of the file when downloading it(no idea what happened) ..chop.. but which link showed as couldnt check? i just tried like 15 links and they all pass css also all passes now Dropfaith, indeed when I dump your hompage URL by example into the XHTML validator, it passes. But when I middle mouse click on the XHTML link icon at the bottom of your page, in the new tab I get an error (Sorry, this document cannot be checked).. I looked up the link on your page, and this is what you have: <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer"> If you look at the passed validation page, they offer a link like this: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lawrenceguide.org%2F Now obviously, this will work if you use this path to link to your XHTML link. However, this is not very automated. I'm not sure if your footer info is in a separate include php file, but I would recommend doing so.. then, in your footer.php page, you can use PHP to dynamically take the current page URL and use part of it in conjunction with part of the link given by the validator service. Simply merge this aspect into the approved link above: <a href='http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lawrenceguide.org<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>'>[your valid XHTML icon image here]</a> This way, no matter which page someone clicks on that valid XHTML icon, it will bring the user to the validator page with the current URL as being checked (and assuming it is all valid, this will be reflected). It becomes completely automated. Same thing can be applied to your CSS: <a href='http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lawrenceguide.org<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>'>[your valid CSS icon image here]</a> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropfaith Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 odd when i click the xhtml button it opens a validation same tab and passes for eaxch page but ill play with the one you recommend as i already have the footer included html file tho but shouldnt make a difference really(i dont think) any sugesstions on the left nav seeing is people seem to not like it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 odd when i click the xhtml button it opens a validation same tab and passes for eaxch page but ill play with the one you recommend as i already have the footer included html file tho but shouldnt make a difference really(i dont think) It's odd.. I use Chrome, and when I left-click the XHTML validation icon, it gives an error on the W3C validator site.. but in Firefox, it works. My method seems consistent across browsers in general though. Perhaps it's just Chrome not gauging this properly? (it is a Beta after all). I should have have tested this in other browsers admittedly. My bad. any sugesstions on the left nav seeing is people seem to not like it? I agree with the others.. it doesn't work. Typically, you would include your 'Contact' and 'About' in your main menu (and only having one menu would be better). One immediate solution that comes to mind is to make one vertical menu (in other words, move the entire horizontal menu to a vertical one that sits above the current side menu, and make them all uniform in width). But I personally am not too warm to this idea.. (but it is an option). If this option seems awkward, perhaps merging some related horizontal menus together to make room to integrate the current side menu. So say merge Artists, Music and Events as one menu category called perhaps 'Entertainment'? Point being, if you merge a few related sections, you save some space so you can fit the 'Contact' and 'About' into it. And as such, I would convert the RSS link in the side menu to the typical rss icon and relocate that to perhaps somewhere along the Join / Login menu (maybe leaving rss as a text link alone this join menu instead?) or put it in the footer and move the 'Offering' (which I would probably rename as 'Offer Ride'), 'Need Ride' and 'Add ride' to perhaps the 'Ride Share' in the top menu? Point being all this would in effect kill the small side menu entirely, thus as a bonus freeing up that space to expand your central column, giving your content space more room to breath. All this would be my preferred option truth be told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropfaith Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 thanks ill work on that tonight but that only clears up the home section theres tons of links in the side bar for other options theres no way to fit them all into the single nav. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 thanks ill work on that tonight but that only clears up the home section theres tons of links in the side bar for other options theres no way to fit them all into the single nav. Ahh... my bad. Well, one solution would be to add some blank space below the main menu. When you hover your mouse over Artists, a submeun spread along the newly created space fills in with what is currently in the side menu. By example: http://www.duoh.com/csstutorials/2levelmenu/index.html (look at the how 'Extra' leads to another level of horizontal menu items..took a while to load for me.. yo ucan stop the loading once the top menu arrives, which is pretty quick) Other links for navigation ideas: http://webdeveloper.econsultant.com/css-menus-navigation-tabs/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/26/navigation-menus-trends-and-examples/ Just doing a Google search on CSS horizontal menus can bring up many great ideas. Hope this helps. Cheers, NRG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropfaith Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 sweet i think i got the nav working better now i just gotta remove the rest of the side navs and fix them up a bit to fill the new left space Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.