Please review - 'creating websites' site :)

[Sunchaser]

Hi :)

My website is no more than an unfinished index page at the moment - no links work yet - so let me know if this is in the wrong BV forum.

website name: make-website (dot) com
(I don't want to put a direct link to the site, as I don't want anything linking to a site under construction.)

I would like to pick your brains, if I may.

Firstly, I want my site to work in both 800 and 1024 width - do you think this is feasible? I intend putting more info outside the 'zone' (outside the 800 width, to the right) later on.

Does the bright orange give you a headache? My son says yes!

I want to take the logo (which is in Matisse font) & orange BV flag shape behind it - and make it into an image. I can't copy and paste into photoshop or anything else - it won't paste anywhere! If I leave it as it is, then someone who does not have the Matisse font on their computer will be looking at some font I didn't intend. Does anyone know what to do here? (I know the photo underneath this needs the byte size reduced!)

I want to have each option in the menu bars come up with a small pop-up text when moused over, rather than leading to another page. Each pop-up text box would briefly explain what each option means, and would include a link to more info. I don't want a home page that's full of writing, but don't want people to have to click to another page just to find a quick answer either. Would you personally find the pop-up boxes annoying?

About me -
I'm a content writer, and people I write for often don't even have a website yet - and ask me how you go about getting a site together. I couldn't find any dead-simple guides on the net, or sites that aren't very biased and hard-selling products, so I'm putting this one together.

I didn't know how to show you BV'ers without putting it online. Unfortunately, google indexed it straightaway. (there's something called a robots.txt file that will fix this?)

Sorry about the essay! and thanks for any opinions :)

Sunchaser

[mattski]

Re: Please review - 'creating websites' site :)

As far as the size of the page goes if you design for 800 it will work on 1024. If you design for 1024 then anyone using 800 width will have to scroll to view your entire page. The standard is to use 800 width but these days you will likely find that is up for discussion as monitor sizes increase. 1024x768 is becoming a more prevalent desktop resolution. I've read some articles that say you should be fine with the larger width. If you are concerned about it do a quick Google search on web design standards read the discussions and decide for yourself. One way to be sure it will display is to not use a fixed width but a percentage of the window size. You just need to make sure your site will still look OK when the window gets resized.

I have to agree on the orange color. It gives me a headache.

Your logo is actually text over an image. You should be able to copy the orange wave image into Photoshop and then add the text there. It's a .png file, if you can't paste it then you should be able to find it and open it from where you have it saved.

If I'm understanding you correctly you are going to be using a mouseover effect and not a popup window. I'm not quite sure that's the best way to present the information. If it's just for a quick answer maybe do an FAQ page.

Google likes to index everything which is good and bad especially if you are just getting started on your page. Add the following text to robots.txt in your public_html directory to block all bots from visiting:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

[Andy128]

Re: Please review - 'creating websites' site :)

To be effective with the transition to a wider website- keep the width under 940 and you should be ok.

The colors- borderline eye strain. Sometimes the combination of orange's and blue's create a neon effect. Yours is not too bad though.

Logo- there is a work around. Open a blank bv page and put only your log on the page in the middle of the working area. Then click on preview.
You will now have a web page before you with only your logo on it. Take a screen shot and then paste it into MS Paint. Then use the select tool to trim out only your logo- and then use cut to remove the logo. Paste it into a new page and there you have your logo as jpg or gif -which ever you save it as.

Andy

[Sunchaser]

Re: Please review - 'creating websites' site :)

Thanks mattski and Andy

Yes - a .png file, but for some reason wouldn't paste in photoshop, irfanview, mspaint... and was missing when i tried to open it from photoship. The only thing in my images folder was that little orange gif that looks a bit like a tiny sun.

I worked out how to fix the logo by accident. You can save text as a gif if you right-click on it - it gives you the option to save it as a gif there. So I've done that.

Yes, I knew that 1024 width would cause scroll for someone viewing in 800 width - but I thought maybe I could put all the important info. plus the header/page graphics within the 800 width so that it looks 'right' and complete when the page is opened at 800.
Personally, I really dislike 800 width pages, and I know that some people who don't understand what they're at that width don't like them either - they feel squashy when you're used to a wider page. (personal view/experience only)

(thanks for the info. on robots.txt as well. I tried to do it, but vodahost was down for half an hour or so around that time - both c-panel & therefore my website)

Any other views welcome :)

Sunchaser