redesign check please

Viewed at 800 x 600, your content overlaps your green graphic on the side. Also, the background of your graphic is white whereas the background of your page is a little off-white.
The little bullet on your navigation list only changes for 'articles', not the other links.
Your spacers are much higher in IE than they are in FF.
And finally, not a fan of the large, clunky W3C validation logos.
Other than that, I think it's a marked improvement on the previous design.

Hi Tyssen
Im happy with the overlap
The background colour on side image i forgot to change
and links - yes copy and pasted all the new menu's through the pages and forgot to change class="on" in each one

Im glad you prefer it to the old design - personally i think it's a much more 'open' site and easier to deal with

Freddy

yeah just checked on spacers - they're nasty i IE

what's causing that do you think?

Freddy

[EDIT] Scrap that, ive just put in a 1px x 3px background image and looks same in IE no[/EDIT]

Hi fatfreddy

I've got a couple of suggestions:

I can see what you're getting at - I like the open-ness (is that a word?) but I'm not sure about the green thingy on the left.

I think maybe the whole logo should be a bit smaller too - I know it's the width of the main content area but I think it's a bit overpowering.

I'd also make the <hr>s full width of the content rather than partial width - just because you're using underlines on links so there's loads of different length lines around on the page.

I know they're a "Good Thing" TM but the W3C buttons are really really ugly! If you want to use something like this then have a look at this site, there are lots of much "prettier" buttons there.

http://www.gtmcknight.com/buttons/validated.php

Final thing - I always add this:
html { min-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 1px; }
to get rid of page shift in Firefox - it drives me mad!!

(Feel free to ignore me - I'm under the influence of unused Halloween sweets/chocolate!)

I know what you mean - absolutely no Halloweenies last night :twisted: - but 12 months supply of fun-sized chocolate thingies left for me .
Apologies Freddy, now, back on topic. On screen definitions higher than 1024x768 (some people can afford them I hear) your swirly green do-da stops very abruptly at the bottom and looks sort of unfinished.

The colour of the green do-da (what do *you* call it?) is in the grey part of the green spectrum, but the green text is a bit too primary and, to my eye doesn't blend with the general theme and the grey in "echo" and elsewhere. By the same token, the fire-engine red of the hovers could be toned down a bit towards the grey side of that colour.

Very nice and clean.

One tiny point - I personally would extend the bottom of the left side background image so it curves all the way to the left edge at the bottom. Although it looks fine as is.

Excellent ..that's just what i wanted!

W3C buttons ... i know, i had another random image in there before and decided it was space better given to something a bit relevant - maybe i can make some up myself, a little more in keeping with the theme (grey green?)

Yes thr primary green (after you pointed it out) now sticks out like a sore thumb - I'll addres that

Logo size - it's an experiment. I've been reading a bit about Phi 1:1.618 (the divine proportion), scientifically the 'natural' proportion and supposedly a proportion that is 'pleasing' to the human eye (Da Vinci and other seriously famous artists used it in their work). Not that im claiming my site to be a work of art in the least but just using that proportion to structure some of the basic elements in order for it to look 'right'?!???

Have a quick look at http://goldennumber.net for more info.

Lorraine - the side image (the "thingy" - as i fondly call it?!).
I havent access to a larger screen but i can see you point, I will extend the curve to finish at thaat screen size for the more well endowed (in monitor terms anyways).

Hovers - yes - again, sore thumb syndrome.

Hells Bells - that page shift - is that the annoying jump to the right on some pages i have ben trying to rid myself of since i did the second page? I'l definately add the code and see if it fixes it - Thanks.

Also will try your full width hr's - did that initially but looked too 'boxy' - i really want a more 'open' maybe even 'dynamic' layout (sorry it's a bit late and my descruiptive terms aren't what they should be - or my spelling by the looks of it!)

I'm off to Sydney for a few days so will have to look at these when i get back - but i will, as always - thanks for the opinions and advie, they are always most welcome.

Now, if anyone can help me make sense of Wordpress templates and how to turn them into webecho templates i'd be a happy man!

Cheers

Freddy

Hi again

Yep the page shift is what happens in FF when there's no scrollbar present whereas in IE there's always space left for one even when it's not actually there... if that makes sense.

With the <hr>s I know what you mean - try making it really really faint grey and just 1px thick - it'll be enough to visually separate the sections but won't look too heavyweight.

Buttons - if none at the link I gave you looked just right then try this generator - hours of fun (or maybe that's just me) http://kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker/

Have a good time in Sydney (*grumbles in a generally jealous manner*)

1px faint grey - now there's a plan

Thanks again Hells!

BTW - fly midnight - work on plane - arrive 6:30am - dash around for suit hire - go to wedding - wake up hungover - more work - work on plane - back home

don't be too jealous!

Freddy

Freddy,
Don't forget phi is a relationship proportional to the whole. As in classical architecture for instance: the proportion of window, to wall, to roof in relation to the whole facade. The facade is a fixed size.

Your logo is a fixed size, but may not always be in phi proportion to the viewer's chosen viewport size i.e their facade is not a fixed size. Curse these site visitors with their *strange* preferences and pre-deliction to numerous toolbars at the top of the screen . Heavens, some of them will even surf with sidebars open :twisted: . What a to-do? It'll all end in tears - you mark my words

If you're going to revisit your "thingy" I notice the "background" of the exisiting one is #fff but this abuts div( with #fffafa background-colour. Suggest one or t'other would be good.

Yep - just slack that one!

The Phi thing was only used in the body (770px wide) as in the proportion of elements to each other, i know it wouldn't work on a 'page' scale for just the reasons you pointed out

:twisted: I was actually thinking of proposing that everyone - worldwide, was forced to use the same monitor with windows XP, have all their preferences disabled and a 'factory' version of FF installed.:twisted: (couldn't find a smiley for world domination type maniacal laugh!)
Either that or everyone's just got to come round to my house to see my new design!

lol :roll:

try Google Images for William H Gates III, Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

I might be able to help you there. Let me know what you need.

The Wordpress Wiki is a mine of information you will find all you need to know on how Wordpress files work and how to extract the loop etc (all surprisingly easy) You should be able to work it out without too much help

What is that exactly?

:? thought you were offering to help him out with Wordpress modification?

The 'loop' is the heart of a wordpress page without which you don't got no posts, it's the necessary PHP calls to extract the posts you want to display it starts the if (have_posts()) while (have_posts() ) loop

OK, gotchya. Hadn't heard it referred to like that before.

That's it's official reference name Tyssen you'll see it plastered all over Wordpress.org.

Well I will admit I haven't read all the documentation on Wordpress or the Wiki because in a lot of cases, all the info I needed was in the original template files and it was just a case of modifying them.