Drama Website

[jc8654]

I've just set this website hosting up quickly and wondered what people thought? Don't look at the coding too much as it's a bit of a mess.... I'll hold my hands up and say I ended up using tables for some of the formatting...

But yes, generally, what do people think?

www.heartoffguard.co.uk

[WelshTom]

Personally, I'm not to fond of the design. BUT, I believe the design suits this website hostings purpose very well. Good Job!

[Ben]

Firstly, I recommend getting to XHTML standards as it means it will display correctly in most browsers. And yeah, the design does fit the website hostings purpose. Sorry to keep bugging you about validity, however you can check whether your XHTML & CSS code is valid by going to these URLs: http://validator.w3.org/ and http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/.

[esnail]

I would echo Ben, you have several errors and the most severe is the lack of document type deceleration. You also cause accessibility issues by not declaring an 'alt' value for your images. H1 tags should only be used once per page and should be used as the most significant heading (page title or company name - that sort of thing), and not for an address (there is an HTML 'address' element you could use, or a series of 'p' elements etc.). Given that this is a static page and doesn't require XML application elements, I would suggest that you use an HTML 4.01 declaration and code accordingly.
The design itself I think is fine, I think it does fit the nature of the content and displays the content clearly. Your graphical details could do with some 'sharpening up' - rounded corners are a bit jagged for me.
I won't mention anything about the unnecessary use of tables and in-line styling - save that for another day
Looks ok though.

[jc8654]

Originally Posted by esnail

you have several errors and the most severe is the lack of document type deceleration.

I've sorted most of that out now. I'd forgotten I hadn't put the alt tags in on the images as when CSS wouldn't format as I wanted quickly I gave up as they needed the website hosting in a short time. Could of things are left but these are mainly due to me playing with the website hosting in Frontpage (please don't kill me for this!).

Originally Posted by esnail

I won't mention anything about the unnecessary use of tables and in-line styling - save that for another day

As I say, CSS wouldn't play ball quickly and I couldn't easily see the problem.... Hence resorting to tables. Not my ideal solution but it got the website hosting up in time for when they wanted it.

Thanks for all your comments! Feel free to send me more!

[DPS Computing]

I like the website hosting - works surprisingly well considering lack of CSS and use of tables. Its good for the moment but if you ever do have time to implement CSS rather than tables it will give the website hosting a huge boost.

Also the accessibility issues (alt tags etc) should be sorted as soon as you can do - they are rather major things. And yes, Frontpage creates the most rubbish invalid code on Earth!!

Good luck with the site!

[jc8654]

The website hosting should only be around and used until the end of August really and as you say, it works well and looks good.

I've sorted the alt tag issues out. I normally do that anyway so was just an overlook on my behalf.

There is still some CSS in the website hosting but not as much as I originally designed in. All the header is CSS in 3 sections:
1) The curve on the left
2) The centre part where the title's are
3) The curved right hand side

Also, the inner curves are CSS with positioning relative to top and bottom.

The problem I had with CSS was I wanted the menu to go all the way down the side to the same level as the main body of text but I wanted to footer on the bottom in a similar manner to the header. Could I get it to look right.....? NO!

If anyone has any suggestions about the best way to get the website hosting to as it is but with CSS, it would be much appreciated. I don't really want to be going through having a different stylesheet for positions on every page.

[newYounes]

Yes, I so do agree because this website hosting is very well organized and runs great.


You guys rock!

And if you wanted to make your website hosting better, it is possible. You could change the template to a flash template and it will look alot better. But It looks great!

Well done!

[WelshTom]

Originally Posted by thug4life

Yes, I so do agree because this website hosting is very well organized and runs great.


You guys rock!

And if you wanted to make your website hosting better, it is possible. You could change the template to a flash template and it will look alot better. But It looks great!

Well done!

A flash template would be a highly bad idea. Flash website hostings are highly annoying, highly inaccessible. Don't get me wrong, Flash is a wonderful thing when used *correctly*, but when you put it on a website hosting, your going to get less website hosting visitors, and a lot of annoyed visitors, as mentioned above, its very annoying.

It's even more annoying when music of a soundtrack is included with a flash website hosting. - No one wants to hear it.

[DPS Computing]

Originally Posted by thug4life

Yes, I so do agree because this website hosting is very well organized and runs great.


You guys rock!

And if you wanted to make your website hosting better, it is possible. You could change the template to a flash template and it will look alot better. But It looks great!

Well done!

Ditto. Do not use flash. Little bits of flash are good but website hostings that use flash over and over again are very bad, extreamely inaccessible and basically look pathetic. Flash is in the same category as Frames and blinking text - and we all know how they are viewed!!!!

[jc8654]

I think overall flash wouldn't work particularly well in this case as people will be coming onto the website hosting for information which they'll want to find quickly. Flash slows this down immensely and would get annoying. I think a few things I might do is maybe put some animation on the nav buttons on the left hand side.

As I say, if anyone can suggest how to code the side in CSS, it would be much appreciated. If it didn't have the footer at the bottom, I could get it to work fine. I've tried javascript and the other usual methods but it would display correctly in either firefox or IE but never both. It was fine up to the footer where the divs would go out of line.

[jc8654]

Originally Posted by DPS Computing

Flash is in the same category as Frames and blinking text - and we all know how they are viewed!!!!

There is nothing wrong with a little bit of use of frames but only for the right reasons. When I was first doing website hostings I seemed to be a bit of a frames fan..... Now I've learnt my lesson and use them sparingly!

[WelshTom]

Originally Posted by jc8654

There is nothing wrong with a little bit of use of frames but only for the right reasons. When I was first doing website hostings I seemed to be a bit of a frames fan..... Now I've learnt my lesson and use them sparingly!

Frames, Flash, Music, Blinking or Flashing text should NOT be used in any case. They're really old or really inaccessible standards and are just completely pathetic and annoying.

You really shouldn't be using frames, even for the smallest of reasons.

[jc8654]

I only use them when I'm in a hurry and haven't got time to code round it properly. I use some for a newsletter subscription on another website hosting but there is another way to subscribe anyway. Also, I use them for backend stuff for me. On my account, I have some admin things and I have links to them appear at the top of the page as a header frame and then the main pages for the links in the large bottom frame. It's fine for that though as it's only me using it.

[DPS Computing]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Frames, Flash, Music, Blinking or Flashing text should NOT be used in any case. They're really old or really inaccessible standards and are just completely pathetic and annoying.

You really shouldn't be using frames, even for the smallest of reasons.

Flash, Music and Blinking / Flashing text have never been part of the standards! Blinking text was something Microsoft dreamed up - a very bad idea lol

As for Flash - I like it for some things but as part of general website hosting design it is a no-no and your treading thin water - especially as a lot of people like it disabled as it slows website hostings down and can do horrible things to your computer and mislead you (when used maliciously). It also disables many things that makes website hostings accessible such as there is no alt tags on flash images the status bar doesnt show where your going and little things like that.

Originally Posted by jc8654

I only use them when I'm in a hurry and haven't got time to code round it properly. I use some for a newsletter subscription on another website hosting but there is another way to subscribe anyway. Also, I use them for backend stuff for me. On my account, I have some admin things and I have links to them appear at the top of the page as a header frame and then the main pages for the links in the large bottom frame. It's fine for that though as it's only me using it.

I understand what you are saying, and if its only something you are using then of course that is fine if your all right with it. I just think you are treading very thin water with both frames and flash. Not to mention frames make a page look so 90's

[jc8654]

Originally Posted by DPS Computing

Not to mention frames make a page look so 90's

Not when you basically hide them with no border or anything like that.

And I "think" I may have sorted out a way to do the CSS for the drama website hosting. Came across it while designing another site! All to do with margins and padding.

I haven't tried it yet mind so we shall see...