www.tjtaylor.net - Thanks!

alextj · #1 (**permalink**) 07-23-2005, 01:11 PM

Hi guys,
Thanks for any help..

I've had this site up for about a year, and only now am I starting to get serious about it, spending some time marketing it and trying to make it the best I can. The sitereport card turns up more or less ok and w3c validator has given me a wee bit of homework... :)

The url is http://www.tjtaylor.it but the homepage is in Italian - the English version is at http://www.tjtaylor.net/index2.htm

Any advice on the design and ease of use would be much appreciated - i'm still trying to figure out the best way to put together the submenus under 'about us' 'courses' and 'HR resources' as they're a wee bit different, and i'm concerned about the download speed, especially of the header image, but please let me know...

We also have an almost separate section with some language tools (the link comes up in a different window if you click on the translator and tools section at the top on the header image) which is by far the most popular part of the site - in total we get about 300 ish unique visitors a day, with a loyal returning base for that part, and another few hundred a week for the actual company site, but still working on the promotion.

Thanks again for any help and pointers!
Have a great weekend,
Alex

webhost1 · #2 (**permalink**) 07-23-2005, 07:03 PM

The white text on the green newsletter logo is hard to read.

You seem to have some open space on the bottom of each page. It is not the same distance on each page.

alextj · #3 (**permalink**) 07-24-2005, 01:51 PM

Thanks webhost - I'm using a wysiwyg editor and have had some problems trying to get rid of the white space. Though I'm not particularly confident with coding, it seems like I'm going to have to roll up my sleeves...
Any help is appreciated,
Alex

janeth · #4 (**permalink**) 07-24-2005, 05:14 PM

You may want to take a look at it in Firefox and Opera.

The site has a lot of white space in both those browsers and is a little hard to find on the screen.

The look of the site is not bad at all.

Just looks like you have some errors to fix in the code.

I would take the Java Script and put it in an external folder.

Remove the </p> after the second meta tag.

If you want to send me the password and login to the ftp I will see if one of the guys here can take a look at the code.

webhost1 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-24-2005, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alextj

Thanks webhost - I'm using a wysiwyg editor and have had some problems trying to get rid of the white space. Though I'm not particularly confident with coding, it seems like I'm going to have to roll up my sleeves...
Any help is appreciated,
Alex

If you happen to use front page you can highlight the white space and look in the code part to see what is all in it. Than you can just use you notepad or some type of text edit and take that out. I use this program when I am having a hard time finding something I don't understand. Just don't save the file in front page for they seem to add code to your file which does not always need to be there.

MuNKyonline · #6 (**permalink**) 07-25-2005, 09:19 AM

I viewed this in Firefox first and as Janeth said, it was a bit hard to find it on the screen. In Firefox I could see all the borders of the tables. I think it's because of this:

border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"

I can't see why you have done this when the background of the page is white also. Why not just put border="0" and remove the bordercolor alltogether? This I think will stop the lines in Firefox.

The text on the newsletter button is a bit small and blurry. Try something bolder, it may stand out more and make it easier to read.

I like the header image that looks very professional and it incorporates the logo well.

In regard to the navigation have you considered using a javascript menu that expands with the 'about us' 'courses' and 'HR resources' sub menus?

alextj · #7 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 08:01 AM

Munky and Janeth, thanks for the pointers - I've just spent the last couple of hours going through the hundred-odd pages changing all the borders... oh joy! and discovering the delights of templates.. :o/ but thanks for the advice. I'm going to try to fiddle around with Photoshop over the weekend to get the newsletter image looking better, but right now I'm having problems getting the site to load properly n Firefox. As you both mentioned it jumps down to the bottom right corner and I can't figure out why - is it something to do with my css file settings? That's the only explanation I can find - my settings for the text are:

a:link {
color: #009900;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
font-weight: bold;
text-decoration: none;

}
a:hover {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
font-weight: bold;
color: #009900;
text-decoration: underline;

}
.body {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
color: #000000;
text-align: center;
position: absolute;
left: 435px;
top: 564px;

}
a:visited {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
font-weight: bold;
color: #006600;
text-decoration: none;

}
.body2 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
color: #000000;
text-align: left;
position: static;
left: auto;
top: auto;
overflow: scroll;

}
h1 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-align: left;
position: static;
left: auto;
top: auto;
overflow: scroll;
font-weight: normal;

I tried changing the position setting of the body text (it's mostly in .body2), but then it superimposed itself over the rest of the page and menu... :0(

As for the javascript menus I'm trying to avoid it at all costs as the links have some of my most important keywords in them. I think putting the javascript in a separate file is a good idea if that means it will load faster, but I need to work out the actual nuts and bolts coding for that, and I don't know how it will work with my statcounter.

Does the existing menu navigation seem logical and intuitive?

Webhost - I use dreamweaver, and I think I've found the gremlin as there are lots of seemingly random <blockquote> tags lying around from my trail and error days.

Thanks again for the help. Does everyone have so many problems with geting pages to render properly in Firefox, or is it just Explorer messing around with us?
Take care,
Alex

MuNKyonline · #8 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 08:18 AM

You still have scroll bars on some of the 'home' section at the top and 'our training services cover' when viewed in forefox. You need to change your css to remove the scrollbars:

.body2 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
color: #000000;
text-align: left;
position: static;
left: auto;
top: auto;
overflow: scroll;

}
I think this is your problem. Instead of using position and overflow (try and learn some css and dont use that Dreamweaver Wizard) use:

.body2 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
color: #000000;
margin-right: 10px;
margin-left: 10px
margin-top: 10px
margin-bottom: 10px
}
(this is just an example change the pixels etc untill you get what you want)

Same with the H1 tag - get rid of the scroll and overflow. You also don't need the . in front of the body if you want the css to affect the entire body tag. Have a play around with it and see if you can get the result you need =)

alextj · #9 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 01:32 PM

Munky, thanks a lot!

After a bit of fiddling around I think I've got it sorted with Firefox. The only problem is I had to add a centre tag to the main table to get the page to centre properly, and now the page jerks left and right depending on whether the page needs scrollbars or not. I'm starting to feel seasick...and what's with the seemingly random bits of double-spaced text..?

Are there any good css guides out there, preferably one with lots of examples as I learn best by trial and error rather than following pages of instructions?

As for putting the javascript in a separate file, do I need a separate .js file for each script? So far I haven't been able to get it to work with more than one script, and there are a total of 5 on the site for various bits and pieces.

Thanks again for all the help,
Alex

webhost1 · #10 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 12:25 PM

The words in your pics are to the right. Why not have them centered?

You seem to have 3-4 different menus on each page. Why not just one?

alextj · #11 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 01:23 PM

Thanks for the feedback webhost - the menus are a deliberate choice.

There's the main menu on the left to navigate around the marketing and explanation part of the site (it's essentially a brochure site, though I'm working on the resources and learning sections). The few options at the top in the header are the general interest pages such as careers, some language tools, etc. which don't fit in with the interests of the target audience (Training and HR managers) but are useful for some, with all the other legal, privacy, tell-a-friend, print options at the bottom. The intention is to make the navigation as clear and intuitive as possible - does the concept work for you or IYO is it better to collapse them all into one and risk overwhelming visitors with options?

Now that you've pointed the align out, maybe it would look better.. :)

All criticsm or feedback welcomed.
Take care,
Alex

webhost1 · #12 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 03:29 PM

You have advantages and disadvantages with both. Bottom line is what do you want on your site. Either way your going to get users who like or dislike what you do. I say do what you want it to do and go from there.