Web Design's topics - tribe.net

Search Engine Placement

2008-08-21T18:24:18Z

Howdy Folks-

A client sent me this email the other day:

"when you google "msn" or "ricky kalmon" there are a few other links
(video, store, etc.) that come up under the main link
basically gives you more page space
how do i get those?"

I know nothing about search engine placement so hoping maybe someone here could give us a lead. Anyone?

Thanks in advance.

posted in Web Design - 3 replies

FWD: Death of Free Internet Is Imminent: Canada Will Become Test Case

2008-08-15T10:39:47Z

From Information Clearing House at
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20330.htm

*Death of Free Internet Is Imminent: Canada Will Become Test Case*
By Kevin Parkinson
21/07/08
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9627

"Global Research" -- In the last 15 years or so, as a society we have had access to more information than ever before in modern history because of the Internet. There are approximately 1 billion Internet users in the world B and any one of these users can theoretically communicate in real time with any other on the planet. The Internet has been the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century by far, and has been recognized as such by the global community.

The free transfer of information, uncensored, unlimited and untainted, still seems to be a dream when you think about it. Whatever field that is mentioned -- education, commerce, government, news, entertainment, politics, and countless other areas -- have been radically affected by the introduction of the Internet. And mostly, it's good news, except when poor judgements are made and people are taken advantage of. Scrutiny and oversight are needed, especially where children are involved.

However, when there are potential profits open to a corporation, the needs of society don't count. Take the recent case in Canada with the behemoths, Telus and Rogers, rolling out a charge for text messaging without any warning to the public. It was an arrogant and risky move for the telecommunications giants because it backfired. People actually used Internet technology to deliver a loud and clear message to these companies and that was to scrap the extra charge. The people used the power of the Internet against the big boys and the little guys won.

However, the issue of text messaging is just a tiny blip on the radar screens of Telus and another company, Bell Canada, the two largest Internet Service Providers (I.S.P.'s) in Canada. Our country is being used as a test case to drastically change the delivery of Internet service forever. The change will be so radical that it has the potential to send us back to the horse and buggy days of information sharing and access.

In the upcoming weeks watch for a report in Time Magazine that will attempt to smooth over the rough edges of a diabolical plot by Bell Canada and Telus, to begin charging per site fees on most Internet sites. The plan is to convert the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and then pay to visit sites beyond a cutoff point.

From my browsing (on the currently free Internet), I have discovered that the "demise" of the free Internet is slated for 2010 in Canada and, two years later, around the world. Canada is seen a good choice to implement such shameful and sinister changes, since Canadians are viewed as being laissez fair, politically uninformed and an easy target. The corporate marauders will iron out the wrinkles in Canada and then spring the new, castrated version of the Internet on the rest of the world, probably with little fanfare, except for some dire warnings about the "evil" of the Internet (free) and the C.E.O.'s spouting about "safety and security." These buzzwords usually work pretty well.

What will the Internet look like in Canada in 2010? I suspect that the I.S.P.'s will provide a "package" program as companies like Cogeco currently do. Customers will pay for a series of websites as they do now for their television stations. Television stations will be available on-line as part of these packages, which will make the networks happy since they have lost much of the younger market which are surfing and chatting on their computers in the evening. However, as is the case with cable television now, if you choose something that is not part of the package, you know what happens. You pay extra.

And this is where the Internet (free) as we know it will suffer almost immediate, economic strangulation. Thousands and thousands of Internet sites will not be part of the package, so users will have to pay extra to visit those sites! In just an hour or two, it is possible to easily visit 20~30 sites or more while looking for information. Just imagine how high these costs will be.

At present, the world condemns China because that country restricts certain websites. "They are undemocratic; they are removing people's freedom; they don't respect individual rights; they are censoring information," are some of the comments we hear. But, what Bell Canada and Telus have planned for Canadians is much worse than that. They are planning the death of the Internet (free) as we know it, and I expect they'll be hardly a whimper from Canadians. It's all part of the corporate plan for a New World Order and virtually a masterstroke that will lead to the creation of billions and billions of dollars of corporate profit at the expense of the working and middle classes.

There are so many other implications as a result of these changes, far too many to elaborate on here. Be aware that we will all lose our privacy because all websites will be tracked as part of the billing procedure, and we will be literally cut off from 90% of the information that we can access today. The little guys on the Net will fall likes flies; Bloggers and small website operators will die a quick death because people will not pay to go to their sites and read their pages.

Ironically, the only medium that can save us is the one we are trying to save -- the Internet (free). This article will be posted on my Blog: www.realitycheck.typepad.com
And I encourage people and groups to learn more about this issue. Canadians can keep the Internet free just as they kept text messaging free. Don't wait for the federal politicians. They will do nothing to help us.

I would welcome a letter to the editor of the Standard Freeholder from a spokesperson from Bell Canada or Telus telling me that I am absolutely wrong in what I have written, and that no such changes to the Internet are being planned, and that access to Internet sites will remain FREE in the years to come. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to write to the media, ask questions, phone the radio station, phone a friend, or think of something else to prevent what appears to me to be inevitable.

Maintaining Internet (free) access is the only way we have a chance at combating the global corporate takeover, the North American Union, and a long list of other deadly deeds that the elite in society have planned for us. Yesterday was too late in trying to protect our rights and freedoms. We must now redouble our efforts in order to give our children and grandchildren a fighting chance in the future.

~~~
Author's website:
http://realitycheck.typepad.com/

--
...-- End Of Forwarded Message -----

Tom Krohmer
Environmental Technologist
http://toxicreverend.blogspot.com/
aka
The Toxic Reverend
http://www.myspace.com/toxicreverend
aka
Justice Is Homeless
http://www.myspace.com/justiceishomeless

Database lists illnesses with toxic chemicals
that can cause them is now linked in with a
review and comments at :>
http://people.tribe.net/toxicreverend

Homicide Charges For Corporations
(Rough draft posted with active reference links)
http://www.angelfire.com/nm/redcollarcrime

Peer Reviewed Medical Journal on Chronic
Illnesses, cancers and Stealth Infections
from Bio-weapons of the non-lethal variety
www.immed.org
Note:
The Gulf War Vets have posted
"Beyond Treason"
http://www.gulfwarvets.com

Toxic Revelations; Censored information on
biological weapons and the health care
industry The censored rough draft has
been reposted
http://www.puppstheories.com/ToxicRevelations/tr.html

posted in Web Design - 1 reply

Wordpress Guru

2008-08-14T19:19:41Z

Hi,
I need some assistance in modifying my wordpress site.
I'd actually like to pay for 1-3 hours of Wordpress training...either on site or on phone

PM me

thanks
Jake

posted in Web Design - 0 replies

Slicing Into DIVs, rather than Tables

2008-08-14T16:43:57Z

First off, I am not sure if this is more appropriate to a web design or graphic design tribe so I am sorry if this is indeed OT.

Im wondering if there is a way to make use of the Photoshop slice feature in reference to div tags (rather than a tabled layout). Im new at Photoshop slices but am finding it useful to slice some of the images up in my layout. Still, it always outputs HTML code in table form (rather than divs). Im using CS3. Is there any setting that will help get it to DIVs rather than tables?

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

What are the drawbacks of Dreamweaver

2008-08-14T04:16:35Z

I'm wondering what everyones opinion is of dreamweaver. I am thinking of starting a company that designs web sites for local businesses at reasonable prices. Is this a feasible idea? I already am familiar with the basics of HTML coding, but beyond that, don't know much about the web design business and stuff, I would probably be getting someone else to do the server for now.

posted in Web Design - 16 replies

Web Design Portfolio Question: Hybrid Content

2008-08-08T02:53:18Z

I am getting into the mode of presenting stuff anew once my website hosting is affordable for me again. In the last month I have been doing alot of work in creating templates for a shopping program. I want to see if I can incorporate examples of hybrid designs in a good way. If I can, how can it be listed?

Kat

posted in Web Design - 8 replies

Avatars

2008-08-07T19:01:00Z

Anyone know of an Avatar Authoring program/widget I can put on a website to allow people to make their own avatars?

posted in Web Design - 2 replies

Liquid...but restricted

2008-08-06T18:27:37Z

I am all for liquid layouts. However is there any way to restrict layouts up to a point? Like, say you design a layout for 800x600, 1024x768, and 1200x960. What would be the way to restrict against higher resolutions, causing the design to stay maxed to 1200x960, the remaining right section just being blank (with your default background color)?

posted in Web Design - 22 replies

pngs in ie6

2008-08-04T20:13:36Z

o.k. so for all the dumbasses that #1 have a pc and #2 are using ie6:
what should i do about my pngs not showing properly
i can't make them transparent gifs cuz it looks fugly
is there a work-around?

posted in Web Design - 2 replies

RoR-- is this a really bad idea?

2008-08-02T02:07:05Z

my father-in-law Alex has offered to try to set me up with a friend of his who is authoring a web application. The application will be sold/licensed to companies all over; it looks like a client management database system from what I've seen so far. I think this is awesome that he's helping me find clients but there are two complications: one, Alex was not able to provide a detailed description of either what exactly the software will do or what still needs to be done with the code, since most of it has already been written by some guys in India; and two, the whole thing is written in Ruby on Rails, with which I have literally no experience whatsoever.

Well I hate to pass up a work opportunity so I agreed to a meeting and spent a couple hours reading up on Ruby. I get the object.method syntax; it's just the whole language of commands that are unfamiliar to me. I guess I can deal with the absence of the brackets and semicolons that define my life in PHP.

Thing is, like I said most of the code is already written: I *think* what he wants is to modularize it to streamline and eliminate redundancies redundancies; and it will need some debugging. So, the tutorials I was reading were very helpful for basic functions like using puts instead of echo to make simple math calculations but I'm not yet confident that I would be able to very quickly be able to modularize and debug a large program that someone else had already written.

So, Tribeland, what's your experience with Ruby? Is there another site someplace that would enable me to quickly and easily master this language? JavaScript is the closest I've come to it before and there are some pretty significant differences. I told Alex that he should be honest with his friend about my level of experience so it's possible the meeting may never happen; but if it does, I'd like to be able to go in there and sound like I know what I'm talking about. Advice? Sites to check out? What would you do in this situation? Run away, or jump on the bull's back? Thanks!

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

keeping a div {height: 100%} within the browser window

2008-08-01T03:34:48Z

I have a page I'm working on where there's a div that contains a table. This table is "taller" than the space available within the browser window. So what I'm trying to do is have the div, that is containing this table, stretch in height to fit the available space. When the enclosed table grows to enough rows, I want to have the div get a scroll bar (overflow: auto), so that you can scroll down the table, while keeping the rest of the page in place. And, if you resize the browser window, the height (and width) of this div & table should expand/contract.

So, I've been going around in circles on this one, with varying levels of success throughout the day. Here's the closest I've come:

http://www.gregroe.com/height_scr...v_TEST.html

Pardon the terrible colors and sloppiness....I've been mutating this code all day long and am just using the colors for spatial reference.

So, as you can see....the div & table are falling off the bottom of the browser window. I want it to stay within the window so that all content on the page is always within the confines of the window without having to scroll your browser...only scroll this div. The problem "seems" to be that none of the divs parent elements have absolute heights, so that height:100% is actually 100% of the height of the browser window...thus, since there's content above it, it drops off the bottom...... or?

A good example of this is on spreadsheet.google.com or calendar.google.com. Both of those use this effect, to keep the "application" on one screen, but allow scrolling of certain content areas - whilst keep the content fluid with changes in window size.

I'm trying to do this without javascript. However, I think, if all else fails, with JS, I could determine the total visible height of the browser view, subtract the space taken up by sections 1-4 above the div (see the link above) in question and have js dynamically set the divs height....refreshing when you change the window size, of course. If all other CSS attempts fail, I may try this, but I'm not a JS whiz...it "sounds" doable....but..... ;-)

posted in Web Design - 7 replies

Photoshop color issues

2008-07-31T03:49:15Z

Ever since i installed PS CS3 on my MacBook Pro running 10.5.3, I have had this weird color issue with Photoshop when saving for the web. It always seems to change my color shade ever so slightly. I can't tell what the rhyme or reason of it is but it has led to more than a few hours of frustrated color matching. For example, let's say I want #424242, it changes it to #434343. What gives? I've never had this problem before. I have all my settings just the same- even opt for as little image comporession as possible. The thing tht gets all out of whack is then trying to save backgrounds and matching them either to CSS styling that is a specific color or, for example a repeating background that ultimately merges with a graphc. The graphic ends up being SLIGHTLY off.

Has anyone else experienced this using Photoshop CS3? If so, what did you do to solve it?

Thanks!

posted in Web Design - 3 replies

Firefox display glitch?

2008-07-30T21:58:21Z

Hi all,
This one has got me stumped.

A couple years ago I wrote a very basic photo album script for a client website. Each thumbnail image is the input for a form; you click an image and it opens the larger image on a second page along with a couple words about the image. At the bottom of that page is a "back" link. So the whole thing is built in tables, yes, I wrote it a couple years ago, I don't feel too bad about that, and it's not like he wants to pay me to convert the whole thing to a div-based layout on principle...

Anyhow he called me last week and said there's a display glitch. I don't know when it might have started... but the glitch ONLY happens on Firefox 2. It does NOT do it on firefox 3, or on IE6, or on IE7. Only FF2. Which is his browser of course. And a lot of other people's...

The glitch is this: the page loads properly the first time. You click a picture, that works fine too. Then you click the "back" link, and for some reason the thumbnails table has a bunch of excess padding on the left, which pushes it all the way over into the right hand navigation bar. Weirder still, while the table is in the wrong place, when you click one of the thumbnails, instead of opening the full view page, it pops the table back over into its correct position but leaves a partial sliver of the images in the right hand column duplicated in the sidebar.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Is there a simple fix for it? He wasn't exactly thrilled with my explanation that it was a bug in his browser, especially since he saw the same glitch on a second computer (running the same browser). I'd really rather not take the time to rewrite the whole thing... so any ideas would be much appreciated!

Thanks! have a good one.

posted in Web Design - 6 replies

rss virgin

2008-07-26T21:40:22Z

I have a customer who has set up some feeds at RapidFeeds.
The generated code for PHP is the following:

<?
@readfile("http://mysite.rapidfeeds.com/mysite.php?mysite_id=13156");
?>

All of the links on the page go nowhere.
What am I missing?

See an example here:
http://www.studio222.biz/paincaremd/articles.php

Thanks in advance,

Dave

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

e-commerce, ssl

2008-07-25T17:28:11Z

i have a potential client who currently uses nexternal as her shopping cart software. HOLY CRAP. they are EXPENSIVE!! $250/month for a sub-standard system, it looks like.

she needs an SSL certificate and new hosting.

nexternal hosts the shopping cart section of the site (for $250).

she's paying 700/yr for her SSL certificate.

i'm thinking of re-doing her stie using osCommerce or another shopping cart (recommendations??!?!).

hostdime (i'm a hostdime reseller) offers SSL certificates to the reseller for $50/yr, plus $3/mth for the dedicated IP.

ok, so i'm looking for thoughts on shopping carts. i think i can get the best deal for her by just re-doing her site....

http://innovative-health.com

thoughts?
gertie

posted in Web Design - 2 replies

Switching to a server tech vs. existing search engine rankings??

2008-07-22T04:59:48Z

Hey all~

So I was working on a site as a subcontractor and the issue came up that as they increased the size of their site, "small" changes to nav bars and footers were becoming rather major. So the issue of a PHP or server-side include could simplify things, but the suffixes of the web pages would change and they were concerned that their ranking in search engines would drop and that was not acceptable.

I wasn't concerned with this when I recently redid my own site but did notice when checking search engines and with Google Analytics that the name changes from .html to .php did cause some issues.

So has anyone come up with a strategy for this type of situation? My first thought was to set up the old (html) home page to redirect to the php page but that seems kind of counter-productive.

Any thoughts out there?

SMS

posted in Web Design - 1 reply

if you want more clients, get pregnant

2008-07-16T02:23:15Z

ok, the subject line is a joke. ;)

i've been MIA because i got pregnant, required more naps, and haven't had the time or energy to do things like POST on discussion boards. yeah, i suck.

but seriously--i'm suddenly SUPER busy. ran into somebody on saturday that needs website fixing. then today (monday) a friend called, saying she wants to talk about getting a website. AND a client called to see if the person he referred had gotten a hold of me yet.

DANG!

that's how it's been going for the past month.

if you don't plan on getting pregnant, as a marketing tool, try this:

-TELL people you are swamped (if you're not swamped, GET swamped. start doing extra things for your current clients--for free. or, take more naps!)
-the first thing out of your mouth in a conversation (after you hear how they're doing) should be, "my web design business is going great!"

people WANT to work with swamped, happy people. it's the round-about way of saying, "my clients love what i'm doing for them and you will, too!"

-keep doing pet projects. remember the fun websites we did when we first learned how to code? we stayed up til 3am fixing that last bit of java.... and finally went to sleep EXCITED to see what people would be saying the next day about the site.... ahhh....... those were the days. we have to keep doing things like that! it keeps this industry fun, gives you motivation to learn some new things, and puts those bizarre stock photos to use.

my other half and i are now addicted to MOB WARS on facebook. he is an anal-retentive, super-competitive engineer. so.... he developed some calculations using excel to see how effective he would be in a fight. i started asking him, "ok, so i've got this many weapons, and i'm going up against a level 15 with 20 mobsters. do i have a chance of winning?" he adjusted his excel sheet a bit to find out. eventually i got sick of asking him to figure it out (so i would go ahead and attack anyway... and lose!). THEN, i said, "ya know--we could make a calculator and put it online and share it with our mobs!"

found some amazingly easy budget calculator javascript. did some thinking, testing, fighting and FINALLY--got attackfactor.com. i was so excited.

hadn't felt that kind of excitement over a web project since the INSANITY test i made.

one last tip--

-TRADE! with our current economy SUCKING, trade holds way more value than a dollar bill. i'm trading with a counselor, and now with my mid-wife. trade clients make for great stories to your cash clients. :)

ok, that's all for now. if i disappear for a long stretch again, blame the baby. ;)
gertie
http://wakinggirl.com

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

3rd Level Vertical Drop-Down Menu Positioning

2008-07-15T07:56:22Z

I have a site I am working on utilizing some drop down menus. The site is based on Wordpress but that doesn't seem to be the issue...
The site is: http://www.bamboodancer.com/bamboo

The "pages" of the site have been arranged on the right as a normal menu. The menu is supposed to have three levels-
Main
--Subpages
----SubSubpages

The positioning of the first two works nicely, with the drop down showing up to the left of the link.
The positioning of the third level ends up showing up where the second level menu does. For an example of this, look at the last link on the nav menu - "Links". I added several drop down levels there. On the second, you'll see that the next level shows up at the top. Obviously, this shouldn't happen.

How do i get it to show up next to (to the left of) the current item selected?

The stylesheet for the menu is here:
http://bamboodancer.com/bamboo/wp-content/plugins/drop-down-menu/dropdown_style.css

Any suggetions? My head is bloody from banging against the wall...

posted in Web Design - 8 replies

Building Complete Websites on Wordpress

2008-07-12T14:22:27Z

Hi,
I have a client now that wants to have his company's site built entirely on the Wordpress platform.

In theory, it makes sense to me to do it that way,..I think

I like that web updates and minor maintenance can be handled by the client...although I do have some fear that the client will find the 1, 2, or 100 ways to screw it up.
It also seems like there are many plugins to enhance the functionality of his site.

This particular client is going to hire someone to create the wordpress site from my photoshop designs.

Do any of you have experience doing this?
any pros or cons you can share?

I am considering this approach for another client's website, and am looking for some build advice...perhaps even a suggestion on resources to have someone build it.

This new site will have much more in news feeds, blogging, etc.
I'm thinking it might be a good idea.

thoughts?

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

Searchable Flash

2008-07-02T17:03:16Z

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Adobe__Google_and_Yahoo_Join_Forces_To_Make_Flash_More_Searchable

posted in Web Design - 2 replies

Linux Web Designers

2008-06-30T23:42:05Z

Anyone here use *nix primarily? Im just curious to know the interesting ways to do web design from a different OS.

For me, I have been using Kubuntu since Jan of 07. I run VMWare when I need to run programs that cannot be run on linux under wine or crossover.

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

server/hosting in the u.k.?

2008-06-19T15:35:56Z

i have a client based in london and need to recommend a site for domain and site hosting.

any suggestions?

posted in Web Design - 6 replies

Reseller Hosting Services?

2008-06-13T19:02:12Z

I checked in the archives to see what had been talked of in the past... but the last thread on this was two years ago so maybe there are some different opinions...

I am looking into hosting reseller accounts- I set up so many websites for people and although I get the commission of the sale through an affiliate program, i realized I'm actually missing out on what could be nice extra yearly income.

So... any experiences? Who would you recommend? Who would you avoid?

THanks

posted in Web Design - 10 replies

Lower Corner Images

2008-06-12T16:55:07Z

I have seen plenty of tutorials on how to use CSS for rounded corners in rectangles. However, there is nothing that covers a "cornerstone" image. How would you create one that will always sit in the bottom right corner no matter how wide someone's screen is? Would the positioning of that stand-alone element work using margins?

http://www.chicagotraindealers.com/manufacturers.htm
This looks like an option but it appears to use table elements.

http://www.albin.net/css/roundedcorners
This explains it somewhat better

Any input is appreciated. This would be my first corner layout but I think I am ready to break out of the box and at least TRY to develop something like this which is cross browser/cross resolution compatible

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

META tag formatting

2008-06-11T21:20:07Z

Hi. Does anyone have any concrete information about whether or not it is possible to format text in a META tag?

I've had a strange request from a client: he wants to use bold formatted text in his META tag description. I feel like this isn't possible and that the description will just appear as <strong>word</strong> in the search engine results, but I can't find any proof to confirm or deny.

posted in Web Design - 2 replies

Best Tool for User Upload Interactivity

2008-06-07T07:40:13Z

I am needing to create a simple site (not from scratch as I lack the skills and know how) that will allow me to create a few pages, but on those pages allow users to upload their own music and video. If weebly.com had the latter compatability - it'd be perfect as I love that tool... I am aware of joomla and drupal but before I dived into them to figure out if they'd even do what I want I figured I'd scope out the options.

Any suggestions?

I've examined: weebly.com, uber.com, googlepages.com, synthasite.com, wordpress.com, jimdo.com, sitekreator.com, webnode.com... none do this.

posted in Web Design - 25 replies

Japanse Screensaver Maker

2008-06-05T23:44:32Z

I'm working on a website that serves a Japanese audience and the client wants to offer screensavers as a free download. Plenty of screensaver makers out there, but none I can find that creates and installer in the Japanese language. Longshot, but any help?

posted in Web Design - 0 replies

Sorting

2008-06-04T22:57:44Z

What's the best way to sort columns when a user clicks on the column headings?

Tutorials, examples.
Currently using PHP.

Thanks

posted in Web Design - 7 replies

Favorite Photo Gallery Layouts

2008-06-03T23:49:06Z

My current website (http://www.geekeasy.com), is built around perl scripts I wrote 7 years ago.

Time has come to dump it, and rewrite it from scratch. I'm using the php symfony framework, for the coding in case anyone is curious.

But on to the question. I'm not thrilled with the way that my photo pages look. I need a new design, and am looking for good examples.

Does anyone have any photo gallery layouts that they really like?

Cheers for any help

posted in Web Design - 0 replies

FCKEditor font menu

2008-06-03T21:34:52Z

Does anyone know how to change the choices of fonts in FCKEditor? Client would like to have 'georgia' as a font choice. When I add it to the list in the fckconfig.js it seems to break the editor and it no longer shows up. I am using it in a Wordpress Site... (another one...!). Am I missing something? Is there another file that I must update as well?

posted in Web Design - 3 replies

ANY WEB DESIGNERS IN LOS ANGELES?

2008-06-02T23:47:39Z

Looking for web designers in LA. It shouldn't be this hard!
Went to Craigs list but there are so many high end people there
wanting top dollar. I'm a little guy, just need somebody reasonable
and cool.

posted in Web Design - 2 replies

Flash inside AJAX?! Why don't it work!!!???

2008-05-30T20:13:09Z

Hi Guys,

I've run into a small problem.
I'm trying to send variables from Javascript to Flash without having to upload the page.

I've been trying to do a test with this by having a flash swf with a text field inside it displaying the value of a variable.
I can send flash that variable at load time using flashvars, and flash dutifully displays this variable.

I would like to be able to then change that variable using javascript when i click on an html link.
This doesn't work, my guess is because it's not reloading flash.

So i figured if i put my flash file into an AJAX update panel which updates every half minute and then passed in the variable that would work...but nope! I know its not that the update panel isn't updating because its updating an asp.net label to display the time in seconds and that is updating fine. The flash however disappears after the first update.

I'm grateful for any comments or thoughts on this!

Thanks

posted in Web Design - 1 reply

I suppose I miss understood

2008-05-28T02:42:04Z

So I have an interview for web designer job in a few days. I spoke with the HR person, and she suggested I look at their website and tell her what I thought. She also asked me to look for a "people" page to read about those who worked there.

I looked at the site. The design is nice, but its all in Flash and so that breaks my back button. I see that they have a nav for the site when you turn off the style sheet, but its not the same as the main nav for the site. I thought the font was a little hard to read, since its flash. I did like some of the print things they did, and they seem to have some large clients. I like the layout, just thought the site could use some refinement. And I couldn't find the people page.

I told her what I thought of the site, from a designer/builder perspective, and she was kind of bothered. So it seems I was supposed to go to the site, and rave about the awards they've gotten, since thats what everyone else does. She kind of pointed out that I missed on what I was looking for, that I had messed up. Also she said that the "people" page was off the homepage, not the inside pages. I had went to every inside page, not any of their homepage sub navigation links.

Ive always built sites where any important was available from the home and inside pages, so people don't need to have to go to the homepage for anything they need, since most searches will take you to an inside page of your site.

I thought she wanted my design opinion on the structure and usability of the site...since Im applying for the web design job. I was asked this by another company...because they wanted my opinion on the usability of the site.

Just that, as a designer, I try to really think of these things, all the time.

Wouldn't any of you other designers out there think the same way??

posted in Web Design - 21 replies

what would you charge?

2008-05-26T22:58:24Z

howdy folks,
at easter dinner yesterday i was talking to one of my father-in-law's friends who used to work for IBM, and when I described a project I did last year he seemed to think I didn't charge enough for it. I don't know how much relevant experience he really has though so I'm wondering what all you folks think:

what would you charge for a completely custom finished goods inventory database in MySQL with a php interface that includes two levels of login (admin and client) where administrators can create additional users as well as add items, details and shipment histories; and the clients can view quantity and value of current inventory and place orders for new shipments.

like i said this is a done deal but i would like to know for the next one...

thanks!!!

posted in Web Design - 12 replies

Who works with Joomla.com

2008-05-26T22:25:43Z

i would love to know more about joomla cool ttyl

posted in Web Design - 9 replies

The Box Project

2008-05-26T17:32:43Z

Hi everyone.

I've got a homework assignment, and I'm a little lost, so I'm hoping for some feedback.
You don't have to give me the answer, I just don't know how to approach the problem.

I have to create various boxes using CSS (external). One of the boxes is as follows:

"Box 3
This is a box that has shaped corners and a border, and it will expand both vertically and horizontally as needed"

Here are my assumptions:
1. I will need 4, count'em 4 images for each corner because the box can expand horizontally and vertically:
- upper left
- upper right
- lower left
- lower right

2. I will be using these as background images while the main box div tag has a solid background color and a constant border.

3. The box will have to be one color (no gradients or web2.0 stuff b/c of the expanding-ness)

Originally, I thought about creating 4 divs, floating, so that I can specify the background image location and whatnot. However, I have to be able to add/subtract content within the box, and that might be tricky.

And I don't want to use tables. Because that's lame. Damn it.

Any ideas?

posted in Web Design - 7 replies

scrolling content in a div with the main scroll bar

2008-05-25T12:09:51Z

i've seen a few sites that move the content of a div using the side scroller (not giving a new one and cluttering up the page) !
does anyone have the feintest idea how this is acheived - its not css i'm assuming javascript axax who knows anyhow a hint in the right direction or a tutorial link would help alot -if any of you felt so kind !!!

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

Spry

2008-05-25T12:01:10Z

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/

Any thoughts? Usefulness? Is this a proprietary kind of thing? I came upon it because in the latest version of DW "spry" shows up in it's suggestions when it comes to code.

from their own website:
"In talking with web designers, we realized that while many were interested in creating rich interfaces, they weren't sure how to get started with Ajax. As we looked at the landscape of Ajax frameworks, we realized that many of them were more oriented to the skills of a programmer and were focused on application development. Based on the needs of the design community, we wanted to put forth an approach that is very “HTML-centric” to help them add basic interactivity to their page designs. In other words we've deliberately avoided inventing a whole new tag set or imposing a full programming model because we believe doing so would result in a much steeper learning curve for web designers. With Spry, you can simply infuse your HTML with dynamic data. We intend to integrate authoring support in future versions of our tools to further improve the experience for web designers and developers."

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

Trying to Find a Compromise - Background Image Design

2008-05-23T20:33:48Z

http://web-design.tribe.net/photos/98680979-5ac6-4d4a-974d-22acbd6c7b44

This is a screencap of the layout Im working on. Im leaning towards a non centered layout (I have done so many of those lately), with a left side nav menu. The background is of a sheet of latex and I want to get the symbols to incorporate into that without causing the background to be to "busy" (*shudders as she thinks of the 1990s in web design).

The client requested those symbols to be placed into the background somehow. One solution I had is to take the symbols and do an emboss effect on them, than fade them into the main aspect of the background. That could help keep the symbols subtle but noticeable. As noted by the blue guide lines, I do have all the symbols of equal scale vertically so that I could very well place them down the sides of the pages content (that is, if I do resign myself to an overall centered layout).

Any ideas how to get these symbols to work well with the latex sheet background element to produce a nice non-scroll background image?

Another idea I had is to use the latex sheet background, and produce 6 different background images that incorporate only one of the symbols each. The symbol would span across the entire length and width of the background. Done right, that could help conquer the busyness of the background but I would need a way to randomly generate the background image each time an end user loads a page or subpage. Is that practical or could it get laggy?

posted in Web Design - 17 replies

Maybe you know?

2008-05-23T07:22:00Z

This isn't specifically web design, but it is computer related so mebbe someone in here can help. I'm sick of being attached to a wall, my creativity is stagnating.

I have a Sony Vaio notebook (model VGN-SZ120P) and the battery is in its final death throes. The computer is nearly two years old, Sony doesn't even sell the battery online anymore.I'm gagging over Sony's $199.99 price tag for a replacement, but nervous about picking up a cheaper version.

The Sony replacement specs are 11.1V / 5200 mAh.

I've found other cheaper knock-offs for under $100 with specs 11.1V / 4400 mAh.

Is it worth it to get the more expensive one? Why or why not?

Does the difference in mAh matter in any way other than length of time it holds a charge?

Would it be more worth it to just get two of the cheaper ones, which still turns out cheaper than the single Sony replacement battery?

I tend to think that a Sony battery would be better with a Sony computer, but that's mostly just ignorance based fear talking...

Thanks!

posted in Web Design - 7 replies

osCommerce Affiliate

2008-05-23T07:19:43Z

Apparently there is an osCommerce afflliate system of some sort (http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,158) but it is in Alpha state... who knows... any ideas? Ever used it? If not that, then what? Client doesn't want to pay $100/month sooooo... what would u use?

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

XHTML 2.0?

2008-05-21T02:21:57Z

I was reading in the "W3C and Validation" thread Todd's comment about the XHTML moving up from 1.0 to 2.2. I was able to find the W3C's Working Draft of XHTML 2.0. I wanted to know if the browsers are starting to support it or if we still have to wait. Would also I like to know for HTML 5.0, as well as CSS 3. Thanks.

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

Riddle me this....

2008-05-12T14:54:05Z

Why after all these laborious revisions to the tribe system is there still no quote-reply freature? And why can they not pop in some sort of minimal formatting... maybe just blockquote and pre...

Does this just kill anyone else?

posted in Web Design - 16 replies

creating a ringtone web site

2008-05-10T10:04:11Z

hi folks... I just posted this one over on the "iphone tribe"... anyway I figured it would be appropriate to post a slightly modified version of the same post here:

So I decided to create a web page where I would put up some iphone ringtones I made from edits of my own musical creations - and make them available for free download!

I am on OSX.

In accordance with instructions I read online, I encoded my audio segments (which must be less than 31 seconds long) as m4a files using itunes - then copied the folder containing the m4a files onto my desktop and changed the suffixes of the ringtones to m4r.

(I discovered it is essential to duplicate the folder where the m4a files were and rename / reimport the duplicated m4a files NOT the originals, otherwise it will not work.)

Once this is done, the ringtones themselves work fine: I dragged them back into the itunes "ringtones" area and hit "sync" - and they upload and work fine in the iphone.

So I uploaded the ringtones to my website. However, when I option-click on the ringtone to download it... instead of downloading it as an m4r file, it downloads it as an "m4r.txt" file.

I can change the suffix back to m4r and all is good - but it would be great for my site's viewers not to have to go through all this.

How do I get them to download as straight m4r files? Any takers?

Also, superstyling bonus question... is there a way to get them to download straight to itunes?

My ringtone site is kinda silly / fun but it has 27 free cool bleepy electronic music ringtones sitting there for any iphone user who wants them: http://www.outerspaceringtones.com

**

Next project will be to create "flash rollover" instant auditioning - courtesy of the awesome http://www.beathive.com/playbutton which is a cool free tool allowing anyone to create instant audio previewing.

Then - to see if I can figure out how to make the ringtones available to users of other types of phone - I know nothing about this whatsoever; if anyone can point me in the direction of any resources in this regard I would be most thankful...

A.
:)

posted in Web Design - 3 replies

Creating printable documents from a cms-content database

2008-05-06T01:16:29Z

Any ideas on how this could work.? I'd like to design a single or double page print layout, preferably in InDesign, whereby the text and images that were uploaded to display on a client's website could also be used to generate the content for the pdf.

The client would thereby be able to just upload the content once and it be displayed on the website, and create a document to print.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm going to ask in th print design forums too...

posted in Web Design - 1 reply

Problems creating a text wrap within a div block

2008-05-02T21:05:52Z

This is somewhat related to the three-column post that was made a bit ago, as it deals with divisions that don't expand far enough.

Anyway, I've got a client who has testimonials on one of her pages which were formerly done as two-column tables with text on one side and photos on the other. I tried creating a testimonial style that is the same width as the old tables, then floated the photos either left or right, depending on where they wanted them. I set up classes to align the photos and add a bit of padding and the text wraps around it nicely.

Unfortunately, if there isn't enough text to extend beyond the bottom of the photo, the testimonial box ends too short and the photo hangs out of it. I had thought that setting the image to "display: inline" might do the trick but that didn't work either.

So has anyone had any success trying to set up text and photos within a division like this?

Thanks

SMSapphire

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

resume style?

2008-04-30T21:23:30Z

i'm not quite to the point of applying for jobs where the focus is strictly design, so i'm still in the phase where the hiring process focuses on the resume, not a portfolio. that said, i recently saw a friend's resume and now i'm completely...discouraged. her resume is awesome. polished and modern and awesome. it's actually...*pretty*. and she got a job at a company where i didn't even get a callback.

i always thought that a resume was supposed to be utilitarian. you know...10 point arial and all that. that's the only style of resume i've ever seen. frills have always been frowned upon. but now i'm all confused.

if you (yes, you personally) submit a resume for a job, do you use a "just the facts" approach, or does it have design elements and graphics in it?

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

Who owns the site? Work for hire?

2008-04-30T18:56:51Z

Hey all,

I have a situation... My wife paid another performing artist to create a website for her, which in their arrangements included hosting.
For my understanding this is a work for hire, since he would not have made this website otherwise, without her payment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire

Now that the registry of her URL is coming up, he does not want to send us the files for the site so we can reload it onto the hosting plan that I have for my websites. He claims it is not their policy to release files. We like the base design, while the mystery meat navigation is slow and buggy, the base of the design is nice. We offered to keep his design credits unless a complete overhaul occurs, since we like the visual layout. For my knowledge, my wife paid for:
1. graphic design of the site
2. hosting from web release until this summer, seperately from basic design cost
3. registry of her URL, which was put in her name under his business.

What to do?
Do we keep the base design and re-script the back-end if he chooses to not send the files of the complete site?
What exactly are you buying when you contract for a site to be built, if not the files that comprise the site?
Recommendations?

Many thanks,
MT

posted in Web Design - 26 replies

CSS 3-column height 100%

2008-04-26T20:06:48Z

Started coding my site, but running into the same issue of 3 columns, height=100%. I never could get it to work without using a table.

www.ockhamdesign.com

Can't get it working in Firefox.

Problem 1 - White content area doesn't stretch to the bottom of RED BLOCK test area. Cause: html { height:100%}

Problem 2 - If html { height:100%} is removed AND red block area is reduced from height: 1000px to height:10px, white content area doesn't stretch to height 100% of the window.

Things that I don't want to do:

1. Use a background image.
2. Use any code not compatible to IE 5.5

posted in Web Design - 8 replies

Have Projects - Need more WebMasters

2008-04-24T21:42:07Z

Hello

If you enjoy working on web projects and can meet agreed deadlines, I would be interested in hearing from you.
The skill and motivation range in this field is very wide and resumes with buzz words are worthless to me. I prefer a one page letter that touches on three points related to your web work: 1) What you have done in the last few years; 2) What do you enjoy doing; and 3) What you would like to learn more about (or do more of).

I am currently looking at Drupal as a potential solution for a big project. Every project is subcontracted 1099 work.

Portland/Vancouver area folks are preferred so we can meet once in a while, but all will be considered. Email me if you are interested.

Rev

posted in Web Design - 0 replies

best host ratings? really?

2008-04-22T03:17:32Z

I found this site which supposedly gives rankings for the sites with the best host ratings and uptime statistics: http://uptime.besthostratings.com/webhosts-uptime.php

However, Many of those companies listed have been panned here for being terrible web hosts, particularly for biz. (such as Lunarpages and GoDaddy) Any thoughts on this?

(I found the site above while investigating a service outage. Dreamhost is currently having a massive meltdown for one of it's servers, leaving many customers like myself without email for 6 days now. Some people also haven't had access to their web servers to update or transfer files, in addition to having MySQL problems. DH says it doesn't expect the problem to be fixed until end of week (at best), which means we're looking at a 10-14 day outage.)

posted in Web Design - 22 replies

Website Width

2008-04-19T06:51:46Z

In general, what width do you create your web pages

I have a client that wants 960 wide
I only have a "feeling" thats too wide
I could be totally off base

I have not really looked into any studies or most common sizes

this assumes that the design is a static width, of course

how about y'all

posted in Web Design - 9 replies

loading javasctipy from css

2008-04-15T05:02:58Z

is it possible?

Why in gods name would i want to?

I am working within the confines of a clients annoying CMS designed by someone else who is unresponsive to my requests. So i have access to the CSS but have yet to find access to the entire header template so that I can link to js. So in thinking about workarounds is there a way to have a notation in a stylesheet to load a js file? I know you can load css with JS but what about vice versa?

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

Your training: an informal survey

2008-04-10T05:30:30Z

Howdy folks,
I hate admitting I'm a beginner but for the purpose of starting this discussion I will journey into the realm of full disclosure: I've only been studying website design for less than 5 years now, pretty much completely self-taught with assistance from various books, websites, and Pixel ;)

I took some art electives in college but never an actual design class. I first learned to use Illustrator on the job, doing typesetting for a greeting card company starting about 9 years ago I think. That didn't involve much graphic design either so really I'm self-taught with my graphics programs since I got CS and MX about... 5 years ago.

When I was a kid I used to write programs in BASIC for my Commodore 64 (anybody remember those??). But I never got into MS-DOS or command-line *nix programming.

So it's been a major crash course for me, picking up css, php, mysql, and javascript on the fly, not to mention figuring out layers, the pen tool, vector masks and etc. The crash course has involved many, many late nights debugging and testing the same page or script over and over while cursing. It's getting better...

Anyways, I'm just wondering, how long have YOU been building web pages? Did you get a degree in computer science, take any programming courses in college, or major in graphic design?? Or have you, like me, been learning on the job? An informal survey, all are invited to respond!!!

--jj

posted in Web Design - 12 replies

search engine question

2008-04-08T09:53:10Z

I know that using "display:hidden" and the like will cause a search engine to block a page from their search results but what about using "text-indent:-10000px". For example, with an unordered list of links, where the links are display:block and then the actual links are background images with the text is indented of the page. Or in the header- a large graphic banner with descriptive text (this site blah blah keyword blah keyword blah....) where the text is indented off the page yes is displayed as a block link the size of the banner that is being used as a background. Do you think this is as harmful to SEO as :hidden or font-size:0px or the like?

I looked in the google guidelines and it doesn't seem to say anything about the specific attribute of indentation and so many sites use this method of displaying links that such that it seems counter productive to prohibit it.

posted in Web Design - 11 replies

email and server redundancy with hosting?

2008-04-04T01:53:27Z

sortof off topic-ish...

One of the comments on the Dreamhost site was a guy stating has a backup service for his site, so that if DreamHost goes down the site is switched to another service and there's no apparent downtime for users -- and of course berating everyone else who doesn't do this without actually giving any info as to how. I'd love to do this, but can't see how it's possible without having to manually create a duplicate of every directory on a separate host AND manuallly go into the primary domain host and change the settings to point to the alternate whenever there is a problem. As I understand it, a domain can only point to a single location and unless you are operating the servers yourself you can't arrange an automatic backup. While you can have another url that mirrors the original location, you can't have the same domain mirrored on 2 separate hosting companies.

Can someone clue me in on how to do something like this so if my web host service is down for several days my work is not interrupted and clients can still access files on their server directory?

probably more important than some kind of server redundancy is email redundancy. keeping in mind that I need to be able to send AND receive messages from my domain account, is there a way to also have some kind of backup so that if one host goes down another can pick up the slack?

posted in Web Design - 3 replies

need help - IE hates my CSS layout

2008-04-03T22:39:18Z

Hi guys, once again I stand before you looking for help.

My portfolio site, www.internalimages.com, has been having problems with IE ever since I've changed the layout to CSS. Basically none of the internal links work in it (it's a one page landing page with a small selection of my design work as examples along it).

Odd thing is in Firefox it is a thing of beauty and works just fine. So I was wondering if anyone could pop over and check it out for me. Have a look at the code and see if they can spot what's causing this problem.

As I'm using the site to promote myself to potential clients/employers it's quite important that I fix this problem soonish so as not to look like a total berk to them.

My thanks and respect to you all, especially the first to help me with this problem.

Cheers.

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

Designing website layout/graphics in Photoshop...or InDesign?

2008-04-03T22:37:22Z

Hey folks,

I design the layout and visual graphics of websites which I pass on to programmer. I usually use photoshop for this, but I spend more time in InDesign and find it better for layout. I've never used it for web layout because it's really a print layout, and most web designers have photoshop - but not all have InDesign - to open the files. But it can export 72dpi jpegs so why not? I could still do all the image editing in PS but place them in a layout in ID. Jpeg files are probably just as easy to work with, other than guides...hmmm...only cmyk color output in ID....anything else? No copy/paste text in jpegs...maybe it's best to stick with PS?

Has anyone used InDesign for web layout? Pros & cons over Photoshop?

And for programmers who receive comps from layout designers, any feedback regarding what makes your life easier...tips or tricks with files, guides, layers, format, etc.?

posted in Web Design - 13 replies

W3C and Validation

2008-04-03T04:46:36Z

Hey there

Im curious to know your thougthts re: the W3C and getting your site validated for such. How important is it?

Also, for Dreamweaver users: Do you use their official validator or do you have some sort of plugin extension that you use to validate in the case of editing pages that arent quite live yet? Post links if you can.

Im researching a bit on the invention of w3c and want to get more opinions (the wiki article doesnt cover much)

Kat

posted in Web Design - 13 replies

how long do you like the design of your websites?

2008-03-31T04:28:11Z

I'm currently design v3 of my wife's Red Thread Stories site and I realize that I don't like her Attic Box Stories site which I finished a month ago.

I'm infatuated with my current design until the next one comes along. Then I look back at the site I just did and see all the mistakes I made in the design.

Is anyone else like that?

posted in Web Design - 3 replies

Something simple: Revisiting Forms

2008-03-30T06:40:27Z

Hello

Its been a while since a form was actually necessary for my site but I would like to have one set up in hopes of finding some sort of method (like a cgi-bin script) that will help keep spammers from abusing the form and successfully hiding the email address that the form is sending to. Ideas?

posted in Web Design - 9 replies

Flash drop down menu workaround?

2008-03-29T18:42:45Z

So here's the thing: my drop down menu works on it's own and when overlapping other Flash objects in the same swf, but I need it to work while overlapping html content visually. The main nav's on top as a separate swf; the coded content follows and is positioned absolutely with css up and over the white space of the swf - which is probably why the buttons aren't working :-/

Problem #1: the white space needed to allow for the longest parts of the drop down sometimes block out that portion of the (html) content completely (but not always).

Problem #2: the (swf) links overlapping the content don't work

Is there a way to set on(Rollover) in actionscript so that only that particular movie clip becomes dominant (functions over the html content)? Or something in html/css that would establish some kind of conditional hierarchy? A way to force the Flash document background to be transparent? I'm stuck...

posted in Web Design - 3 replies

osCommerce

2008-03-28T23:23:05Z

People are really slow to answer in the osCommerce forum, so I thought I would try here.

I have had a site up an running for over a year with out any issues.
The other day a credit card was charged and no order information was added to the database.

The only thing that changed was the SSL Certificate.
I thought it was going to be renewed automatically but it expired.
So I renewed it.

After that, I noticed that the Payment Method in the checkout process was not displaying.
In fear of my site having been hacked, I shut it all down, changed all of the passwords, Installed a newly downloaded version on a different server, then I imported my data from my old store.

The Payment Section is still missing?
There is no way for a customer to enter their credit card info anymore.

Yes, I intsalled the Authorize.net module in the admin section.

WTF?

I am stuck.

Dave

posted in Web Design - 0 replies

"alt tags are ugly" (sigh)

2008-03-27T16:59:31Z

ok, so I have a client who is totally new to the web. I mean, totally new. As in I had to write out instructions for them on how to use a browser, how to view a file, how to download a jpg, how to make a directory on their computer, etc. just so we could communicate and review designs. They're smart, they're just not in any way computer or web savvy.

So the site is very simple, just brochure-ware, which is all they can afford and really all they need right now. It has been designed, approved, and coded. I included the alt tag info for all images, as per the standard. The client now wants me to remove them because "they're ugly". Seriously.

I've explained what the alt tags are used for, that they're part of web standards, that they're only visible when you leave your mouse over an image for a prolonged period so they're not interfering with the design, that we can't change the style to something designy. I've also explained how they can be useful to the users, such as providing the product name of the item pictured. None of this matters. They want me to take them all out.

So to make the client happy I'll remove them.
But I was wondering if some of you have encountered this before and what else I could to explain web standards to a client.

posted in Web Design - 18 replies

functions calling functions

2008-03-27T12:46:33Z

a truncated outline of my javscript:

***************************

function addEvent (object, userAction, func, useCapture){
...
};

myXhr={

doIt:function(container,url){

...defines stuff...

request.open('get',url,true);
request.onreadystatechange=function(){
if(request.readyState == 1){

...loading message...

}
if(request.readyState == 4){
if (request.status && /200|304/.test(request.status))
{
myXhr.retrieved(request);//-----this line throws an error-----//
} else{
myXhr.failed(request);
}
}
}
...more details...
},

retrieved:function(requester){

alert('retrieved!');

.....more stuff to do when the XML is retrieved.....
},

failed : function (requester){
alert("The XMLHttpRequest failed. Status: "+requester.status);
return true;
},

cancelClick:function(e){//so we use ajax instead of re-loading the page

...
},

}//end myXhr

function setURL(e){
....
}

function setup(){
var pnls = document.getElementById('portNav').getElementsByTagName('a');
for(j=0; j<pnls.length; j++){

addEvent(pnls[j], 'click', setURL, false);
addEvent(pnls[j], 'click', myXhr.doIt, false);
addEvent(pnls[j], 'click', myXhr.cancelClick, false);

}
}

addEvent(window, 'load', setup, false);

*****************************

Seems like it should work!
I get the loading message, and then Firebug throws an error:

"myXhr is not defined"

in the line where, on successful completion of the xhr, it is supposed to call the function:

myXhr.retrieved(request);

I'm sure it's bad syntax or something simple. Does the answer jump out to anybody???

posted in Web Design - 6 replies

Background Image File Size

2008-03-26T02:40:48Z

I've created a gradient background, but the file size was over 400 Kb (as a png), so I went to a GIF and now I've got 178 KB - still too big right?

I noticed that sites use just a "sliver" of an image for their background (don't think we are talking slices here) - but it seems to be stretched to fill the body.

Examples:

http://images.zap2it.com/html/oxygen/images/background.gif
http://img.meetup.com/img/13521185887551/bg_chapter_lite_1.gif

- or -
guess how big the BG image is for this textured background:
http://answers.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTFsNTBlcDVhBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDMzk2NTQ1MTAzBHNlYwNmcF90cm91Z2gEc2xrA2Fuc3dlcnNsaW5r
see the tiny GIF?
http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sch/gr/bggreydiag.gif

What's going on with these background images?
How can I do this?

Thanks,
Will

posted in Web Design - 11 replies

What I learned about CSS2 this morning

2008-03-25T12:20:55Z

Hey all~

So I was wrestling with what I thought would be an easy problem—setting up a two-column layout for a links page. I was using two divs that were placed using float:left in the style sheet in a class called "2column" and they, in turn, were inside of a content division. Everything looked great in Dreamweaver and locally, but when I uploaded to the server, the text was in one long column that ran over the footer!

I tried all kinds of tweaks to the positioning and even deleted the content div to no avail. Finally, I went and tried to validate the stylesheet and got an error message stating that under CSS2 standards, numbers can't be used as the first character in a style name unless you use an escape character ahead of it! *sheesh!* It also flagged two other styles that had grammatical errors that didn't affect the page display.

So I fixed the errors, they changed the name of the class to "two_column" and it worked great! I guess that's what I get for not using a free tool that could have saved me a bunch of debugging time!

SMSapphire

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

Acid3 Is Here

2008-03-24T19:19:01Z

http://acid3.acidtests.org/

posted in Web Design - 10 replies

Portfolio Problem Solving

2008-03-23T22:53:04Z

Okay...I know this is not specific toward technical aspects of web design but I thought I would ask it here:

What is a good format for showing your portfolio in a way that provides a within domain view of one's previous work? I know most web designer portfolios may show a description of previous website jobs and then provide a link to the online website in question. However, what is a good way to present sites you have worked on, but which are no longer online due to circumstances beyond your control? Does a web designer just have to settle for not using that in thier folio once the site's company owner goes out of business or takes down the site that you had a part in designing?

Or...

Could one creatively display those now defunt page designs in a seperate section that could document "types of website design, types of websites" you want to show as an example of how a potential clients site COULD Look like if they were to choose you?

Thoughts? Ideas?

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

source for hiring experienced web designers and developers?

2008-03-18T23:45:22Z

In the past I've had great difficulty finding good freelance/contractor help. Well, "great difficulty" is an understatement. I don't try to undercut people when it comes to rate and I don't try to drive people into the ground with round-the-clock work hours. And yet...

Can anyone recommend sources for finding EXPERIENCED, QUALITY web designers and/or developers? Places to advertise or agencies to use?
To be clear I'm looking for both a designer and a separate developer, not one person to do both jobs.

I'm looking for people who:
can work on complex, multi-site, 6 figure projects
can take direction
can meet deadlines
can work entirely remotely via internet and still be reliable
don't need to be taught on the job
are at a senior level of experience
are professional enough to have phone meetings with clients
are actually worth the rate they're asking

Not folks trying it out. Not people who claim to be a designer or developer but actually have only created 3-page sites for their local bar or band while working from their Mom's basement. Not people who need to be spoon fed and hand held. Not people who want to take my project to get experience. ;)

Suggestions are much appreciated. :)
If you have specific names/contacts please PM me the details rather than post them publicly here.

posted in Web Design - 20 replies

Database Driven Something or Other

2008-03-17T05:06:09Z

Ok, so i received an email from a referred client asking for a price quote (as follows)... it seems to be a bit over my head but before I find someone else to work with (I'm a designer/programmer not a programmer/designer) I'm wondering if anyone could tell me wtf this person is asking for... would this be some kind of online system? is there one out there? have you ever made something like this before? did you hack something else (joomla or something...)...

THANKS!

the description of the project (no i'm not posting here looking for a partner... sorry!)

We are curious to receive a quote for a comprehensive Mac comptable
scheduling, billing, and filing system integrating shopping cart,
ezine capabilities, database, and querying functions and that also
includes your assistance set up of those items listed in the previous
proposal. Here is what we are considering:

A database which contains and links all together:

-Client basic information (tab 1)

-links to calendar

-links to address book

-links to shopping cart

-links to querying function (all tabs linked to query system)

-links to possible billing system

-sends automatic request for updates annually

-sends automatic reminder for update if update is not
received after a period of time

-sends automatic notice to administrator after 3rd contact
request for update

-Client treatment sessions general (tab 2)

-links to iCal and payment processing system

-links to iCal to store treatment date.

posted in Web Design - 1 reply

active page link in navbar

2008-03-17T04:52:29Z

So trying and trying to figure this out, as it is something i have always wondered about and we all know what it is:
The link to the page that you are on, on any given website, in the navbar displays differently- maybe the "active" state or something, than all the rest. this is easy enough to do if there is a short list of links, etc. But if there is a super long list that is called on from elsewhere than how do you get link to the page that you are on to display in a different state than all the rest? So that, for instance, the "current page-link" remains yellow when the rest are green when you are on that page. Same with all the rest. And I imagine that, if i have different graphics for all of them, and the graphic contains all three states: a:link, a:hover and a:"current page" and it is controlled by CSS shifting of the background of the a/block tag then there is some way to get it to remain in the current page state through CSS... without having to add another style to that individual link (or taking something away, on a per page basis that is), which would then be different on each page.

<link> <link> <link> <link> <current page-link> <link>

Hopefully that makes sense... thanks!

posted in Web Design - 7 replies

Clickable Area

2008-03-14T22:43:25Z

What is the best way to increase the clickable area around a link.
I am building a calendar and I want the entire box to be clickable around each number.

Thanks,
Dave

posted in Web Design - 5 replies

Need Help - PHP don't work on my PC/Mac

2008-03-11T19:16:18Z

HI guys,

I've recently decided to try and learn php.

I bought a book and everything :)

Only problem is that I can't seem to get PHP to work on either my Pc or Mac.
Pc is Vista with II7
Mac is Leopard with Apache.

I've googled tutorials on this and nothing seems to work.

On my mac I installed the package from php.net and then changed a httpd.conf file to have LoadModules uncommented.
Still didn't work tho.

On PC i've tried a whole host of different things to try and get it working, but no luck.

I'd really appreciate anyone who can help me on this, undoubtedly some of you guys have PHP running on your machines.
Did you guys have the same problems?

posted in Web Design - 8 replies

Forum Apps (phpBB or ??? )

2008-03-10T02:58:29Z

I have a client/firend that took down a forum he had running awhile ago because it got over run with spam posts. He was running phpbb 2.0.17. Now hes at a poitn where the organization needs a forum back online again.

My question is what are the best OSS (GPL, LGPL, BSD, Apache, MIT) php based forum software out there in terms of security and anti-spam counter measuers? Normally Id say ill build you something as he doesnt need anything terribly complex, but he doesnt have the funds to pay for custom development at the moment. I see phpbb is now on a 3.0 branch so it may be theyve addressed this issue (im still digging through the change docs) but obviously im wary...

Any recommends?

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

how to constrict a tables height instigating a scroll function???

2008-03-07T18:21:58Z

Yo web gurus!

wondering how to constrict a tables height instigating a scroll function (more info then can be shown within height)...

I tried an iframe, but for some reason I can't figure it out...

thanks in advance!

posted in Web Design - 8 replies

Web Design Education Suggestions??

2008-03-04T03:38:30Z

I am wanting to learn more about designing websites using Dreamweaver CS3.

Any Suggestions on educational books, instructional DVD's, online tutorials, etc.

As of now, I have very little experience with website design.

Mui Gratzie~

~L

posted in Web Design - 4 replies

DW users.. what do you think of the new SPRY stuff?

2008-02-27T14:35:03Z

I just upgraded to the Dreamweaver CS3 today. I haven't had much chance to really dig into it, but I was curious what others think of the new Spry tools and widgets? Any non-DW users are welcome to speak up, of course too.

posted in Web Design - 2 replies