I've done it!

[Cat7139]

At last, after almost 3 weeks of tearing my hair out, getting very frustrated and on one occassion having a good boo
I've finally cracked it.

My web site is there!! Not brilliant and needs a few changes which will come in time.

Thanks to all who helped me with Dreamweaver.

What do you think about it?

Catherine
www.pictureburgundy.com

[roxytoo]

Hi Catherine

Congratulations! I know the feeling of tearing your hair out etc as I am just embarking on my site too!! Paulo has kindly suggested maybe we all could review other sites more, I can only do that on my visual reaction as I know nothing about meta tags, pagw widths etc etc so here goes but remember I am only a complete beginner too!!

Overall I like the way your site is presented, clear and concise. However one thing I do not like (and this is only a personal opinion!) is the typing of capitals to 'make a point' (unless its a link) as I feel it makes the reader feel disjointed (well it does me!) and feels like you are shouting!. The menu at the top is too close and there is a lot of space at the bottom of the pages (my problem too so when you get to fix it can you let me know!!)

Hope this helps!!

[charles]

Hi Catherine,

Wow what a difference! A like the change of colour in the text and the bold to emphasise the key points. But I agree that on the first page you could tone down the large font effect - or maybe take off some of the bold.

I think the menu would look better centered (like you have on the cost page) and possibly re-positioned directly under the Painting and Discovery graphic.

If you want to add spaces between the menu entries add '&nbsp' (without the quotes) between the menu links, like so:

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<p align="left" class="bodytext"><a href="index.html">Home Page</a> <a href="theregion.html">The Region</a> &#91;b&#93;&nbsp&#91;/b&#93; <a href="paintingholidays.html">Painting Holidays</a> &#91;b&#93;&nbsp&#91;/b&#93; <a href="wineandotherbreaks.html">Wine and Other</a> etc.

There's a small spelling mistake on the who we are page: "In tody's modern ..." (Dreamweaver has a built-in spelling checker - click on text in the menu - deson't matter how many times you read your own text, there's always something lurking somewhere )

You also need to give titles to your pages - at the moment they all say untitled. Give different titles to different pages to keep Mr Google 'appy.

The other thing I found is that it was difficult which page I was on - a graphic with the page name may help.

And maybe some ALT tags on the images.

There you go, sorted your day out for you. Put that paint brush down!

Cheers
Charles

[vrooje]

Catherine,

Looking good!

I agree with the sentiment that the menu should be centered. Some just add spaces between menu items to separate them (using the code

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for each forced-inserted space, as Charles said). I personally use the pipe character, "|" -- on my US keyboard it is above the backslash. If you want to do that, you can use the code

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<P class=bodytext align=left><A href="index.html">Home Page</A> | <A href="theregion.html">The Region</A> | <A href="paintingholidays.html">Painting Holiday</A> | <A href="wineandotherbreaks.html">Wine and Other</A> | <A href="Who%20we%20are.html">Who We Are</A> | <A href="cost.html">Cost</A> | <A href="Booking%20Form.html">Booking Terms</A> | <A href="mailto&#58;info@pictureburgundy.com">Contact Us</A></P>

I also agree that the menu should perhaps go below the sub-title for each page, to make the sub-titles more clear on what each page is about (right now it looks like part of the text).

One other thing with regards to the menus: they are not the same on all pages. "The Region" link is missing from the region page, the "Travel" link is missing from the Travel page and I believe also the "Who We Are" page, and the Booking Terms page also has a different menu. For continuity's sake I would make sure all these menus are the same.

One other thing: page titles! All your page titles right now say "Untitled Document," which could really punish you in terms of search engine placement. You should definitely customize those as well.

Cheers!

[paolo]

Catherine,

First of all, well done for persevering! I really like the name of the site - Picture Burgundy. Clever and memorable.

Now am I being a bit thick or have you forgotten to mention the accommodation on this site? Presumably these courses are to get people to stay with you?

Some improvements I would suggest for your next round of changes:

- Your typeface - Times New Roman - is best avoided for websites. It's very old hat, and not in a good way. If you want a similar but better typeface, try Georgia. Or see if you don't prefer Arial.

- Picking out certain words in a different colour is a good idea but only if used sparingly to highlight the key topics. I think it's overdone on your site by a factor of 3. Words like 'ideal' 'en-suite' and 'place' do not need highlighting, only words like 'antiquities', 'wine' and 'painting' do.

- I'm sorry if I am stepping on your artistic toes here but the top graphic under 'Painting and discovery holidays' could be easier on the eye. If it is there it should be for a reason, and the only explanation I can think of is that it's a site that includes painting holidays and the graphic has several colours in it.

[Cat7139]

Hi to all,
Thanks for all the useful comments. They are so helpful.

Meishka, when I sort the page space out I will let you know.
I'm paranoid about changing or editing anything at the moment but will have a go soon.

Charles, typo errors are a pain. Yesterday , in a meeting with our bank manager who speaks no English at all (perhaps a few words), he kindly pointed out another mistake. How embarrassing was that!?

With regard to the titles on the pages. I have titles on each page. How do I make them more accessible to the search engines. I don't quite understand.

Brooke, I'll use your code to space the menu. Thanks. I've been struggling with the menu bar. It needs revamping.

Paolo, I have used Eurostyle all the way through and not Times New Roman. I hope you are seeing what I'm seeing. The colour lozenge is as you thought and reflects the art thing. I explain about the accommodation on the home page. If it's not clear I'll have to find another way of emphasising it.

Keep the comments flowing.
Catherine

[paolo]

Paolo, I have used Eurostyle all the way through and not Times New Roman. I hope you are seeing what I'm seeing.

Catherine,

Eurostile is a nice san-serif typeface but I am seeing Times New Roman. That's because Eurostile is not a 'web-safe' font.

Web-safe fonts are ones installed by your browser, e.g. Internet Explorer. If you don't use one of these, you can't control how people are going to see your site. Using Explorer as a browser I am seeing your site in unflattering Times New Roman.

Here are the web-safe fonts, and how they look:



If you want a san-serif font I would use Verdana because this font was designed speifically to be legible on-screen. Of the serif fonts, Georgia was also designed for the internet.

[eamonn]

Hi catherine
Beautiful job on web site the only things I would look into are as follows,
1 your highlights in the text give me a feeling of links and frustration when there are none, try something different, underlining or itallics.
2 ther is a lot of blank space at the bottom of your pages, the program you used probably has a way of changing page setup or maybe crop the pages.
I,m not being critical it is a great site.
best of luck
Eamonn