Website re-fit review please?
I could always ask him Ros - I take it you'd want Ros-y cheeks as well.
Debut novelist at http://tinyurl.com/or89jle
http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
All bums on back order. Sorry for the delay.
Debut novelist at http://tinyurl.com/or89jle
http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
Oooo, cheeky!
Debut novelist at http://tinyurl.com/or89jle
http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
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Giddy Goat
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Thank you very much for the link, Pauline. Very grateful and have bookmarked it. Good excuse for a new camera, and more trips to France!
Absence of pointy things - hmmm; we have Enid and Ros suffering from this at present. Anyone else?
Seriously, and just to remind peeps, when you hover the mouse on one of the main menu tabs (not 'Home'), you should get an arrow - then when you hover over one of the sub-menu tabs which will appear, you'll get a pointing hand symbol. If not, could you let us know, and in which browsers please? 
Absence of pointy things - hmmm; we have Enid and Ros suffering from this at present. Anyone else?
Seriously, and just to remind peeps, when you hover the mouse on one of the main menu tabs (not 'Home'), you should get an arrow - then when you hover over one of the sub-menu tabs which will appear, you'll get a pointing hand symbol. If not, could you let us know, and in which browsers please? Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
GG,
I know I'm coming late to the review session but... I think this looks great!
I agree that the pictures are really stunning. I was going to remark along the same lines as Andy Lucia that they are a little small on my monitor and that there is a lot of empty space on either side of the page content, but then I remembered that this is my husband's widescreen laptop with ridiculously high resolution, so the page width is probably appropriate on most monitors.
I think that on a few of your pages, you might consider breaking up the text into smaller paragraphs. For example, your Au Chicot page describing the accomodation could start new paragraphs when you switch from the bedrooms to the sitting room to the kitchen, etc. It's not that you'd change your content, but I think that as a general rule people prefer to read shorter paragraphs (something I myself need to work on).
I love that your clicked-on photos all open in a new window, but the same new window. That's perfect. If you want to get more advanced, you could have the pop-ups open not the image, but a page with the image and a caption embedded. It'd just be an extra touch, but it would help explain, e.g., what some of the images in The Area section depict.
As I was browsing, it occurred to me that it might be nice to have the sub-menu (or some form of it) visible when you're on one of the relevant pages. For example, on any of the three Au Chicot pages, it might be nice to have the "Location", "Inside", and "Outside" links immediately visible. Though that could be something I feel the need for only because I'm using this huge-resolution monitor with an insensitive touchpad as my only mouse (so activating the menus and keeping them activated is not that easy).
These are all just suggestions for improvements, not flaws, I think. Congratulations to you and Richard!
Oh, and about the menus: I do get arrows where I should get arrows, and pointy hands where I should get pointy hands.
I know I'm coming late to the review session but... I think this looks great!
I agree that the pictures are really stunning. I was going to remark along the same lines as Andy Lucia that they are a little small on my monitor and that there is a lot of empty space on either side of the page content, but then I remembered that this is my husband's widescreen laptop with ridiculously high resolution, so the page width is probably appropriate on most monitors.
I think that on a few of your pages, you might consider breaking up the text into smaller paragraphs. For example, your Au Chicot page describing the accomodation could start new paragraphs when you switch from the bedrooms to the sitting room to the kitchen, etc. It's not that you'd change your content, but I think that as a general rule people prefer to read shorter paragraphs (something I myself need to work on).
I love that your clicked-on photos all open in a new window, but the same new window. That's perfect. If you want to get more advanced, you could have the pop-ups open not the image, but a page with the image and a caption embedded. It'd just be an extra touch, but it would help explain, e.g., what some of the images in The Area section depict.
As I was browsing, it occurred to me that it might be nice to have the sub-menu (or some form of it) visible when you're on one of the relevant pages. For example, on any of the three Au Chicot pages, it might be nice to have the "Location", "Inside", and "Outside" links immediately visible. Though that could be something I feel the need for only because I'm using this huge-resolution monitor with an insensitive touchpad as my only mouse (so activating the menus and keeping them activated is not that easy).
These are all just suggestions for improvements, not flaws, I think. Congratulations to you and Richard!
Oh, and about the menus: I do get arrows where I should get arrows, and pointy hands where I should get pointy hands.
Brooke
Brooke,
All very good points and most welcome suggestions.
On the subject of pop-ups with captions, again I totally agree, and GG has given me all the text for the captions, which currently only appear as yellow hover hints in IE on a PC. However, whenever I tried to add them (using some very very simple Jscript) to the pop-up window, we found that the pop-ups worked in some browsers, but not others (we test on 4 PC browsers and 3 Mac browsers), so I've reduced it to the very lowest common denominator.
If anyone has some code that does this trick AND works on all browsers AND would be happy for me to steal, I'd be eternally grateful.
All very good points and most welcome suggestions.
On the subject of pop-ups with captions, again I totally agree, and GG has given me all the text for the captions, which currently only appear as yellow hover hints in IE on a PC. However, whenever I tried to add them (using some very very simple Jscript) to the pop-up window, we found that the pop-ups worked in some browsers, but not others (we test on 4 PC browsers and 3 Mac browsers), so I've reduced it to the very lowest common denominator.
If anyone has some code that does this trick AND works on all browsers AND would be happy for me to steal, I'd be eternally grateful.
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CostaBlanca
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marcus
- Posts: 624
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- Location: Lot-Garonne / Dordogne borders
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a titchy teeny comment
links to the home page from both in the site and from outside should always be to the main .com address
eg http://www.gasconymagic.com not http://www.gasconymagic.com/index.php
otherwise the search engines sometimes (not always) get confused and see 2 different pages, and rate and rank them differently - whereas you want all your ranking to be in one place
sounds mad? check http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/ (PR4) and index.php (PR1)
As I said already, very nice site!
links to the home page from both in the site and from outside should always be to the main .com address
eg http://www.gasconymagic.com not http://www.gasconymagic.com/index.php
otherwise the search engines sometimes (not always) get confused and see 2 different pages, and rate and rank them differently - whereas you want all your ranking to be in one place
sounds mad? check http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/ (PR4) and index.php (PR1)
As I said already, very nice site!
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Giddy Goat
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Brooke and Marcus, thank you for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate it. E-Richard has replied in reference to the pop-ups (goodonyer Rich) and as he says, if someone can lead us to the right code, we'd be eternally grateful. I take your point about the length of the paras Brooke - that's a me thing, and when I correct the typos I will also split 'em up a bit as suggested. Marcus, the tips re the links to the home page are very useful to know about - well spotted; it will be rectified if I ask a certain person nicely enough. 
- I think!
... and glad you like the site.
Maria, thank you too, and good luck with your site when you get going on it!
- I think!... and glad you like the site.
Maria, thank you too, and good luck with your site when you get going on it!
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
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Giddy Goat
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e-richard wrote: Internal links duly fixed
The man's a magician! He can also produce rabbits from a hat. Thanks e-r!e-richard wrote: and home page instantaneous increase from PR0 to PR2 noticed. How did that happen ?
It sounds as if it's a good thing anyway. Is it something visible?Nostalgia isn't what it used to be