Finished

[Rocket Rab]

I do know HTML (in fact I used to train people to use it at work many moons ago), but I have always said that it is useful to know it in order to be able to look at the background code of a webpage that you have created in Frontpage or something similar, but not to write something from scratch in pure html as it would be like cutting the lawn with nail scissors...

Hi Aysen..Gee, you're too kind (says Rab, enjoying her modest moment of glory ) .. love the lawn-cutting analogy!

Glad you like the map and the colours..

...and thanks for your pointer about the links..I did a bit of googling yesterday and found the bits and bobs I needed, so that's sorted, I think. Isn't it exhilarating to find you can make links whatever blummin' colour you want ?! I love this HTML...Feel the power!

Not long to go to summer hols, eh? You'll soon be back, whizzing along those bike paths and eating your Ile de Ré potato flavour ice cream (yes, really and truly folks, one of the hottest - no, make that coolest - choices in town..)

[Rocket Rab]

Aysen, we posted simultaneously..

I've just had another look at your source code, and I think I may have an answer about the blurry photos...

You have specified the size of your images within your HTML. Although it is perfectly acceptable to do this, I seem to remember that it is not advisable - you should correctly size your photos in a photo editor BEFORE you include them in your code.

Brilliant, Aysen, I shall scuttle off to have a go...this is just what I need..lots of tips from peeps in the know.
I actually resized all my photos with Photoshop AND specified required size in HTML, but somewhere along the line I think I must have got muddled about which ones had been resized to what dimensions, as there were quite a few to do (loud sigh!)
Can't wait to try this...

[Normandy Cow]

eating your Ile de Ré potato flavour ice cream

...if you're talking about that fantastic ice cream shop on the harbour at St Martin, actually my favourite is one called "speculoos" - seriously weird name, but delicious taste!

[Rocket Rab]

The very one! And you'll know, of course, that a spéculoos is a traditional Belgian biccy...I can never bring myself to order that one..a tad too..well...medical-sounding for me. Give me good old 'Oysters and Caviar' any day

[Rocket Rab]

You're a star, Normandy Cow,...I've just redone the row of five photos across the top of the 'Ile de Ré' page, and I think the results are better...I'll go through the rest (with my nail scissors and matches ) tomorrow.

[mon269]

I see, you’ve been busy whilst I’ve been away and now your site is all different, all much more betterer.

• - Home link from everywhere – sept points

• - Using mailto – deux points – you’ll get spammed soon once you start getting millions of visits

• - Pictures looking funny – zero points

• - Guest book – dix points (I like the colour blocks, colour contrasts and font)

• - Navigation Button of the current page disappears – zero points and doing my head in

In general, big improvement since my last visit but the main problem I find is navigation. The navigation bar, in my opinion, should always have the same buttons.

[Rocket Rab]

Tee hee, Mon, you score 'dix points' for valuable input. I obviously need to do a bit more homework....

mailto: disappointed to know this does not pass the Spam test..I thought I had successfully prevented this by inserting a piece of code which Deb kindly pointed out? Maybe I have pasted it into the wrong place...? Anyone got time to check the code on the Contact page?

Pictures looking funny, zero points Have you got your glasses on, Mon?...I'm working on it (kind of...)...I'm hoping you can still make out this is a 'seaside' destination ...

Navigation button of current page disappears: well, Mon, the thinking behind that - and I do seem to be a, um, pioneer in this - is that as you are on the current page, you wouldn't necessarily want to click on a button to take you to the current page. Get my drift? This is evidently not as simple as I first assumed

In general, big improvement since my last visit but the main problem I find is navigation. The navigation bar, in my opinion, should always have the same buttons.

I totally take your point, Mon. Again, you appear to be in the majority. An ad I once saw at Southampton Airport for a reasonably well-known make of 4x4 springs to mind:

'Break out of the box'

Will that do as a cop-out excuse ?

No? ok, I'll work on it... !

[vrooje]

...but not to write something from scratch in pure html as it would be like cutting the lawn with nail scissors...

So that's why my nail scissors are so dull!

Jenny, I looked at this site a few days ago and liked it. I wasn't sure about the light grey background, but it has grown on me.

I do agree with mon269 about the changing menus. For me, the idea that I might go to a different page by clicking on the same place I just clicked is a little jarring. Especially as in some cases that place is the other house, and if I'm new to your site I might not be able to tell the difference just based on the names, so I'll think "oh, I've already clicked that link."

I think your e-mail javascript is fine -- sort of. Here's what I see in my view source:

Code: Select all

<script language="javascript">
<!--
ML="icl.\"dfa>Et hn=o@/<e&#58;rm";
MI="B7;<EC6>4F702&#58;?D02C5CEC0=6?@7?231?F489F702BA78";
OT="";
for&#40;j=0;j<MI.length;j++&#41;&#123;
OT+=ML.charAt&#40;MI.charCodeAt&#40;j&#41;-48&#41;;
&#125;document.write&#40;OT&#41;;
// --></script>
<noscript><A HREF="mailto&#58;notyourrealemail@aol.com">notyourrealemail@aol.com</noscript></A></TD></TR>

The javascript e-mail mailto is a way of using a mailto tag without actually having to write the script. And you've certainly done that! But I believe the noscript tag essentially undoes all that. That code is on the page whether javascript is enabled or not, and e-mail sniffing bots are just as happy to take your e-mail from between the noscript tags as from anywhere else. So after all that trouble, you're likely setting yourself up for spam anyway.

If you want to allow non-javascript enabled people to have your e-mail address, you might consider writing it into an image and just printing the image in between the noscript tag.

One last thing: congrats! you're at the stage where you can now start thinking about alternate and title tags for your images. This improves your site's accessibility and should also improve your search engine rankings. Here's an example:

Code: Select all

<img src="beachpanorama.jpg" height="200" width="600">

could become

Code: Select all

<img src="beachpanorama.jpg" height="200" width="600" alt="Photo of the beach near our holiday rental." title="The lovely beach of Ile de Re near our holiday home.">

The alt tag is what appears in case your image doesn't load, and the title tag is what most browsers will pop up as a little caption. I believe they can be exactly the same text; I just didn't make them so for my example.

I know it's probably a lot of work, but having alt and title tags for your images can really help your search engine ranking, and make your site more accessible if someone is on a slow-bandwidth connection or is for whatever reason not able to see the images.

Overall, my comments are very nitpicky -- I love your (non-blurry) photos and I think this is a great site.

[KathyG]

Wow Rocket Rab, I think it's stunning! Gives a wonderful feel of island life and I didn't even know the Isle de Re existed! I love the nautical theme you've got running through the properties and it still looks very sophisticated.

One thing, on the Isle de Re page, would it be worth putting distance from Roscoff - nearest ferry port I would have thought? Wouldn't that knock a couple of hours off the journey from Cherbourg?

Kathy

[Rocket Rab]

Fantastic, more great tips and comments, thanks very much, Mon, Brooke and KathyG

I have been at my keyboard all day, tweaking and twiddling, and with your help, I think this could be as good as it gets I'm all HTMLd-out.

Piccies first: I have been through them all again, resizing, renaming, resaving, reloading, re-everything....please tell me they look crisper, sharper, shinier...(or I might have a nervous breakdown ). Great tip, Aysen, you may well have cracked it. And thanks for nudging me there all you other posters.

ALT and TITLE tags: I had a suspicion they might do something SEO-wise and Brooke has confirmed this. I wasn't aware of the difference between ALT and TITLE tags, so hey, another little snippet of know-how to add to the pot. I have added tags throughout, so come and get it oh-great-Google-bot. Thanks Brooke.

Mailto: If I understand correctly, Brooke is saying that if I take out everything from <noscript> to </noscript>, the robot won't be able to pick up my email address. Success. BUT users without javascript-enabled won't be able to read it, either..? That's good enough for me!

Navigation: I throw the towel in! I don't think I can go any further with this one at the moment...I may need some pulldown menus if I want to get all the choices onto each page... I'll take a rain check on that one and possibly come back to it later (or never!). Or sidle over to a techie thread and throw myself on their mercy

KathyG: I like your Roscoff suggestion. I think I will add an FAQs page with those kind of details on....How much is the taxi onto the island? Do I need a car? Who meets me at the house? Can you arrange transfers?

And there you have it, for the time being at least..Watch this space

And major thanks to all of you

[Big Sis..]

thanks very much, Mon, Brooke and KathyG

..sniff wotaboutlittleohmethen...I give ya knitting tips didnteye......[next lesson was how to cast on ]

snot easyynow being amongstalltheseclevercloggses

[KathyG]

Hi Rab,

Just found out it's 290 miles Roscoff to La Rochelle, only knocks 30 miles off the Cherbourg route but that must be about half an hour so worth mentioning I think. FAQ's a good idea too - thought I ought to do that on mine too - I'll race ya!

Kathy

[vrooje]

I think an FAQ is a great idea. In my experience, potential clients get a lot of use from them.

You've understood the e-mail/mailto/noscript thing perfectly, I believe.

On the navigation menus, you could probably do this without dropdown menus. The main thing I'd be concerned about is that the five main links be present on every page: Maison de Charme, Maison de Pêcheur, Ile de Ré, Contact, and Home. I think that should be present at the top of every page, period.

Then, underneath that, why not include a second row of menus, if necessary?

For example, on your Maison de Charme page, your code could look like:

Code: Select all

<CENTER> 
<TABLE BORDER=1 WIDTH=70% HEIGHT=60 CELLSPACING=12 BGCOLOR="#99CCCC">
<TR>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=20% BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA"><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="TREBUCHET MS"><A HREF="lacouarde.html"><I>Maison de Charme</I></A></TD>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=20% BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC"><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="TREBUCHET MS"><A HREF="stmartin.html"><I>Maison de Pêcheur</I></A></TD>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=20% BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC"><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="TREBUCHET MS"><A HREF="iledere.html"><I>Ile de Ré</I></A></TD>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=20% BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC"><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="TREBUCHET MS"><A HREF="contact.html"><I>Contact</I></A></TD>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=20% BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC"><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="TREBUCHET MS"><A HREF="index.html"><I>Home</I></A></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=20% BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="TREBUCHET MS" COLOR="#FFFFFF">Maison de Charme&#58;</TD>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=16% BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="TREBUCHET MS" COLOR="#FFFFFF"><A HREF="availability_lacouarde.html"><I>Dates</I></A></TD>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=16% BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="TREBUCHET MS" COLOR="#FFFFFF"><A HREF="prices_lacouarde.html"><I>Rates</I></A></TD>
<TD ALIGN="center" WIDTH=20% BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="TREBUCHET MS" COLOR="#FFFFFF"><A HREF="guestbook_lacouarde.html"><I>Guest Book</I></A></TD>
<TD ALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR="#99CCCC" WIDTH=*>&nbsp;</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</CENTER>

That would add a row underneath your menu showing only the menu items relevant to Maison de Charme. This particular example also changes some of the BGCOLOR tags slightly, so it's clear that Maison de Charme is currently selected and that the dates/rates/guestbook is associated with the Maison de Charme.

It's just an example, but it could work... and it doesn't require javascript pull-down menus (which don't work for everyone), nor CSS pull-down menus -- those seem to be fine for most people, but they're not as easy to code as the above static menu is.

[Rocket Rab]

And major thanks to all of you

..including Ros for her generous knitting expertise...

Brooke, I just got home and am so excited to see you sent me all that code (what does that tell you about my life, folks?)...I can't wait to try it out later tonight.

I did try adding a new row / table of navigation choices today, but found I couldn't get the T-rows/T-data set out in any satisfactory way.. and I did give it all I've got..

The only other point is that more navigation stuff pushes all the rest even further down the page...and further out of sight.

But chomping at the bit (carrot) to give it a whirl...I will be back...

[mon269]

Piccies first then: top notch Funny that you have titles for all of them except one that you’ve givent it ALTernate text.

I see, IE shows ALT when you hover the cursor over the picture but FF shows the title. Your IE users will not see the text, well, they will for he top picture.

For some reason it seems that one page never finish loading. I don’t know what may be doing that. Not all of them, this one does http://www.iledereholidayhomes.com/lacouarde.html

Your code is very neat; you would make a good software developer. Next thing is indentation, how are you indentation skills

I’ve been to your site millions of times and every single time I get lost in it. I think, at the very least, you should keep the button of the page you’re in and highlight it with a different (lighter/darker) colour.