for those of you who make your own websites. . . .

[brantmacga]

i'm running a trial version of microsoft's newest web creation too; web expression (2.0? i think).

this thing is the cat's pajamas.


no more server side extensions!

its worth a look if you create or manage your own site. its more costly than the old frontpage was @ $199, but its well worth it.

frontpage still required some code writing for more advanced html editing, but this web expression software has eliminated some of the missing elements of frontpage.

 

[ramsy]

If it uses ActiveX and other MS proprietary xml you may lose 20% of your browser market, who view your page with Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or Macintosh browsers.

 

[TOOL_5150]

The only thing I use IE for is google maps... other than that one site, I use opera.

~Matt

 

[zbang]

Hmm, I use firefox for everything. Can't think of when I last used IE.

(Please- when creating web pages, no sparklie bits, no autoplay music, and don't don't don't use javascript for doing menus & navigating. A fair number of people have it turned off or otherwise blocked.)

 

[LarryFine]

Hmm, I use firefox for everything. Can't think of when I last used IE.

Same here.

(Please- when creating web pages, no sparklie bits, no autoplay music, and don't don't don't use javascript for doing menus & navigating. A fair number of people have it turned off or otherwise blocked.)

Same here.


When we made our first site, we did it using just raw code and various images. I still have it on the server. I'll post the link if it's okay with The Mod Squad.

Guys?

When I see something on a website I like, I'll check out the Page Source and see if I can steal the code or script.

 

[brantmacga]

If it uses ActiveX and other MS proprietary xml you may lose 20% of your browser market, who view your page with Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or Macintosh browsers.

i have tested on IE, firefox, chrome, and safari and everything works fine. they got away from the proprietary extensions like frontpage had.

 

[wireguru]

for our sites, we have it built with a backend CMS or content management system, that way we have an admin panel to log into where we can add and change pictures, update news, create new pages, etc all through the admin panel.

 

[Greg Swartz]

My new site

My new site

I'm in the process of developing my new site, and have been looking at adding a fair amount of flash...

How do you feel about that.
Never knew to get rid of JS... I will keep that in mind.

 

[wireguru]

I'm in the process of developing my new site, and have been looking at adding a fair amount of flash...

How do you feel about that.
Never knew to get rid of JS... I will keep that in mind.

too much flash doesnt look good. do not use a flash intro or anything. when people go to your URL they want to see your website, not sit and wait for a flash into to load. The other thing, is dont have all your content in flash or it wont get included in whatever google indexes. Best to just keep the flash for banners and such.

 

[Greg Swartz]

too much flash doesnt look good. do not use a flash intro or anything. when people go to your URL they want to see your website, not sit and wait for a flash into to load. The other thing, is dont have all your content in flash or it wont get included in whatever google indexes. Best to just keep the flash for banners and such.

I thought about that. I heard that flash does not index well.
Right now, if you google "colorado springs electrical contractors," were on the middle of page 1. So, that's good. We do not pay anything for that position either. No AdWords... just good metatags and lots of searches. I typed Swartz Electric Colorado, and came up with 500K results (all our company) and Swartz Electric Colorado Springs came up with 150k results...

So, we're going in the right direction.

I just wondered about the whole flash thing.

I was looking at a template to purchase from this website: http://templates.entheosweb.com/template_number/12130.asp

Is this too much flash? Do you think it will index well?

 

[wireguru]

I thought about that. I heard that flash does not index well.
Right now, if you google "colorado springs electrical contractors," were on the middle of page 1. So, that's good. We do not pay anything for that position either. No AdWords... just good metatags and lots of searches. I typed Swartz Electric Colorado, and came up with 500K results (all our company) and Swartz Electric Colorado Springs came up with 150k results...

So, we're going in the right direction.

I just wondered about the whole flash thing.

I was looking at a template to purchase from this website: http://templates.entheosweb.com/template_number/12130.asp

Is this too much flash? Do you think it will index well?

that template is all flash, thats not going to index at all.

 

[TOOL_5150]

Complete flash sights are annoying. Whats wrong with HTML? If you were an artist or a hotel/casino I would expect a flashy site. As far as someone providing a service.. I want info, that is easy to access. Maybe some past jobs you have completed. I have made many sites, all which were not all that fancy, just to the point information.

~Matt

 

[zbang]

Oh, ya. I forgot to mention NO FLASH!!!! At all. It doesn't help anything and does get in the way. When I go to most web sites, I'm looking for information. I'm not looking for eye candy or effects. Leave them for the boyband & similar web sites .

Not that I have a strong opinion about this....

 

[Greg Swartz]

Complete flash sights are annoying. Whats wrong with HTML? If you were an artist or a hotel/casino I would expect a flashy site. As far as someone providing a service.. I want info, that is easy to access. Maybe some past jobs you have completed. I have made many sites, all which were not all that fancy, just to the point information.

~Matt

Mine is not fancy, just "to the point" information too... but I have been told that mine is bland, and quite boring...

So, I wanted to "spruce" things up.

 

[480sparky]

Oh, ya. I forgot to mention NO FLASH!!!! At all. It doesn't help anything and does get in the way. When I go to most web sites, I'm looking for information. I'm not looking for eye candy or effects. Leave them for the boyband & similar web sites .

Not that I have a strong opinion about this....

Ah, c'mon..... tell us how you really feel..... open up a bit....

 

[TOOL_5150]

Mine is not fancy, just "to the point" information too... but I have been told that mine is bland, and quite boring...

So, I wanted to "spruce" things up.

I just looked at it. I like it. I would loose the background image in the main frame though. It makes the page laggy and sometimes hard to read the writing.

Really, im sure anyone that isnt an electrician would find an electrician boring.. We are a different type of breed.:grin:

They are to learn about what you do and what you have done... you site does a good job at showing them that.

~Matt

 

[Greg Swartz]

Thanks, Matt... I had the lightning bolt able to resize to any screen size.
If you adjust your screen size / proportion, the lightning adjusts too...

It does look crappy.

 

[mikeames]

I don't use WYSWYG (What you see is what you get ) editors.They write sloppy code and never validate. When building a site I use a CMS (content management system) such Joomla or Drupal. Then I customize it either by hand coding PHP,CSS, and HTML, or by purchasing a module/ component for what I need.

I hate flash sites with a passion. To me the animated bullets says to me.... " I have nothing important here so Ill dazzle you with this moving crap. " Flash does have its place but most abuse it.

To get indexed well, you need to create a site map, and submit to google any new information added to your site. You can use googles own script for this written in python and set up a cron job to submit it to google every pre determined period. Hourly, daily, monthly etc.... depending on how much your site changes. This will get you to the top of your search pages.

If you can logic out loosing 20% of your population by not having a site that validates on all browsers then you really don't have a professional site. In the web design world this is the equivalent to hearing a DIY say "Upgrade my 100 amp service to 200... how hard can that be... Ill do it myself." On a web standards forum anything short of 99.9% compatibility and validation is unacceptable in addition to sec 504 compliance, and CSS validation.

 

[Greg Swartz]

So, unlike others, right now, I am using a WYSIWYG editor and redo-ing the website.

Right now, I am trying to choose what a good screen resolution for the site is...

I have selected 1024 / 768, because I believe that is most common (maybe not here) and have read on the net, that is the most common size too. So, I set my borders at 960x700, knowing that some pages will be quite longer, but none wider.

I took my .eps logo and converted it to .gif (yuck) and made a transparent background, and the file size is 13k.

I took the background and created a gradient that starts from white and goes to my logo color, then reduced the opaqueness a bit.

Are these good starting points?

 

[brantmacga]

I don't use WYSWYG (What you see is what you get ) editors.They write sloppy code and never validate. When building a site I use a CMS (content management system) such Joomla or Drupal. Then I customize it either by hand coding PHP,CSS, and HTML, or by purchasing a module/ component for what I need.

I hate flash sites with a passion. To me the animated bullets says to me.... " I have nothing important here so Ill dazzle you with this moving crap. " Flash does have its place but most abuse it.

To get indexed well, you need to create a site map, and submit to google any new information added to your site. You can use googles own script for this written in python and set up a cron job to submit it to google every pre determined period. Hourly, daily, monthly etc.... depending on how much your site changes. This will get you to the top of your search pages.

If you can logic out loosing 20% of your population by not having a site that validates on all browsers then you really don't have a professional site. In the web design world this is the equivalent to hearing a DIY say "Upgrade my 100 amp service to 200... how hard can that be... Ill do it myself." On a web standards forum anything short of 99.9% compatibility and validation is unacceptable in addition to sec 504 compliance, and CSS validation.

you should try the new program before completely writing it off. its much more capable than its predecessors; microsoft built web expression with designers in mind. its really nice.