Fact:I own a website

Fact:I suck at web layouts

Well can anyone help? I am using macromedia flash (trial) and well I can't make a layout(I downloaded it hoping it would be better than my Frontpage).

Well for starters one thing common in both programs is that whenever you hit ENTER you get some extra space between the lines, werid.

Also, I can't make tables do what I want, I just want a SIMPLE layout *sobs* is that so hard?

I want it to look remotly like this(REALLY ROUGHT DRAFT)


But it looks bad and the tables twist and turn when I type in Frontpage:What it looks now





THIS IS BETA! Very much, please don't steal anything (1 out of 100 people visitng will)

Copyright AnimeShroud.TK

Frontpage.. *Shudder*
We're still made to use Frontpage for all sites made at school.. Gahh... Not that I do, but still.

Firstly, the layout stretches the screen of 800x600 because of the set width of table cells, you should probably either make it smaller and center it, or use percentages.

The best thing I've found to make Layouts is HTML and CSS. Easy to learn and you can do a lot with it. I'd strongly recommend learning it, a lot better than Frontpage, and I personally rather a nice, neat layout apposed to a spiffed up Flash layout.

Frontpage table code = EVIL.

I have a layout like that that I've been poking at for a while...but I dunno how helpful my code would be to you unless you understand basic table/div/css-y stuff.

But yeah. Set the two menu tables to the width you want, leave the rest percents. Fixed widths for the entire layout is a bad idea.

Hey.. I could let you play around with the source to the old liger's union. It looks pretty much exactly like that.

If you want to change its looks, don't do it through the html, do it through the css file.

http://www.bearcreekfire.com/old_union.zip

I dunno, its a classic layout. ;p (well as for the New Union, due to numerous negative oppinions, I'm going to re think the design... Probably add more graphics or something.

You could also do a search on the web for free web templates, and learn from them. ;)

Hmmm so my checklist:

#1 Center width of table cells

#2 Stop. Wonder why Tilly is anti-frontpage for table cells(joke), ok I'm done.

#3 Thank HaTch for it then actualy get around to open the file and pray it'll work.

And also I tried that already Steel, all I've really learned is somehow their layouts actualy work right and mine fall apart. *stares at globs of html*

I like the new Liger's Union layout. Go boxy tables/divs!

Feel free to look at my code here, but keep in mind it's heavily under progress and it's kinda very wonky. I know I have the background for the tables all set as white, I'll fix it later. Gotta make some more classes...

http://www.creativeinsanity.net/zoids/data/testing3b.html

It looks great! (Why can't I do layouts right!? T_T) Though you could do with a banner, but ah it's the information and content that counts. (Did I mention the first impresstion made by the layouts?)

To HaTcH(edit): Yea you need graphics, I kinda liked the old layout's graphics(the menu looked nice), and plus your new layouts got a "testing" feel, alot of stuff is missing(media, jokes, so on) and you said you were testing in the posts. That was "contstructive critism".

There, updated it. Users of Firefox and anything else that supports it will note that you can now change the colors...blue by default, also now with green and red. Now I just have to get motivated to do all the rest of it.

I never really bother with banners...and then I'd have to mess with the colors. Or make it a transparent png...which IE users can't see. Ack.

It takes practice to get all the tables and stuff...I'm still figuring out how the div-y stuff works. Go trial and error x_X.

*pokes Tilly* Where's the buttons/thingies to change the colours?

Lower left in the browser window, not the site...the thing that looks like a crayon box. Or it *should* show up...

It does, at least in FireFox.

Spiffy...

*JABS TILLY* (It's a joke between my friend he does pokes I do prods and jabs ^_^ werid no?)

Anyway don't discrimnate! It doesn't show up in IE which I use only if a site requires it, but (like right now) I normaly use Netscape, it's supposed to be a distant cousin of Firefox..... but nope I don't see.

Oh and the tables thingy you sent me like months ago HaTcH, works but falls apart if I use Frontpage to edit it.

(Oh and on a side note, interesting netscape works find when you hit space and there's no little spaces between, but I wanna use a Brand Name site editor.




The Tables File you(HaTcH) sent:

Nope, doesn't show up in my version of FireFox for some reason. I'm using version 1.0 of FireFox at the moment.

The code's broke, you should make it work with other browsers. I mean what's the point of talioring the site to only the people who have firefox (not that big of a population) what about those people in the smoke filled (depending on were you go; I swear when I went to one I thought I would suffocate) internet cafe's with only IE?

Hmm we are a bit off subject no?

It's set so IE users can use the site just fine. It's just an extra fun thing. (edit) The code is NOT broken. It's valid:

http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

IE just doesn't recognize it, just like it ignores the existence of transparent pngs.

Hrm. Seems there is something one can do with cookies. I don't like cookies, bleah...

Editing again...Steel, there's something about it here:
http://blog.codefront.net/archives/2004/09...ack-in-firefox/


Try editing in Notepad or Wordpad?

So the code works ONLY in firefox?

That would be correct. It doesn't work for me though, and I use FireFox. I can, however, go to View, Page Style, and make the change that way.

Eh, I dunno what browsers use what version of what code.

I was just messing aroud...it's not the important bit.

The topic shifted to browser compalitbilty on Tilly's site, meh but still it's not working. So as a summary:

Tilly's code works ONLY on firefox.

Tilly's code works only on a precentage of firefox users.

Take those two lines out and it looks exactly the same-the rest of the code should work everywhere. Tell me if it doesn't? I need to test it in older stuff on the other compy...

Try View-Page Style. Seems there were some issues with that feature, it got taken out...and supposedly added back later.

I can't identify the code though, (ahh must learn more HTML too!) though I can tell you used CSS.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="blue.css" title="blue">

<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="red.css" title="red that's really more PINK">
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="green.css" title="Sear likes green">

Ditch the last two. And...er...if you can't see it, just poke blue.css. I think it'll let you see it, it's just text...

Alternate style? Actually, I posted about that a while ago. If you go to http://www.anzwers.org/free/zoids3d/home/info.html You will notice (in firefox) a painters pallete in the lower corner (http://www.bearcreekfire.com/zoids3d/palette.gif).

If you use netscape the equivalent is View>Apply Theme>Selection.

And yes Mozilla FireFox and netscape are cousins of eachother because they use the same geko core to decode webpages.

@ ZeRoRaVeN: I'd repost that text file inside [ code ] brackets. It would look alot better.
(but you're gonna have to repost the thing from the file cuz the boards kill excessive whitespace, not to mention its designed for a fixed width font.)

~Edit: Also in firefox, you can click View>Page Style>Selection

Oh yes! It does work, just had to go to view as Hatch said. :)

Nice work Tilly!

Correction to the Netscape one, I asked HaTcH and as we were testing he was hit by a sudden splurt of genius.



And the correct way:

Everyones code is nice and clean.. Damn you people.

Seeing as though we're kinda on the subject of Layouts... I'll post my sloppilly coded, somewhat renewed site layout.

Internet Explorer likes it. Mozilla does not. (Only page with the spiffy looking bars)

It would look basically the same in both types of browsers, except for my use of padding in the different cells. Eh. Still needs work.
As simple as that is, it still isn't cross-browser compatible, and I'm not sure how it handles higher resolutions. *dies*
However, it is a liquid design, so it should be.. okay..

Hey caps, I can recode that to look pretty in both browsers and use CSS if you want. Also, in firefox I noticed:



@ZeroRaven: Woah.. Theres ads at the top of the page there? Yuck. Read the info page for a way to easily get rid of them, no software, just an edit of a text file =]. Its what aol dont want to tell you... my method for killing ads is free and doesnt require a program... Also, I have a buddy Icon? WOW COOL!

Well actualy HaTcH I do know how to get rid of them. The thing is, do you mean my geocities or my lycos(where's my site is at not my beta which is on geocities).

My lycos shows this annoying framed based ads, which strangely don't show up one everyone's computer and I didn't notice it existed(it's not on mine) till I used my school computers which had.

Well since it's frame based that's easy, I know a script that instantly takes the page out of ANY FRAMES including address bar ones(which is one reason why I don't use it)

The geocities looks tricky(The brand names are ALWAYS harder) but I'll check out what you're saying.



To Capitila: HaTcH you've got good eyes I didn't notice till you mentioned. And I'll HaTcH ditto what you said in the image. But such vuglar words, if it had been text I think they might've locked this thread.

It shows in Netscape:




BUT! Not in IE:




And on the code part. I think when you use the definition clean that shouldn't apply to me I code worse than you do CONSIDERABLY. I know only meh basic HTML.


Oh and you're not aligned properly, unless you like it like that:


EDIT:
Of all the editors I tried why do I have the most success in Netscape!?

But I find I'm having trouble resizing invidual cells, aww c'mon I'm so close:

But as much as I want to I don't know how to code in HTML(via something like notepad)

Hey Capitila you typed out the HTML right(meaning you didn't use a editor) grrr I'm the only one who does. *looks down*

I did borrow 4 books on web design though along with a HTML book......

Bah.. editors.. never will I stoop to that level. Nothing like pure clean html to get the job done.

@Caps, I'm gonna redo your site anyway. I'll contact you when I'm finished.

~Edit: 11:37
Ok heres the beauty of it, finished and stuff. Its only a skeleton, I think you can slap the links and content into it. I developed a brand new CSS sheet. I went all out on this sucker.. hope you like it =]

http://www.bearcreekfire.com/zoids3d/downloads/capscrap.zip

0_o
Well, it looks alright, aside from a the height of the vertical bars in IE, but I was staying completly away from all tables. Too many <tr>'s and <td>'s for my liking.

I might go back to learning some more tables, but for now I'm sticking with just CSS, although the heights are annoying, they're only necessary for Firefox.

Just something to give me something to do when I'm bored, I'm gonna keep working on the coding I already had, like I said, it does need work. Thanks anyway.

Bah... Tables is where its at dude. Havign those divs with no structure was your downfall. Anyway, it would be easy to fix the problem in IE, by removing the "padding" statement for the "smallbg" classes. (I think thats the key atleast... )

Anyway, the trick is to have the code general enough once, so you can just copy the template as you need-- editing the content areas. I dunno. Maybe its just my fascination with tables... (as per LU's last 2 layouts... XD... I went table happy.)

But I did learn something from the experience... those DIV tags are really AWESOME to code with... I never knew they were a container, most I ever used 'em for was aligning stuff. So I gotta say thanks.. coding that thing made me learn some new things!

Tables are not bad *wack* they are hard yes *wack* but not baddie *wack*! (Many times I feel as if I had the emotional maturity of a 5th- no 2nd grader)


No I'm not stooping, I'm um...what's the word, uh planning for devolopement yea that's it. Eventualy when your site becomes very complex you'll learn to like editors (Join uusssss Join ussss).

But still I can't get meh coding right *hits computer so hard it makes the wacks to cap look like patty cakes*.

While were're all taking about sites and doing [constructive] critism toward each other, any use FLASH. I don't see too much of it in anime sites except for the real big ones(wait I have yet to see a Anime site using FLASH). I suppose it's hard but there must be SOME specialist in the field.

I just posted on the "Show off Your Computer Desktop!, Yes it's BACK! XD" thingy and I'll show mine here too, so muchie see though!

Everyone has a better desktop than me.. *Sigh*

The reason I never used tables was because I didn't think I should, it was either going to be pure CSS, or tables. The amount of Tables Vs. CSS articles out there, I thought it was almost a sin to combine them.
By using tables you throw away the main attraction that CSS has, the ability to change an entire site layout by editing one file. With tables you then need to go to every single page and edit the tables, the positioning, but with CSS you can rearrange everything, by only editing the one .css file, and not just the font and background, which was the only editable thing in the CSS file you gave me.

Still, incorporating tables does make it a lot cleaner and everything sticks together much easily, but I'm not going to use tables, CSS was my escape from them.

No, you don't. Put 'em in text files and add them in with includes, and you can edit the entire site easily...of course, I dunno what free servers support that. And now I'm curious...

Yeah, you could do that. But I was more thinking of my site layout which Hatch re-coded, which was just table cells filled with divs.

You can stick all that in includes, I would think. Everything above main thingy in one, everything below in another. My files just go

(top include, with CSS, starts of tables, etc.)
content that changes
(bottom include, with end of tables, etc.)...

You actually read something that said mixing tables and css was bad? O_o; I couldn't imaging programming without em.. Though I dont use css for the physical layout, more of a psycho thing, colors, images things like that.

AS for includes, well anzwers doesn't support them. However I could probably have a massive javascript array that would contain every thing needed to be included, send a function current URL, and it returns html code for that page. I was going to do that, but when I thought about it, why go through the trouble when I could just use ... *gulp* frames...

NOOOO! (ZeRo is anti-frames for menus, every thing else with frames I'm fine with) I don't like them. I don't know why.

Positioning with the tables isn't THAT hard, I know CSS automates but *shrug* but it's your site so do whatever you want.

Bleh.
Click me
Much better than I had it before. Still out by 2 or 3 pixels in Firebird, but I might be able to get rid of that with some work.
Sadly I was up till 2am last night doing it. *sigh*

That's enough outta me.