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Site Review 2

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heather29926

heather29926

MIS
Oct 16, 2002
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If anyone could comment on what I've done so far....this is more or less my first sight. I don't know html at this point so I can't make many corrections in that department..and I can't afford Dreamweaver or other.
My knowledge of working with tables is also a little weak at this point. :(((
Any feedback/recommendations would be great.
..I was considering having the content in each page in an iframe...good or bad??
Also I seem to be having problems getting the iframe centered on the page

Sorry for rambling. :)
 
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heather29926,

Not bad for a first site. I see that you used Microsoft FrontPage. I HIGHLY recommend moving to a different development platform as soon as you feel comfortable. FP generates very bloated code (lot's of unneeded tags), uses some proprietary code, and is generally viewed as a bad development tool by most professionals.

Regarding the content of your site: I am going on the assumption that you are a parent or guardian of this child or have permission from his parent(s) or guardian(s) to publish this website. There's nothing wrong with having a site which advertises the accomplishments of children as long as you have the appropriate permissions. Wyatt should be proud of his work. However you should be very cautious about posting where any child will be at any given time, even public events like tournaments. It's really sad, but there are plenty of crazy sick people out there who could use that information to do harm.

Anyway, it's a good start. Try to work on getting away from FrontPage if you plan on getting serious about development work.

Good job,
Ron

We all play from the same deck of cards, it's how we play the hand we are dealt which makes us who we are. -Me

murof siht edisni kcuts m'I - PLEH
 
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Thanks for your response Ron. I was beginning to think no one would respond!
I am Wyatt's mother. I am working on this site to learn and also for long distance relatives. I definately see the concern with too much information being given and will have to change that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of sick people in this world. My initial intention was to keep this site for family and friends but I realize thats impossible!(and of course I had to get some reviews to help point me in the right direction so it is posted here)
I understand your point about FP. It is a problem because I am trying to learn html and so on and am doing so by incorporating scripts in the site...I know FP adds a lot junk. I'm plan on getting Dreamweaver as soon as I can afford it. It's a little hard to justify that kind of money for my hobbie:) Hopefully one day it will be more than that.
Thanks again,
Heather
 
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Heather,

As your skills become more advance you could put travel information on a page which is protected by a password which you only give out to relatives & friends. You'd need to check with your hosting service to see this capability is available to you.

There are plenty of ways to do it. Probably the easiest is to hide the information in a PHP or ASP script which visitors can only see if they enter a password.

Good luck,
Ron

We all play from the same deck of cards, it's how we play the hand we are dealt which makes us who we are. -Me

murof siht edisni kcuts m'I - PLEH
 
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Thanks to the both of you..
Would PHP or ASP be easier at this point?

Thanks,
Heather

 
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Depends on what your hosting company will support. Personally, I prefer PHP. It's open source (free).

We all play from the same deck of cards, it's how we play the hand we are dealt which makes us who we are. -Me

murof siht edisni kcuts m'I - PLEH
 
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asp is free too. If you've ever programed in "basic" then I'd start with asp.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
-Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
 
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in "basic"...I'm not sure what you mean. I am new to all of this. Just starting to learn html. At this point I probablly need to go in the direction of whichever is easier to learn :) But I imagine I need to learn html first!
CSS...?? This can be very confusing for someone who has no knowledge of any of this..I mean as far as what I should learn..beyond html. Too many choices

Heather
 
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HTML - HyperText Markup Language. The language that web pages are written in.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets. Allows you to define styles for various HTML headers to specify fonts, colours, layout and text formatting (bold, italic, underline) etc. Its very much more flexible than specifying it directly within HTML pages. Using CSS is what allows links to change colour when you hover the mouse over it, for example.

You may also want to learn Javascript, which is a programming language that is executed within the web browser, and is typically used for things like form validation.

By "in basic" bombboy refers to the BASIC programming language, commonly used with visual basic and VBA. Until you need some sort of server side scripting, I would steer clear of both ASP and PHP. Server side scripting just means that you have some program code running on the web server which serves out HTML, customising the output as it is served to the web browser, normally by using data held within a database and combining the data with user preferences. However, that's for when you are comfortable with HTML, CSS and Javascript. You can go a long way without it.

John
 
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Thanks
I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while!
I heard there was an issue with search engines and Javascript..although I'm not sure I have to worry about that at this point..I'm not exactly designing sites for other people. :)
 
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there isn't an issue with search engines and javascript. the problem with javascript is, each browser will interperate it anyway it wants to. A user can also turn off javascript. javascript can not be used to password protect a site either.


Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
-Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
 
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Very nice design for a first timer!

You might want to consider looking for a script or another method to cloak your email address. Having it as a link will make it available to spiders, harvesters and bots and you will be flooded with unwanted spam. In fact, it may be too late.

While all the advice about standards, css, etc is valid, and would be the only way to go for someone designing sites that will be viewed commercially, I would not be too concerned for a strictly personal site. Take your time to learn that.

If you are looking for a great free web editor, do a search for 1stpage2000. The main site no longer has it as a download, but I have found it available on other sites, usually on the 4th or 5th page of a google search. It has many of the features offered bu dreamweaver.

When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
 
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Thanks for the email info Viol8ion...being new to this, I had no idea.
I will check out 1stpage2000.
...and thanks to Chris for the info on 1stpage2000. You have all been very helpful and your comments and help are very appreciated!

Heather
 
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heather29926: "I heard there was an issue with search engines and Javascript"

bombboy: "there isn't an issue with search engines and javascript"

Oh yes there is. You heard right, heather, search engines ignore all javascript. If you're using JS for sensible things like image rollovers and form validation this won't cause any problems.

However, if your navigation menu is generated and run via Javascript, search engines (and anybody else with JS switched off) won't see it - and won't index the rest of your site. Javascript can be a very useful tool, but never use it for anything vitally important.



-- Chris Hunt
 
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Thanks for the explanation on the use of Javascript. Good to know that I can use it...of course I'm not really doing a commercial site...just trying not to get into any bad habits. I should probablly say anymore bad habits. :)
 
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To add to what ChrisHunt said, if you do decide to use javascript or DHTML for a menu system, always include a hyperlink to your site map, or an alternative hyperlinked menu. Many browsers do not support javascript or DHTML (Opera, for one, is very picky), and the spiders will ignore javascript links na d those pages will not be indexed in a search engine.

When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
 
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The best alternatives to a javascript menu is to put a CSS formatted menu or a table of links inside <noscript> </noscript> tags.
The spiders can read it, screen readers see the links and browsers with scripting off will mostly get the menu as you intend it to look.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
 
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