Changes to my site

[Charles Self]

I invite anyone interested to check out this morning's changes to my web site:

[Bob S]

Charlie,

Just noticed on this page

that the picture covers the word Wood on my browser - IE6. Nice looking site.

Bob S.

[Leon]

Nice site Charlie. One of the pictures looked like a target hit by a wad cutter in a couple of places. Closer inspection revealed sand paper. ;~)

[P van Rijckevorsel]

In the page

title overlaps the text (Netscape 7) PvR

• * *

"Bob S" schreef

[Charles Self]

All I can say is, whoops. I've got three machines here, and it is fine on all of them. Dunno what to do to change it.

[Dave Balderstone]

And in the inline pics overlap the text above them.

djb

[Charles Self]

Which is probably going to stay that way. I brought it up on my laptop, one of the more irritating machines in my life, and discovered the headline overlaps. Those are caused, as is the rest of it, by other machines not offering exactly the same text I used in the headlines. Thus, when my BD Westside 72 pt. heads came up as 72 pt. Arial, the size increased tremendously. I shrunk those down to 48 pts, which looks like shit in this old print guy's estimation, but is the only way to get it in.

I dunno what to do about the rest: my laptop only has 128 megs, so working up the site, dealing with AOL's asininities, and putting up photos is something it won't do. I can't check. The rest of my machines work fine with it.

I'll keep piddling, but I doubt it will ever be exactly right for everyone unless I set the whole thing in 14 pt. Arial, which ain't gonna happen. I use that type face a lot, but it is a curse when it is on a web site as a replacement text because point for point it is probably 20% larger than almost any other typeface.

It is a good lesson in why so many web sites have to go with flash and other crap: stable, stationary layouts do not exist as they do in the print world.

[Robatoy]

Looks good on Safari (Mac) in most cases.

the thumbnails are low res, but expand nicely. Same problem on other pages. You may have to create 72 DPI thumbnails and link your images to them. Just scaling them looks bad.

Your hardwood page has no left margin. I noticed another page or two with no/limited margins on the left side.

Resumé header has the accent in the wrong direction. It is aigu, not grave.

Also, changing the window sizes triggers the bottom scroll bar. Another way to do that is as I do on

text simply re-justifies itself (up to a point).

All in all, the site does the job, it informs nicely.

[Leon]

Can you use a more common text/font that is more likely to be on most computers? A Courier font for instance? Or am I way off here?

[Dave Balderstone]

The web has always been about structure, not layout. You can't control how people's browsers are configured, so trying to design a web page as if it were a printed page is a mug's game. Don't bother.

djb

[Charles Self]

The ONLY font used that is not common, though it really is, is the BD Westside. The rest is Arial.

Arial was the default on-line for most machines...I don't even know if Courier will come up on-line. I've sure never seen it and never hope to. Times Roman won't do, because then machines that default to Arial, as many seem to, will pop up with stuff all over the place, because Arial is, as I said, about 20% larger.

I guess I change the headers to Arial, but a bit later. What a frigging pity. It's a decent font, but it is sure not the be-all, end-all or even smack in the frigging middle.

[Charles Self]

I don't know if it's possible with this program. I can check.

Hey, they go out of here with margins. I guess this indicates that placement isn't going to stay sensible, no matter what.

Sheeit. That's off Word's list. I left it off totally at first, and Larry Jaques caught it. Shit. I don't put the accent on my hard copy resumes, so I'll just dump it again. Frenchified nonsense anyway. In truth, it had been so long since I'd used it, I forgot it existed--the accent, that is.

Thanks. I'll keep pecking at it. In a year or two, it might be right!

[Charles Self]

I think I see the problem with the left margin. That's my fault, as I was working with limited space and didn't want to make cuts.

I'll see what I can do later.

[Gerald Ross]

It looks fine on mine, and I like that piece of chinaberry you were resawing.

[Wood Butcher]

The site looks fine to me, I don't see the problems others have mentioned and I'm using IE6 also.

Chinaberry?? My experience with this has been terrible as it splits if you just look at it. Way too brittle, pith like cotton, and a bland figure. What am I missing? Or is it just that the wood I tried grew in Phoenix and that climate made it crap?

Art

[Dave Balderstone]

Regardless of how nice the font is, why would you assume that anyone visiting your site has it installed on their computer?

That's just silly.

djb

[Tom Watson]

It looks real good to me, Charlie.

'cept for that old bearded guy leaning on the Bosch.

You just gotta start hiring bwetter lookin' models ;-]...

Seriously though - the site looks great.

Tom Watson - WoodDorker tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)

(website)

[Larry Blanchard]

Ouch! I'll have to see if the Linux fonts do the same thing. Come to think of it, they did when I read your site under Linux.

As one who started his working life as a printer, it's really irritating to hear that kind of thing. 72pt should be 72pt regardless of font.

I'm guessing, but I suspect the Westside font is undersized, since Arial is such a common font.

[Greg G]

Most of it looks pretty good. However, while the "The Basics of Wood" page looks fine, the "Selecting & Buying Wood" page is all messed up.

Since not many people have the font you used for the page layout, why not consider using a more common font? Or allow the page to download the font, if it isn't restricted by copyright issues.

Content looks great, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet..

JMHO,

Greg G.

[Greg G]

Oh, yeah - another minor observation...

As I bookmarked the page I noticed it had the name "Home". Giving the pages a descriptive name helps when bookmarking.

Like "Charles Self's Home Page".

FWIW,

Greg G.