First post! Tear me apart!!

[JohnnyNapalm]

First, hello! A big thanks to all of the people who have donated their time, intellect, and passion into this forum. I spent all weekend following tutorials, and have finally gotten a skeleton of a site up that I'm happy with.

Now comes the fun part; I'm dumping chum in the water. I want you pros to smell blood and tear me apart. Let me know what I can improve on, and if you're feeling particularly friendly, let me know what you think I did right!

Appreciate any and all feedback.

-Scott

http://scottryanphotography.smugmug.com/

[denisegoldberg]

Hi Scott -
Welcome to dgrin and to smug too!

First, it looks like you have a great start. But comments? I always have comments...

If I click galleries I am taken to a page showing 4 galleries, 3 of which would be better if they weren't visible. I'd recommend setting your Slideshow, Website Misc., and Header galleries to unlisted instead of public. An unlisted gallery is available when it is explicitly linked, but it isn't shown to viewers on your list of galleries.

On your Services page, I realize that you just put text in the gallery as a placeholder, but I believe it would be better to place "real" placeholder text on the page. Something like "Services information coming soon" would be much more appropriate than what you have there now. Yes, I do realize that you are just starting your site. But it is publicly available, and you never know when a potential client might stumble across it.

--- Denise

[JohnnyNapalm]

Thanks Denise. I originally had those 3 galleries you referenced hidden, but somehow they got set to public. Thanks for the advice.

[JohnnyNapalm]

New day, new issues. I changed from Black and White to Sand, just because B&W gave me too many thin vertical bounding boxes.

On the footer, I'd like to ditch the theme reference! "Services" and "guestbook" are still having issues, too. For "services", the top border is getting sheared off, and there is a weird offsetting issue on the "guestbook" page.

Below is my CSS for the "services" page. Any help would be appreciated! :bow

/* INFORMATION PAGE */
.gallery_7435913 #myText {
margin: 0 auto;
width: 600px;
font-size: 100%;
color: #686868;
padding: 0 20px 5px 20px;
}

.gallery_7435913 #myText p {
color: #696f4c;
font-family: verdana, verdana, verdana;
font-size: 100%;
text-align: justify;
}

edit: I think the offsetting is being cause by the "slideshow" button in the galleries, is there a way to remove it?

[Allen]

New day, new issues. I changed from Black and White to Sand, just because B&W gave me too many thin vertical bounding boxes.

On the footer, I'd like to ditch the theme reference! "Services" and "guestbook" are still having issues, too. For "services", the top border is getting sheared off, and there is a weird offsetting issue on the "guestbook" page.

Below is my CSS for the "services" page. Any help would be appreciated! :bow

/* INFORMATION PAGE */
.gallery_7435913 #myText {
margin: 0 auto;
width: 600px;
font-size: 100%;
color: #686868;
padding: 0 20px 5px 20px;
}

.gallery_7435913 #myText p {
color: #696f4c;
font-family: verdana, verdana, verdana;
font-size: 100%;
text-align: justify;
}
edit: I think the offsetting is being cause by the "slideshow" button in the galleries, is there a way to remove it?
You can add a line specifically for a gallery. The #breadcrumb includes the slideshow button.

/* no breadcrumbs globally */
.notLoggedIn .gallery_7434293 #breadcrumb,
.notLoggedIn .share_button,
.notLoggedIn #breadCrumbTrail,
.homepage #breadcrumb
{display: none;}

[JohnnyNapalm]

You can add a line specifically for a gallery. The #breadcrumb includes the slideshow button.

/* no breadcrumbs globally */
.notLoggedIn .gallery_7434293 #breadcrumb,
.notLoggedIn .share_button,
.notLoggedIn #breadCrumbTrail,
.homepage #breadcrumb
{display: none;}

Thanks Allen. That worked for the "Guestbook" page, but it broke the "Services" and "Contact" pages, cutting off the top portion of the boxes. Those are my two HTML pages, so I wonder if something is wrong with my HTML code.

edit: whoops, had some bad code up the line that was interfering with your code, Allen. Took it out and works great now!

[JohnnyNapalm]

The site has it's own domain now, and just needs pictures uploaded. If you can spot any flaws, please let me know!

http://www.scottryanphotography.com

[Allen]

The site has it's own domain now, and just needs pictures uploaded. If you can spot any flaws, please let me know!

http://www.scottryanphotography.com
None of your png nav buttons work in IE6. You are going to need the IE
filter for them to work. Just guessing but I would assign each <li> a class
and in the CSS give it a background. Something similar to this, not sure this
will work.

<li class="homeNav"><a href="/"></a></li>


.homeNav {
width: 100px;
height: 26px;
background: url(/photos/479325501_QLDBd-O.png) no-repeat;
_background: none;
_filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaIma geLoader (enabled=true,
sizingmethod=image, src='/photos/479325501_QLDBd-O.png');
}

Edit: couldn't get that to quite work.

As an alternate looks like this might work.

<table class="navTable" align="center">

<tr align="top">

<td class="homeNav">
<a href="/">
<img src="/img/spacer.gif" width="100" height="26" border="0" alt="">
</a>
</td>

<td class="galleriesNav">
<a href="/galleries">
<img src="/img/spacer.gif" width="100" height="26" border="0" alt="">
</a>
</td>

<td class="servicesNav">
<a href="/gallery/7435913_msEpR">
<img src="/img/spacer.gif" width="100" height="26" border="0" alt="">
</a>
</td>

<td class="contactNav">
<a href="/gallery/7442910_WipQQ">
<img src="/img/spacer.gif" width="100" height="26" border="0" alt="">
</a>
</td>

<td class="guestbookNav">
<a href="/gallery/7434293_bFeeD">
<img src="/img/spacer.gif" width="100" height="26" border="0" alt="">
</a>
</td>

</tr>
</table>

CSS

.homeNav {
width: 100px;
height: 26px;
background: url(/photos/479325501_QLDBd-O.png) no-repeat;
_background: none;
_filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaIma geLoader (enabled=true,
sizingmethod=image, src='/photos/479325501_QLDBd-O.png');
}

.galleriesNav {
width: 100px;
height: 26px;
background: url(/photos/479325479_r9yvQ-S.png) no-repeat;
_background: none;
_filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaIma geLoader (enabled=true,
sizingmethod=image, src='/photos/479325479_r9yvQ-S.png');
}

.servicesNav {
width: 100px;
height: 26px;
background: url(/photos/479325457_eNGqr-O.png) no-repeat;
_background: none;
_filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaIma geLoader (enabled=true,
sizingmethod=image, src='/photos/479325457_eNGqr-O.png');
}

.contactNav {
width: 100px;
height: 26px;
background: url(/photos/479325472_R69GD-O.png) no-repeat;
_background: none;
_filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaIma geLoader (enabled=true,
sizingmethod=image, src='/photos/479325472_R69GD-O.png');
}

.guestbookNav {
width: 100px;
height: 26px;
background: url(/photos/479325491_HLEhK-O.png) no-repeat;
_background: none;
_filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaIma geLoader (enabled=true,
sizingmethod=image, src='/photos/479325491_HLEhK-O.png');
}

.navTable {
width: 630px;
position: relative;
left: 15px;
}

[JohnnyNapalm]

Thanks Allen. You're such a huge help! :clap

[Allen]

Thanks Allen. You're such a huge help! :clap
Looks good in IE6 now, however the links are not working there.

[JohnnyNapalm]

Thanks for the heads up, I think I have resolved that issue. Seems to work in IE6, IE7, and FF3 so far.

[Allen]

Thanks for the heads up, I think I have resolved that issue. Seems to work in IE6, IE7, and FF3 so far.
Care to share how you solved it? :D Getting png's to work in IE6 without the
filter has been a problem.

[JohnnyNapalm]

Care to share how you solved it? :D Getting png's to work in IE6 without the
filter has been a problem.
I wish I could tell you! I actually reverted back to my old code (cleaned up a little), and removed the code for alpha transparency altogther.

Here's the CSS portion:

/*----------Header icons----------*/

#navcontainer ul {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
list-style-type: none;
text-align: center;
}

#navcontainer ul li {
display: inline;
}

#navcontainer ul li a {
text-decoration: none;
padding: .2em 1em;
color: transparent;
background-color: transparent;
}

#navcontainer ul li a:hover {
color: transparent;
background-color: transparent;
}

And the Header:

<div id="navcontainer">
<ul>
<li><a href="/"><img border="0" src="/photos/479325501_QLDBd-O.png"></a></li>
<li><a href="/galleries"><img border="0" src="/photos/479325479_r9yvQ-M.png"></a></li>
<li><a href="/gallery/7435913_msEpR"><img border="0" src="/photos/479325457_eNGqr-O.png"></a></li>
<li><a href="/gallery/7442910_WipQQ"><img border="0" src="/photos/479325472_R69GD-O.png"></a></li>
<li><a href="/gallery/7434293_bFeeD"><img border="0" src="/photos/479325491_HLEhK-O.png"></a></li>
</ul>
</div>

[Allen]

I wish I could tell you! I actually reverted back to my old code (cleaned up a little), and removed the code for alpha transparency altogther.
...
Yal, I saw all that but didn't see anything else added. The png background
now shows in IE6 momentarily then disappears. btw, on your homepage using
IE6 I click any nav link and the page never loads.

[JohnnyNapalm]

Yal, I saw all that but didn't see anything else added. The png background
now shows in IE6 momentarily then disappears. btw, on your homepage using
IE6 I click any nav link and the page never loads.

That is so strange. Works fine for me.

I suppose I could convert them all to .gif files...wouldn't really lose anything by doing that, I don't think.

[Allen]

That is so strange. Works fine for me.

I suppose I could convert them all to .gif files...wouldn't really lose anything by doing that, I don't think.
Seems to be working now. I clicked the show first and from then on the nav
links worked. Wonder if waiting too long, the loading show interfered with the
links.

[JohnnyNapalm]

Changed them all to .gif files, let me know if you still run across this weirdness.

[Allen]

Changed them all to .gif files, let me know if you still run across this weirdness.
Seems to work ok with IE6.

[JohnnyNapalm]

I think I'm finally satisfied with my site. For the next 5 minutes, at least. Thanks to all that helped, if again, if you notice anything weird with it, please please PLEASE let me know!

Now I have to spend the next few nights post processing and actually put up some material :bluduh