I like the drill-down ability they use here, but not necessarily the actual execution. What I want is something which has similar text colors with reversing highlight colors, and drill-down abilities, but otherwise the same basic layout as our current page. Something using CSS and text styles instead of javascript/"word images" might be nice. I do like the current image popup in the center to correspond with each selection, though.
I want something which will work in any browser and not be too slow.
1. What server-side technology does your host support, particularly PHP?
2. Are you familiar with Cascading Style Sheets?
3. Do you expect someone else to do this for you or are you just looking for ideas?
__________________
Once I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken.
1. What server-side technology does your host support, particularly PHP?
2. Are you familiar with Cascading Style Sheets?
3. Do you expect someone else to do this for you or are you just looking for ideas?
1. Apache/2.0.36 (Unix) PHP/4.2.1 as far as I know. Also MySQL. If you give me the command to check versions, I can firm those version numbers up for you. Running on a modified version of Slackware Linux.
2. Somewhat familiar with the concept, but not too much with use. I'm willing to learn.
3. Either or both. I see the Worcester one uses Front Page which is allegedly easy to use. I have heard some "not so good" things about Front Page, though, especially as relates to standards. I'm open to suggestions.
Ok, first suggestion is that Front Page is craptacular. The code it gives you is several times larger than it needs to be and it does not support the separation of content and style at all. Which is a shame because that separation makes future updates ever so easy. I would take the world wide web consortium and other's CSS tutorials to familiarize yourself with it. I would try to think of a layout and general design geared toward the overall purpose of the site before beginning to actually code.
What kind of a layout do you want? Tabbed navigation, three columns, footer? That sort of thing. PHP is a huge asset, I love php and it will enable you to add a lot of nifty little tidbits to your site, but structure is the first thing.
__________________
Once I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken.
Ok, first suggestion is that Front Page is craptacular. The code it gives you is several times larger than it needs to be and it does not support the separation of content and style at all. Which is a shame because that separation makes future updates ever so easy. I would take the world wide web consortium and other's CSS tutorials to familiarize yourself with it. I would try to think of a layout and general design geared toward the overall purpose of the site before beginning to actually code.
What kind of a layout do you want? Tabbed navigation, three columns, footer? That sort of thing. PHP is a huge asset, I love php and it will enable you to add a lot of nifty little tidbits to your site, but structure is the first thing.
We like the current layout, but it just a little inflexible. We currently want to add a new category to right side for example. We might like the ease of adding and removing other "categories" in the future. Right now, these are images of the words, of which I have no way to recreate or mesh a new one in with the existing very easily. The javascript code is somewhat complex and I'd rather make things simpler and more modern. Like I said, we have php server running.
What do you mean by the drill-down capability? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can get what you are looking for and more by using more modern CSS techniques.
__________________
Once I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken.
The other thing I'd like to add is the "drill down" capability.
Menu structure. Do you want a JS one or a CSS one? CSS will work in all modern browsers and ones in the future. While JS ones will work on all older ones to whenever they change something in JS.
__________________
Note: I do not test code. I just write it off the top of my head. There might be bugs in it! But if any thing I gave you the overall theory of what you need to accomplish. Also there are plenty of other ways to accomplish this same thing. I just gave one example of it. Other ways might be faster and more efficient.
What do you mean by the drill-down capability? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can get what you are looking for and more by using more modern CSS techniques.
By "drill down", I meant that there are sub-menus or choices under the main ones, like on the two reference sites. Thanks.
Menu structure. Do you want a JS one or a CSS one? CSS will work in all modern browsers and ones in the future. While JS ones will work on all older ones to whenever they change something in JS.
I thought I hinted pretty strongly at CSS over Javascript.
__________________
Note: I do not test code. I just write it off the top of my head. There might be bugs in it! But if any thing I gave you the overall theory of what you need to accomplish. Also there are plenty of other ways to accomplish this same thing. I just gave one example of it. Other ways might be faster and more efficient.
I like the drill-down ability they use here, but not necessarily the actual execution.
Do you mean you don;t like the appearance of their flyouts? If so, that is all changeable with your css. I use suckerfishes drop down with 6 levels (though it's not heavily populated yet). Maybe it would be of use?
Bazz
__________________
"The day you stop learning is the day you become obsolete"! - my late Dad.
Do you mean you don;t like the appearance of their flyouts? If so, that is all changeable with your css. I use suckerfishes drop down with 6 levels (though it's not heavily popultaed yet). Maybe it would be of use? here
The menu is at the top left of the window.
I'll take that link out tomorrow as I am not plugging my site.
Bazz
No, I realize the appearance can be changed. I guess I'm not 100% sure what I meant. The Worcester site looks pretty decent, but I'd want other colors and maybe larger fonts, but that's about it.
How does one begin to do this?
Thanks again.
Edit: I liked your site, but the navigation isn't totally intuitive.
I do like the maroon, but I'd rather have it simpler than that still.
I'm a webmaster of a site for my company and I've been using alistapart.com's tuts for 2 years now, they are really good. I've been currently redesigning their homepage (FRAMES, YUCK!) with a cms and I used horizontal dropdowns for this one. Believe it or not, but that menu runs on the same technique as alistapart's.
Before you post, read our: 
need website update help
