[ April 06, 2005, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Hi Don, well done!
-not a critique, but I'd fix the spelling of "comfortable" on the Illustration page!
edit to add, on the mirrors page, I'd prefer to say 'backlit' rather than 'backlighted'.
also on your 'about me' page, the apostrophe in a few places comes up as a little number 1, (I'd & wasn't in the 2nd paragraph, & I'm in the paragraph about pulling a u-haul trailer, & I've in the next paragraph) and the quotation marks on either side of "mirrors" appear as a little 2 & 3, but the quotes around "facts of life" are fine. Maybe your font had a different setting for curly quotes which fouls up with Firefox? I don't know.
Also, there's no need to use an apostrophe in defining years eg 1980s. At least that is a standard over here, though people do it from habit, you're not abbreviating anything nor indicating posession. I'd make workmate one word, not two (JMHO there)
Well done!
[ April 06, 2005, 10:34 PM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
Very nicely done...I like the way you presented your work, Don.
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
Very good start. I especially like the front page. I hope it leads to other opportunities
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
Can I put your site to mine again Big Don, you know I like your work Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
Nice work Don and well presented too.
THe site should do what you wish!
-grampa dan
[ April 06, 2005, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
Posted by Cheryl Lucas (Member # 1656) on :
Howdy Neighbor!
Nice job, Don!
Here's my 2 cents for potential improvement:
It could be my (home) computer, but reading the 'about me' & 'My Resume' page; the writing is wall to wall, a bit difficult to read, without edge borders. The other pages read well.
Where you've included links within paragraphs, they are showing up in red, and are difficult to read against the black backbround. If red is your gig, maybe larger print...?
It would be helpful and a nice touch, if you had a heading on each page, stating which page we're looking at; Illustration, Logo's, Clipart, etc. This does show up on the bar above the page, but 'my' eye doesn't take me 'there' to look for it.
On the 'Links' page, you mention a 'Contact Button', same as 'email'?? (I know, picky, picky) Also, 'email' in lower case red, is difficult to read.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!
Take Care, Cher.
PS: Finally got a new roof, last week! Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Thanks for the look. Took some of your suggestions. I agree about labeling the top of the pages. Just have to figure out how to do it without completely redoing the header, etc from scratch. Might be something that I do "eventually" and not worry about for now.
Glad to hear about the new roof! Were you able to get Morgan to do it?
Posted by Neil D. Butler (Member # 661) on :
Put a photograph of yourself in the "About Me" Page.....maybe painting or carving. But a great site and great work..easily loads and presents itself well.
Posted by Paul Bierce (Member # 5412) on :
Nice site Don.
On your "Links" page, I'd recommend coding the links so they open in a new window when someone clicks on them. This way, your site remains in the background and all the user has to do is close the window to return to your site.
The way you have it now, the user leaves your site and would have to use the "Back" navigation button to return.
Posted by Dennis Raap (Member # 3632) on :
Nice job Don!!! Just a thought maybe you could set the links to pages to change color to indicate which page is being displayed.
Posted by Del Badry (Member # 114) on :
Nice site, Don....
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Wow Don!! That is very nicely done...I love the home page calligraphy and the Einstien quote...
That's is one of the fasted loading web pages I have seen in a while! Everything came up almost instanty, including pcitures I clicked on to enlarge!
Oh yeh, and you do fantastic work too!! Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Dennis:
quote: On your "Links" page, I'd recommend coding the links so they open in a new window
I couldn't figure out how to do that with a text link. No problem with getting images to open in a new window (in "behaviors" java script), but when I tried the same with text, that option was grayed out.
I'm using Dreamweaver 3.
I've looked at source code in other people's pages to see how it's done, but guess this stuff is over my head. I'm learning, though.
The way I figure it, I've got a decent shell, and now can add features and improvements as I learn how.
Hopefully, I'll be employed soon and can delete the resume page to make room for "misc".
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Sheila. Thanks.
Photoshop has an automatic feature for making web albums.
File>Automate>Web Photo Gallery
You just prepare all your photos, then put them into their own folder. When you choose web photo gallery, a window pops up when you navigate to first the source folder (where the large pics are) and then an empty folder you've created, which is where the finished album ends up. Click OK and it does everything autmatically.
Steve could use this for putting up meet photo albums in a matter of minutes.
I didn't want to use their html format, so deleted that stuff. But all of the thumbnails were in a separate folder, ready to move to the site. I didn't have to mess with resizing, file size or anything with the thumbnails. They were ready to go.
Nice feature. May have something in PhotoPaint, too. Worth checking out for anybody that doesn't have Photoshop.
Bottom line, these thumbnails open quick.
I'm starting a new topic with the micromeet of last October, done entirely with photoshop...no web design program other than "fetch" to ftp the pics up to my webspace. I'll put a step by step there.
[ April 07, 2005, 03:34 PM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Steve, I wonder if you could use that for the 'panel swap' postings as well??
The 3 panel swaps that were put up recently?? They took me over an hour and a half to load and view. Posted by Kelly Thorson (Member # 2958) on :
Looks great Don, Glad to see you took care of the "Dummy Factor" for goofs like me. Works great on the laptop now.
Posted by Paul Bierce (Member # 5412) on :
Hey Don,
Here's the code for having the browser open a new window when a link is clicked.
<a href="http://www.link.com/" target="_blank">
You simply need the "target="_blank" statement at the end. No need for Java.
Hope this helps.
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Thanks, Paul! I'll try that today.
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Paul.
Worked like a charm. Thanks again!
Posted by Kristi Percell (Member # 255) on :
Site looks great Don!
Posted by John Deaton III (Member # 925) on :
Great job Don! All looks very good! Very nice portfolio.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
Don, I think the website is great. It is very easy to navigate and the work you present is very well done.
However, I think the thumbnails are compressed too much. They tend to look "mushy". For example, the thumbnails look like this:
But they could look sharper, like this:
There is the downside of increased file size, but not much. If it were me I would use less compression, and just a bit of unsharp masking.
I think the banner at the top would look better as a GIF, or with a lot less JPEG compression. A GIF would be smaller, and it would keep the letters from having a blotchy effect, and the fuzzy edges.
Finally, if it were me, I would register a unique domain name. If you are going to have a web page, you might as well make the URL easy to remember. It's like $10 a year, and hosting is pretty cheap these days as well. You could even host it yourself if you have enough bandwidth.
Despite my criticisms, I think it's a nice page.
[ April 08, 2005, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: Russ McMullin ]
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Russ, I enlarged the thumnails a little, then sharpened them. Probably still too much compression. But, I've got dialup here at about a 48k connection, and the home page opens in about 23 seconds.
Also, I changed the banner to a gif. You were right, it IS sharper, and down to less than 10k in size to boot.
I had one complaint about links descriptions. Rather than put up with people telling me what I can or can't say on my website, I just left the links with no descriptions at all. I'm learning first hand how Steve must have felt when everybody was tryin to tell him how to run HIS site. Too bad, cause I thought it was a good idea to describe them in my own words to give it a personal touch.
Oh, and I got rid of the mouseover images that changed the gold buttons at the bottom of the page to white when you moved your mouse over them. They were slow to load on dial up and didn't really add anything to the look of the site.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm learning slow but sure.
[ April 09, 2005, 01:01 AM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
I took most of your suggestions into account and made a bunch of changes this weekend.
Actually, other than content, I changed most of the look altogether. New banners, new buttons, etc. It's evolving into something. Not sure what, yet. Posted by Dennis Raap (Member # 3632) on :
Don looks like you were busy this week end. Looks great!!! Posted by Ron Percell (Member # 399) on :
Hi Don,
The site looks great, and has good selection of eye candy. I look forward to seeing your monthly updates.
Keep up the Good Work!
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
I'd like to make the quote on the front page ramdomly change, so that it isn't the same quote every time somebody goes there. Does anybody here know how to do that with Dreamweaver?
Thanks.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
Don, I don't think it would be a function of Dreamweaver. I think for something to change like that, it would require a database. It may be possible with Javascript. I did a google search for "javascript random quote" and got quite a few hits.
I also found hits for doing a random image.
[ April 12, 2005, 02:17 PM: Message edited by: Russ McMullin ]
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
How difficult is it to pop in javascript with Dreamweaver? It does have an html editor that looks like it would allow copy/paste.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
I've never tried it, but I think that would work. It seems like it would be similar to editing with Notepad, which would also work. I've done pages in Dreamweaver, but never pasted in Javascript. I always added it later.
Posted by Janette Balogh (Member # 192) on :
Don, it looks like you're having fun re-designing your site. (I need to find the time to redo mine.)
Yours looks good, it's quick, has an easy flow about it, and showcases some great stuff!
Nice job! Nettie
Posted by David Fisher (Member # 107) on :
I don't like the shade of black you've used and I think you could have exercised a more creative use of the word Coplen. Apart from that I think you'll go a long way as an aspiring designer provided you stick with Times and Ariel.
[ April 13, 2005, 10:01 AM: Message edited by: David Fisher ]
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Wow, way better! I like the way the menu bar/buttons has a gentle sag in the middle of the screen at the bottom- very creative.
(Oh, nice shade of black , now our website needs severe surgery & pruning & updating. It's old & awful)
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Also, 'email' in lower case red, is difficult to read.![[Applause]](graemlins/applause.gif)
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