Thank You To Vokf

[Robster 0]

After reading vokfs excellent article about google sites i thought i would have a go at a web site

 

the price for hosting....... Free !!! i like that

 

so i registered a domain for @ £8.00 for two years

 

with my ham fisted press buttons until it works approach i have the start of a web site

 

vokf was kind enough to help me through the more difficult things for me to understand ..so for most will be dead easy.

 

I have been threatening to make a web site for a while ..but my son is a graphic designer and he had some great ideas but not the time to help me and to be honest his work is for the upper end of the design world and not DJ's web sites so that was scrapped and so i thought i would have a go and at this price you cant go wrong.

 

my site is still being developed and redone on a daily basis but you can see what i have come up with so far.

 

My Webpage

 

I just publicly wanted to say thank you to Vokf (and Dan for the validator )

Edited February 8, 2010 by Robster

[vokf 0]

Hi Rob,

thanks for the thanks!

 

If you edit your gallery page, you can add a picasa slideshow. This is a fairly neat flash based slideshow.

Example on my demo site;

http://www.weddingdiscosite.co.uk/gallery

 

You can set the size, and a few other options.

 

(Hmm - I really need to make better use of this domain!)

 

 

 

 

 

[Robster 0]

Hi Rob,

thanks for the thanks!

 

If you edit your gallery page, you can add a picasa slideshow. This is a fairly neat flash based slideshow.

Example on my demo site;

http://www.weddingdiscosite.co.uk/gallery

 

You can set the size, and a few other options.

 

(Hmm - I really need to make better use of this domain!)

 

 

Done that it does look better now cheers again!

 

messed about for two hours making a favicon .. looks pants but i have one lol

Edited February 9, 2010 by Robster

[MintyDave 0]

Well done Rob. I love the domain robstar btw.

 

Couple of issues for me is that i cant read the menu text so well as the red red on grey is nearly as bad as red on blue.

 

Also the general text is too big and the spacing is a bit dodgey. I used a BT template and it took me hours to get everything aligned.

 

Having looked at the source code there may be some manual tweaking that can be done to tidy it up.

 

sometimes its the simple things that make a difference to the overall image.

 

Bash on

Dave

[Robster 0]

Well done Rob. I love the domain robstar btw.

 

Couple of issues for me is that i cant read the menu text so well as the red red on grey is nearly as bad as red on blue.

 

Also the general text is too big and the spacing is a bit dodgey. I used a BT template and it took me hours to get everything aligned.

 

Having looked at the source code there may be some manual tweaking that can be done to tidy it up.

 

sometimes its the simple things that make a difference to the overall image.

 

Bash on

Dave

 

 

 

I have been having problems with text placement , i use firefox and IE8 both with and without favourites /bookmarks side bars and on 4:3 and widescreen monitors ..to get an idea of what different users see.

 

Getting it so it looks ok on all 8 screen types is a task and half!

 

 

The text editor on google sites displays the text one way then as soon as you save it it alters the font leading so text appears crushed on top of each other after the save when it didnt before the save.

 

I might just save the pages as a jpeg image with fonts i want to use.

 

 

Not sure about the red on black for me it looks ok? is this a colour vision thing?

 

Thanks for the positive input I will keep bashing on..This is a work in progress

 

very few things in life are free and i'm well chuffed with it so far.

 

 

minty have you got a link to your site? , i wont nick owt just looking for inspiration

 

cheers Rob

 

 

 

[vokf 0]

Hi Rob,

I'll check things out on my test site.

 

Don't be tempted to use graphics as text.

You'll get no SEO from this, it's a really bad idea and Google etc will not be able to understand what content is on your site.

 

 

Also agree with the red text - it's really hard to read.

 

 

Cheers,

Jason

 

update:

http://sites.google.com/site/slate1971/

 

Rob- I've found the template you've used, and borrowed your mic background photo.

 

I'm not seeing any text alignment problems here. Tested on Chrome, IE8 and Firefox 3.5.7

 

I've set the text colour of the content area to be dark grey (so I don't need to set it manually when editing the page).

 

I'll take this site down later - but I suspect the problem is from pasting formatted text.

 

 

If you copied the text from MS Word, or another website, then you should highlight all the text, and click the "remove formatting" icon.

 

Ideally - stick to the default font face, and if you need to paste from Word, then the best route is to paste into notepad and then copy & paste into the editor.

 

The white link on your menu looks much better now.

[Robster 0]

Hi Rob,

I'll check things out on my test site.

 

Don't be tempted to use graphics as text.

You'll get no SEO from this, it's a really bad idea and Google etc will not be able to understand what content is on your site.

Also agree with the red text - it's really hard to read.

Cheers,

Jason

 

update:

http://sites.google.com/site/slate1971/

 

Rob- I've found the template you've used, and borrowed your mic background photo.

 

I'm not seeing any text alignment problems here. Tested on Chrome, IE8 and Firefox 3.5.7

 

I've set the text colour of the content area to be dark grey (so I don't need to set it manually when editing the page).

 

I'll take this site down later - but I suspect the problem is from pasting formatted text.

If you copied the text from MS Word, or another website, then you should highlight all the text, and click the "remove formatting" icon.

 

Ideally - stick to the default font face, and if you need to paste from Word, then the best route is to paste into notepad and then copy & paste into the editor.

 

The white link on your menu looks much better now.

 

 

noticed the background image on yours is positioned different than mine??

 

I found that the text still crushed when i manually enterted it in ? ..will mess about a bit and see

 

thanks for the help

 

see the link below

see between the two slides you can see the spacing difference and the content image background shifting

 

http://img705.imageshack.us/slideshow/webp...textspacing.jpg

Edited February 9, 2010 by Robster

[Ste Owens 0]

Looks good :-)

[vokf 0]

Still looking into this alignment. I can in the "welcome" text on the homepage, lots of extra HTML code.

 

On a technical level, the google sites appears to be using "divs" as a container for each paragraph.

On my test page, my "welcome text" is (slightly edited to remove image reference for clarity - but I've not tidied up any code);

 

<div style="text-align:left;display:block">Welcome to the Home page of xxxxxxx a Professional Mobile Disco and Karaoke</div> 

 

The *only* formatting is the left-align the text.

 

On Robstars site;

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><p style="text-align:left"><font size="5">Welcome to the Home page of Rob Star Entertainments</font></p><p style="text-align:left"><font size="5">a Professional Mobile Disco <br /></font></p>

 

 

Even if you can't understand HTML, there is a lot more extra code.

 

The text colour can be set in the site management section. This will use the modern system of CSS to apply style to content (so the HTML/Page is free from font/colours etc).

 

Rob - can you create a blank page.

Edit the page colour (Site Management/Colours and Fons) to set the Content Text colour to Black. You can also change the page font to Verdana or Trebuchet.

 

Edit the new page, and simply type in some content (ie NOT copying & paste). Leave everything else alone - so no colour/size/font tweaks.

 

See how you get on - simply using carriage return for new lines, then save the page.

If this is fine, then you need to highlight ALL the content text on the pages, and click the "Remove Formatting" icon (it looks like a T with an x under it.)

This should get the text to be smaller size. As you will have set the page text colour, you'll mainly need to increase the size of the text (although it looks a bit big to me)

 

On my test homepage, I've added a "We arrive on time, every time." quote, and its flowing fine.

 

 

If the reason for the large text is to show more of the mic background image, then edit the image so it's higher.

 

I can't see any major problems on my site;

http://sites.google.com/site/slate1971/

 

(I know the mic image has different alignment, but this will not effect the text.)

Edited February 9, 2010 by vokf

[Robster 0]

i have made a page called blank page that you can access on the site map it seems to be when you use large font sizes from what i can see

 

http://www.robstar.co.uk/blank-page

 

the text is self explanitory about what i did on that page

 

also noticed my side bar is wider due to the navigation heares being longer

Edited February 9, 2010 by Robster

[Robster 0]

After lots of messing around i have found that if you write paragraphs in anything bigger than 16Pt bold trebuchet you get leading errors .

 

my whole tesxt is now the max size and now works i think.

 

I need more images ..and will develop this site as i go ..eventually it will look ok

 

Thanks for all the help everyone

[vokf 0]

After lots of messing around i have found that if you write paragraphs in anything bigger than 16Pt bold trebuchet you get leading errors .

 

my whole tesxt is now the max size and now works i think.

 

I need more images ..and will develop this site as i go ..eventually it will look ok

 

Thanks for all the help everyone

 

I'm just wondering why you have such large text? If you're trying to pad out the screen to see the mic, then use a different image.

 

I also suggest you tweak your calendar settings (in google calendar). You can opt to show you as "busy", rather than the details for each night.

 

My checks lead me to the conclusion that google are assuming a smaller height font. Leaving default size works fine. I did find a bug report about this, so may follow up to see if it can be fixed.

 

Otherwise, shame about the problems - but its looking good!

 

[Robster 0]

yes the text was and is too big ..i am waiting on using good photos now. i will , at every function take pictures and get permission from the people . I want good images and that should make my site really pop then .

 

I want to use actual pictures not stock images to give a true fair representation .

 

site is zooming up google search as we speak !

 

well chuffed

[MintyDave 0]

A vast improvement Rob

 

Personally i would look at the actual content again now that you have got the layout sorted and pretty your paragraphs up a bit, expand on the topics slightly, dot the i's and cross the t's etc.

 

for example

 

We also offer Karaoke We boast one of the best selection of karaoke tracks in world, we have hosts that love and are passionate about karaoke, It's not just a add on service to us.

 

firstly i would have an individual karaoke page and have to say reading some of your threads, this paragraph sentance is not your best.

 

Pull you socks up young man or...........I know you can do better.........are you not dissapointed in yourself...........! thats the teaching assistant side of me kicking in!

 

Go for it, do it, get it done!

 

:hide:

Edited February 11, 2010 by MintyDave

[vokf 0]

Personally i would look at the actual content again now that you have got the layout sorted and pretty your paragraphs up a bit, expand on the topics slightly, dot the i's and cross the t's etc.

 

:hide:

 

I've tried not to critique the site on content- if Rob wants a review once he's added his photos, he can PM me and we'll kick it off.

I find content creation pretty difficult, and it takes a while to work out what you want to say, and how to present it.

 

Considering this was completed in less than a week - very well done.

 

 

Jason

 

[MintyDave 0]

I've tried not to critique the site on content- if Rob wants a review once he's added his photos, he can PM me and we'll kick it off.

I find content creation pretty difficult, and it takes a while to work out what you want to say, and how to present it.

 

Considering this was completed in less than a week - very well done.

Jason

 

Yes i fully agree, very well done in that time - far more than i have achieved!!!

 

sorry i may have sounded too critical, we dont know the full story as you are obviously doing a lot of 1 to 1 work with Rob and my reply was just to egg Rob on a bit in a supportive manor, but may not have came out that way.

 

as he says his google ranking is on the up and i only suggested reviewing the content as soon as possible considering the sudden volume of traffic he may get.

 

I have spent 4 weeks working on my content and still am not happy with it and possibly never will be.

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

[Robster 0]

lol no offence taken ..i have done todays updates

 

wrote a bit of code ! I got a facebook logo to link to my new unified facebook page in the sidebar.

 

I added a few pictures , altered the text on every page altered the background image positioning

 

altered the images on the welcome page html code so they go to the gallery when you click them

 

still tons of work to do , I will give myself a month to get it how i want and then ask for a review then ..but any comments any spotting of mistakes helps the site develop

 

Thanks to everyone for there input

 

cant do anything this weekend as i am working