| Not logged in - | |
| Not logged in - | |
Come on over and join us at the new place- www.ultrabb.net/forum
|
| Moderated by: Jim | Page:   1 2 3 |
|
|||||||||||||
| Side panel pictures. - Software Assistance - UltraBB - UltraBB Forums | |||||||||||||||
| Author | Post | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member 
|
Well Martin I think you have really done it now. Picture of the week too. Strangely enough the members are only today asking for me to put it back. I don't really see how you can improve on what you have now. I don't see how you can accomodate the smaller screens any more than you have done. Fortunately in my browser there is a zoom in and out button so I can manage pictures no matter how big, or small, if it comes to that. Last question of course is can yours truly deal with the technical side?
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
martin_wynne Licence Holder 
|
Robert wrote: Last question of course is can yours truly deal with the technical side? Hi Bob, I've tweaked matters a little so that it all fits on 1280 screens now without scrolling: http://www.templot.com/wowultra I can provide detailed instructions for setting it up. Setting up the pictures initially will be a bit tedious if you are going to make all of them expand, but you can just do one or two at a time if you prefer (see the right-hand column now). You could start by just adding what I have already done. There are still some flies in the ointment. Some work needs to be done separately for each theme you are supporting and may need tweaking for each. And Jim is talking about a new upgrade soon, so some of the changes may have to be done again after upgrading, and it might need some further changes. Generally you are making a lot of work for yourself by allowing too many themes -- it makes user support difficult if everyone is seeing something different. For example the Sea theme uses graphics for the title backgrounds. The width of the side boxes is therefore controlled by the longest title you put in there. The title can't be allowed to wrap because a double line title wouldn't match the background graphic. You have a long title "Novice - Upton To Dunton" which is forcing the entire left column to be much wider in Sea than in Ultra and Beige (which don't use graphics). If you shortened that title the entire side column would be narrower. Likewise the long titles on the right-hand side are doing the same, e.g. "Neil's European Layout". If you try swapping from Sea to Beige or Ultra, you will see what I mean -- the titles wrap and the columns get narrower -- better for users on narrow screens. On my forum I have set up just two themes for users -- one with large fonts for older eyes and desktop screens, and one with smaller fonts for younger eyes and laptop screens. Apart from font size everything else is the same. regards, Martin.
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
I can see what you mean about the picture titles Martin and will get on to that straight away. The latest link is great and everything works as it should in the beige theme. I will find out who is using what in the way of themes and see if I can cut the number back. After all we are an information exchange forum and practicality is more important than eye candy. I like your idea of having different themes for different practical circumstances. Ok I think I am ready to have a go at this now but I will get those picture titles shortened first. As regards Jim's update obviously I will have to deal with any changes that are required. I have also kept copies of all the different codes you have given me so that I should be able to implement them again. Thanks Martin Bob
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Just a thought Martin but could you replace the the photograph you have at the head of the test forum page with our Your Model Railway logo then I can see what affect the difference may have. Cheers Bob
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Wow, that was quick Martin. Now if we could have the logo in the middle and the Quick Links on one side and Page Format links on the other then that should look great. Bob
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Changed again I see. Now I'm probably going to sound ungrateful here but believe me I'm not. The thing is I am a symetry lover when it comes to forum appearance. If the LH side panels of the test forum were made the same as the real forum then that would put the picture of the week in the middle of the middle panel. Then with the logo in the middle of the header space you could do away with the Home, Recent Topics and Account links. The Normal link could go on one side of the logo and the Expand All Pictures on the other side and do away with the Hide Forum Lists link. Everything should then balance up. What does that sound like? Cheers. Bob
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
martin_wynne Licence Holder
|
Robert wrote: Changed again I see. Now I'm probably going to sound ungrateful here but believe me I'm not. The thing is I am a symetry lover when it comes to forum appearance. If the LH side panels of the test forum were made the same as the real forum then that would put the picture of the week in the middle of the middle panel. Then with the logo in the middle of the header space you could do away with the Home, Recent Topics and Account links. The Normal link could go on one side of the logo and the Expand All Pictures on the other side and do away with the Hide Forum Lists link. Everything should then balance up. What does that sound like? Hi Bob, It's entirely up to you, I have just tried a few ideas. A perfectly symmetrical design would look very "formal" for a fun hobby site, surely? As far as I can recall, the heading picture was offset to the left on the previous forum. The picture of the week can't go exactly in the middle of the screen unless you can suggest somewhere else for the login menu list. Leaving it in the side column pushes the expand and shrink buttons on that side down out of sight and no longer in line with the ones on the right-hand side, which looks very untidy. It also causes the login menu boxes to widen with the rest of the column, which also looks odd. The only real option is to have the top option for the menu (as on this forum). Having the picture central is also likely to waste space. The area available is much wider than tall, so any typical picture is going to look a bit isolated in the centre and vertically cramped. I think the arrangement I have arrived at makes the best use of space and best adapts to narrow screens, but if you post a sketch of what you want I will see if it can be arranged. Unfortunately we are not starting with a blank sheet -- things have to fit in with the existing forum design, so not everything is possible. The reason for having the "quick links" in the header is that they are then available on every page of the forum. The links in the side column are not. p.s. I have been changing it in the last few minutes. regards, Martin. Last edited on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 10:37 pm by martin_wynne |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Ok then Martin, I have to say I admire your patience. How about if we have the home page as is with the logo in the middle and the picture of the week where you have it on the test forum. That leaves us with all the extra links. Could they not go in the first of the RH panels? You could have LH Shrink All, RH Shrink All, LH Expand All, RH Expand All, Expand All Pictures and finally Normal. That's six links which would help balance up the normal LH panel. I'm not concerned about having the same links on every page as it's only the front page I want to alter. At first sight the only obvious change would be the Picture of the week until you start clicking on links and then things really start happening. Perhaps this would be a lot easier for you to do too. I really don't want to implement something I'm not entirely happy with because that's not fair to you or to me, especially after all the time you are putting in on this. All the best Bob Last edited on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 11:01 pm by Robert |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Hi again Martin, The front page would look like this with the addition of the Picture of the week. What do you think? It looks as if it would be much simpler to do from your point of view and does everything I want it to. Attachment: screen4.gif (Downloaded 29 times)
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
martin_wynne Licence Holder
|
Hi Bob, I've created a more symmetrical look. I also changed the page background* to the stippled one (from Aiblue theme) just to ring the changes. I think it looks cleaner than the colourized brushed metal effect. It also matches your header logo better. In line with your wish for symmetry I have centralized the breadcrumbs trail directly under the logo. I have also deepened the header space for the logo a little to improve the look of things. http://www.templot.com/wowultra I don't like the idea of putting the controls in the side columns. They look awful when the columns expand, and the ones on the right might get pushed over out of sight on a small screen. Side scrolling to view pictures is regarded as acceptable, scrolling just to get at controls isn't. They also push the pictures down so that the initial page view is less colourful. The great advantage of having the buttons in the header is that they are available when the side columns are not, for example when reading topics. From experience on my own forum I know that a "Recent Topics" button in the header is a very great convenience. In fact I have repeated it at the bottom of every page too. The other buttons on the left are not so necessary, but they are useful and help to create a balanced look with the buttons on the right. But it's your forum not mine, so I will help you get whatever you want. *refresh/reload needed to see a changed background. cheers, Martin. Last edited on Fri Aug 29th, 2008 08:21 am by martin_wynne |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Good morning Martin. The latest panel has got things evened out more and I like what I see. It seems that I will be able to reduce the choice of styles on the forum to two, Ultra and Beige, so how do the changes look in Ultra? Or is that a whole new set of problems? Bob
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
martin_wynne Licence Holder
|
Robert wrote: Good morning Martin. Hi Bob, The side columns with their "expand all" and "shrink all" buttons, and clicking on individual pictures, will work in all themes regardless. But need side scrolling. The "picture of the week" and the controls for hiding the middle column need to have the changes applied to each theme separately. So it's up to you how much work you want to do. Bear in mind that if you offer a choice of themes with large fonts you ought to offer a choice with smaller fonts. And that every time Jim publishes an upgrade you will probably have to re-do some of the changes in each theme. I'm hoping to simplify the "picture of the week" so that editing just one file each week changes all the themes. (An <IFRAME> tag would be even easier, but I suspect that some of your members will have iframes switched off, or will receive a security warning on a page which contains one.) I'm also intending to write a small utility program for you to make it easier to create and change the side boxes. regards, Martin.
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Back again Martin Hiding the middle column isn't an issue for me as I can't see anyone using it not with all the other choices they have. The membership are quite happy now with the changes that have been made with regard to fonts and some of them have changed over to my browser where adjustments to font size can be achieved with the zoom in and zoom out facility, this also deals with the side scrolling problem. The picture of the week will actually change only once every two weeks so obviously it wont be called that. With only two themes to work on I think I should be able to cope OK with whatever work is required and if I get stuck I always know who to come to.  Bob Last edited on Fri Aug 29th, 2008 09:34 am by Robert |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
martin_wynne Licence Holder
|
Robert wrote: Hiding the middle column isn't an issue for me as I can't see anyone using it not with all the other choices they have. Hi Bob, Members on narrow screens need the "hide" button so that they can expand individual pictures (rather than the entire column) and still avoid side scrolling. Even without the button, the functionality to remove the middle column requires separate changes for each theme. I have now added your welcome announcement for first-time visitors (log out to see it). regards, Martin.
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Robert Member
|
Hi Martin, Yes that's fine, and I hear what you say about narrow screens. Cheers. Bob
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Current time is 12:44 am | Page: 1 2 3 |
| UltraBB Forums > UltraBB > Software Assistance > Side panel pictures. | |
