Website Updates and New Layout?

[icarus]

In preparation for remixredux I've updated my website.

The Harry Potter story pages have been updated.
The Harry Potter fic pairings page now has a Gen list, and has been updated from July 2005. *coughs*

PG-13 has 9 new stories, R has two new stories, and NC-17 also has two new stories.

The growing Stargate page has been updated.
I've added five new Stargate Atlantis stories, and two new Stargate SG-1 stories. Since Stargate Atlantis is up to seven stories and Stargate SG-1 now has 17, check out the handy "jump to" links.

I've renamed "Nasty Little Elves" to Nowhere But Up, because the original title was a slapped on mess and scribbulus_ink had a point with the title being the first hook. I was being lazy with the original title.

New Layout?
I'm experimenting with a new layout that seems to work for (and look the same) on various resolutions. The banner is by femmequixotic, with art by lizardspots.

Only one page is complete because, well, I don't know what I'm doing. A lot of the links don't work yet. But the layout of all the pages will be simple: black text on white background, with the information in the center table. A basic 12 pt font. The stories will still appear as separate links so you (and I) can link to them individually.

Users of Firefox and Safari and other browsers, let me know if it looks like utter shit?

Everyone else... do you like the bright and sunny look? I write a lot more humor than Darkfic so it seems to fit, but if it hurts your eyes, tell me. I'd like to go to eFiction, but I don't know how to set it up. So, basic HTML it is.

Comments

[scribbulus-ink.livejournal.com]

I use Safari, and the layout looks fine to me. The images are loading, and it looks like everything is in its place with the links and the center table. It looks clean and easy to read, style-wise, and it doesn't hurt my eyes. I like it. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That was quick.

Clean and easy to read. That's music to mine ears, it is. Not to mention my eyes. I knew it was a problem when I was having trouble reading my own site. *snickers* Getting old, I guess.

Icarus

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

It looks real good in Opera 8.5 on my XandrOS Linux box. In Firefox 1.5.01, OTOH, it reports some sort of image it can't bring up next to the links under the top graphic (Opera shows nothing there at all, should there be little icons or something?)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Aha, that's my fault, not your browsers. I haven't uploaded the image yet (oops).

It's working then? Wow. Fantastic. I appreciate your checking this out.

Icarus

[florahart]

If you want it black on white, you'll want to code that; those aren't my default colors and I therefore get my default colors. Firefox. I didn't try to go looking for your stylesheet, so I dunno how/whether you have anything coded for foreground or background color.

General suggestion: you might want a menu of links within that page--that's a long list. Unless you are going to take some of that content off that page and onto another and you're just putting it there for now.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Okay, I think I've fixed that. I think. Does it work?

The page I have there is my updates page from my site. I probably should have something cleaner for the home page. Once I have the links up, those will sort everything out neatly by fandom.

Icarus

[florahart]

yep!

:)

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

It looks good, I like! Very easy to read. :D I have a couple of suggestions to improve presentation.

- use that maroon colour in the banner for the heading and/or the links. You could incorporate the murky greeen of the Earth chevron somewhere too.

- I'm guessing your screen res is 800x600? On people with larger screens, everything below the banner spreads across the screen, which looks a tad off. You can put everything into a table and predefine the width of the table to be the same as the banner width.

Also, upload whatever piccie is meant to be between the links along the top! I wanna see. :D

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

Also, I reckon you should use a sans serif font for all your text, so that it matches the text in your banner.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I tried it. Design-wise it's much better, but readability suffers (serif fonts were created to make text more legible). I found myself squinting again, so I switched back to Times New Roman.

I've done the art page (http://www.icarus.slashcity.net/stuffart.html), too. Hmm. It needs a heading.

Icarus

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

Hehe, well go with whatever you can read more easily - I've always prefered sans serif fonts. *shrugs*

*peeks at art page*

Heading.... umm.... 'Tawdry Snapshots'? :D

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I've always prefered sans serif fonts.

I find sans serif fonts easier to read as well.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm from from three generation of professional printers, my stepfather's degree is from R.I.T. (that means "Harvard" in the printing world) and my father's an award-winning art director. I've produced 14 Buddhist texts.

Trust me, you may prefer san serif fonts for their modern clean look (and not all serif fonts are created equal) but once your eyes start going or something has to be read from a distance, serif fonts become a necessity.

Icarus

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I actually paste most stories or other text into Word and change the font to one that's easier for me to read (usually Ariel). I'm not sure why that is, but the older I get the more it's a necessity for me. It may not be true for everyone, but I find it easier to read. (I'm not even hinting that you should change your font, though. *g* I don't care what anyone uses since, as I mentioned, I usually end up pasting stories into Word anyway.)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*nods* Thanks for telling me about the Firefox issue, I'm a little stumped at the moment. It's quite a problem.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

- use that maroon colour in the banner for the heading and/or the links. You could incorporate the murky greeen of the Earth chevron somewhere too.

Done. Oh. I forgot to do it for the heading. Anyway, the links are done.

- I'm guessing your screen res is 800x600? On people with larger screens, everything below the banner spreads across the screen, which looks a tad off. You can put everything into a table and predefine the width of the table to be the same as the banner width.

*stares* Okay, that's assuming much more knowledge of HTML than I have. I've, uh, sort of, uh, wound up with these tables through trial and error. I'm not sure how to get to an end result except virtually by accident.

Also, upload whatever piccie is meant to be between the links along the top! I wanna see. :D

Any ideas? The reason I haven't uploaded it is I'm not sure what to use. Wilderness Guru has a teeny tree there on his site, you see.

Icarus

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

Ok, if you go to the html of that page, it says:

<TD WIDTH="100%" VALIGN="TOP">

above the code for your links along the top. Change 100% to 850 (which is the width of your banner).

You then have

<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="6"
HEIGHT="406">

above the code for the 'distracting things' links. Again, change 100% to 850.

Then

<TD WIDTH="100%" VALIGN="TOP">

Get rid of 'width=100%', don't replace it with anything.

Hopefully that'll make all the text below the banner be the same width as the banner. :D Also, graphics between the links along the top - I suggest keep graphics to a minimum. Put a * or a | between each link, no need for a tiny piccie. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) Won't it look funny, with just a little box of text/images in the upper left hand corner of the screen?

I suggest keep graphics to a minimum. Put a * or a | between each link, no need for a tiny piccie. :)

Deal. *nods*

I've another question: do you know how to create margins around text for Firefox users? My current margins:

<*body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" bgproperties=fixed topmargin="0" leftmargin="-2" rightmargin="-2"*>

Don't register with that browser and I don't know why. The majority of my readers use Firefox. *sighs* *head in hands*

Icarus

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) Won't it look funny, with just a little box of text/images in the upper left hand corner of the screen?

Oh dear, is that what it looks like? :( I'd intended for the whole block of text (distracting links and all) to be centred under the header. You're right, firefox doesn't recognise your margins, which is why I was hoping the table width code might work. :\\

I'm not quite sure what your -2 margins are meant to look like, I checked our layout in both IE and firefox, and they look pretty much the same.

BTW, you should really try out firefox. :D It's essentially laid out exactly like IE, but it doesn't mess up a lot of website code (IE misreads a surprising amount of code) as well as nifty features which would seem extraneous at first, but within a few days you wouldn't even remember how you survived the internet without them. :D

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

That should be 'your layout', not 'our'. I'm not that overbearing, am I? :D

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<META> blahblah </META>

<TITLE>............................. I C A R U S . S L A S H . F I C T I O N .............................</TITLE>

<style type="text/css"><!--
blahblah
hr {width: 850px;}
--></style>

</HEAD>

<BODY bgcolor="#FFFFFF">


<center>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="850">

<tr align="left" valign="top">
<td colspan="2" width="850">
<img src="icarus5.gif" width="850" height="250">
<br>
<hr>
<center>
| blahblah links along the top |
</center>
<hr>
</td>
</tr>

<tr align="left" valign="top">
<td width="150">
distracting sidelinks
</td>

<td align="left">
blahblah main text
</td>

</tr>

<tr align="left" valign="top">
<td colspan="2" width="850">
<hr>
<center>
blahblah links along the bottom
</center>
<hr>
</td>
</tr>

</table>
</center>

</body>
</html>

------------------------------------

That'll make the site look like this (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Lizard/icarus.jpg) with the text and lines going across being the same width as the banner. But I just recieved the comment where you said you fixed the width. xD Damn. But anyway, have a look if you prefer it like this or the way you've already done it....

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Weirdly enough, the picture as far as I can tell is 900 pixels. *eyes cross*

I think I'd better stop for now. But your layout looks a lot cleaner than what I have so far. I like it. I'm wondering why my lines currently stop an inche from the endge of the banner. Hmm.

I sleep first. Then, I look at this when I'm fresh.

Icarus

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

Nope, the picture is 850x250px, according to photoshop. But yes, you go sleep first. Nighty night. :D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

They do look the same: I just fixed the margins for Firefox (hours of uploading fics tonight). They're no longer crammed up against the side.

As for Firefox, I have it, but like a lot of new software my system can't handle it. It takes to the count of twenty to load a single webpage, if it loads anything at all.

Icarus

[wildebeth.livejournal.com]

Love the new layout.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Crisp and clean, and, hopefully, easy to navigate. That's the primary goal.

Icarus

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I use Firefox and I absolutely *love* the new layout. It's so much easier on the eyes. I always prefer dark text on a light background for ease of reading.

The only thing I would change is...is there some way to make it so that the text doesn't go all the way exactly to the edge of the screen? I don't know how that would work, but it makes the stories difficult to read without pasting them into Word. :-)

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

And, oops! I see that someone was helping you with this above already. :-)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, what lizardspots suggested won't effect the stories. Those aren't changing, except they now have a white background.

Hmm... Firefox is a problem. It doesn't recognize my margins at all, so slaps everything to the left. I tried changing the margin but it has no effect. This is a real problem because the majority of my readers are using Firefox.

Okay, I'm on it, hampered only by the fact that I have no clue what I'm doing. :)

Icarus

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not really a huge problem, more of an aesthetic one. With the resolution that I use for my monitor, many websites show up as just something tiny in the middle of the screen (like one long column) or sometimes to the left. This journal style shows up like that, but it's not too narrow either. I have about 3 1/2 - 4" on either side of the actual LJ "box," though.

I have no point except maybe: "If it's not one thing, it's another." *g*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Well, I know the stats for my site. The majority of readers have switched to Firefox, and I worry that they'll find the unreadability off-putting to say the least.

Darn, darn, darn.

Icarus

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's interesting. You can actually tell what browser someone is using? That's neat.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's one of the benefits to paying for a site.

I think I fixed that problem. Let me know, here's a story: Colony Atlantis (http://www.icarus.slashcity.net/stories/colonyatlantis.html).

Did it work?

Icarus

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I think so. It's a bit better, though still close to the edge of the page--just not the *exact* edge, so it does help. :-)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that's how it looks to everyone! (Grin) And I was up really late last night fixing all of the stories and I'm not doing it again for a long, long time.

There are times when I think shit, I've written a lot of stories. But I was also able to fix Primer to the Dark Arts (http://www.icarus.slashcity.net/stories/primer01.html) and discover I needed a back-up copy of Sonic Boom (http://www.icarus.slashcity.net/stories/sonicboom.html), which was a good thing.

Icarus *falls flat on face*

[impetuousoddity.livejournal.com]

I do like the new banner, but yes, the stark contrast does hurty eyes. Perhaps a scarlet background with gold text?? J/K. I'd prefer black with green for my inner Syltherin. LIke I could ever be a Gryifinndor....