Church Website [Archive] - WebDeveloper.com

CharlesWilliams

07-23-2006, 10:52 PM

This Is My Church's website. I am updating the website about once a week. Please take it easy on me this is my first time designing a website. I am still learning.

Edit:

www.yahwah-apostolic-ministries.org/

:o I guess it would help if I put the link in here... :o

Phalon

07-23-2006, 11:38 PM

One thing to point out is you haven't closed out your <a> tags, which is causing problems by turning everything in between each new link to link to the same thing, so close those things with </a> otherwise your going to have more problems then you want to deal with.

william232

07-24-2006, 12:08 AM

Not bad for a first timer keep up the good work :) if you want to make sure you have correct tags do a search on google for html valdiators they will help you fix your html coding :)

fmiles

07-24-2006, 03:48 AM

You made the same mistake every other church site does: You've resized the images in HTML, which should never be done. Shrink them in a graphics app instead.

You don't need the counter either, it's only purpose is to tell the visitor how unpopular your site is.

Also, when I look at the website, I get the feel that it's only a postcard website with no other pages than the homepage. You somehow need to re-structure the homepage so that it looks like the website is deeper than that. It's a fact that only few people read whole pages, but rather just take a glance to see if there's anything interesting. In other words, I think you need to emphasize and reposition the navigation links (a header is a good place).

KDLA

07-24-2006, 01:25 PM

(By coincidence, I'm redesigning my church's website, too.)

A few things:
- it's odd that you have links in otherwise "non-link-like" text that open image files. Only link to pages (unless you've got an image gallery or something) with content.
- differentiate between links and "real" text with color. Having both the same color can cause some confusion as to what's what. Many times, those who visit church sites aren't technologically savvy.
- the "cloud" background is cliche when it comes to church sites. I suggest you choose a color scheme based on the church's logo, letterhead, or even building's colors.
- refrain from centering your content text. Left-aligning is much more user/reader friendly

Good luck -
KDLA

CharlesWilliams

07-25-2006, 12:16 AM

Thanks Gentlemen for the fine crique.

A few notes about what was said...

Phalon:

I have a program that will help me close the <a> tags and I will run it for sure.

william232:
Thank you for the kind words.

I have a html valdiator that I got from somewhere (I don't remember from where though)

fmiles:

It's good to see I'm not the only one who makes that mistake.

The reason I have a counter there is because my Pastor wants me to keep track of how active (or inactive) our website is. Do you know of any counters that are invisable to visitors to our site but that I can still see?

I'll work on getting away from the "postcard" look. I want visitors to our site to click on the links as well as look at the front page.

KDLA:

I will be cleaning up the links on the pages.

I didn't eve notice that I was not differentiating between links and "real" text with color. Good Catch !!!

Pooint take about centering the content text. I will left-align it.

Pixel-Artist

07-25-2006, 12:23 AM

sucks, sorry

KDLA

07-25-2006, 09:35 AM

sucks, sorry

You should explain why - not just put a negative comment.
(http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72205)

CharlesWilliams

07-25-2006, 10:31 AM

sucks, sorry

KDLA your exactly right.

If you are going to add your comments just putting "sucks, sorry" is not helpful to me.

What don't you like about the design? Please, in detail, explain what you think would make the site better. I'm open to all comments.

The Little Guy

07-25-2006, 11:21 AM

You should learn CSS this will remove some of those errors you have below: http://www.w3schools.com/css/

Here is the proper way to make a link: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp

above the <html> tag add this:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

Here is a validation of your site: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahwah-apostolic-ministries.org%2F
92 coding errors

down-size the image on the left and right, it will make the page load faster.

Your links and your text should be two different colors.

don't align everything in the center, make a <div> tag center it, and align the text within in to the left.

I believe you should never place text on top of an image, but it should be on a background color. which can be on top of an image.

It is no longer recommended that you make your tags in caps. Make them lowercase. (Meta tags)

CharlesWilliams

07-25-2006, 02:07 PM

The Little Guy:

Thanks for all the info.

1. I am going to check out the link you posted for CSS.

2. In regards to the Validator...92 errors...Ouch !!! I had ran that program on the website before but I didn't correct the errors. Now I wish I did.

I guess I had better get started. It looks like I got alot of work ahead of me.

Mouse77e

07-26-2006, 06:43 AM

Friend... try http://oswd.org and play with a couple of their templates... you may wind this a little easyer than trying to learn CSS from scratch

maybe http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2898 it keeps the clouds look but is also bright and with a positive feel to it...

Mouse

cyberphr

07-26-2006, 07:50 AM

Dispite my loathing for religion I will help you out.

You forgot to close one of your url tags,
<a href="link to whatever">text</a>

CharlesWilliams

07-26-2006, 09:26 AM

MOUSE

I am new to CSS so the link you posted is very much appreciated.

Cyberphr.
Thanks. There's a couple of places I did that. I am planing to clean up my code.

fmiles

07-26-2006, 09:32 AM

maybe http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2898 it keeps the clouds look but is also bright and with a positive feel to it...
Sorry to break in here, but that doesn't help to better communicate the website at all. There's absolutely no reason to start decorating in expense of design. The template is way too fancy.

2. In regards to the Validator...92 errors...Ouch !!! I had ran that program on the website before but I didn't correct the errors. Now I wish I did.
92 errors doesn't mean there are 92 places where you have to fix them. If you take a closer look at the results, most of them involve e.g. a tag left open somewhere, which affects the rest of the page.

The Little Guy

07-26-2006, 10:15 AM

Sorry to break in here, but that doesn't help to better communicate the website at all. There's absolutely no reason to start decorating in expense of design. The template is way too fancy.
agree. This is a a church, not a personal page, and not a commercial business page.

maybe a search here for a template if you need/want one. These are not over the top, and they are not low quality, some of them may fit the needs of the site, and audience of the site.
http://www.elated.com/pagekits/
Favorite: http://www.elated.com/pagekits/condor/
Download: http://www.elated.com/pagekits/condor.shtml

I myself would recommend learning CSS, for a better background in it, but if you download a template, you can look over it, and learn how CSS works within the template.

Mouse77e

07-26-2006, 10:27 AM

agree. This is a a church, not a personal page, and not a commercial business page.

maybe a search here for a template if you need/want one. These are not over the top, and they are not low quality, some of them may fit the needs of the site, and audience of the site.
http://www.elated.com/pagekits/
Favorite: http://www.elated.com/pagekits/condor/
Download: http://www.elated.com/pagekits/condor.shtml

I myself would recommend learning CSS, for a better background in it, but if you download a template, you can look over it, and learn how CSS works within the template.
Gentlemen i would agree with you if the questioner was a webdesigner by trade BUT the impression i get is that this is a one off project, so maybe a template kit would be a way to go... secondly this site is i regret a "proffesional" site. it is selling... it is selling a Church to a large audience with a lot of choices in where to worship...

i will defend my sugested site template, i belive in this case it fits the bill and projects a bright clear modern image that sells the church in good light.

so Grrr!!!

Mouse

KDLA

07-26-2006, 10:36 AM

I agree. It may be that the templates mentioned are too "sophisticated" for a church site, with loads of stock photography.

If you're interested, I have several templates available at
http://kdla.ky.gov/libsupport/libwebhelp/templates.htm
http://kdla.ky.gov/libsupport/libwebhelp/templates-2.htm
http://kdla.ky.gov/libsupport/libwebhelp/librarycalendars/instructions.htm

They are designed for libraries, easily customized, and not flashy. You add the flash. ;)

fmiles

07-26-2006, 12:24 PM

i will defend my sugested site template, i belive in this case it fits the bill and projects a bright clear modern image that sells the church in good light.
Hmm.

Well, a template is always a good way to go, but predesigned templates usually serve no one.

Although the website is for a church trying to somehow promote itself, it's better to go without decorations now. The ideal situation would be that the site was being designed by a professional who knows a thing or two about visual message, legibility and clarity. Now that this isn't the case (not everyone can be a graphic designer, it's obvious), decoration isn't of any help. It's best to go with as simple as possible, it's also a part of the site's nature.

Once again, a template is a good go, but a decorated template that has nothing to do with the message doesn't rescue, but makes things even worse.

Sorry, how I said it was a bit complicated, hope I'm making sense.

cyberphr

07-27-2006, 02:32 PM

I am planing to clean up my code.

Use W3C to detect coding errors.

http://validator.w3.org/

Works for HTML, XHTML, CSS, and others I believe.

CharlesWilliams

07-31-2006, 10:19 PM

[QUOTE=The Little Guy]

down-size the image on the left and right, it will make the page load faster.

Do you have a suggestion as to what program would be best to use to convert the JPG's to GIF's? I have a program called Graphics Converter Gold that will do it but it made the GIF's bigger in size then the original JPG's.

Thanks

The Little Guy

08-01-2006, 12:47 AM

CharlesWilliams

08-07-2006, 01:07 PM

to downsize the images, I would reccomend using the gimp, It is like a free version of photoshop, but not as powerfull.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

You will need to download "The Gimp" and "GTK+ 2"

---

Thanks The Little Guy.

I downloaded it and tried it out. I found it to be a little difficult to use. Also, It did not compress the JPG files. It made one of them larger. :confused:

I'm probably not doing something right. I'll look at it a little closer.