i need some help on my new site how to make better

[modifier_guy]

i am still new to this stuff, and this is the first site i wrote the code by hand, found out genorators suck. but i wwrote this code by hand and i am stll working on the site not all the way done, need some more things. but i want help on making ti better and catchier. the layout is 2 tables i wanted to keep it simple. but i have been reading on CSS and things and i have a large book i read parts of a chapter every night. right now i am in CSS but i was goign to do the try it stuff but did nto have time today,

anyways i really want to know what you guys think and how to make it better

[modifier_guy]

www.xmodcentral.netfirms.com

o heres the Site LOL

[toicontien]

1. Either change your navigation images to a more readable font or see if you can make the text less boldface.

2. Save the navigation images as GIFs. JPEGs aren't good for simple color images. You can see distorted colors around the borders between the red text and gray background.

3. Use a sans-serif font for body text.

4. Ditch the FONT tags. Use Cascading Style Sheets instead. http://www.w3schools.com/css/ :: http://www.alistapart.com/ DON'T USE PIXELS TO SPECIFY FONT SIZES. Internet Explorer/PC users won't be able to resize the text.

5. MORE COLOR. Gray backgrounds are considered old-fashioned, especially in the way you used on the Web site. Netscape 4.x used to have a default background color for web pages about the same shade of gray you are using.

If you want to keep the background color gray, make it a lighter shade. It's very chic right now :cool:

6. Let the height of the page be entirely dependant on the content within it. I see numerous line breaks (<BR>) in your code for no apparent reason. I do realize this is a template is the BR tags may be there just to fill out the page.

7. TUTORIALS PAGE: Use text links instead of images. That's tacky. You can style your links in CSS.

8. TUTORIAL3.HTML: You've got a numbered list but it's not marked up in HTML that way. Use an Ordered List in HTML. You might want to link your wiring schematics to a larger version of the image.

I gotta jet so I'm going to cut this short. Just some suggestions :)

[spufi]

I agree with toicontien. On top of that, one thing I noticed is the fact that you need to define your image tags better. The minimum I would code for an image tag is this.

<img src="url" width="actual width" height="actual height" alt="alternate text in case image doesn't show up, or left blank if desired">

Having the width and height defined means your layout stays the same as your page loads instead of it shifting around, and I believe the broken image doesn't show up before the image loads either.

[Sam]

I thought width and height were deprecated...

[spufi]

Originally posted by samij586
I thought width and height were deprecated...

I knew somebody was going to point that out. :) Validate a site and see if you get an error on having either. You won't. Yes, I fully understand that defining those attributes in CSS is the best way, but it's still valid to use them in your markup.

[modifier_guy]

awsome thankyou
toicontien i will take all those into consideration. i am still learing CSS and getting more into it as we speak.

[Sam]

Originally posted by spufi
but it's still valid to use them in your markup.
Gotcha, what about other deprecated elements (ie. <xmp>) is it valid?

[modifier_guy]

5. MORE COLOR. Gray backgrounds are considered old-fashioned, especially in the way you used on the Web site. Netscape 4.x used to have a default background color for web pages about the same shade of gray you are using.

If you want to keep the background color gray, make it a lighter shade. It's very chic right now


i really like red and many people do and a black background was way to dark and white was tacky. so i combined grey red and black. i am trying to make a BG image but make it 1 size and only in one section now tiled

[Paul Jr]

Ya gotta lose the gray background. Maybe a different shade; but lose it.

IMHO, black isn't too dark. I'm infatuated with black & red designs. :D

[spufi]

Originally posted by samij586
Gotcha, what about other deprecated elements (ie. <xmp>) is it valid?

I tried to do a search on the last time there was a talk about this, but I can't seem to find it. I think it was Robert who came up with a word that I wish I could remember, but I can't. Instead, I give you a Princess Bride reference. :D

Just like there's dead and mostly dead in Princess Bride, there are things that are deprecated and mostly deprecated. <xmp> is deprecated because it has a standardized replacement in the <pre> tag. Width and height is mostly deprecated in a <img> tag because if you define your markup and CSS is a well thought out manner, you don't really need to define them in your markup. Unfortunately, you can't standardize a person's ability to have a well thought out design. :) I can see where width and height would be truely deprecated at some point. I'm going to try to have a write up on this done for my site by the end of this weekend.

[spufi]

I found the term I was looking for. Read the definition for deprecated and then read obsolete.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/conform.html#deprecated

Width and height for the <img> tag are deprecated, but not obsolete so they still validate.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#visual

[The Cheat]

i dont know if anything im about to say has been mentioned yet, but if it has im sorry for boring you to death.

you didnt specify a doctype
you didn't specify the character encoding
use <strong> and <em> instead of <b> and <i>
use <h1><h2><h3> etc.. tags
not all of your attributes are in quotes
some tags are in caps some arent
dont use the font tag, use <p>
you didn't put alt="" in all of your images
the <center> tag is deprecated

and about the layout colors & stuff,

the blank space at the bottom of the page is kinda annoying
i dont like the gray that much
the ad at the top is pretty ugly

well good luck with everything and a i hope this helps, if you have any questions ask away!

[MrPunkin]

I tend to think of web design colors in terms of interior design. Would you want a red and grey interior in your house? Thats just an easy way for me to think of it, and obviously isn't practical in all aplications, but works out well most the time for myself.

[modifier_guy]

specifiying the hieght of the BG image. cus my plan was to make a BG image about the saze of the page content to cover alot of the grey but i dotn know how t speciy the hight and width of the BG image

[modifier_guy]

also this site is a start and i have been rally busy doing other stuff. i mainy threw a site together to get it up so mnay pppl wanted it so i havent had time to perfect it.

[modifier_guy]

so afr i fixxed the buttons turned them to GIF

fixxed the tutorials and made them text links

still need to practice writeing CSS. and find A BG color.