Critiques, please

[portreest]

I've finished my website and would like comments/critiques. Be kind:-)
www.portree.com

[the tree]

Be kind? I'll start being kind to your site when it starts being kind to my eyes. I mean really, ouch. Unless your absolutely sure no-one is going to come across your site apart from in the middle of the day in a well lit room, change those colours now.

Your menu doesn't work without Javascript, try using ALA style hover menus (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/horizdropdowns/).

As I'm sure you will of noticed when you looked around the forums and read the sticky before posting, tables for layout (http://hotdesign.com/seybold): not good.

Your site isn't valid (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=https%3A//home.comcast.net/%7Edogs128/index.html) and it's far from accessable (http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/bobbyServlet?URL=https%3A//home.comcast.net/%7Edogs128/index.html).

Hit counters are largley pointless, of course you want to know all of that infomation, but does any one else?

[iamlucky13]

The layout has a functional simplicity that too many people who are new to webdesign undervalue. Good job there. I think the submenues for the navigation expand a little to slowly. Adding a border around the yellow areas that's a variation of the green might help add a tiny bit more flavor. Is there any particular reason why it's a secure connection (https)?

I noticed it was made in Frontpage. The code that Frontpage produces does not comply with the standards, and so may not appear right on all browsers. Surprisingly, though, it looked fine when I viewed it in Netscape and IE. If you ever have the chance, you can improve it significantly by learning the current standards (see the sticky at the top of the reviews forum) and rewriting the code.

I didn't think the color scheme was that bad. Maybe go for a slightly duller yellow and darker green. Based on my assumption that you're new, I chose not to push on standards compliancy too hard

[portreest]

Be kind? I'll start being kind to your site when it starts being kind to my eyes. I mean really, ouch. Unless your absolutely sure no-one is going to come across your site apart from in the middle of the day in a well lit room, change those colours now.

Your menu doesn't work without Javascript, try using ALA style hover menus (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/horizdropdowns/).

As I'm sure you will of noticed when you looked around the forums and read the sticky before posting, tables for layout (http://hotdesign.com/seybold): not good.

Your site isn't valid (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=https%3A//home.comcast.net/%7Edogs128/index.html) and it's far from accessable (http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/bobbyServlet?URL=https%3A//home.comcast.net/%7Edogs128/index.html).

Hit counters are largley pointless, of course you want to know all of that infomation, but does any one else?

Didn't know I was to read the sticky before posting :( I will certainly go thru it now. I know I've got alot to learn but I'm not totally green when it comes to computers. I have a background in AS400/RPG II, III & IV (23 years) but have not had very much experience in the pc world.

I did have a website I coded myself in HTML back in 1998 but it was rather drab and thought I would try to bring it up-to-date. So it is like starting over but I'll learn this just like I did the AS400 way back when ;)

[portreest]

The layout has a functional simplicity that too many people who are new to webdesign undervalue. Good job there. I think the submenues for the navigation expand a little to slowly. Adding a border around the yellow areas that's a variation of the green might help add a tiny bit more flavor. Is there any particular reason why it's a secure connection (https)?

I noticed it was made in Frontpage. The code that Frontpage produces does not comply with the standards, and so may not appear right on all browsers. Surprisingly, though, it looked fine when I viewed it in Netscape and IE. If you ever have the chance, you can improve it significantly by learning the current standards (see the sticky at the top of the reviews forum) and rewriting the code.

I didn't think the color scheme was that bad. Maybe go for a slightly duller yellow and darker green. Based on my assumption that you're new, I chose not to push on standards compliancy too hard

I created the menu using Nav Studio 2005. I'll see if there is a way to "speed it up." I have to agree that it needs "something" as a border but I'm still learning. I have a cable connection and according to them https is what I need to use. I know it causes a problem with a friend of mine when she tries to access the site.

I use Firefox and I did test it in Netscape and IE before uploading. It appeared to work fine. The only place I cannot see/use the menu is on my handheld device which uses IE.

I would prefer a darker green but that was the darkest FP had to offer. I could lighten the yellow a bit.

Thanks, again, for all your input. It is greatly appreciated :)

[zingmatter]

I have a cable connection and according to them https is what I need to use.

I suspect that is utter rubbish.

May want to make the layout slightly narrower to make it fit into a 800 x 600 screen res. You've plenty of room to trim off.

I don't think the colour's too strong though I would suggest yellow is a powerul colour that has to be used with care.

[iamlucky13]

I would prefer a darker green but that was the darkest FP had to offer. I could lighten the yellow a bit.

You can change the colors yourself by editing the 3 or 6 digit hexadecimal color code in the HTML Frontpage generates. There's over 16 million color possibilities using the 6 digits. The numbers are 0-9 and A-F written in RRGGBB, so, for example, 0099AA has no red, 153 of 256 max brightness in green, and 170 of 256 in blue.

If you wanna play around with colors for practice, I put this color generator (http://roo.nweci.org/jlynch/tools/colors.php) together when I was learning PHP and wanted a color tool of my own. Go ahead and try it out.

I can't think a good reason why your cable company would need you to use https.

[portreest]

You can change the colors yourself by editing the 3 or 6 digit hexadecimal color code in the HTML Frontpage generates. There's over 16 million color possibilities using the 6 digits. The numbers are 0-9 and A-F written in RRGGBB, so, for example, 0099AA has no red, 153 of 256 max brightness in green, and 170 of 256 in blue.

If you wanna play around with colors for practice, I put this color generator (http://roo.nweci.org/jlynch/tools/colors.php) together when I was learning PHP and wanted a color tool of my own. Go ahead and try it out.

I can't think a good reason why your cable company would need you to use https.

I knew I could do that :o Just never thought of changing the color that way. I will play with it.

As for the cable company, I could call their techincal team but I'd probably do better asking my dogs to figure it out.

Thanks for your help!

[Mr_PHP]

Try Color Tools .net (http://www.colortools.net) which has many color tools (the name says it already) especially useful for webdesign.

[Sir Jake]

Why is there so many alert messeges about the nav? It made me close the site...too irritating for me.