OMFGROFLMFAOLOLHAHABBQHOLDTHEMAYO!!!

*pees* HAR HAR!!! I did speak blindly, because I haven't used version 2003. Didn't they start using FTP to transfer the files instead of FPExtensions? Good move there too.

So you went into farming eh? What do (did) you farm? My wife would have been in the tech industry if all her counselors didn't steer her away from it telling her that "computers will pass" "they're a fad" "there's no future there". Needless to say she's a bit older than I am

thats cool allen u can do as u please and believe as u please
but when u ask ?'s that are direct problems with what ur using why not expect to hear about it? Its part of the growing experience, execpt that ur growing.
i dont know why ur so hung up on moving to a better product???? u seem to think its a different "language" and its not, its just html, just cleaner.
and when u talk about your life ending before u pick up something new, come on, what would it take? a day?
would u like me too do it? would take about 2 hours to redo your site properly.

but like i said, if u wanna use then go for but it will limit what u can do

as for my site
read profile home page is there as usually there is a link to portfolios, although down right now as i am building new homepage.

for what ur doing the "zen" way would be a good choice.
but if u wanna live back in 98 and have your site reflect that, gl

i dont say these things too be mean but most ppl just arent aware

oh yeah and as for your subscriptions too the search engine stuff, of course they dont tell u half the things u need to know, why would they? ppl pay a lot of money to get placed. They tell u what they want u too know, nothing more, nothing less

well google is really the one u need to do well with
and no, they dont seperate content from code, well not like they are saying. if u read all the zen stuff u will see how they do get the main stuff from how you place it. Such as place prominent words in headline tags & placing page content in paragraphed span tags. Why?

ok imaging this as u scoff at complience.
a search engine spyder goes through your site like a screen reader for the blind would. If you have properly layed out your site it will get maximum search engine points because it will index everything correctly. If you have it laid out like u do, it will get a wildcard.
how do u think the spyders can seperate code from content the way fp makes it? or any thing else? They dont know every tag from every language, they do it the way i just said.
this is how it looks to a search engine spyder
http://www.csszengarden.com/zengarden-sample.html
thats how it gets ranked well
that is also how a screen reader would read it to a blind person if its complient, conincidence? i think not

so complience isnt only about which browsers, theres awhole lot more to it.
oh btw~ when u make sites the "zen" way you dont have to make it for different screen sizes and so forth, go to the zen page and grab the side of your screen and make it different sizes and see what happens.


but ur limiting yourself with what u do, i told u i would help but i will also tell u the truth about stuff too.

Okay Dave... with your further explanations, you've made some good points. I'll look into it further, but dang, I hate the thought of revising everything. This is all ironic in a way, I've been publishing webpages (with FrontPage) for two years now and tonight was the first time something screwed up. No big deal tho, I just made a minor change to the text, republished it and it uploaded okay the second time. You didn't put a hex on my FrontPage website did you??

well i usually only check this board if i have been up for a very long time so i dont always communicate my points effectively which is a fault of mine lol

i'll be more than willing to help u along and if u do decide to go with dreamweaver there are actually extension and or things in dreamweaver that will at least import and clean up the frontpage code with 1 click of a button

and some food 4 thought
i would think about the colors, remember this a black background with neonish or bright colors is a bad bad idea. Studies show that those bright colors subconciously cause confusion and anger and the site vistor will leave (i maybe off a few % here) up to 65% faster then a non "bright" site.
Thats why u see the major sites usually in white with pastel colors, they are soothing on the eyes where as "brights" such as red, orange, yellow, green are aggravating to the eyes(which is further enhanced when on a black bg). And on a site such as yours where you want the visitors to stay and read that is of the utmost importance!

i know the task of revizing is daunting but everytime u do it u get better
and if u learn to do it like the zen model u can change the look anf feel of the entire layout but just changing the stylesheets. ALl those sites on zengarden use the exact same content only the css changes

oh and yeah i voodoo'd yer site

we could even do the rebuild on here and other can lend in their 2cents and have u a friggin killer site!

No really Dave, I appreciate your input. I know you mean well even tho you are often tactless. You went to alot of trouble providing me with some thoughts to consider and I thank you. And Josh, you have too. The rumors that old cotton farmers are hardheaded must be true then?

well ur sure welcome

i think a lot of times im tactless cause i been through this argument so many times before

i definatly dont know it but i have always tried to give back when i could and i spent a lot of time on the MM boards helping whoever i could the same as those who helped me.
And for some reason the frontpage posts always nawed at me.

i remember when i started someone told me "have u tried frontpage yet? it makes it really easy" and so i tried it ubtil i was spanked and shown the way.
but the funny thing is that as easy as frontpage seems I bet if i go back and try to use it again that it would be really hard!

this stuff really isnt that hard, takes some practice but easy to pick up

so here is what i would suggest to u
u have the talent as a writer & u have the means to get that writing to the ppl, so lets deliver it to them on a silver plater! Not only that but have u concidered that if you do this correctly even blind ppl will be able to read what you give them on your site have u ever thought of that?

now for the site here is what i suggest
maybe download a trial of dreamweaver or buy it or really you can do this with a reg editor but u will need to be able to also see it as u make it which is why dreamweaver is really good.
but a good free alternitive would be html-kit http://www.chami.com/html-kit/
pick a nice neutral color for your base color

use the "zen" style but just make a dw template with the main content area as an editable region so on subsuquent pages u just add the content.

once the basic template is done the rest is a breeze!
for example i just threw this together, this is down to where your books are at just add the css file





pretty clean huh!

then on your images maybe make a background but place the text in your page so the search engines pick it up preferably in the <h> tags


or u know what
maybe we can even start you on a non zen but complying site to start so u can really see whats going on and how it changes

i belong to www.communitymx.com and they are just releasing some prebuilt sites that are like the zen deal

or there is a ton of good info at http://www.projectseven.com
good tuts and solutions

Well thank you!! With this html, what happens to my background images, 'artwork' and pictures tho? While you may not care for them, not everyone would, I've been trying to capture a unique 'feel' about my website (although I haven't really done so to my total satisfaction). That's why I've avoided using templates... they don't do the trick for me. Besides, in talking about 'cookie-cutter' looking websites... what's the difference between all FrontPage websites looking the same and using standard templates?

Also, is this code meant for dreamweaver or for my FrontPage website?

Also, I've never turned on my css capablities (which I can easily) because I never really saw it served a useful purpose other than making text and headings consistent on all pages. Big deal!! While css might do other things, I don't know what... so I never bothered with it.

I donno, there seems to be alot of fancy names for functions that don't do much. It would be like calling a shovel a 'dymanic self contained terra firma removal system'.

ok lets start at the begining
oh btw~ i was making the new version of jamwerx.com all in flash but i've decided to go with the css/xhtml one instead

lets start with your sites structure
im doing it in dreamweaver, if i was u, i'd do the same

make a folder were u keep the root files at. I use coldfusion so i have to have a webroot folder but in that folder i will make my main folder called newJamwerx

inside that folder make another folder for you css file called "css"
do the same for an image folder where u will store your images, names "images"

so u have a structure like

"folders"

main folder -> yoursiterootfolder
subfolder->css
subfolder->images


what is your ideal background look like?

Gosh, I don't know what it should be yet... but I'll know it when I see it. I don't want it to look funky tho, like some you see, with the music bit and all (I don't want anything cutesy).

I suppose what I want is richness, some elegance, sorta soft and comforting but at the same time... mystical. I suppose something like a 18th century home library scene, elegantly furnished... but somehow mystical looking. It may or may not help sell books but I'd rather it fail than look like many of the websites today. It makes me sick to see those who use pictures of male or female models happily at work... everything is so conformist today.

lol, i hear that!

let me look through my plethora of images and see if i can find something "bookish"
i wouldnt exactly go for an entire sceen yet, maybe just a old faded paperish looking background, the way we are going to make this it an be changed in a matter of seconds

what about an open book bg? with the links being an index on the left and the content on the right?

Okay but I don't want to jump into dreamweaver just yet. For one thing, I've got a major expense coming up so I really don't want to shell out the extra bucks. This will have to wait a few months. Further, I first want to check out any possible downsides dreamweaver may have. It may not be anything significant, but nonetheless I want to know what they might be.

Anyway, while I'll probably make the switch, in order to take full advantage of dreamweaver I'd like to hone up on the programming end of it first. Why have a Cadillac if you don't know how it operates? While I've been fighting the idea of spending time programming (I'd rather write articles), I guess the need is there nonetheless. You've helped point that out... Google, page ranking, etc.

Also, I don't want to publish dreamweaver until it's just the way I want it... I'd rather not settle for a substitute background. Further, since I don't associate myself with the metaphysical community I don't want it looking like one of their websites. While I liked the simple style of that Zen website, and impressed with its layout, and impressed with its page rank, it isn't how I'd like mine to look. I wouldn't have a Japanese tree in it for one thing... maybe some cactii tho j/k.

Even tho now my website doesn't come close to how I'd like it to look, a real photograph of what I described probably wouldn't get it either. That's been my problem... trying to get that scene without using an actual photograph (too vivid). A blurred photograph might work tho... a little photo editing might do the trick.

Are you regretting offering to help yet?

P.S. In exchange for your help, I'd be glad to help you with your writing skills, you know... capitalization, punctuation, etc.

lol yeah i dont try to hard to write correctly on here, usually doing to much at once.

there really arent any drawbacks to dreamweaver only open avenues

for now then i would suggest the html-kit
frontpage i dont think is gunna cut it and it will add way too much garbage to your code and complete render all this useless
but html-kit should work nicely.
i will be walking u though this in code so u just need a code editor with a live view but fp isnt a good idea , it will take the nice clean code and turn it too garbily gook. u will learn why fp is so bad!

dw has a free 30 day trial u know

do u have a base pic u like? i have just the thing to help it if u do just send it to me dave@jamwerx.com

no i dont regret it, i actually love helping ppl

Yeah, I was just kidding... I know that's how people 'talk' on the Internet. I exchange e-mails with a gal in Phoenix once in awhile and she does it the same way but in capital letters. Sometimes I think I'm communicating with some stoned-out hippy from the 60's. Come to think of it, she was around in the 60's... **** my girlfriends are getting old!!

Anyway, I don't have a picture but I could start looking. You may think it strange and self-defeating for me to want this and I don't blame you, most marketeers would advise against it. They would opt for the more traditional looking website. But you see Dave, I'm not a follower and I hate to conform to anything. While it would be wise if money was the bottom line but money isn't important to me anymore. Conforming might be for the other guy but not for me. I believe conforming distances one from their spiritual self and if you've ever read any of my articles you'll understand more where I'm coming from.

Meanwhile, back on terra firma, I'll bone up on html but that in itself will take a lot. So far, I've only used a thimble full. I also suspect I should dig into javascript more and asp.net. (maybe just asp to start with). What else might come in handy? I know the best way is actually applying it but it doesn't hurt to keep an eye out for tips. My eye caught this for example... for statements in Javascript, as in: <!-- message here-->, I've read that the trailing dashes "--" can cause problems with some browsers so it was suggested to use "//" instead. (I've just stupidly revealed half of what I know)

In the meantime Dave, I am going to continue tweaking my FrontPage website but this time I'm going to try using features it has which I've never used before (such as css for example). While I know FrontPage doesn't make css all that functional but by just doing what I can with css on FrontPage will give me a little experience. At least Ill get an idea what css is supposed to do.

Earlier on this forum I was asking about internal search capabilities to put on my website but I didn't know at the time FrontPage has it. Reading the manual helps I discovered... so I'll be adding that. I am also trying to add another feature which requires Javascript (code which Josh provided) but I haven't been able to make it work yet. The point is, I'm learned by doing even tho I will probably discard FrontPage later. By getting one's hands dirty is how one learns. Well, it's about time to hit the hay... goodnight Dave.