Barry

[barrypemb]

Hello group,

I am a relatively new user of Actinic previously used . I have read several postings on the forum and find the level of expertise amazing. Being relatively new I am sure that I will have many questions and ask advice over the coming weeks.

Our web site has some reasonable pics but, it lacks the flair of an 'artist' if you follow me. With this in mind I am fairly sure that when some aspects of posted web sites seem to fit in with what i have in mind, i hope i may get some help in pointing me in the right direction.

If anyone cares to take a look at our site and offer any suggestions, believe me, they will be most welcome.

I have Dreamweaver MX 2004 also

Regards and thanks for a cracking forum.

Barry


www.orionoptics.co.uk

[imis]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum and to Actinic.

Good luck with your site.

Cheers

IMIS

[Pneumatus]

You really need to do something with the overall feel of the site, it looks bland and that top graphic at 1100+ pixels is far too big and causes horizontal scrolling on 1024x768 - I'd seriously suggest that you either have a complete re-think of the design or contract someone to work on the design for you.

[barrypemb]

Thanks Matt, very frank reply. May I ask you, the bottom three sites, when you say they can be done with Actinic, do you refer to Catalog and, are they achieveable without too much HTML knowledge.

If these sites need considerable HTML knowledge, I can't really see where Actinic catalog comes into it.

Regards

Barry

[Pneumatus]

The three sites in my signature do require extensive changing of templates etc - they could have been made in catalog with the exception of the business accounts that we have. The point I was trying to make is that if you have the web design skills and the persistance to change things about, you can make a catalog site look/feel like your own rather than a generic actinic site. I'm not saying that looking like a generic actinic site is a problem - v7's smart theme is actually quite nice and i'd consider deploying a site with just that, but to make the most out of catalog and make the site look 'your own' you need HTML knowledge, or need to contract someone with the skills.

Do a search on google for 'acatalog' - this will bring up many results for actinic driven sites. Many will be the default templates, but there will also be lots of custom ones...

[Pneumatus]

Also, you say you have DreamWeaver MX 2004, not a cheap bit of kit... By making your own template in DW and integrating it into actinic (by changing Act_Primary.html) as per the advanced user guide, you can take a big step towards making a site look 'different'.

[Jenny]

Barry
There are quite a few designers on the forum who are willing to guide newbies and give helpful advice. Sometimes newbies need a bit of help and perhaps not a complete chewing and spitting out.

One suggestion is that I think you could improve in the clarity of your images, by setting the background of the image to the same colour as the site background,then save them as jpgs. Perhaps displayed smaller in size with larger pop ups to speed up the site for the browser. The logo problem could be easily sorted out to be the correct size, width wise and file size and be clearer.

Everybody has to start somewhere.
Jenny Hanson
(not related to Matt)

[barrypemb]

I needed that kick in the pants!
I have taken a differnt layout and am looking at several improvements also.
One thing which I would dearly like to achieve is to have the images on my second page to have a similar feature to the test one have just placed on my first page.
Could someone point me to the template needed to do this nad, any help with the html would be appreciated, assuming it cannot be done in Dreamweaver MX

http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

Thanks again, most appreciative

Barry

[cdicken]

One thing which I would dearly like to achieve is to have the images on my second page to have a similar feature to the test one have just placed on my first page. Is it possible you could clarify what you mean by this?

Thanks.

[imis]

Hi,

Already looking much better - well done.

Didn't quite understand your question though - could you elaborate?

Cheers

IMIS

[barrypemb]

Is it possible you could clarify what you mean by this?

Thanks.

Hi Chris,

What I am looking for is, sorry I don't know the technical term, when your mouse pointer passes over an image, another image is displayed. On our first page there is a pic of a large telescope, white with cream trims and a droppped shadow. Within the basic Actinic set ups it is possible to set this up as, is it a 'highlight' button. That was relatively simple but how would I do it on this page:
http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/acatalog/index.html
There must be some HTML to add to a template but where and what so as to have 'the same effect with the images on this page as the single image on the first page.

Thanks for everyones help here, I am pleased things are looking better.

Regards

Barry

[imis]

Hi,

We have done this before using the following method:

1. Amend Act_SectionNavImage.html adding a line at the end:
<IMG SRC="NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEFILE"
ALT=""
BORDER=0
NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEHEIGHT
NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEWIDTH
NETQUOTEVAR:OTHERIMAGEMARKUP
ALIGN="ABSMIDDLE"
onMouseOver="src='aNETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEFILE'" onMouseOut="src='NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEFILE'">

2. Create a second image (the one you want to display on mouseover) and give this the same name as the main image but add the prefix 'a' to the file name.

3. Use Advanced>Additional Files and add the second image to ensure Actinic uploads it.

Now, when your mouse moves over the main image it should change to the alternative image.

Hope this is useful.

Cheers

IMIS

[barrypemb]

Hello,

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately it only part works. The original image is duplicated below itself and when the pointer moves over it, the box with red cross appears in top right hand corner. The modified image, with 'a' prefix, is not visible.

If you like, if you give me your email address, I can send you a screen shot.

Following is the html from my modified file:

<!-- SectionNavImage HTML begin -->
<IMG SRC="NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEFILE"
ALT="NETQUOTEVAR:ALTERNATETEXT"
BORDER=0
NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEHEIGHT
NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEWIDTH
NETQUOTEVAR:OTHERIMAGEMARKUP
ALIGN="ABSMIDDLE">
<IMG SRC="NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEFILE"
ALT=""
BORDER=0
NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEHEIGHT
NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEWIDTH
NETQUOTEVAR:OTHERIMAGEMARKUP
ALIGN="ABSMIDDLE"
onMouseOver="src='aNETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEFILE'" onMouseOut="src='NETQUOTEVAR:IMAGEFILE'">
<!-- SectionNavImage HTML end -->

Any ideas?

Regards

Barry

[barrypemb]

Please excuse my ignorance but I tried adding purely the text in red, the result was just the same text visible below original image and, acting as a link to next page.

Regards

Barry

[imis]

Hi Barry,

You are correct that you only needed to add the line in red - sorry I didn't make this clear. However, there's a slight syntax error in your code, there shouldn't be a > after ALIGN="ABSMIDDLE". Please check back on my original code to confirm this.

Cheers

IMIS

PS Surely you already know my e-mail address? ;)

[barrypemb]

Sorted, didn't realise it had to be uploaded to site to try it. I have just added a grey square to the 'optics' image on mouse over.

Thanks ever so much, I can improve things even further.

Sorry about the email address, it just did not click.

Thanks again

Barry

[imis]

No problem Barry - your on your way to becoming a developer already :D

However, I would suggest that you try and find out why this works rather than just using it (if you are at all interested that is).

Cheers

IMIS

[barrypemb]

What I am trying to do is obviously achieve a reasonable quality site, nothing special just functional and attractive. Then, future development can be done in house after analysing the help I have been given and applying similar HTML and modded text.

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

I may be back.

Regards

Barry