TechTigers Website Revamped

[DJ Serrant]

Hey there!

I registered for an account a few minutes ago so I'm new to the Cheif Delphi forumns. Well anyway, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the Official Website for the TechTigers is up and running. Check it out: http://www.techtigers.com.

[artdutra04]

Hi Daryle and welcome to ChiefDelphi!

Your site looks really good so far, including the the valid W3C Standards code. I can't see any <table>s being used for layouts, which is always a good decision. You also have the start of some nice content four your site. But before you continue, here are a few minor details that you may want to work on.

When I mouseover the Archives link, I can never get to the dropdown content in Firefox or Opera. You may want to check either this link or this link to help you with CSS drop-down menus.

Another thing you may want to consider is in your photo galleries, all the thumbnail images are just the full-size images resized via CSS. If I were you, I would create 120x90px thumbnail images of each of these images instead of resizing the full-size images through HTML/CSS. Even on my 768k DSL connection, it took over 2 minutes for all of the pictures in your 2004-05 photo gallery to load.

The total size of this gallery page was just a tab bit over 5 Megabytes. Usually when I work on websites I use a maximum file size of about 100 kilobytes per page, and this imcludes all HTML, CSS, Javascript, and any images on the page. While I understand gallery pages usually have a higher file size than regular pages, it's perfectly possible to reduce the file size of any gallery to no more than 200 kb/page. If you exceed this, try compressing the images or splitting up the gallery into multiple pages.

Also, you are using an XHTML 1.0 Transitional DOCTYPE. I tried validating your page using a XHTML 1.0 Strict DOCTYPE and your code validated with no problems. Since you have nothing to lose, it may be a good idea to update your DOCTYPE to use Strict. (Transitional was originally meant to only be used for the "transition" from HTML 4 to XHTML Strict.)

EDIT: Also, even when the browser window is maximized at 1024x768px resolution, there are still unnecessary horizontal scrollbars in IE, FF, and Opera. Since all your content is fixed width, and centered, there really isn't a need for horizontal scrollbars at screen resolutions of 800x600px and up. Without going too deep into your CSS code, if you apply position:relative; width:780px; height:auto; margin:0px auto; to #bground that should center the fixed width content, without horizontal scrollbars (unless the browser window is smaller than 800x600px).

Otherwise, it looks like your site is begining to shape up real well. Good luck to your team this year.

[GRaduns340]

I noticed that for some of the pages (particularly those that aren't yet built) your menu goes below the lower border of the div for content. I hate to say it because I know tables are a pain, but this is one place it might be necessary to just throw a table around the whole bordered blue part so the height of the content section is guaranteed not to cut off anything inside it.

I know tables aren't the most friendly things to work with, but there are cases in which they do have more function. Stick with divs where you can, but you might want to think about a table just for that part.

Also, have you thought about PHP at all? Even if it isn't anything great, even using a constant header file and the PHP include can make mass editing pages MUCH faster than straight HTML. The only real difference in the file is a couple <?php include(); ?> lines instead of the long repeated code on every page and .php extension instead of html. Everything else can stay the same for content if you were to take that route.

Other than that, I agree it looks good. The graphics are good, and that's the one thing I always struggle with. Just fic the menu for Firefox, Opera, etc. and consider a few of the other recommendations and it'll be great.

Good luck this year.

[DJ Serrant]

Thanks for the replies, guys!

[Michelle Celio]

• The Font on the Nav Bar is kind of hard to read (maybe it's just me)
• The font on things like "links" "recent updates" is also kind of hard to read (again maybe it's just me)
• In recent updates, maybe try and make them look different from the other text, you wouldn't know they were links until you hover over them and see that they change style
• With the hover nav bars, try making it so that the whole area is click able, not use the name of the page
• Try creating a custom 404 error page until you get those pages working. Like my team's
• For the documentation, communications, and archive navs, I find it very hard to click the sub links, instead of having them start at the top, maybe where the main link starts.
• Maybe make the banner at the top link back to the home page.
• I like how the "copy right" information is isolated from the rest of the page, it looks cool.
• I agree with Art, try making the actual thumbnails and linking to the full size picture, it defiantly loads faster. (I've tried the way you've done it on my team site, found it easier to code but a hassle to load)

I viewed the page in Fire Fox, and had some similar errors in the page as GRaduns340 did with the nav bar not staying in the same place, depending on how large the content was for that page.

I really like the background, but maybe try a little harsher of a gradient it jumps into the dark blue a little to fast for my liking, but then again thats just me.

[sebas2mil]

great comments guys

we are always looking from input from other sources

[techtiger1]

Ahem two things Mr.S is missing the 2006 Palmetto regional champs on his signature and Darylle has permission to bother Michelle for any suggestions/ input on the new site. =) Just because you are awesome Michelle. Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions, comments and ideas.

[DotCom]

Awesome, I like it! The pages are very easy to read, unlike some of those really complicated sites that can get really cluttered. And I'm liking the graphics. ^_^

Though...maybe it's just my computer, but whenever I load your page, the banner stretches out really tall. However, when I right-click it and click on "properties," it goes back to normal. It may just be another annoying IE glitch, though.

[GRaduns340]

Originally Posted by DotCom

Though...maybe it's just my computer, but whenever I load your page, the banner stretches out really tall. However, when I right-click it and click on "properties," it goes back to normal. It may just be another annoying IE glitch, though.

Are you still using IE 6 or have you gone to the version 7 release candidates?

[DJ Serrant]

CSS dropdowns are difficult to implement. I'm going to get rid of them.