Posted by Stan McCann on 12/22/44 11:24

"Barbara de Zoete" <b_de_zoete@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:opsvnvoquvx5vgts@zoete_b:

> On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 16:14:55 GMT, Joel Shepherd
> <joelshep@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

>> Why should a newbie think they have a decent chance of
>> pulling off a truly fluid design

Newbie or long timer: strive.

> What is a truly fluid design? You mean no restrictions (max or min
> width) what so ever?
> Mine flows between a min and a max width. The max is there because I
> don't want the lines with text to get too long in a wide viewport
> (or should I say: some of my visitors like it better this way; at
> least this is what they asked for when it wasn't there). The min is
> there because, hmm. I don't know. Because I experimented with it.
> My site is always an ongoing experiment. At least, the styles are.
>
>> -- or think that it's even of value to
>> do so -- if the person they look to for advice can't do it?
>>
>
> Well, 'can't'? It's not that I can't, although my pages don't show
> that at the moment. It's something I didn't. Besides that: I didn't
> refer to my site. I referred to a less involved party: Google.
> Through a search query I intended to let others speak.

Older pages? Learned since then? That's what I do all the time; learn
some neat things, then edit pages incorporating the change. I get
behind on doing that on some sites even though I might have content
changes ongoing.

>> Something is amiss. Maybe fluid design is not as easy as just
>> saying "make your design fluid",

Here's a couple that "work" at a good wide range: http://abateofnm.org/
http://alamo.nmsu.edu/computer/ Both are mostly text, with a small bit
of graphics. Tear them up and give me some ideas if you want. I hope
to have some time soon to work on the ABATE site to add some things but
design is not my best skill; my server management, and web development
skills are much better.

> No, not really. All depends on the whys, hows. I really believe that
> creating liquid pages should be the goal, especially if text is the
> main content and graphics are just there for decoration and looks.
> In experimenting I created a design for my private homepage that is
> only partially fluid, mainly because some users asked me to do so
> (at least the max width). It isn't said I agree with this or that
> I'll stick to it. :-)

Going through my websites, you'll find some good and some bad. As I
learn more (and I learn a lot from reading this group), I'm constantly
tweaking the HTML, CSS, and server settings since I have my own servers
too. Some of my old stuff can be pretty bad. And on the school site,
I have counselors, secretaries, faculty (non cs), putting up web pages
created with NS Composer, versions 4.x - 7.2.

That's what I taught them years ago when I didn't know any better.
Thankfully, I didn't teach them FP.

> No, really. It's likely I will create some new look pretty soon
> (because I like to do that every once in a while). Then this
> problem is (hopefully) resolved. Also some new problems are likely
> to emerge with that new design. They always do. Isn't life fun :-)
>

As the college's webmaster, I am chair of a committee that I and one of
the higher ups in administration have been working on all summer. Now
that everybody is back, the real work begins. Next week will be the
first meeting of the "layout and design" subcommittee. Debra and I
have chosen two people from the art department and a person responsible
for marketing the University to design the overall look and feel while
another subcommittee is working on some student surveys, business
surveys, community, etc. to gather information as to how people use our
website. That data will then be analyzed to try to work out best ways
of best presentation.

Yes, life can be fun if you will allow yourself to enjoy it and can
find your "niche." I've been at the University for 15 years following
technology as my limited budgets allowed moving from building networks,
implementing things on campus mostly unheard of at the time, like e-
mail, gopher, mosaic, www, and a campus website. It's been a blast.

--
Stan McCann "Uncle Pirate" http://stanmccann.us/pirate.html
Webmaster/Computer Center Manager, NMSU at Alamogordo
http://alamo.nmsu.edu/ There are 10 kinds of people.
Those that understand binary and those that don't.

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