Hello all, I'm not sure how happy people are with the current navigation menu for the Lovelock Web pages, and I've been playing around with other techniques, which don't involve "frames", the use of which has some disadvantages (e.g. that it reduces the size of the page content). The style I've been looking at uses javascript, as did the previous design, so it should be fairly fast. However, it has just a single menu bar at the top of the page for the main sections, with drop down menus for the sub-sections. I'm not yet committed to switching over to this new layout, and before making a decision I'd like to get your feedback as to whether you find it an improvement or not. I've converted quite a lot of the Web pages to this new format, and you can access them at: http://perso.numericable.fr/~lovjames/family-history/test/ In order not to use up too much extra space, I've only included html files, so links to images, Excel files, Word files, PDF files and gedcom files will not work, and neither will the links to the Ahn Java applet. Otherwise, most links should work correctly and there should be enough material to give you an idea of the proposed new design. Please let me have your feedback on the proposed new layout as soon as possible. James

Hello James, I think the new design is a massive improvement. I find it more intuitive. Also, 1. Under the old (frames) design, I was unable to search for an individual in a family tree using Google's ability to search the currently displayed webpage. The new design permits this. 2. The new design allows me to send the URL of any page to someone, whereas the old design required sending a list of instructions to get to a particular page. Personally I'm not crazy about the color combinations, but that is an individual choice! (My wife says I have no color sense.) I see you are using cascading style sheets, so it is easy to experiment with other combinations. So, one big thumbs up for the new design. Thanks. David Lovelock (Tucson, AZ) ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Loveluck" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, July 05, 2004 3:25 AM Subject: Proposed new format for Web pages > Hello all, > > I'm not sure how happy people are with the current navigation menu for > the Lovelock Web pages, and I've been playing around with other > techniques, which don't involve "frames", the use of which has some > disadvantages (e.g. that it reduces the size of the page content). > > The style I've been looking at uses javascript, as did the previous > design, so it should be fairly fast. However, it has just a single menu > bar at the top of the page for the main sections, with drop down menus > for the sub-sections. > > I'm not yet committed to switching over to this new layout, and before > making a decision I'd like to get your feedback as to whether you find > it an improvement or not. I've converted quite a lot of the Web pages to > this new format, and you can access them at: > > http://perso.numericable.fr/~lovjames/family-history/test/ > > In order not to use up too much extra space, I've only included html > files, so links to images, Excel files, Word files, PDF files and gedcom > files will not work, and neither will the links to the Ahn Java applet. > Otherwise, most links should work correctly and there should be enough > material to give you an idea of the proposed new design. > > Please let me have your feedback on the proposed new layout as soon as > possible. > > James > > > > ==== LOVELOCK Mailing List ==== > Lovelock family history Web pages: > http://perso.numericable.fr/~lovjames/family-history/lovelock/ > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 >

Dear James I broadly agree with David's comments on the proposed new format. I've never really liked the frames approach wherever I've come across it. As you say, it reduces the size of the page you really want to see; I find it also makes it all-too-easy to print off the 'wrong' bit of material if you're not careful! The drop-down menus work well and my impression is that the whole thing is faster, on my PC at least. The additional search/URL-emailing possibilities which David mentions are not things I'd have tried or thought of, but are obviously other pluses. Re. David's comment on the colour scheme, I actually find it rather pleasantly restful, especially the yellow/cream background as per the current site and the 'soft' text colour. One point though: the bright red links are maybe too prominent; more particularly, when you've used them they switch to a colour so close to that of the main text that they almost 'disappear', despite the underlining. Since this seems most likely to come into play with the links one most often uses it could prove irritating. Maybe the red could be less bright and a colour more easily differentiated from the main text selected for 'used links' (blue?). No doubt the background affects the on-screen appearance of the 'individual' colour selected. (I confess I don't have the know-how to understand David's comment on 'cascading styles', which in principle might help me overcome this on a personal basis.) It's clear from your note that certain material isn't yet accessible within the test pages - pdf files, photographs etc. But just in case it's purely a slip and persists to the next stage, could I mention that the (famous!) Wootton Rivers fragment and notes (plus the Ramsbury one) don't seem to be properly linked (within 'Wilts Trees' or whatever), although the other 'old' ones are. Best wishes - from a 'cloudy with sunny spells' Southampton Robin