As I have developed web sites, overhauled others, merged pages, I've tried to preserve the original creator's image, while updating a page's HTML code to a more modern standard. I keep tinkering with pages, tossing out some things that just make no sense to me, like one site I acquired that was full of .css code which made the text so small it was near the size of medicine bottle print. That was a disservice to the end user. It made it easier for the coordinator to make one change and have it change on the whole site, yet each page had the same cookie cutter look. I find, for myself, that the data itself might lend itself to better presentation depending on its format, rather than one size fits all. While I appreciate the concept of the Archives, sometimes reading the text files there especially if wider than the screen, with wrap around makes data harder to read. Thus presenting data like it appears as best one can to the original text is somewhat desirable. A couple of examples, as the result of feedback from users: giving users a choice of background on a page - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnhamilt/ and presentation of census records - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nychenan/census/1860/bainbridge/1860-153.htm I have found that treating folks like I'd want to be treated goes much further than acting like lord and master over others. Even on the county sites I maintain, they would not be all they are without the contributions of others either directly or indirectly. Tim

Tim, AS the county coordinator of a genweb site that has over 12,000 html pages on it, and several others that have 2000-3000 html pages, using a CCS file to control the layout, font sizes, color etc is essential. Not all the pages have to be cookie cutter either when using a CSS file. I have at minimum 2 css files on each site, one is for a 2 or in some cases a 3 column page and the other is for a single column page, which I use mainly for cemeteries, census transcriptions and things of that mature. I even have one site that utilizes different CSS files for different parts of the site. The design and layout is the same, but different sections of the site have a different color scheme. I always use a font size of at least 11pt or 14 px for the simple reason to make it easier on the eye, I eeven will set the font weight to about halfway between normal and bold.for the same reason. I also like css menus for the simple reason that a change in the css file populates throughout the site rather than have to change several hundred pages manually, even with a find and replace feature, some pages can be missed and you have to look at each page and check to see that the change actually occurred on every page. I like to set the footers up the same way. so that I only have to make the change of copyright date in a couple of files at the beginning of each year and not the each and every page! CSS is does not limit creativity and style, it just makes it easier to make changes site wide! Laverne On 2/6/2015 2:00 PM, Timothy Stowell via wrote: > As I have developed web sites, overhauled others, merged pages, I've tried > to preserve the original creator's image, while updating a page's HTML code > to a more modern standard. > > I keep tinkering with pages, tossing out some things that just make no > sense to me, like one site I acquired that was full of .css code which made > the text so small it was near the size of medicine bottle print. That was > a disservice to the end user. It made it easier for the coordinator to > make one change and have it change on the whole site, yet each page had the > same cookie cutter look. > > I find, for myself, that the data itself might lend itself to better > presentation depending on its format, rather than one size fits all. > > While I appreciate the concept of the Archives, sometimes reading the text > files there especially if wider than the screen, with wrap around makes > data harder to read. Thus presenting data like it appears as best one can > to the original text is somewhat desirable. > > A couple of examples, as the result of feedback from users: > > giving users a choice of background on a page - > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnhamilt/ > > and > > presentation of census records - > > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nychenan/census/1860/bainbridge/1860-153.htm > > I have found that treating folks like I'd want to be treated goes much > further than acting like lord and master over others. Even on the county > sites I maintain, they would not be all they are without the contributions > of others either directly or indirectly. > > Tim > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >