Well, I got laid off about three weeks ago and I thought that I would try working for myself. So, here it is three weeks later and so far so good! I've been relatively busy, not swamped but doing OK. This week has been slow, and I thought that I would make my first ever website. So... If some of you wouldn't mind, the next time your waiting for that Assembly to rebuild, would you please take a look at the site, and give any comments and criticisms. Please keep in mind that I know nothing about web design, so your comments will be very much appreciated.
I know nothing about web building also, just observations here...
*The words across the top of the home page break up and skips to the next line depending on the width of the browser window, eg
DESI GN
DE SIGN
J O H N F E R...
*I see just little red "X"'s where images should be on the home page
*I think you should put the bit at the bottom of page 1 across the bottom of every page, so I can go from one page to the next w/out having to go back to the home page
It looks like a very good start, I tried it in IE6 and NS4.7, same results
BTW, there are some very nice web design tools out which make the whole process very easy as well as give you a wide range templates plus other cgi, asp, xml,... types of features. I keep putting off changing mine to include a visitor interface for requesting information or logging into a secure area.... someday.
It takes time and it's kind of half worth it when all is working great. Otherwise, an FTP is probably the best feature about having a remote server.
If I click on the Xs then the images will load in a separate window. The images seem to be larger than the frames which might have something to do with why they don't load on the home page. You should also trim the images as much as possible and still have some quality so that the load is faster. I know there are ways to get the low res picture to appear first and then the high res one can be shown if the person clicks on it. (Maybe that is what you were going for but the low res ones aren't loading?)
IMO, it would be a good idea to describe the intake manifold on your website. Is it your design ? If it is:
What does one gain by using this design ?
Is it designed for low torque?
What RPM range is it intended for?
It looks to me like it's designed for fuel injection. If so what kind of plenum hooks up to it ?
The middle picture in the gallery is of what ? Some kind of exhaust manifold ? Not real clear other than I see it's a four into one design.
Do you have any comments on the truck ? Where you happy with the control SolidWorks gave you over the body lines for the truck ? If not, what would you like to see ?
I actually (believe it or not) finally got a "hit" from the SolidWorks Manufacturing Partner web site . . . somebody looking for another somebody in North Carolina to do some work. All this time (1 1/2 years at least) without a nibble. So, try it. After all, the price is right ($0).
I wouldn't use Word to do your site (as someone else has said I think) 'cause the code it uses is very innefficient. I would learn about 'style sheets', also known as cascading style sheets, as these are a great way to control content and appearance throughout the site, and add a touch of continuity to everything.
If you want some easy to do but funky stuff try visiting sites like
formatting link
as these have free code and advice to make things sing.
I bought a cheap, small easy to read HTML guide for beginners ages ago, and it was GREAT. It gave me all the underlying knowledge I needed to get going and understand the way the code works, and helps you get to the bottom of why picturess aren't loading etc.
A few tips, for what they may be worth:
Keep all your folders very organised and within one main folder, like 'web' for example.
I try to separate JPGS, gifs and image files into separate folders as I find this easier to manage.
keep all file names lower case and free from spaces, and try to keep the length of the names down too.
Dont use framesets, use tables instead - but always check the layout is working in different browsers.
Using 'server side includes' can be an easy way to get a menu system to be present on all pages from one single file, but not all servers allow this, and it can be a bit wierd to set up - but there is some more reading there if you feel like it!
Steal from other pages that you like, you can use the 'view source' button in the browser to read their code and check out how they do stuff. And you can always save their pages and edit out the bits you want. This is also a good way to learn new stuff.
That's about all the beginners stuff I can think of, hope it's of some help! My old and very much in need of an ovehaul site is here:
BTW, I thought that I heard that you took a "real" job some time back, maybe I was mistaken. Anyway, I set up the one at my old work, RJ Studios Inc., and I will definitely look into it, but I believe that's it's for subscription members. Right now I'm still at 2001Plus, and will get current as soon as I can afford the subscription plus penalty.
The images on the Links page never did show up for me (on IE). The other pictures all loaded OK (after a bit of a wait). "What is Solid Modeling" gave me a "Page URL not found" when I tried it from the home page, but worked from the other pages, although the only content is "Solid Modeling is". The Gallery page doesn't have the links to the other pages. The other pages don't have a link back to the Home page. It would be nice if the images on the Gallery page put up some kind of hourglass or indication that they are loading the larger image. They should also change the cursor to the little pointing hand, like the links do, to show the viewer that he can click on them. Or you could put some text below the images that says "Click to enlarge" or some such.
Yeth, I took a direct job. Not quite 3 months later I quit in frustration. (Two days after that the company announces to its employees that it's out of funds -- total surprise to me except that it follows from some of the nonsense that went on.) So, I'm independent again. Yay. Boo. Whatever. At least I reminded myself why I went independent to begin with.
These are all things that I need to look at (and some that I didn't even consider, like the pointy hand). My main goal last week was to see if I could actually get it out on to the WWW. So now my goal is to clean things up, and finish typing what is solid modeling, etc.
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