What would YOU do to give this site improved functionality and user-friendliness?

http://www.eternalquality.net

Kati and I are caretakers and content developers for the site (not programmers.) We have a programmer working on the back-end development.

Thank you for your comments.

Gary

Hi Gary,

First impression, I would personally reduce the text size of the menu, just one step.

The first thing you need to be aware of is a tip that isn't shared around that much and is where most beginners slip up:

Cutting and Pasting Text from word: - If you look in your source code for any of the pages, you will see that word has created a ton of excess code.

What you need to do is paste the code into Notepad, then copy the text from Notepad into your Text/HTML module - this strips out all of the excess HTML.

You will now have an unformatted page, click on update and see what it looks like.

The main text that is displayed should be displayed in the font and size that you require, if it isn't you need to edit the .css file of your skin and look at the .Normal class - change your font settings here.

For your different headings, specify H1, H2 tags etc and set the fonts in the css file. - All you have to do then in the Text / HTML module is highlight the text and select (maybe different in your version) format from the drop down list and select 'heading 1', 'heading 2' etc.

If you do this, it will really reduce the page size of your pages, therefore giving faster load times. - The general rule is to not format the text within the HTML/Text module, but specify the formatting within your css file. - I will be covering this in more detail in a future tutorial.

On the About Us page have you specified alt text for the picture? - This is good practice so that when the image is not displayed, the alt text is displayed, or a screen reader can read out the picture. - You need to do this for all of your pictures.

The main text resizes within the body of your page in IE and doesn't cause overloads, but it doesn't resize within the menu (you will find this is the case in most DNN sites). - Try stating your text sizes in em or percentages rather than fixed pixels.

This is an example of a skin that completely resizes: http://skins.dnncreative.com

The breadcrumbs only display when you are viewing a sub menu. - The dots that are displayed around the breadcrumbs are displayed even when an item is not displayed in the breadcrumbs. - I would personally remove these dots, or setup the breadcrumb so that they display for all menu items - I would personally opt for the last option.

Hope this gives you something to think about, thanks,

Lee,
Your comments are thorough, even-handed, helpful and appreciated. Some of the suggestions, such as those involving the css file, are beyond my present knowledge and experience. I don't know how to get into the css file. But I can strip the excess code by using the html/text editor.

The programmer installed the Refer-A-Friend module and I started to put it on a page. I looked carefully, but did not find a way to set it up with a fixed Subject header and Message. I found the header and footer boxes, it just didn't work after I Updated.

Also, the module sets half way off the page and I haven't figured how to center it. It is on the Sanctuary page at http://www.eternalquality.net

Could you help me with this?

Mahalo,
Gary

Hello,

For your info, the css file is stored alongside your skin files, so if you speak with your programmer they should be able to point you in the right direction or set up the css file for you.

Yes the module does not give you many options, and this is what you get for a free module. - All you can do is allow the subject and footer boxes to be editable, so as you've discovered you can not change the settings without re-programming the module.

Regarding the display, the Text/HTML  section is displayed directly underneath the form boxes as it is within your page, again you can not change this without changing the table layout of the module itself.

So I'm afraid the settings you require are not available without opening the code files for the module itself and programming it to how you require.

Thanks,