Review request: ezhtml

a sheepish (no pun intended) response is yes. That is my personal taste probably though. The layout could be changed to be more inviting. You seem to be on the track of upgrading the site anyway, so I wont bore everyone with a critique of something that will probably be changed soon anyway.....

Hey! That is a nice beginner's resource.

I suppose that you could tinker with the style a bit. I'd personally like to see link colours more in keeping with the colour scheme and a lot more breathing space in your left and right margins. I'm not to crazy about the background either.

It looks like you put a lot of work into the content! I didn't even notice any typos

Since you are going to re-do it I will just post a few things that jumped out at me. However, I would like to say before I get into the things that I didn't like, that I read the site for about 30 minutes last night and throughly enjoyed it. You have really put a lot of time into this. Think I will send it to my mom who is wanting to learn html.

Ok...now for the slamming.
Your colors, gray, blue, red, yellow, orange and pink....ACK!! The pink links clash with the yellow and red/orange. (hard to tell which color it is with this glare on my screen)I think this site would look nice done in orange, gray and black with a touch of dark yellow. Just my opinion and idea. Change the EzHTML logo, especially the color and the lined bg too. Those are about the only things that I wasn't crazy about. I am sure that you will come up with something real nice though when you re-do it.

I will be looking forward to the XHTML and CSS part. That is what I am learning/refining right now and will definately visit when you get that part up.

I definitely feel that there needs to be more in terms of visual interest. More colour would be a huge improvement. Even a solid colour background as opposed to the grey stripes would be a huge improvement.

I also feel that your writing could use some work (and I think you've admitted to that in the past). You've got a lot of long sentences on here. Break them up into shorter ones that would be easier to read. Also use bulleted lists where appropriate to break things up, headings to separate important parts of the content etc. Make it easy to skim. YOu also might want to separate code examples from the rest of the text - say by setting them on a coloured background or styling the font differently, or indenting them from the paragraphs.

I have to sya I really like this site...

so much so I've added it to my directory. You have obviously gone into an imense amount of detail in the site, so much so it can get a little confusing.

The one suggestion I could make is a step-by-step tutorial walking the user through the basics as when you click "The Basics" link you are presented with a fairly hefty page which could put a beginner off

Overall, I like....

Busy,

You've got a lot of good, solid information on there. Very useful. In fact, I'd like to place a link to it from my resource directory.

http://www.inkprintercartridges.com/pc-net.html

Other than a site makeover, I think you'd do well to also consider you own dedicated domain. For example, you could contact the owner(s) of ezhtml.com (which is inactive) and see if they'd cut a cheap deal, or make an offer for ez-html.com (it's for sale) through DomainCollection.com (be aware, popups). Alternately, all other top domain extensions are available for either (.net, .org, etc).

All the best,

Texas

Thanks all, but Please dont link to or bookmark this site, its not staying there, its only up on the free server while I find a new host and domain. and as I have about 8 sites that will be hosted under one domain name and the exchange rate against me it could be anywhere/anytime.

the ezhtml domain name was a thought but I did this site about 4 years ago (i changed the copyright date when i redid the tests with php), was hosted on xoom.com back then and have since done ez xhtml and playing with ez css, problem is they keep changing the darn standards, xhtml 1 is totally different to xhtml 1.1 for example, but these sites are things I do in my spare time.
I also made it for NS4.7, probably the reason i didnt use certain highlight and style methods.

I forgot to mention, when I update the layout, the basic page layout will probably remain the same, I have no idea how its going to look yet, or even what colors will be used.
but i do know the stripes and table border images are going

Busy,

PM or email me when you update the site address

Quote: I also made it for NS4.7, probably the reason i didnt use certain highlight and style methods.

you mean the stuff Megan was talkin' about?

Quote: separate code examples from the rest of the text - say by setting them on a coloured background or styling the font differently, or indenting them from the paragraphs

surely you can get ol' Netty to give you a display of this

Way back when I did the site I used a weird table layout, using bgcolor in the td cells was repeating and images in css wasnt filling the cell properly, I started updating it last year but as it wasnt hosted just put it aside.
Once I do the new layout (mind has gone blank on ideas) I will place code in colored cells and/or color code coding.

hardest part is making it basic but serious looking, inviting enough for kids but not to childish to be off putting to adults, I have to find that thin line somehow.

am open for suggestions

Flipper and others, once its posted on its own domain I'll probably include it in my signature.

cool site you are in my bookmarks if site addy changes please email new one to [email protected] I have been struggling through html for dummies and find your info alot easier to follow. still on first lessons, know nothing of hyper text. I think site is good to go as is make it to flashy people miss content maybe. thought it was layed out sequentialy and if I start out at the left at the top and work my way down I will have a good grasp on this in say four or five years (slow learner) Thanks joenov

Made up a new layout tonight and would like your opinions on it, has a slight alignment problem in NS6 but that will be sorted if I go with this.
new layout
The links at the left I'm not sure on link colors (link colors arent working in NS4.7, i can get around it but need to decide on colors first, so again your input is welcomed.

Its quite hard trying to come up with a layout thats middle of the road, appealing to young kids and old kids, err adults

Oh and the words, naviagtion, content and copyright (with the arrows) are part of the layout, my paper version looked good with it and have seen it done somewhere else (think it was a php site), may change the font to a handwriting one thou, any thoughts?

Quote:
may change the font to a handwriting one thou

Font of the logo? Change just the "Z" (maybe even the "E") to a large overlapping handwriting style. Maintain a fixed-width/monotype style for the rest. Ditch the bevelling, or make it softer.

Quote:
Its quite hard trying to come up with a layout thats middle of the road, appealing to young kids and old kids, err adults

Dunno about the layout but with colors, its generally good to use mid-saturated colors. i.e. where you would use #000099 go with something like #6600CC etc.

Of the four nav links I'd go with 3.

I like the idea of having the tags visible to the viewer... but will it be confusing to the newbie?

BTW, content on the original site is great.

Busy, this is a great site!
I wish i had known about it when i started learning html a couple of years ago.
One point I wanted to make 'before' the redesign, is that when i was learning html online i used to print the tutorial pages (I have most of Joe's html goodies printed!)
so i could work/study off line.
So either making a printer friendly page or a page friendly to printing would be a big plus.

As far as the new design is,
The two blues don't 'look' right together to me, perhaps take the dark blue on your interface and run it through
http://www.colorschemer.com/online/
and get a lighter complementary color for the background.
I would go with the periwinkle, yellow, and salmon with their respective rolloovers for the links colors on the nav, don't know about on the white.

(Yesterday i wrote a long more invovlved review but the board wouldn't take it and i lost it, no time today for more.)

I too am looking forward to the new css and xhtml sections..
and yes i think these things move just to fast to keep up myself!

dragonsjaw