Since things are slow... a Christmas Site

What a good idea! That's definietly one to put together for next year (too late now everyone except me has bought their presents!).

I think it's very good and the colours are very festive! Who did you get to be the models???

Megan, I noticed that you made sure that your family knows which graphics tablet you want by putting a link there. Of course, that still doesn't insure that you will get that one. A couple of years ago my family decided to start giving gifts to charity instead of exchanging presents. Some have been quite creative. Generally the charity is matched to that persons interests. Then a card is given to the person that the gift is given in honor of. It has been quite a blessing. That won't play well with younger kids though.

The site looks good overall. Maybe just fix the edges a bit around the Santa picture. I see that it came from Hemera Photo-Objects. It looks like that you wanted the torn-edges look, which I like in this case, just clean some of the junk around it. I am not quite sure why Santa is wearing gloves either. I like too how you personalized each page using Christmas stuff. I noticed too that the Home link takes someone to the different places on your site. On the Christmas index page it takes you to your home page. On the personal pages it takes you to the Christmas index page. Since there is not a link to your Christmas page from your Home page, I would change the link, so as not to lose some family members in the navigation. Looks good overall. Too bad it will be outdated in a few short weeks.

I didn't even notice that the home link was doing that! Thanks for pointing that out. I also didn't notice that Santa was wearing gloves in the picture I'll fix up the jaggedy edges as well. Photo Objects wasn't cooperating on my machine for some reason (probably a Win ME problem) so I kind of got frustrated with them and didn't bother fixing anything up.

Link to the graphics tablet - I'd really like a better one but I know what kind of price range I'm dealing with here. I just put the link in to give her an idea of what I was talking about - this is my mom we're talking about here

We can always recycle the site next year I was thinking that it would be a good idea to develop a bigger site to do this for families all over - database driven, families sign up for a small fee maybe, each member can login and update their lists through the web, add links etc. Maybe something like that already exists, I don't know...

Quote: Originally posted by Megan
I was thinking that it would be a good idea to develop a bigger site to do this for families all over - database driven, families sign up for a small fee maybe, each member can login and update their lists through the web, add links etc. Maybe something like that already exists, I don't know...

I don't know if it exists or not. Along with that service you could offer assistance to people finding the perfect gift for people. And why not include birthdays, anniversaries, etc. You could have email reminders for those.

Sounds like a great idea! I'd definitely sign up for it

If we sign up do we get a xmas present

Love the concept, very well laid out and clear graphics (most of em ) and even tabby gets a spot lol. My only tidbit would be the grey background side borders.

Megan, if your interested in some native wood frames, rimu, pine, cedar etc PM me as I make picture frames (and sell my photos in them)

Note to people having layout problems, take note of this layout, its crisp, clean, and does what it should without any unneeded junk

Thats neato!!! :)

I think that you could have a good thing goin there megan, turning that into a public website/database for everyone to use might go over pretty good.

great one Megan!!

I should make the extern links (wacom tablet etc.) open in a new window though...

but great site

So.... do you celebrate Eastern?

what a novel concept! you could even treat it as a registry if you wanted to go that far- people could log in and check items off the list when they bought them for someone in the website... i'm too lazy to think it all out right now but thanks for such an excellent idea!

I meant to do that Jack! Will fix...

I was thinking of crossing thiings off peoples' lists as they were bought, but then you could just go to your own list and see what you're getting and that's no fun. With a database driven site you could probably fix that so only other people would see what was crossed off.

I did come across http://www.wishlist.com - I'm sure there others but that one just doesn't seem to be too user friendly. Sounds like maybe you have to shop from their sites... I don't know.. Oh, and you can't register without a zip code! Ha! I could probably do better - maybe by next year I'll get around to building something... gotta learn that PHP thing first

ASP, baby!

(Proud to be a Microsoft slave)

What a happy family and neat idea!

Should steal it for hahaXmas.com.

Quote: Originally posted by Delmar
ASP, baby!

(Proud to be a Microsoft slave)

That would probably be better for me to learn, since it's more likely to show up in job postings around here, but all my sites happen to be hosted on Unix so PHP is just more convenient right now...

Quote: Originally posted by joec
Should steal it for hahaXmas.com.

You better be kidding about that!

If you run Windows NT, 2000, or XP you can just install IIS 4/5 and start creating .asp pages right away. You don't need to have a host- just run the service on your own PC. That's pretty much how I learned. Pretty much.

I'm actually running win ME at home, which sucks for a number of reasons. I actually might go back to '98... was thinking about upgrading to XP but someone said that it's rather slow... (and I don't feel like paying for it...) 98 with PWS might solve my problems.

that is true- PWS can run asp (and other server side scripting 'languages') with no issues. DO IT!

A word of warning, however- once you have free reign over what you can do on your own box, you'll never want to use a host again. The money they charge for the simplest of services is just silly. Especially when you know it takes no extra effort on their part to do it. This is why I host my site directly from my own PC. Obviously, I can't recommend such a setup for my clients, but it just gets frustrating when you know how easy it really is.

It on there now, if you don't like it please let me know.

http://www.hahanetwork.com/hall.htm

How are your PHP studies going Megan?
I'm interested in your review of that book you had

I've kinda been slaking off lately... I should really get my butt in gear

Which gear?

That is a really cute idea. Why didn't I think of that? I think it looks good except for the gray background. It really takes away from it in my opinion. I think I would make the main table 100% width. Other than that you get an A+ from me.

What is that font that you are using for the title?

I can't remember what font that is... I'll let you know when I get home.

I wasn't sure what to do about the background colour - I tried a bunch and gray was the best option. I think my audience is probably all set at 800 x 600 though so they won't see it anyway.

I see the grey at both ends at 800x600, its about 5mm each side(I hope you do milimetres )

how bout using the color of the top and bottom for the background?

I am seeing the same that busy is. I just thought it was me. I agree with him also on the bg. I am sure you have probably tried that though.

Here is your upper right corner as i see it on 800X600.

You mean I should use the red? I tried that and it didn't look quite right - too much stuff blending into each other. I've tried every other colour I can think of - green, yellow, black, white and none of them look quite right. The thing with the gray is that it just sort of recedes, it's not noticable at all.

THe logo font is called "Echelon".

I kind of like the gray. It gives a nice offset to the red. You might further the concept by removing the scrollbar.

I guess you are right. After I posted the image of your corner I tried the red background to see what it would look like and it did kinda swallow everything.

Thanks for the font name!