Question about FP 2002 Templates

[JGITS]

Hi,

Hopefully this is an easy one for web-gods.

I'm building my first site (it's online but not advertised yet) in FP 2002.
I've used the template "One-column Body with Contents on Left" (file = C:/Program Files/Microsoft Office/Templates/1033/Pages/2cmenul.tem).
The problem is that I can't use the top left corner so my banner image on top is over to the right and off-balance (Can't believe I didn't see that coming!). I am unable to move/drag/slide not even threaten or bribe the image to be centered in the page. I would prefer not to guesstimate an imgae resize to leave space on the right or start again if someone can show me a trick/hack to be able to use the top-left box. If it's impossible, I guess I'll spend some time trying again. If you need to see what I mean, you can check www.jgits.ca. Like I said, it's not advertised yet so I'm not ready for too much laughing at it, just need the image sorted and then another day or two and I'll post back in the "Critique Me" section after dawning my armour.

TIA,
Jason

[MandyJay]

Hi Jason,
You will be pleased to hear it is easier than you think ....

When working with tables on a gray background and table amendments are required I tend to use a temporary helping "aid". Right click inside the table anywhere and select "table properties" and give the table a border of 1 and select a contrasting colour, say red. Now look at your page in design/normal view you will see the top header area is made up of two cells not just one. You need to merge those into one cell.

Place your cursor to the left of the table next to the top left cell and move it near the edge of the table until your cursor changes to a black arrow pointing to the right and left click. This will highlight that row, i.e. both the left cell and the cell your header is in. Now right click anywhere inside that highlighted row and select "merge cells".

The two cells will now become one. But you need to now set the cell properties. So right click inside the cell, and this time select "cell properties" give a maximum width, if you dont know the pixel width give it 100% width but it is more compatible to use pixels for table measurements and not percentage or the larger resolutions i.e. 1300 and upwards could find your pages getting hard to read, and set the horizontal alignment to center and the vertical to middle.

You should be good to go now. If you wanted you could give that cell a black background to match the header image.

You can now right click inside the table and remove the border by selecting border to be 0 and the colour to be default.

I know you dont want any comments on your site as yet. But I felt I had to make just two as you may cuss me if I left it until you had finished the web. In looking at your code I see you are using Times New Roman as the main font. That font actually was designed for printed material and not for website and can be quite hard on the eye. The two most popular and easy on the eye fonts, that are web safe, are arial or verdana at 10pt in size.

You also use the font Sylfaen. You will be one of the few who can see that. For people to see a font they have to have it on their system. That is not a common font and many people will not see it they will see the text in their browser default font. Mine is Times New Roman yet on my laptop it is Comic Sans. You may wish to reconsider which fonts you use if you want viewers to see the pages as you see them.

Two sections of this forum you can check out for ideas to help you with your site .... Search Engine Optimization .. which can be done as you go along or if the site is not too huge do it afterwards. Then the Cascading Style Sheet section of the forum which will show you a much easier and quicker way to format your pages to help make them browser compatible. e.g. IE and Firefox are the two most widely used browsers but they dont always display things the same way. Using CSS help them to view things the same. Just a couple of suggestions there that may help you decide on how you want your site to be. Any queries just post and we will do our best to help.

Hope that helps

MJ

[JGITS]

Hi MJ,

Thanks for your response!
I'm on the way out for a few hours but I'll give it a try when I get back.

I'm suprised about the fonts, I never saw that coming!
I really should have known that, I've had to deal with 100's of mails and pdf's with wierd encoding issues that my ussers couldn't view, I can't believe I missed that!

As for other improvements, it comes down to how much time to create and maintain them. You will have noticed I'm a geek, but not a web geek. Also because of the 'free-in-5' service, I need to be careful about it becoming too popular or easy to find with people around the world who would never end up hiring me for onsite work. For now, I'll advertise in Graigslist (Vancouver) and also in a free Japanese online classified (Vancouver). Now I do have a lot of time and don't mind at all helping people from aywhere, but I need to be careful not to get my inbox jammed with mails from everywhere but Vancouver.

Again, thank a lot for your time in answering.
I'll give it a whack tonight and start to advertise once complete.

Regards,
Jason

[MandyJay]

Hi Jason,
It is difficult to know how much "unasked for" information to give people, as I certainly dont want to sound as though I am telling you what you should/shouldnt do, yet I feel comments now may save time later. But with all comments I give, they are take it or leave it, the choice is always up to the person. I just like to point out things that may cause concern all depending on priorities etc.

Let me know if you have problems centering that heading, it should go smoothly.

Cheers
MJ

[JGITS]

Hi MJ,

Well... I tried what you listed... And you know what... IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!! I did the index page in about 1 minute and the second page in less than 40 seconds, so another 5 minutes and I'm done woohoo!

I figured it would be easy for people who know what they're doing.

As for comments, no problem, fire away!
I will be taking your advice and changing my fonts over to Arial but will delay any search optimizations for the time being. What I'm trying to do is start slow and keep control of my business. I want people in my area 'talking' about 'free-in-5' and trying it out to create some local goodwill. I also won't be putting anything that flashes, beeps or moves. I just want a nice clean site that is easy to read and understand. Other than my long windedness, I want the site to be very straight forward for my clients and potential clients.

I have a few other questions which in finding answers will probably lead me to a few dozen more questions. Just wondering if I need to make a separate thread for each, or can I bundle a couple/few questions at a time if they are similar in nature?

Thank you so much MJ!
Jason

[MandyJay]

Great glad it worked.

It is best if you put new questions as a new thread unless they are directly connected .... or if unsure just add a post and I can split it and make it into a new thread ..... makes no difference really, I can sort. Its only that separate threads re separate questions makes it easier for other people to notice and perhaps also offer help etc.

Cheers
MJ