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MacMan4000 · Oct 9, 2004, 02:54 PM

I finally got a real website up and running. It's not completely done yet, but its more complete than my old site. I think this site will do much better than my old one because I have more free time to work on it now. a little while after i got my old site of the ground I started on Avenger and it took up all my free time. Now that Avenger is [almost] done I have more time for web design. Hope you guys like it. More content will come soon.

Murphy GUI

Feel free to post comments/suggestions here.

PS big thanks to Ambitious Lemon for the hosting!

NetworkShadow · Oct 9, 2004, 03:01 PM

Nice, clean, consistent.

But why did you need to use transparent .png images for the layout? You could use .jpg or .gif without transparency even to get the very same look and still support IE.

MacMan4000 · Oct 9, 2004, 03:04 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Nice, clean, consistent.
But why did you need to use transparent .png images for the layout? You could use .jpg or .gif without transparency even to get the very same look and still support IE.

nope... i tried that and the background never matched the background around the rounded title things. I think it is working fine now, I tested it from windows XP and windows 2000 both using the newest version of IE.

justinp · Oct 9, 2004, 03:27 PM

The color didn't match because you defined your background color as a hex value. You can't mix images (buttons) with HTML/CSS defined colors (background) and get them to match exactly. You could, however, using a small image of the correct background color tiled.

As for it "working fine now" for you, it may be. But I guarantee the majority of Windows users are going to get that shitty non-transparent background instead of what you intended. You can solve this in a few different ways (one of which is just leaving it as it is as "punishment" for people that use IE).

You can make the button/title images a transparent gif matted with the color of the background (which can be either be a tiled image or just a defined hex value).

You use pngs as you are now, but you'll need to search for a bit of javascript that enables IE to render them properly.

You use any format you wish and make them rectangles without any transparency and tile a background image of the same color (and image format... don't mix it up for a slightly better file size).

-----

My only suggestion is that you stop using Select > Modify > Contract to get the selection sizes for the "inner bits" of the buttons/titlebar things. When you contract from a circle, the resulting selection is no longer completely round (not really a problem when you aren't contracting it too much, but it's still an issue). I suggest either making a duplicate of the initial size and shrinking it down, or creating entirely new pieces for the inner parts from scratch.

And Select > Modify > Smooth won't solve it either.

esXXI · Oct 9, 2004, 03:59 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Nice, clean, consistent.
But why did you need to use transparent .png images for the layout? You could use .jpg or .gif without transparency even to get the very same look and still support IE.

Support IE?

We're not supposed to ENCOURAGING them y'know! They BREED!!

Anyway.. Pretty nice look. Simplistic and usable. You gets a thumbs up for making it non-ugly.

MacMan4000 · Oct 9, 2004, 04:08 PM

Originally posted by justinp:
The color didn't match because you defined your background color as a hex value. You can't mix images (buttons) with HTML/CSS defined colors (background) and get them to match exactly. You could, however, using a small image of the correct background color tiled.

As for it "working fine now" for you, it may be. But I guarantee the majority of Windows users are going to get that shitty non-transparent background instead of what you intended. You can solve this in a few different ways (one of which is just leaving it as it is as "punishment" for people that use IE).

You can make the button/title images a transparent gif matted with the color of the background (which can be either be a tiled image or just a defined hex value).

You use pngs as you are now, but you'll need to search for a bit of javascript that enables IE to render them properly.

You use any format you wish and make them rectangles without any transparency and tile a background image of the same color (and image format... don't mix it up for a slightly better file size).

-----

My only suggestion is that you stop using Select > Modify > Contract to get the selection sizes for the "inner bits" of the buttons/titlebar things. When you contract from a circle, the resulting selection is no longer completely round (not really a problem when you aren't contracting it too much, but it's still an issue). I suggest either making a duplicate of the initial size and shrinking it down, or creating entirely new pieces for the inner parts from scratch.

And Select > Modify > Smooth won't solve it either.

woah! how'd you know i used select > modify > contract ?! is it really that obvious?

as for all those IE/PNG suggestions, I am using pngbehavior.htc to make them work.

I think I might make the background an image like you said and try giving the images the same background, that sounds like it should work. the background *should* always be 4C4C4C, but in some browsers it looks darker or lighter

punishment for crappy IE user sounds good too...

people need to be taught that IE is not the only browser, in fact it sucks balls. Most windows people do not realize that, they should.

justinp · Oct 9, 2004, 04:13 PM

Originally posted by MacMan4000:
woah! how'd you know i used select > modify > contract ?! is it really that obvious?

It's not glaring but it is noticable (to me at least).

Ozzpot · Oct 9, 2004, 04:21 PM

MacMan, why does your sig say Muphy GUI?

MacMan4000 · Oct 9, 2004, 04:41 PM

Originally posted by Ozzpot:
MacMan, why does your sig say Muphy GUI?

son-ov-a-bitch! I can't believe i spelled my own name wrong.

edit: fixed now.

Synotic · Oct 9, 2004, 04:42 PM

Originally posted by Ozzpot:
MacMan, why does your sig say Muphy GUI?

MacMan4000 · Oct 9, 2004, 05:10 PM

could someone add some comments to the "comments" things on the homepage so I can make sure they work right? I wanted to use Movable type like everyone else, but I couldn't figure out the install instructions.

On a side note, if anyone wants to help me install movable type I'd appreciate it!

mdc · Oct 9, 2004, 05:38 PM

Originally posted by MacMan4000:
could someone add some comments to the "comments" things on the homepage so I can make sure they work right? I wanted to use Movable type like everyone else, but I couldn't figure out the install instructions.

On a side note, if anyone wants to help me install movable type I'd appreciate it!

i spent yesterday setting up movable type on my site http://mike.cosentino.com . i'd be willing to give you a hand.

MacMan4000 · Oct 9, 2004, 06:58 PM

actually, now that i think about it I'm not so sure i need Movable type... I think the crappy thing I'm using now does just fine for what I'm going to use it for... comments.

smeger · Oct 9, 2004, 07:44 PM

Originally posted by MacMan4000:
actually, now that i think about it I'm not so sure i need Movable type... I think the crappy thing I'm using now does just fine for what I'm going to use it for... comments.

Site looks great! Very clean and smooth.

What are you using right now for your blog software? I just gave a talk to my local Mac-Geek group about installing various weblog packages, so I'm interested in seeing what other people are using.

MacMan4000 · 08:25 PM

Originally posted by smeger:
Site looks great! Very clean and smooth.

What are you using right now for your blog software? I just gave a talk to my local Mac-Geek group about installing various weblog packages, so I'm interested in seeing what other people are using.

Thanks!

Right now I am using Fusion SBX (SBX is short for Shout Box apparently). PM me and I can show you what the web-admin page looks like so you don't need to go to the trouble of installing it yourself just to check it out.

EDIT: by the way, its ONLY for posting comments, so it's not really blog posting software. I'm still adding info to the site via good ol Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Transmit 2. And now that I think about it... Fusion SBX is extremely hackable/un-secure. Anyone who has used it before should know how to get into the admin page.

RE-EDIT: scratch that hackable/un-secure part. I just tried what i though would make finding the username and password for the admin easy, but it doesn't work.

mac15 · Oct 10, 2004, 05:02 AM

Very cool site, nice and simple. And you are another one of Ambitiouslemon's Children

NetworkShadow · Oct 10, 2004, 02:39 PM

Originally posted by MacMan4000:
nope... i tried that and the background never matched the background around the rounded title things. I think it is working fine now, I tested it from windows XP and windows 2000 both using the newest version of IE.

If you use .gif you can match the color exactly to the background or use transparency. The other way I've done it was to use .jpg images and use a .jpg image at the same compression for the background image to match the color.
But since it's a Mac GUI site it makes little since to give a damn about IE.

MacMan4000 · Oct 10, 2004, 02:53 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
If you use .gif you can match the color exactly to the background or use transparency. The other way I've done it was to use .jpg images and use a .jpg image at the same compression for the background image to match the color.
But since it's a Mac GUI site it makes little since to give a damn about IE.

yeah, I'v decided not to worry about it, a grand total of 6 out of 168 people who visited since I announced it were using IE. I guess its not as big a problem as I thought.