# I would appreciate your feedback on my new website



## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

Hello,

I am in the process of bringing my old woodworking website up to date and would love to get any feedback I can from those of you who have the time to take a look. I am uploading all of my notes and photos daily and hope to be done in the very near future.

Before I post the link I want to mention that there are a lot of ‘blank’ pages in that the content is mostly latin fill. I am aware of that. The pages will be filled with real content as quickly as I can get to them.

One of my real concerns is that I use Mac's exclusively and have no way of knowing what pc user's actually see. I have tried to address these concerns as best I can, but different browser's render web content in various ways. Unfortunately, I have little control over this.

Here is the link: http://www.pabriles.com/home.html

There should not be any broken links, but I could be wrong. Any and all comments or suggestions are most welcome.

A big Thank you! to all who take a look,
Phillip

P.S. I case anyone should wonder, I have Kevin's permission to begin this thread. Thanks!


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## ripjack13 (Feb 26, 2015)

The links for 
resources
contact
about this site
all say this....
*Not Found*
The requested URL /other/about-this-site.html was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

I gotta scoot out with the lil woman. so i'll check in later.

Reactions: +Karma 1


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## kazuma78 (Feb 26, 2015)

I like how the menu works and brings up the new links in the section you are browsing. If you are moving to cruces maybe we can meet up sometime so I could glean some information from you and maybe I can give you some of my wood honey holes that are local haha


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## JR Custom Calls (Feb 26, 2015)

My initial thought... it's kind of awkward. The menu at the top right corner is something I don't think I've ever seen on a website. Obviously don't want it to be a copy of another website, but most sites have a menu across the top, rather than a single drop down in the corner. Just seems a bit confusing. JMO of course.


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@JR Custom Calls 

Thanks for the feedback, Jonathan.

The menu was a real struggle. I would even go so far as to say it was the one feature that underwent many, many changes, none of which were ideal.

It all boiled down to how the menu would work and look on smaller viewing devices such as the iPad. Because of the length of the menu items, a horizontal menu would have folded and folded ... which would not have looked good at all on smaller devices. I tested that and it just looked awful. Another scenario was to have the menu 'drop down' and again, the menu items would take two (or more) windows to fill and that would lead to a not-so-pleasant viewer experience. A lot of website design really perches designer's such as myself over the proverbial fence: Damed if you do and damned if you don't. So I made the best decision's I could based purely on how they would render on all device's I targeted.

I hope this makes a bit of sense to you.

Phillip


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@ripjack13 

Good catch, thanks!

I fixed all the main menu item links save for the Gallery and Contact links. The Gallery will be up soon as will the Contact form. The Contact form has to be secure which is taking some time to complete.

Thanks again for your help.

Reactions: Like 1


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## JR Custom Calls (Feb 26, 2015)

I get it, struggled myself. Ended up using Drupal, which automatically formats a mobile friendly site when it detects a mobile browser. Granted, my site is far from done.


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## kweinert (Feb 26, 2015)

On the Projects page:

The Following Will Be Discussed


Veneer Adhesives
Glue Pot
Veneer Book-Matching
Veneer Quad-Matching
In addition, where applicable, we will cover the sharpening of each of these tools. The sharpening of Japanese saws will not be covered.

Looks like some cut and paste didn't quite cut enough :)

Also, woodworker's should be woodworkers - plural, not possessive (at least in all the cases I ran across.)

There's a page that says (at the top)

This line should be in script.

(but it's not :)

I, personally, am not a big fan of context sensitive menus. I understand why you did it and I'm not sure that I have a better way off the top of my head,.

The Shop Photography page starts out talking about photography and ends with your About page.

Just a lot of cleanup stuff. 

BTW: the site actually looks fairly reasonable on my Galaxy S5 as well.


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## frankp (Feb 26, 2015)

I spent about 30 seconds and like the look of the initial page but literally all the links under the "basics" page are broken and give a 404 error. Looks like a pretty good resource once you have it all ironed out.


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@kweinert 

Thanks for the feedback, Ken. 

Your one liner - 'Just a lot of cleanup stuff.' - nailed it. I dup good working pages and then tune them to match the content they will soon become. As I continue adding the new content most of these issues will resolve themselves. Woodworkers is a nice catch as well. I will attend to those pronto.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@kazuma78 

Thanks for the thumbs up on the menu. I am in Las Cruces now. Just finished building my shop, but as usual, there is still more work to be done. As to your comment about 'wood honey holes', you may be surprised what treasure's lay out on the desert floor between EP and LC. The butterfly keys on this page came from there.

Thanks again for your feedback and taking a look.


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@frankp

Thanks for your observations. I think I have addressed the broken links that you mentioned. I added a Gallery page as well. The Contact page requires security features before I will put it online.

I appreciate your feedback.


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## ripjack13 (Feb 26, 2015)

Hand tools are, in my humble opinion, _what really *separate*_ one *wood worker* from another. Most wood worker’s, for *intance*, can use a table saw with generally good skill. The same cannot be said of wood workers and hand tools. I’m not going to go into the why of that because that is not what we’re here for, but I will say this. We can read books upon books and chat on forums on how to use hand tools until the cows come home, but in the end it all boils down to three things - practice, practice, practice!

_what really separate one wood worker from another. Should read: *are* what really separates one woodworker from another. _
The way you have yours looks like it is a question because you lead with the word "what"...
_separate_ should probably be separate*s *
_woodworker_ is one word.
_instance_ is missing the 's' (*intance)
*


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@ripjack13 

Great spot! I really should use a spellchecker for all of this. Thanks for catching these gramattical errors.


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## ripjack13 (Feb 26, 2015)

@SENC Henry is the resident vocabulist/grammar police...maybe he could offer some suggestions also...


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

../grammar police? That's great! Bring'm on! I need all the help I can get. 

I'm getting very close to actully porting what I have over to the correct domain on my server. Everyone has provided me with some really great feedback. Now, if could only get my spelling correct ... Ha, ha!

Thanks again!


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

Question for anyone not-viewing on a Mac: Do you see the green border that surrounds the menu items when you mouse over them?


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## SENC (Feb 26, 2015)

I'll give the site a once over this weekend, but will share a proofing tip. Read all of your copy backwards... ie., from the end to the beginning, line-by-line, word-by-word, right-to-left. Proofing your own copy is very difficult because you know what you intended to write and your brain tends to read it the way you intended... reading in reverse overcomes that natural tendency. It is awkward at first, but once you get started it becomes very easy, and you'll be surprised as what you catch with this proofing method.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Great Post 1 | Informative 2


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@SENC 

Thanks for the tip. I must warn you that when you have time to look at it, a lot of the pages are just latin filler. I am working as quickly as I can to add real content to each page.

Thanks again.


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## Kevin (Feb 26, 2015)

Henry I always knew somehow you were a really backward kind of guy.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Mike1950 (Feb 26, 2015)

Looks pretty good so far...........But the hand tool page and making the judgement about hand tools is a VERY BIG step. Sorta was a big negative to me. There is a member here- won't mention his name because he is having some health issues. But does almost everything with machines. He creates some incredible pieces. However you get the work done seems to me not really to count, isn't it about what the finished product is that really Matters???? Looking forward to gallery.


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## chicago (Feb 26, 2015)

@Mike1950 

Excellent point. Thanks! You just made me remember David Pye and his fluting engine. I will go back and revisit that page.

I appreciate the feedback.

Reactions: Like 1


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## chicago (Feb 27, 2015)

Wondering if any of you who use a pc see the green border around menu items when you mouse over them? I've attached a photo of what I see on my Mac.

Thanks!


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## Cody Killgore (Feb 27, 2015)

I'm on windows 7. I see the green borders around the menu items on sub menus. I don't see borders on the menu that pulls up on the home page...if that makes any sense. 

In other words, I see it on every menu I access except for the one on the home page.


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## chicago (Feb 27, 2015)

@Cody Killgore 

Thanks for the feedback, but what the 'ell you talkin' bout, man? Kidding, just kidding!

Ok, do you mean that when you hover over either of the two links on the home page like the attached photo shows, that you do not see the green border?
If that's what you mean then that's fine because those links are not supposed to have a green border when you hover over them. The photo below shows what should happen when you hover over the 'About This Website' link on the home page

Or do you mean that when you click open the drop-down menu from the home page that none of those links displays the green border when you hover over them?

If that's the case then that is pretty odd and I have no idea how to fix that in Win7. I have a tester friend who uses Chrome and she says she can see the green border the same as I do on my Mac. This is just the way it is with all the browser's in use today.

I appreciate your taking the time to lend a hand.


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## Cody Killgore (Feb 27, 2015)

chicago said:


> @Cody Killgore
> 
> Thanks for the feedback, but what the 'ell you talkin' bout, man? Kidding, just kidding!
> 
> ...



Honestly, I'm not sure what I was talking about 

But really, it seems to be working fine now.

Earlier though, for some reason when I clicked on the drop-down menu on the first page it did not show the green borders on it. I messed around with it for a bit and could not figure out why it did not show them only when I pulled up the menu on the home page.

(obviously working now)




But when I went to any other page, and brought up the menu, it would show them.


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## chicago (Feb 27, 2015)

@Cody Killgore 

Yeah, who knows? It's amazing that the net works at all.

Off topic - Man, you make some awesome knives!!!!! The only blade I own is my (very) old Randall. Let me know when you have more for sale. Your website noted that you were all sold out. That's not a bad thing, I don't suppose, if it means you cannot keep up with demand.

Keep me posted and thanks again for the feedback.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## chicago (Feb 27, 2015)

@Cody Killgore 

I forgot to add that I've heard that Randall knives are not what they used to be, but my source could be wrong. I have no way of knowing if this is the case or not.


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## phinds (Feb 27, 2015)

chicago said:


> One of my real concerns is that I use Mac's exclusively and have no way of knowing what pc user's actually see.


Big web companies make use of embedded javascript to detect what browser and what version and what machine a page is running on and make any necessary adjustments accordingly. This is a MAJOR pain in the ass and I'm not for a minute suggesting that you do it, I just want you to be aware that if you should find out that there are any major problems with your site on some browsers, there IS something you can do about it, if you want to invest the effort (or pay a pro to do it for you).


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## chicago (Feb 27, 2015)

@phinds 

Thanks for the info, Paul.

I am including four js scripts in each page two of which, modernizer.js and reset.js, are supposed to cover all the 'browser bases'. It usually turns out that it is some IE version that messes things up. 

The other nightmare scenario is that some user's turn js off and it has been 'suggested' that we web developer's take that in account. That's where I drew the line. Website coding is problematic enough as it is without having to worry about the user experience someone who dissables js is going to have. 'nuf said, 'bout that!

Thanks again for your comments.


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## phinds (Feb 27, 2015)

chicago said:


> I am including four js scripts in each page two of which, modernizer.js and reset.js, are supposed to cover all the 'browser bases'. It usually turns out that it is some IE version that messes things up.


 I've had various problem w/ both IE and FireFox. IE actually tends to be the more forgiving on basic syntax and since my testing is all in IE, I sometimes get a shock when I look at a page in FireFox.



> The other nightmare scenario is that some user's turn js off and it has been 'suggested' that we web developer's take that in account. That's where I drew the line. Website coding is problematic enough as it is without having to worry about the user experience someone who dissables js is going to have. 'nuf said, 'bout that!


Agree totally w/ all that!


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## Cody Killgore (Mar 3, 2015)

chicago said:


> @Cody Killgore
> 
> Yeah, who knows? It's amazing that the net works at all.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the nice words Phillip! I will let you know 

Those Randalls are nice...I'm not sure about the quality dropping off. Haven't heard anything.


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## chicago (Mar 4, 2015)

Just want to pass on a huge Thank You!! to all who took a look at my beta site. It has now replaced my old website and I hope to have all of my content on in a few weeks. Nothing easy about adding all the new photos and typing in all those words. No pain, no gain, I suppose.

Thanks again for all the help.


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