need feedback for my new Mock Up site template please

Greetings, So I took the plunge a few days ago and got XWD. This is my first time using the product & I still have SO much to learn. I am not a web tech head & a lot of the 'help' section in the program is too much info for me to process yet as I do not understand it all. SO, I have attempted to just make a Mock up template for my site.Here are my issues so far as best as I can understand or relay them. I am sure a lot may be answered elsewhere in the forums backlog of stuff and or in the help area in XWD but my brain is not finding it yet.

So I made the first template mock up. I published it just to see what it might look like live & have viewed it on my Awesome big screen PC desktop & colors look decent enough. But when I view it on my Macbook pro (newer) the colors have shifted greatly. My Eyescream hand drawn logo is sort of a Peach color, rather than the bright red it should be. And the background design has a more matte brown red color. I'd be ok with that difference in color via monitors for the background image if it were more transparent as it is in the program, but I don't want a Peach Logo title, but the Transparency seems lost on the background images and the image should barely be visible. So I went back in the program and made the image even more transparent & barely there & updated republished but did not see one bit of change for it on either monitor. I know I must be leaving out a step somewhere.

Also, there is a Wavy Scroll down the left hand side of the page and for whatever reason, this multi grouped image (and ungrouped) is effected by 'THEME Color 2' in the color editor, everytime I try to change the Theme color2 it shifts the color of the side scroll on the left. I tried deleting the image & making a New Layer in the gallery & then importing the image again & duplicating multiples to make the 4 scroll piece, and for whatever reason, the new layer with the same image acts the same way & is effected anytime I try to change the theme color 2 in the color editor. I have No idea why it is connecting to it.

Publishing: Once I published the page & before I had exported the website first, my images show up as 0.png 1.png etc. I understand it does this to minimize file size & or because images are agains a transparent background when created originally as a .png. But I cannot figure out how to rename them so they have actual names other than 0, 1, 2 etc. I tried going into the folder on my HD and renaming one there after I exported them into an html folder but didnt work. Again I am not well versed and tend to tackle things head on the long way around until I learn what is going on.

Also, when I view Page source Live, one of the 9.png in the list, actually had a name attached 'TinyGothicEye_red' so I am trying to figure out how did this one image get an 'id' or have any name attached to it at all? what is an id? can the others have id's too should they? or should I just worry about renaming the htm files/0.png titles to something more memorable & something that will help with metatag/keywords etc. I just don't want to have a ton of numbered png files on my site without names. So I want to be able to rename all the images so they make sense to me & so they have a proper name for possible search engines to find easier (as far as keywords etc).

I did not try to conquer any navigation etc on the site yet... not digging the 'buttons' in the gallery, at least not for the look of the site, and wanted to focus on getting my template set up & understanding how to deal with the whole export import & renaming files etc first. Not sure what my navigation links will be, probably text, but I wanted something that stood out but fit with my style & did not have too much of a slick look. Also another factor, I tried to load a button just to test it out (color match) and even not color match, and since the one image is connected to Theme Color 2, I could not switch some of the Text Color and theme color etc to the button, as it kept effecting that Right hand side scroll. So I scratched the idea of buttons for nav. right now.

thanks for reading ahead of time. Here is the link to the mock up page for now. Any comments appreciated as long as they are something I can understand and or spelled out in detail for any potential issues or problems.
thanks again:

http://www.future.eyescreamjewelry.com

i thought for reference I'd leave my actual website created on a different program. I made it from scratch in about a month in a half with lack of html knowledge, but the feel is slightly weighty & too boxy for me (and too many image details for the eye to focus, although I like my details, just too many) And I lost my HDrive so I cannot update the site any longer, all picture filepaths were no longer. So a window opened up to try a new site all over again. Hence why I am trying XWD and a new look to streamline a little.

http://www.eyescreamjewelry.com

~phyll~

Hi Phyll,

Could you attach your .web file to a post so we can see what you have done to create the page?

As for difference between Windows and Mac display, the Mac uses a much higher gamma for their display which can wash out and shift colours. The reverse effect is seen on Windows machines, very dark and sometimes over saturated colours. Nothing to do with the program that created the webpage but something that must be considered if you want to create for Windows and Mac users.

Very nice design
I would change the page size to 955
All you can do with the colors is keep adjusting

not sure if this is the right .web attachment or not.

also on the mention of resizing to 955 did you mean width? and why 955? I was trying to have enough space width wise to be able to place the items images I needed with descriptions without going to crazy on width. which is why I was trying to use 1050 I think. Anyway, please elaborate on the 955 sizing. thanks.

Also, maybe I will just redo the color of the my Logo Text at top to be the Bright red color in photoshop then try to reload it again. As I may have gotten to that color via some aspects color hue & variance shifts in the XWD program.

p.s. there will be a little Add to cart thingy I was working on outside of the web page window at top when you open in XWD, that was just to test colors. And if you notice the background image & top & bottom Fluers (within smaller frame brackets) were meant to be transparent & faded A lot.

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I think a 955 width would be better because the right side of your webpage is cut off. You can use the scrollbar at the bottom to view it but that's a pain.

I believe 955pix is derived from a 1024x768 resolution, which is still about the most common one in use, but quickly giving way to higher ones. At 995pix, there is enough room to show the whole page without a horizonal scroll bar with the browser maximized. This takes the window edge graphics into account.

I designed my company site at 1000pix (not thinking of the xtra stuff taken up by the UI itself) and on a 1024x768 display, my site is just barely too wide, so it makes the scrollbar appear.


Does that help?

Slavelle & Aridzone.. no it makes sense... I had intended it to be smaller than it is showing (maybe not 955) but smaller... but for whatever reason it kept going bigger even when I didnt resize the screen. So I'm not sure what I did. But I noticed when I want to publish the page I am working on... it prompts me to 'export' website as an index htm file for my harddrive... I kept saving the most current to Index1 or index2 so because I wasn't replacing the original index it was not replacing it online.
Also when it prompts to export website to your HD I am sure that is when the pngs are saved as 0.png, 1.png etc... but still don't know how to have individual titles on my pngs or images and if that is possible to help with search engine keyword placement etc.

thanks in advance, I just resized the page & had to shift all my elements smaller. I don't think I like most of my elements smaller.... and most notably the upper left hand corner Eyeskull in chalice smaller, makes the graphic look likes it bleeding more & blurry. So I need to fix that as the larger size seemed more crisp & nicer.

thanks again, & any help on other aspects in the program that I can shift or change or retitle etc from first post appreciated.

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ok, tweeked a little bit more, resized page width.

http://www.future.eyescreamjewelry.com

Looks much better!
I really like your style Eye scream
How about something like this:

thanks Aridzone (though Eyescream all one word haha :P ... that is sort of funny considering my new one looks alot like the one you sent (on the same wave).


I know most of you probably already know this... but I was able to rename the png images id (though not Rename the actual .png files persay) with appropriate names by going into the 'names' section & applying titles to each through that (mostly naming them the layer names I gave for each). So the names are attached to each file as an id in the code but not actual png extension.

I also tried to delete the original wavey scroll design on the left hand side & delete the layer (although I did this 2 other times). This time the one scroll was now 4 scrolls as one image rather than 4 scrolls grouped. And exported the 4 as one .png then tweeked in photoshop & re-imported onto a new layer and solved the connecting to theme 2 color problem I was having.

Again, I'm sure most of you here know about all this, but thought I'd address some problems I had in my first post that I have resolved in case someone else reads this and possibly has similar problems or questions as I did.

Ok, back to the grind & trying to figure out the best way to build a navigation in the program. I had wanted possibly buttons or text that could have a drop down of choices (but after reading a few posts) it sounds pretty daunting. And not sure how I shall fill the small amount of space I have left width wise with my products. The thought of building an individual page that opens up when you click on a thumbnail of each product that opens to its description page and a larger picture again will be arduous considering I've had over 1000 catalog items in my past. sigh. Though I can't recall what thread I read info on drop down options for text link or buttons....

So someone else addressed the photo galleries addition when asking if it was possible to not have thumbnails scroll through images when you pass over them but instead have each image only open to a bigger image when you click on it rather than scroll through. Could someone link me the thread please if you recall where it was and if I am making sense. thanks in advance.

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A thought, I did a test and copied all elements (except bottom copyright with tiny eye images) and saved/exported the entire file of elements as a .png and tweaked a little in Photoshop then started a new website doc and imported the entire back elements as One file image.

Question, do you think this is better? To have one main file png image as background template for the site? or having the multiple png images seperated as in the first .web attached.

I am attaching the other .web I just did with the one background layer. Let me know thoughts on this if it makes a difference or not to have one main image for background or mulitples that I will be able to move around and adjust at whim. thanks.

One background graphic requires more time to download. From what I've been hearing on the news many people are saving money by dropping their cable TV/high speed internet connections. You need to consider your target audience and how they may be connecting to the internet.

As for the changes you made in Photoshop, you can achieve the same results using Web Designer.

I took a few seconds to edit the file you originally post to make a few changes to show what could be done within WD.

thanks, yeah I noticed you can do some stuff with WD that I can in photoshop. I was just nervous during my first post because of color difference via different os and monitors & that pesky image being effected by theme color 2.

But hopefully with the last 24 hours working on tweaking it just so. Has made a difference in the last attachment I posted. (or I should say not the Last attachment I posted with the solid image as a background) but at least my new updated page found at the url I gave.)

I had decided against the single background image... not only for what Soquili mentioned about load times... but also (of course) there were major variances in the quality of the images being imported then exported & imported again which were tweeking the pixels too much.
thanks for checking out my stuff & giving input. Much appreciated.

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