Finished My First Xara Site - feedback please and some probllems still

Would like some feedback on this site; it's my first site using Xara 15 Premium. It's a sub domain of my main site which I have yet to redo. This one on the artist, Elizabeth Lochrie, isn't completely finished, but is done enough that I uploaded it.

lochrie.doanehoag.com

I'm still having a few problems:

When I dxport the site to a folder on my computer it works fien, but when I publish the site it uploads all the files and images, etc. to the index_html_files folder, but it doesn't upload any of the htm page files into the E_Lochrie main folder which is under my public_html folder. That E_Lochrie folder is a sub domain of doanehoag.com and is pointed to when lochrie.doanehoag.com is entered. For some reason I have to upload all the page htm files using my host filemanager program to the E_Lochrie folder.

Another problem I ran into... I have a couple of text links to anchors on my other pages that are about half way down those pages. When viewed, it takes you to the anchor location, but you then cant' get all the way back up to the top of the page and the menu bar.

Also Not sure how I can use groups to save on file sizes as I don't completely understand where they should be used.

Terrific site. I added a link to your url to make it easier for the members to see it.

I think you need to link your sub folder to public_html/E_Lochrie

Spotted a spelling mistake on the home page. Expidition should be expedition.

Miko: Thanks a lot, will correct it.

Gary: Thanks! Not sure how to link the subfolder E_Lochrie to the main Public_html folder... In the Xara settings for publishing I already have public_html/E_Lochrie in the sub folder (optional) slot... does that need to be something different for the path to it?
Also, I have http://lochrie.doanehoag.com/index.htm in the website ULR slot used for a sitemap?

Very nice site Doane.

One small suggestion is you have underlined headers & sub-headers. Often the underline doesn't extend the length of the text line. Personally I avoid underlines unless they are links. If you do want an underline, create a decorative one yourself or download one from the content catologue.

This is how I'd set up the sub-folder. You've already done this, you can visit the site using the url http://doanehoag.com/E_Lochrie/

doane - I would do it like Egg has pictured. But if you have tried this and it does not work, then contact support at your web host and see what they suggest.

I have an artists site I host and every artist's gallery is in a sub folder. I link public_html/artists-name and this works. But every web host has different ways of doing things.

Thanks, all. I have it set up like Egg shows in Xara and at Startlogic, my host, I have the lochrie.doanehoag.com address redirected to that subfolder, E_Lochrie under the public_html folder. When I publish from Xara it creates the index_html_files folder under that E_Lochrie folder and uploads all the png images in to it, etc. but it doesn't upload the page htm files to the E_Lochrie folder. I guess I'm not following you guys, should I contact my ISP and see why it won't let the page files upload?
The lochrie.doanehoag.com sub domain has been up for several years now and is well up the list on searches for "Lochrie," etc. so I don't want to change it to something different.

Thanks,

Also, I'm not using the anchor links now because when I do you can't go back up to the top of the page they link to. I changed them so those text links are just to the page itself and not to the anchor points lower in those pages but I would like to get them to work. Has anyone else run into this problem?

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but it doesn't upload the page htm files to the E_Lochrie folder

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I don't think this is correct Doane. My Cpanel gives the following info:

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A subdomain is a subsection of your website that can exist as a new website without a new domain name. Use subdomains to create memorable URLs for different content areas of your site. For example, you can create a subdomain for your blog that is accessible through blog.example.com and www.example.com/blog

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So either subdomain names should point to your sub-folder via doanehoag.com/E_Lochrie/ or http://lochrie.doanehoag.com. Which ever url you use it points to doanehoag.com/E_Lochrie/ sub-folder, no other. Try deleting the current sub-folder on your server & republish it again. I'm sure the htm files will upload correctly :)

The only way Startlogic is set up is where you enter the subdomain name you want in a slot in front of your domain name and then in a second box you enter the folder you want it to point to.

BUT!!!... I think I found out what was wrong. In Xara I had entered public_html/E_Lochrie in the sub folder (optional) slot. I didn't have a "/" on the end of it. I changed it to public_html/E_Lochrie/ and now it seems to be working. Have to go out but will try it again later when I have a chance to confirm.

Thanks everyone.

:)

very nice... different... you've given ME some ideas...

best of luck!

Cliff

I think that "bare witness" should read "bear witness".

I also believe the

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"Daughter of "Montana"

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shouldn't have the

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"

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before Montana.

Shouldn't it just be

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"Daughter of Montana"

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?

Yep, that was it... a simple "/" left out messed it all up!

Now, how about the anchor problem... anyone have any suggestions?

You guys are all really good QA catchers, thanks, will correct the Bare witness, don't want any nude witnesses running around and the " " :-)

Couldn't find your original anchor links. You never gave the url of a page showing this problem As you've stated you've now removed them, any chance of republishing them and supplying a specific page link?

Some/many of the text links are not red, even though I have refreshed the page (ctrl+ F5) It's also happening in the local preview and export. I checked and the settings are for them to be red with mouse off and green with mouse over (green over works).

Anchor problem: Go to the Biography page (http://lochrie.doanehoag.com/biography.htm) and just below the mural at the top there is a text link "see more info here" that takes you to an anchor on the Data Links page located on the text "News from the States" When you get there you can't scroll to the top of the page and the menu. I've tried this over several times with different anchor links and have the same problem.

Do you have followed links as red too, otherwise they will show up as followed if you've read used them before. Not sure whether refreshing the page will reset that colour.

Hi, Keith: That makes sense, but if I erase the htm page file on the site and re-upload/publish it to the server it should show the links as red, right? I did this to double check it as follows:

Erased the biography htm file on the server and refreshed to make sure it was gone
Went to the biography page and refreshed and it and showed that it was no longer available
Uploaded/published the site again from Xara
On the server refreshed and saw the new biography htm file had been uploaded
Went to the biography page and refreshed to get the page back, took a couple of tries and then it showed up
Red mouse off, unvisited text links are still showing as grey/visited

What the ????

Egg: Have you tried it re my post #17 ?

Thanks,

I'm not sure that it has anything to do with the Xara site. It's probably a visited link in the browser cache. Try clearing the browser cache, or use a different browser and see how that works.

The links will be visited link colour if they have been visited in your recent browser history.
Try clearing your browser history.
CTRL-F5 just clears the browser cache.
Re-uploading files makes no difference as you have discovered.

OK, you guys are right about the links color. Also, I opened it in a different browser and it is fine too. I had thought the ctrl-F5 cleared everything, but it apparently doesn't.

BUT, I still have the anchor link problem I mentioned above in #17 post. Has anyone had a chance to look at it and have any ideas what could be causing this? It does it in several browsers and the preview.

Thanks,

I hadn't thought to clear the browser history either ...

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Originally Posted by doane

... Anchor problem: Go to the Biography page (http://lochrie.doanehoag.com/biography.htm) and just below the mural at the top there is a text link "see more info here" that takes you to an anchor on the Data Links page located on the text "News from the States" When you get there you can't scroll to the top of the page and the menu. I've tried this over several times with different anchor links and have the same problem.

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Work just fine for me! Assuming the RED text DATA AND LINKS is the top of the page!

Same here, anchor links work fine in 2 different browsers (still allow to scroll to the top of the page)

BUT I noticed..
http://lochrie.doanehoag.com/data%20links.htm#Data:32News:32from:32States

the %20 is a space in the url
:32 are spaces in the anchor link
(ascii for space is 32 which is hex 20!)

So, I highly recommend removing spaces from these, as I guess that is the causing problems on some systems and not others. Use underscores instead of spaces if necessary.

I was always "taught" NOT to use either spaces or caps in URL's, or filenames, as some Unix systems (and I believe there are still quite a few around) cannot deal with either properly.

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Originally Posted by ss-kalm

Work just fine for me! Assuming the RED text DATA AND LINKS is the top of the page!

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Keith: The Red Data And Links is NOT the top of the page, that's the whole problem! Go directly to that page from the menu at the top of the Biography page and you will see that it has the same menu bar system, but when you go to the the anchor on that page by using the "See more information here" text link on the Biography page, you can't scroll up and see the menu on the Biography page. You can only scroll up to the bottom of the wide desert image. I've tried this in three browsers and an iPhone and it does the same thing.

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Originally Posted by sculptex

Same here, anchor links work fine in 2 different browsers (still allow to scroll to the top of the page)

BUT I noticed..
http://lochrie.doanehoag.com/data%20...2from:32States

the %20 is a space in the url
:32 are spaces in the anchor link
(ascii for space is 32 which is hex 20!)

So, I highly recommend removing spaces from these, as I guess that is the causing problems on some systems and not others. Use underscores instead of spaces if necessary.

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When you use the link from the Bio page to the Dat page anchor 1/2 way down the page you can scroll back up to the top of the Data page and see the menus at the top and the full bar photo???

I've used three other web creation software programs and never had this happen with anchor links... something is wrong, but I will try your recommendation:

On the Data Links page 1/2 way down I highlighted just the word "News" in the text line "News from the States" and in the Names I named it "data_news_from_states" Then on the Biography page I highlighted the "(See more info here)" text line just below the mural and I linked it to the Names anchor, "data_news_from_states"
I saved and previewed it and it has the same problem.. when you click on that link on the Bio page and it takes you to the anchor on the text line on the Data page but you can't then scroll all the way back up to the top of the page to the menus.

Ah I see - strange behaviour. Sorry the spaces thing might be a false alarm then.

That header section seems a bit messed up somehow, the title moves in a parallax fashion to the rest, it just doesn't seem consistent. It could be that some rendering is done improperly because the page is accessed partway down when going straight to an Anchor and something at the header is expected to be rendered first?

It might be best to try and redo this fresh on a test site and get it how you want as there could be some remnants of things in your header area that is causing a problem? I have had stuff in the past and where i've 'messed about' with things a bit and had no end of troubles for this reason, only for them to work fine when I redo fresh.

I can see the problem too. You state you're using the word 'News' as an anchor. I've had issues with this previously. Try removing the link to the text 'News' and make a small image 5x5 px alongside the text block and give that the anchor name. Can't say it will work but without your web file it's hard to track down ;)

OK, will give it aa go this afternoon when I get back, thanks again for the suggestions and help

Another thought, try removing the scroll animation from the top
Elizabeth Davey Lochrie

image.

OK, I've just about had it with this... I removed the parallax animation of the title, no go. I created a small box and used it as an anchor where the text is and it didn't work either. I loaded an earlier version of the website that has the anchor links working and compared the pages side by side to the newer one that doesn't work and I found some differences in them but nothing that solved the problem. I really hate it when something doesn't work like I want and I can't figure it out..

Maybe I should save the latest version with a new name like "anchor fix" and try to replace the Data & LInks page (if that is where the problem is) with the earlier page version that works? To do that should I add a new blank page to the "anchor fix" site, then copy the Data & Links page from the older good version and paste it into the blank page? Then delete the Data & Links page and rename the copied one to that same name?

Okay, I sort of figured it out, although I'm not sure exactly what I did. The problem was with the background on the Data Links page and somehow it also had a text object box on it. Have no idea how that happened or if that caused the problem, but that and adjusting the background size by unlocking it and moving it seems to have solved the problem and the anchor links are working and you can scroll up to the menu now.

Can someone please explain to me what I did?

Hey Doane,

Appreciate your project, I think, the red color code of some text is pulling eyesight, may be it doesn't suit according to the background color.

Glad to hear you're making progress Doane but the page still isn't fully scrolling to the top for me in FF. Almost but not quite. See screen grab. How about attaching just the two pages Biography & Data Links web here for us to look at?

Egg: I noticed that last night, it doesn't go all the way to the top. If you refresh or if you go to another page and come back it's fine though.

I wonder if there is some problem with the way the back ground rectangle is set up or the pasteboard rectangle, I really don't understand the concept of the background and the pasteboard rectangle sizes. The background on most of the pages is about the width of the page and the length, but stops short of the top, while the pasteboard rectangle is huge around it. Is that normal?

Or maybe there is some other hidden text element that is messing it up?

adb: I'll take another look at the text, it might have to be a bit lighter, but I like the red against the dark background.

Yes, but without a web file it's all guess work Doane ;)

Attachment 120682 Okay, attached is the Biography and the Data link page htm files.

Thanks,

I stripped down the Xara web file and zipped it.