email Link will not work in Netscape or Safari

[Gabrielle]

I have published a webpage. Everything seems to be okay but I cannot get the
email link to work in Netscape or Safari. The links work fine in Explorer.

Is there something I can do?

HElp!!!

 

[Gabrielle]

Also...the layout is not alligned in Netscape.
If anyone can help please look at the webpage www.garybachers.com and see
what I can do. The contact links will not work and I have tried
everything.help!!!

 

[DavidF]

As per the email link on your home page, the text box that it is in has been
converted to an image, which will kill the email link. You can check for
this by trying to select any of the text in your Netscape or Safari browser.
If you have that text box grouped with perhaps your picture or some other
element on your page, ungroup it and see if that fixes it. Also, do not use
a fill color in a text box...that also converts the whole text box to an
image. Note also that your primary textual message in the middle of the page
has been converted to an image even in IE, which means that it cannot be
read by webbots or indexed. It also leaves it a bit fuzzy. You might want to
fix that.

As per the layout, go to your Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced.
If you have the Display set at 120 dpi then change it to 96 dpi, and
republish and see if that fixes the layout issue. Publisher outputs its
images and such at 96 dpi and when the setting is at 120 dpi your images and
text will be different size.

Also, always run the design checker tool to see if it can spot other errors.

Nice art, by the way...

DavidF

 

[Gabrielle]

Thanks very much.
I think I have fixed the link issue.

I did actually save the text etc as an image. I thought that might be a
good way to keep the text lined up but you say that search engines can't find
it, right?
Can I just hide some text in the bottom or something like that? I know it
appears blurry.

Thanks for your help as I am new to this and muddling my way through.

Gabrielle

 

[DavidF]

Gabrielle,

As an artist you are understandably concerned with the aesthetic, but you
should not ignore the functionality of your site. Form does not have to be
exclusive of functionality.

If you do a Google search for "Gary Bachers" right now look at the
description of garybachers.com : Gary E. Bachers Silent Conversations.
That does not describe the content of the site. Without text the search
engines have nothing to work with. At the minimum go to Tools > Web Page
Options and avail yourself of the options under Search Engine information.

A person with visual impairments may be using a text reader...there is
nothing on your home page to read. Even my oldererer eyes have trouble
reading your text. It is one thing to read small passages represented as an
image, but consider your Biography page:
http://pages.prodigy.net/gabrielle.bachers/GARY_BACHERS.COM/index_files/Page417.htm
You have a compelling story that is hard to read because the font size is
too small and too blurry. The white on black doesn't help either, but I
could live with that if the font was larger and you didn't mess with the
line spacing.

In my opinion you are sacrificing too much function for the form, and
unnecessarily so. As someone that seems to want to learn about this medium,
I would suggest that you take a step back and read some background
information. There is a site I think you might find valuable:
http://webdesignfromscratch.com/readability.cfm is just one section you
should read. I would suggest scanning the other sections of this site and
rethinking you design and decision to convert your text to images. The web
medium is different than print medium and it takes a different mindset to
produce both an good looking and functional website.

Just my biased opinions....

I am curious...are you producing your pages at 120 dpi as I suspected?

DavidF

 

[Gabrielle]

Thanks David.

I have started to replace the images with text and will follow your
recommendations to repair the site.

I have done some of it already so I hope it will make a difference.

Yes, I was set at 120 but have changed to 96...Will this take care of the
issues with layout to a certain extent.

You have helped me so much..Thanks very much!
Gabrielle

 

[DavidF]

You are welcome. There is no one right way to do things...I just am sharing
my views and opinions. One of the primary reasons for building your own
website with Publisher is to allow for personal creativity. However, that
does need to be tempered with the reality of what you can do with Publisher,
and what works on the web.

As to whether the change to 96 dpi will do the trick, why don't you see for
yourself? Of course I/we will be willing to look at your site again, but I
would recommend that you test your site files before you even upload them.

I do not have Safari, but I do have FireFox installed on my computer. If
your site looks and works good in both IE and FF, then in general you can be
assured of pretty good cross browser support, including Safari.

If you haven't already done it, down load and install Firefox. FireFox (7.8
MB):
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
It is not that big of download, and the new version is 3.1. When you install
it, just opt out of making it your default browser and it should not create
any problems. You may find like a lot of people that you actually like it
better than IE, but the main reason to do this is to test your Publisher web
files.

Then when you want to test your site files before you upload them, when you
Publish to the Web, direct the files to somewhere on your hard drive where
you can easily find them. I created a folder on my desktop called
"testfiles" and point the output to that folder. Then I open the folder and
find my index.htm file, right click, open with FireFox. I also right click
and open with IE, and then compare the two...or simply do a web page preview
from Publisher. I then open the index_files folder and check the other .htm
files which are your other pages in your site. The advantage to this is you
don't waste time uploading new files to your web host until you are
comfortable with how they look and function. And you can try different
designs quickly and without saving the changes. Also it gives you a chance
to study the other files in the index_files folder as necessary.

If you have other issues or questions please post back, and we will be glad
to help.

DavidF