Hover buttons not loading quickly & Java Security Warning

[John Blaustein]

Hi,

I am pulling my hair out over this one! I'll be most grateful for any help.

Here is the beginning of my new site:
http://www.johnblaustein.com/web3/

You will notice that when the splash page transitions to the home.html page,
the link images do not load immediately. I used FP2003's hover buttons for
the links. The reason I want to use images instead of text for the links is
so that the size of the links won't change if the user adjusts those browser
settings.

Can someone tell me why the buttons are loading so slowly? I suspect it is
because the browser is trying to load the Flash before loading the buttons.
Is there a way to get the buttons to load first?

I would not mind the image buttons loading somewhat slowly if I could get
the background behind the buttons to match the page color instead of showing
a white or black box (which I what I've been seeing).

I asked as friend to look at the page and he reported that he gets a Java
Security Warning pop-up that says: fphover - The application requires an
earlier version of Java. Do you want to continue?" I do not get this
message in either IE or Firefox on two XP Home PCs. I am not sure which OS
my friend is using when he got the error message.

On a related subject: I would prefer to use text links instead of images,
but the only way I have found to control font size is by specifying the size
in pixels rather than points or generic sizes. But I tried specifying the
size in pixels and the sizing still does not remain constant, particularly
when viewed on a Mac. (I'm on XP.) The pixel sizing is the best, but still
not perfect. Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help!

John

 

[Ronx]

Hover buttons will never load on my PC, and the same applies to many
other's.
Java applets are one of the slowest loading media to hit a website, and many
users (perhaps most) disable Java for performance and/or security reasons.
Looking at the size of the button placeholders ( I will never see the actual
images), I would definitely need to increase the text size to read the page
links - they are much too small to be readable.

Best to use a more conventional CSS image rollover with a text link:

In the head of the page:

<style type="text/css">
#nav a {background: yellow url(images/linkbackground.gif) no-repeat;
color:blue;}
#nav a:hover {background: blue url(images/linkbckhover.gif) no repeat;
color:yellow;}
</style>

and in the body of the page:

<div id="nav">
<a href="page.htm">link text</a>
more buttons
</div>

linkbackground.gif and linkbckhover.gif should both contrast with the text
colour, and should be identical in size.


As far as controlling font sizes is concerned - give up now. This is the
web, not print, and font sizes can only be suggested, not controlled. The
same applies to font colours, and font families. Every browser can be set
to use the users preferred sizes, colours and fonts - changing the size is
easy (two or three mouse clicks, or two keys on the keyboard) in FireFox,
Opera, Chrome, Safari ... on Windows, PC, and MAC, and using pts or pixels
only adds a few clicks for Internet Explorer.
People will adjust text sizes so that they can see - if they can't see, they
go elsewhere.
--
Ron Symonds
Microsoft MVP (Expression Web)
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp

Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.

 

[John Blaustein]

Ron,

Thank you for your quick reply.

I will get rid of the Java hover buttons. I used those because FP does them
semi-automatically and I don't know how to write CSS code. I may try to use
the code you included but I'm not quite clear how to do that. If I strike
out, I will skip the hover effect and just use plain links for now.

I think it is time for me to tackle Expression Web or Dreamweaver so that
the little web work I do is at least done to current standards.

Regards,

John

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

wow, nice site.
you fixed it already? I don't see any java hover buttons there

 

[John Blaustein]

Thanks, Ron.

Yes, I fixed it right away. The site is so simple that it took only a few
minutes to redo the buttons. I'd prefer the rollovers, but it worked
horribly the way FP did it.

Perhaps you could give me a bit of advice. I have been reading lots of
posts and articles about migrating from FP to either EW or Dreamweaver.
Given that you have seen my site and how simple it is, do you think that if I
get EW that I will be able to use it right off the bat without much trouble?
I know I'll have to learn a little about CSS, but it looks like EW does much
of that with menus and dialogs. It seems that having a DOCTYPE line in my
site would be a good idea, and I gather EW will do that too.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

John

 

[Ronx]

The best answer is to check it for yourself.
A free 60 day trial of Expression Web can be obtained from
http://www.microsoft.com/expression

You should not have any problems - just make a backup, then open the site
in Expression Web and start correcting the highlighted problems.
--
Ron Symonds
Microsoft MVP (Expression Web)
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp

Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.

 

[John Blaustein]

Ron,

Good idea... of course. I will install the free trial. It's nice they have
a 60 day trial period.

Let me ask you this: In terms of current standards, compatibility, latest
technology, etc., is EW just as up to date as Dreamweaver? What I'm really
asking is if I make the effort to switch from FP to another application, I
want to be sure I'm learning one that is as current and up to date as
possible. My sense is that EW will be more familiar and easier to learn than
DW since I'm coming from FP. My needs are so simple -- see my site -- that I
don't exactly need all the latest web tools, but I don't want to be stuck
again like I am now with FP where I used one of its tools (hover buttons)
only to discover they worked poorly.

Thanks for any further thoughts.

John

 

[Ronx]

I have never used Dreamweaver, so cannot comment.

Expression web is designed to produce standards compliant, cross browser,
web sites. It is not perfect, but neither is Dreamweaver. The Expression
product group is moving Expression Web away from FrontPage webbots (still
supported in v3 to some extent) and dissolving ties with MS Office. EW
supports PHP and asp.NET 3.5, and to that extent is as future proofed as you
can get at the moment.
EW does provide some features that are better ignored - such as Interactive
Buttons inherited from FrontPage, but has lost FrontPage navigation, Java
applets (hover buttons, banner ad manager etc.) - existing webbots in pages
are supported, but adding new ones is not straightforward.

As I said, the best way forward is to try it yourself.
--
Ron Symonds
Microsoft MVP (Expression Web)
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp

Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.

 

[JohnB]

Thanks again, Ron.

I am downloading the trial now.

John

 

[Hot-text]

Ones you go Expression you like it and Dreamweaver. will come to just be a
old toy..