Blue Cavern

Hi everyone,

I am trying to make a little bit different website compared to the very nice ones all other collectors here have. I have just started and since I never did anything with webdesign, HTML, javascript etc before it takes a while. And therefore I also in the beginning will make it very simple. Looks a bit boring now on the laptop.

But there are also reasons I do it simple. I want to make it easy to navigate on even from my iphone, when I want to check variations I find on fairs, shops etc. Also I want to save as much space as possible for the pictures of the variations.

The thing I want to do is list all smurfs and variations like a catalogue and also tell the history about the variations. Years they were made, who made them, dot information, etc.

So here is how it looks after I managed to make links. I have only added pictures to the windmillboxes yet.

You have to overlook spelling errors, design, categories missing etc. So faar I am just learning and try to get it working.

What do you think?? I like it so faar best on my iphone!??

http://www.thecursedcountry.com/

If you wonder about the name the cursed country, it is the name of one of my favorite comicbooks with the smurfs. It is the land of the smurfs and fafnir ( the dragon). The place Johan and Pewitt went to when they saved all smurfs from the evil man who had them working in a mine searching for diamonds.

What a terrific idea,André !!! I highly appreciate your discussions and thus, I'm amazed.

Andre,
I have not looked it up on my phone yet (I have a Droid Incredible), but it looks very good on my laptop

Since you are making more of a catalog, I agree with keeping it simple so that you don't distract too much from anything else.

I like how you put the history on top of the page for the smurfs/ playsets listed ..and also very much like the windmill pages...i.e. how you use one variation per page, have a clear picture of it and the history of it, as well as a rarity guide.

Here are a couple of things to think about:
- add a contact information link to each page. People who look at a website, sometimes have questions and like to contact the owner of the website. I can see this happen quite a bit with your website

- use sources as to where you got the information from. You could put them altogether on one page..or put them in smaller letters on the bottom of the page (i.e. history of Schleich/bully). It makes you more credible for some people, shows the extensive research you have done..and frankly, gives credit where credit is due

- Use navigation buttons on each page..i.e. home smurfs supersmurfs playsets contact links so that the site is easy to navigate. I know you were thinking of adding a search button..and think this would work very well with your site as well. From a web creation standpoint...if you make a "standard" page with the navigation bar and all other features that will stay the same for every page, it will make it easier on you to add new pages as you can use the standard page, make the applicable changes to it for each variation and save it under a new name.

- Use back (to the previous variation) and next (to the next variation) buttons..some people like myself like to stroll thru a website by clicking on next

Can't wait to see it grow

Hi, André!!!!

G>ood luck with that smurfu adventure. I imagine it is a lot of work but I do know you are capable to do it!!!!!!

For the moment and after reading it, it seems your web will be one of the fauvorites for those of us who love pvc smurfs

Andre,
I have not looked it up on my phone yet (I have a Droid Incredible), but it looks very good on my laptop

Since you are making more of a catalog, I agree with keeping it simple so that you don't distract too much from anything else.

I like how you put the history on top of the page for the smurfs/ playsets listed ..and also very much like the windmill pages...i.e. how you use one variation per page, have a clear picture of it and the history of it, as well as a rarity guide.

Here are a couple of things to think about:
- add a contact information link to each page. People who look at a website, sometimes have questions and like to contact the owner of the website. I can see this happen quite a bit with your website

- use sources as to where you got the information from. You could put them altogether on one page..or put them in smaller letters on the bottom of the page (i.e. history of Schleich/bully). It makes you more credible for some people, shows the extensive research you have done..and frankly, gives credit where credit is due

- Use navigation buttons on each page..i.e. home smurfs supersmurfs playsets contact links so that the site is easy to navigate. I know you were thinking of adding a search button..and think this would work very well with your site as well. From a web creation standpoint...if you make a "standard" page with the navigation bar and all other features that will stay the same for every page, it will make it easier on you to add new pages as you can use the standard page, make the applicable changes to it for each variation and save it under a new name.

- Use back (to the previous variation) and next (to the next variation) buttons..some people like myself like to stroll thru a website by clicking on next

Can't wait to see it grow

Thanks for the advice Maureen.

I will add links like contact, home, etc later.

The best thing would be if I managed to make some kind of template I could use for all pages. For now I am basicly using Dreamweaver as a Word-document. But I guess the possibilities are endless??

I will do as you say and add credits and sources where I found information on the homepage. Search button was a wish but I have no idea if I will be able to do that yet??

Hi Andre

Good luck with your site.
With all your info about the smurfs you will be busy for a while
But it looks great so far !!!

Tintin

Thanks Frank,

but I have to get started with the markingthreads again since I off course need your help to find out the variations out there. You have all helped me a lot and the catalogue will only be listing everything and show variations. So a forum like this will be very important for me!

Hi Andre

You know were to find me and all others, i think a lot of people will help you since we all learned from you to !!!

Tintin

Hej André!
Site looks very promising, only thing that slightly annoys me is the very long text...
Let me explain in other words, since I have a 22'' monitor, all the history text on the top runs from one end of the monitor to the the other end (about 45 cm!!) making it hard to read and not get lost.
You could try and limit the text to 800 or 1024 pixels wide.

Otherwise, I can see you site becoming a must in any smurf collectors resource.

Hej André!
Site looks very promising, only thing that slightly annoys me is the very long text...
Let me explain in other words, since I have a 22'' monitor, all the history text on the top runs from one end of the monitor to the the other end (about 45 cm!!) making it hard to read and not get lost.
You could try and limit the text to 800 or 1024 pixels wide.

Otherwise, I can see you site becoming a must in any smurf collectors resource.

I noticed the same on some pages and I tried to change it. But didn't manage to change it before my son wanted to use the same computer. I had promised him that so I will try later again. Is it the same on all pages?

I also will move the pictures and the text a bit to the right so it won't be that close to the left side.

Thanks for the feedback. Since I am new at this I will need it.

There's two ways (that I know) to do it.

First you can try and add the <center> command at the start of the page (right after the <BODY> tag) and then </center> at the end (right before the </BODY> tag). That´ll put all you text centered in the page, though might not give you exactly what you want.

To break the text, you can manually break it where you want, by using the the tag <BR> after each line, or you can use a table (which I highly recommend, as it gives you a lot more control of where exactly you want to place your text (but requires some more trial and error).

So far looking really good. I use yahoo sitebuilder to make my website and it comes preloaded with templets for you to use, or what I did for a background is used a colored picture. But if you want to make your life a bit easier sitebuilder works great (hey I figured it out)

Also, you will need to let us know once you have a banner so that I (and i'm sure others) will be able to link your site on ours.

This will be a great site!!

There's two ways (that I know) to do it.

First you can try and add the <center> command at the start of the page (right after the <BODY> tag) and then </center> at the end (right before the </BODY> tag). That´ll put all you text centered in the page, though might not give you exactly what you want.

To break the text, you can manually break it where you want, by using the the tag <BR> after each line, or you can use a table (which I highly recommend, as it gives you a lot more control of where exactly you want to place your text (but requires some more trial and error).

Thanks for the tip with using center command. I used it on the pictures page and it looks a lot better. Eventhough this might not help you with the long text??

Many thanks for giving feedback!

I used the BR command in the picturepage of the old windmill with ageswarning to break the text and made it shorter.

Better?

There's two ways (that I know) to do it.

First you can try and add the <center> command at the start of the page (right after the <BODY> tag) and then </center> at the end (right before the </BODY> tag). That´ll put all you text centered in the page, though might not give you exactly what you want.

To break the text, you can manually break it where you want, by using the the tag <BR> after each line, or you can use a table (which I highly recommend, as it gives you a lot more control of where exactly you want to place your text (but requires some more trial and error).

Thanks!

I made the changes now and also added shortcuts. Looks better both on laptop and iphone.

The only thing now I don´t like is that when I list the variations and have them centered they look very odd because the sentences are different lenght. So I have to find a way to center them and but have them started in the same place on the screen.

The only thing now I don´t like is that when I list the variations and have them centered they look very odd because the sentences are different lenght. So I have to find a way to center them and but have them started in the same place on the screen.

Yes, looks good now.
Only way I know to do that is with the TABLE tag, which I use in all my sites. But I only use simple HTML, so there might be a simpler way to do it with Style Sheets.
I do all my code by hand using either Notepad (when I've got my page designed the way I want) or using the help of Macromedia Homesite, which helps me with the coding and testing till I'm happy with a design.
I actually hate Frontpage, as it makes pages that aren't 100% html correct (meaning that one risks doing pages that look wierd in other browsers other than IE, or don't work at all ).

Put that´s just me, I'm picky.

I like it, but would have it all centered or on the right side..just to make it look uniform. I personally don't mind the different lengths of the lines.

Way to go with the times...I am "liking" the link already

I like it, but would have it all centered or on the right side..just to make it look uniform. I personally don't mind the different lengths of the lines.

Way to go with the times...I am "liking" the link already

I just found that "I like"-widget for facebook and added it for fun and see if it worked. I am not sure I keep it there since it moved everything down so faar??

I also added the information about the motorized windmilldisplay now.

Thanks for the feedback Maureen! I will probably do many changes before I am safisfied??

But the link to Gerdas site did not work automaticly. Have to fix that link tomorrow.

Wow, cool.....I think you will do a great job with your own website André. It's a lot of hard work and very time consuming doing a website but I'm sure so many people around the world will thank you for putting in the effort.

Best of luck

Dyar