* Minor changes on this site

[Jane]

I have just updated the Knowledge base to a new theme, which is more tablet and mobile friendly.

I have also purchased a new theme for the forums which uses a similar style.

edit: If you would like to try out the new theme before I apply it, select the Marina Orange theme in your user control panel.

2014-04-12_112320.png (42.58 KiB) Viewed 12962 times

[tatewise]

I noticed the KB style change and its looks good, except for the Plugin Help & Advice pages that need to exclude the sidebar.

Also the Knowledge Base Index link in the sidebar is broken for many subsidiary pages,
e.g.
Plugin Help & Advice name-space http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... help:index
Absolutely all leaf pages such as:
Download & Link pages http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... ext_scheme
Member Web Sites http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... y_web_site

The Forums link above changes to http://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/?style=4 and displays the current format both in IE and Firefox.
(I am logged in).

[Jane]

I have changed your user so you should be able to see the new theme. I might just switch it over.

I'll look at the Wiki problem.

edit: I have hidden the sidebar, it's not easy to remove the header on this theme without a lot of work so I have left it, it's smaller than it used to be.

edit: I have fixed the link on the Index it just needed a : on the front.

[ColeValleyGirl]

From the screenshot it looks good, but can't judge completely until it's switched over.

[tatewise]

The Knowledge Base Index is fixed OK.

Although the sidebar for Plugin Help & Advice pages is not displayed in Firefox it is still displayed in IE and for Plugins because they use the IE LUA OLE COM engine.
What is more strange is that it is at the top and not at the side!!!
This last effect applies to Plugins that use iup.olecontrol{ "Shell.Explorer.1", designmode="NO", } and to the Firefox Add-on IE Tab 4.0.20130422 but not IE 11 itself that does show it to the left side.

Can the font size of tag topic lists (such as in Member Web Sites and Downloads & Links) be the same as bullet lists please?

Also in the Forums the link to the Moderators Control Panel appears to have vanished.

In General Usage what does Release Specific Questions mean at the top?

[johnmorrisoniom]

The Home button on the Forum pages does not take you back to the Main Home page, only to the Forum Board Index Page. I had to go to knowledge base and use that home button to return to the Home page.
Likewise the Home buttons on the FAQ and members pages only take you back to the board Index.
Knowledge base and Donate pages, the Home button takes you to the Home page..

View Unread posts seems to have disappeared as well. [Edit] I have just found this, but it is not always available on all pages, which I think it was before.

[gerrynuk]

Like the new look, Jane. Works well on my iPad.

[BillH]

Jane,

How do you tell if a forum has posts that you haven't read? I don't see any NEW identifier in the new look.

Bill

[BillH]

Jane,

Another question. On the icon in front of some of the posts there is a check mark. What does that mean?

Bill

[MarkB]

Yuk! Sorry, but that new board style uses vast amounts of screen real estate with very little content - just lots and lots of space!
For instance, with the 'old' style I can see all the forum topics and more (the whole page in fact) on http://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/
The new style only shows the first 4 topics on my screen so I have to scroll down.
It looks great, modern, and pretty but impractical. Sorry, not for me.

[tatewise]

Bill ~ the icon turns mostly orange and if you hover on it says unread posts.

Mark ~ I tend to agree - is is pretty, but too much wasted space. At best I can see 7 Forums and 9 postings, whereas before I could see all the Forums and more, and 15 postings.

[BillH]

Mike - thanks for the explanation of how to tell if there are unread posts.

Jane - After playing with it awhile, I tend to agree with other comments. The new theme has too much wasted space and things are spread out too much so you can't really get much on a screen. It might look good on a tablet, but it isn't very good on a PC. Maybe we can keep the old theme around as well so we can use it on a PC while the new theme is available for those that want to use it on a tablet?

Bill

[ColeValleyGirl]

I much prefer it -- the better use of white space improves legibility, and the new theme makes the site look much more welcoming and less like a dusty corner of an 90s bulletin board.

From personal experience, supporting two themes is making work I'd rather not dump on Jane.

[Jane]

I'll see if I can compact the spacing on the new theme a bit, like ColeValley girl, I preferred the spaced look.

Mike I'll look at the sidebar on IE, I had forgotten that the OLE uses an ancient version of the IE engine.

The Moderators tools are at the bottom.

[Jane]

Can the font size of tag topic lists (such as in Member Web Sites and Downloads & Links) be the same as bullet lists please?

I'll need to dig in the plugin which generates the lists as for some reason it's putting table code around the links

In General Usage what does Release Specific Questions mean at the top?

That has always been there but it's more obvious on the new theme. It's the title of the sub-forums section.

[BillH]

Helen - I agree. The new theme does look nice. It is more modern looking. I was thinking that after the theme was set up there wasn't any extra work maintaining it going down the road. I don't want to cause Jane more work. Maybe if she is able to tighten up the spacing a bit it will look better on a PC.

Jane - thanks for offering to see if you can tighten up the spacing a bit. That would help. Not sure if you saw my earlier post. What does the check mark on some posts signify?

Bill

[Jane]

Not sure if you saw my earlier post. What does the check mark on some posts signify?

The Check mark means you have posted on the thread.

[BillH]

Thanks Jane... I couldn't figure it out.

[LornaCraig]

Whilst I agree that the new style looks modern and attractive, it seems to achieve this at the expense of convenience. Two points in particular mean that new posts can no longer be spotted instantly:

1. As others have said, it is no longer possible to see all the forums at a glance without scrolling down. (Maybe tightening up the spacing will help.)

2. I much prefer the old visual indicator of whether there are any unread posts in each forum. Having to 'hover' over the icon for each forum in turn is time consuming in comparison.

As I don't normally look at the site on a tablet I can't comment on whether there is an overall improvement for tablet use.

Edit: I've just spotted the 'View unread posts' at the top! Just takes a while to find everything.

[ColeValleyGirl]

it is no longer possible to see all the forums at a glance without scrolling down.

This is so dependent on:

(1) the size of your screen
(2) the size of your browser window
(3) the font settings you've chosen in your browser
(4) the level of zoom/magnification you've chosen
(5) the number of forums in existence

that I don't think it's a reasonable or achievable objective to say that 'you' (whichever individual you are) should be able to see all the forums at a a time (The same arguments applies to how many posts you can see).

With my set-up I can see 15 postings on a screen and 9 forums. Others have given different figures. There is no single layout that will make everything visible to everybody on all devices, or even all desktops.

[johnmorrisoniom]

I notice that there is now a more visible indication of unread posts (Easier to spot than the old one), and the Home link now works correctly.

[Jane]

Lorna

2. I much prefer the old visual indicator of whether there are any unread posts in each forum. Having to 'hover' over the icon for each forum in turn is time consuming in comparison.

The Forums which have unread posts is orange rather than white with orange writing.

[BillH]

Helen,

The thing is that without changing any of these, the new forum allows much less to be diplayed on the same size screen, in the same size browser window, with the same font settings, with the same level of zoom, and with the same number of forums.

image1.jpg (152.31 KiB) Viewed 12816 times

image2.jpg (113.89 KiB) Viewed 12816 times

Bill

[tatewise]

Another change in the KB is that the ToC has moved back to top right instead of under the sidebar, which wastes space.

It is also another aspect of the problems with the Plugin Help & Advice pages.

In Firefox 28.0 the Plugin Help & Advice pages have no sidebar or ToC but the top few pixels of page titles merge into the top bar:

MergedHeader.png (3.76 KiB) Viewed 12798 times

Can we also have Forum orange links in bold font as in the old Forum and the old & new KB?

[ejp]

The new forums do tend to look better on tablets (so I am happy!).
However, I miss having 'unread posts' link on all pages.