Layout (and) of "posting.php"

[wanabe]

*Make post editing page just like the original post page.

*As it is now from my experience, when editing a post I can't see the other posts; like I can when writing it originally. often when editing a post I get a new idea and have to look at other threads to see how I would like to word it, I think others may share this experience and would like it if they didn't have to navigate to a new page to do so.

**Put the boxes on bottom of the writing area on the top.

**This is basically to be able to see the posts while writing a reply more easily.

***Make website 'text area' wider.

***There is a lot of unused space and a lot of unnecessary scrolling, just an after thought.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[Belinda]

I do have the problem as you describe it Wanabe. I wish I could understand your prescription but I don't.
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Socialist

[Scott]

I added the topic review box to the edit page as well. (Incidentally, I usually find it easier just to open the thread in another tab and switch between tabs if I need to reference the original thread while replying rather than scroll back and forth on the same page. I recommend trying that out.)

I made the text-box where you write your post 50 pixels wider. I don't know what else you mean by text-area having extra space around it.

[Belinda]

Thanks Scott I will work on it.
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Socialist

[wanabe]

I do use tabs from time to time, but why make the page tab dependent(things get closed or navigated away from accidentally, seems yo made the change, thanks)?

The(check) boxes are the "options":disable bbcode in this post, disable smilies in this post, attach signature........etc. I think they should be moved to above the "Message body"; to be between the subject title box and the message body area. Then there would be more space to see the other posts, all on one screen.

The wideness I'm talking about is the entire page. As I see it there are big gray bars(sort of like the opposite of wide screen on movie) flanking the used area of the web site(maybe there are adds there I don't know) but you could reduce the total number of pages the web site has by making the site as a whole wider; making searches and finding things easer/faster by having less pages to navigate.

May I again cite "http://ubuntuforums.org/" notice the VERY small border space of brown fading to gray as you move down the page; and WIDE text area. Meaning there is a higher density of information per screen.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[Scott]

[wanabe]

It's your site do as you will,(probably too much work to make those changes) I just think that my proposal would be more efficient.

I finally got my super monitor hooked up, so I can see a lot more now. So I'm becoming more indifferent

I think compressing those boxes horizontally is a good compromise, as well as doing away with the signature box.

Maybe decrease the bars to half of what they are? to see how it looks? see how others like it?

The web sites viewing is dependent on 3 things screen size, resolution and the size proportions of the site. If those things are the same than the view will be the same regardless of computer.

As it is if you were to compare your site to architecture, it has a very 'Gothic' feel much attention to the vertical; visually appealing, but perhaps a bit impractical.

VERY few people run 800xanyhitng resolution as that is a win95 generation computer(it takes work to find a computer that old), so I don't think you would be messing anyone up, but I could be wrong.

I could zoom and lower resolution all I want but the problem remains, still less information is seen per screen than if the page was set wider. It's not the bars I have a problem with it's the information that could be in that space. How's that commercial go; "wider is better".

I don't know we could vote on it.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.

[Scott]

There is very little I can do to that end that a user can't do themselves with the use of zoom in and zoom out as well as increasing or decreasing the font-size in their browser. For instance, one could use 'zoom in' to make the page take up the whole width of the screen and one could also decrease the text-size so that more text is displayed on the screen.

Of course, almost nobody will bother to do that. Unless they are very, very inconvenienced by the size of a page and/or the amount or size of the text on it, they will just use the page they way it displays by default. So I have to try to make it appear as good in all browsers as I can.

I bet you're right about almost nobody using 800-pixel width screen resolution anymore. But some do. I could make it a little wider and those few people could just use zoom-out. But there still would be people with much higher resolutions who would see large borders. The best solution may be to not use a fixed width layout, instead using a layout that automatically bases its widths in percentages of screen-size. I still prefer fixed-width, but I could create an alternative full-width style so that users could choose that style. This will take some time though, and it would only work on the forums. I'll work on it.

Thanks for the input!
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Online Philosophy Club - Please tell me how to improve this website!

[wanabe]

"The best solution may be to not use a fixed width layout, instead using a layout that automatically bases its widths in percentages of screen-size. I still prefer fixed-width, but I could create an alternative full-width style so that users could choose that style."

Stupendous.

Thanks for listening.
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The Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, And Help All Others To Do So. Fear is weakness leaving the mind.