/Bolt V4

Well here is is. Feel free to check it out.
http://www.darkdemon.org/bolt/

Don't be fooled by the mediocre intro page. I agree, it's horrible. I'll fix that up later to something more appealing.

It's a site I made to host my animations which I make in a program called Pivot. I use and know HTML and CSS coding but there is a bit of Javascript and PHP used in some of my features which I developed from someone elses code.

I'm 14 years old and have been developing websites for about 5 months now. I love doing it. The thing that interests me about is most, I think, is the fact that you can make it almost exactly as you want, to each pixel, depending on how you code it.

I use Paint.NET and Notepad++ to make my sites since I can't spend money on the internet, let alone make much yet. Also, I don't have a proper domain name yet for the same reason but I have a reliable friend from the UK who has let me get a sub-domain for free.

I'm expecially proud of my layout. If you look in the Archive page you can see that I have improved greatly since my first layout (which was a piece or crap).

Well if you check it out, thanks. If you comment, even better! Also, if you see problems please tell me.
I know there is a problem on the <hr />'s in IE and I'll get to work on fixing that soon but for all you who use Firefox you should be fine.

I love it - apart from the points listed below

1. You are using tables for layout - Use CSS and Divs (How to learn it).
2. You have no <p> tags, instead you are using <br />
3. You have invalid HTML (W3.org's validator) and you are using a Transitional doctype, try switching to Strict (W3 List of DTD's).
4. Your header stopped showing when i refreshed

Overall for a first attempt - v.good!

1. I did for a start code the site in <div>s although there were a lot of issues when I was viewing in other browsers. The problems were fixed when I tried to recreate the same layout in tables so I decided it'd be a better idea. IE has trouble with nesting divs so I used a table. It seems much easier and more organised.
2. I prefer not to use <p> tags. I prefer <br /> because I have more control over the spacing on the page. <p>s add a forced space above and below the <p>ed section and I don't like that, although I'll look into those in my next layout.
3. The validator spots strange things. Can you understand those, because I can't?
4. I was updating the images so it loads faster. I reduced the size by 30kb so it should work now and load faster.

Thanks for your reply. Definitely helpful and thanks for your helpful tips. I'll have a look at those links you posted.

In reply:

1. That site would be easy to create in divs i feel what problems occured?

2. You can put p{} in your CSS and that will give you full control

3. Yes, i do - it tells you underneath what is the problem and an explanation

4. Ok - img is working now although the page is aligned left.

In reply:

1. It didn't align correctly although, it could probably be fixed in some way. I decided that since it's displaying correctly in tables, what's the harm?

2. Ah, true, I'll look into that in my next project.

3. I switched my !DOCTYPE to Strict and it's making much more sense. Thanks. When I try to fix a few of these though it puts the layout out of position.

4. Good, and you looked when I was attempting to validate. It should look normal now.

Hey the design of the site is excellent! I love your choice of colors and the header is really sharp!
The animation on the side is such a nice touch and adds so much interest! It made me hussle over to the animation page and look at ALL your animations. You are GOOD! Some are really funny!

Overall.. If you could learn the xhtm/css, this site would be a 10! Now I have to give it an 8!

you should remove all those comments from your source
e.g.:

Code: Select all

<!--
###############################################################################################
<b></b> - <i></i><br />
<br />
<br />

and the stickman, becuase you had to reduce the quality it doesn't look to good,
and if you heightened the quality it would take forever to load,
it's a bit pointless dont you think?
-->

I dont notice any real difference in the quality of the stickman. I also think the stickman is great.

Wow, great comments : D Thanks!

The comments are there to separate the content from the layout, making it easier to add content in.

That stickman is something I added in just yesterday and I'm really loving how he livens up the page. The quality isn't high because it resembles how the animator shows sticks (it doesn't anti-alias them). He is unfinihsed too. I'll be adding dots on each of the limbs, like he is on the editor.

Can you explain what you mean by xhtm/css?

Yeah, the header is one of my favourite parts of the site : D

Thanks again : D

xhtml/css
is using divs instead of tables,
there are some good guides in the css forum.
like here

Oh right. Yeah, I usually do that but there were problems I couldn't fix when I started the layout and tables fixed them so, you know.

that's not what you should do to be honest.
if you get stuck
just ask in the CSS forum.

Love your stick men animations!
maybe you could teach me a thing or two

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