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LoisWakeman · 01-07-2010, 09:18 AM

Ages ago I designed a plain but functional and XHTML/CSS web site for a client. He has now decided to have it redesigned with new photos and a more modern design - and I had hoped perhaps less verbiage, since he insisted on very lengthy and obtuse copy as written, despite my explanation of why that wasn't a good idea for people or search engines. The new design looks good on a big screen if you have excellent colour vision, but the copy is as lengthy as ever, so not quite the overhaul I imagined.

I've just had an email "I can't edit the new site in Contribute" - and I imagine the designer may have no idea how to build a compatible site and set it up. I recoiled in amazement when I looked at the source to see if editable regions were set up: cop this sample!

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head><title>blah</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="Keywords" content="blah (about 30 of them)" />
</head>

<body bgcolor="#909879" text="#3E1000" link="#EDEEE8" vlink="#EDEEE8" 
alink="#EDEEE8" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0">
<table width="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td align="right" valign="top"> 
      <table width="900" height="20" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
        <tr>
          <td align="right"><strong></strong></td>
        </tr>
      </table> 
      <table width="900" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#B4B9A4">
        <tr align="center"> 
          <td width="150" bgcolor="#624027"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<a href="NEWS_2009.htm"><strong>News</strong></a></font></td>
          <td width="225" bgcolor="#B4B9A4"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<a href="MMC_01.htm"><strong>Courses</strong></a></font></td>

Old school or what?

So, I wonder how long before the new designer can work out how to fix things?

The other frustrating thing is that athough I know it is a mess 'under the hood', there is no point in saying anything at all. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

01-07-2010, 09:18 AM	#1
LoisWakeman Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Uplyme, Devon, England Posts: 1,402	It's enough to make you slit your throat... Ages ago I designed a plain but functional and XHTML/CSS web site for a client. He has now decided to have it redesigned with new photos and a more modern design - and I had hoped perhaps less verbiage, since he insisted on very lengthy and obtuse copy as written, despite my explanation of why that wasn't a good idea for people or search engines. The new design looks good on a big screen if you have excellent colour vision, but the copy is as lengthy as ever, so not quite the overhaul I imagined. I've just had an email "I can't edit the new site in Contribute" - and I imagine the designer may have no idea how to build a compatible site and set it up. I recoiled in amazement when I looked at the source to see if editable regions were set up: cop this sample! Code: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head><title>blah</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="Keywords" content="blah (about 30 of them)" /> </head> <body bgcolor="#909879" text="#3E1000" link="#EDEEE8" vlink="#EDEEE8" alink="#EDEEE8" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0"> <table width="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"> <table width="900" height="20" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td align="right"><strong></strong></td> </tr> </table> <table width="900" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#B4B9A4"> <tr align="center"> <td width="150" bgcolor="#624027"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="NEWS_2009.htm"><strong>News</strong></a></font></td> <td width="225" bgcolor="#B4B9A4"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="MMC_01.htm"><strong>Courses</strong></a></font></td> Old school or what? So, I wonder how long before the new designer can work out how to fix things? The other frustrating thing is that athough I know it is a mess 'under the hood', there is no point in saying anything at all. Oh well, onwards and upwards! __________________ Lois Wakeman http://lois.co.uk http://communicationarts.co.uk http://i4info.blog.co.uk

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