Dream Interpretation Site

[seneca]

We're a month in and still making lots of adjustments as I learn how to do things. Someone did the page header and asked me for the size, which I didn't know. I have a wide screen monitor so it goes a little over half way across the page for me. Don't know what it looks like on a normal screen but it's great on my mobile

http://www.nowinterpretthis.com

 

[steven s]

Obviously you have a ways to go.
The banner just doesn't seem tight. Not wide enough. Maybe the header needs to match the blue on the right?
Or better yet. Divide the banner so it stretches across the top.

Interesting topic.
I am so tired of forum admin and gaming sites.
I've never come across a site on your topic.
Good luck with it. I need to do some reading now.

Oh, you need a favicon too.

Added: What I mean by stretching the banner.
Look at http://www.happytogether.com/dream/ and resize the page.
I only know how to do it with tables but I'm sure it can be done with css also.

 

[seneca]

Obviously you have a ways to go.

Added: What I mean by stretching the banner.
Look at http://www.happytogether.com/dream/ and resize the page.
I only know how to do it with tables but I'm sure it can be done with css also.

Yeah, that's what we need to do! However I do that.

What's a favicon? Can you tell I don't know what I'm doing?

Interesting topic.
I am so tired of forum admin and gaming sites.
I've never come across a site on your topic.
Good luck with it. I need to do some reading now.

Well sign up and post a dream!

 

[Digital Doctor]

why is your URL - http://www.nowinterpretthis.com/xenforo/index/ ?
what is the /index/ for ?

 

[steven s]

Well sign up and post a dream!

The weirdest dream I had I think was due to the meds I was on. Kinda scary. Gave up the meds.
What was even weirder, it became a movie later.

See the

in the url above. That is a favicon.

 

[seneca]

why is your URL - http://www.nowinterpretthis.com/xenforo/index/ ?
what is the /index/ for ?

Um, I couldn't figure out how to get it to just be nowinterpretthis.com.

The weirdest dream I had I think was due to the meds I was on. Kinda scary. Gave up the meds.
What was even weirder, it became a movie later.

See the

in the url above. That is a favicon.

Oh no! What movie? Maybe the writer was on the same med! Thanks for the help.

 

[Morgain]

For a favicon to appear in your visitors browser tab,
you put a small graphic in the root of your site
that means the public_html level or the first area that opens when you want to upload files.

It has to have name and file ending favicon.ico
Make it very simple as it has to be small 16 X 16 so any complexity won't show up. A dot like the red one top left in your logo id fine.
Ive attached a quick example made from your header.
(I couldn't upload as an .ico but just change it in an art editor.
If you don't have one Irfanview is free, and easy to use. Does most of what one needs.)

Warning favicons are shy creatures and can take a while to show up on the site.

Your next stage st to change some colours in the header background, the navigation bars, and the page below. In XF this really isn't a headache.It's much quicker to do than to read here.

admincp (the admin side)
Appearance (top bar)
Style Properties - click big pic in centre.

Try Header and Navigation
Header (left menu white area)
Then in centre area you'll see a blue rectangle same colour as your header background. Click it to open its editor.
Scroll down the blocks of colours to see if there's one you like.
Yes? Just click it. Click Okay.
No? There's a tab on the top of the editor "Color Picker" (American spelling) You can choose another in it.

When you've changed something go to the fronted (public view) of your site. Refresh the page and see if you like it. If not try again.
Hint. If not sure what a bit of the styles editor does test it by making the colour something bright you never use yourself. I use bright pink #ffooff. Very often you can see which area or which text it has changed.

There's a whole forum where we help each other with all this.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/styling-and-customization-questions.47/

So come on over and join the fun.
Here's my site to help inspire some ideas maybe because you like something or maybe because it suggests doing the opposite!

 

[seneca]

Thanks a bunch Morgain!

 

[Morgain]

Um, I couldn't figure out how to get it to just be nowinterpretthis.com.

Put a request for help in this forum.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/installation-upgrade-and-import-support.23/

Give the full URL of your forum and ask how to change it to
www.mysite.com/

You can only do this if you don't want your site to have anything else on it except the forums.
I don't do it that way because I put some first welcome pages and put links on them to the forum.
I also add other software - each type I use goes in a different directory which adds to the site URL
Doing it this way you would have

nowinterpretthis.com/community
nowinterpretthis.com/go
nowinterpretthis.com/talk

or whatever single word you want to use on the end.
That word eg "community" is the name of the directory where XF will actually be.
Any directory name can go on the end of your site name like that.
The URL www.sitename.com/NAME
then opens the directory NAME if there is a file inside it called index.htm or index html or index.php This is a lovely elegant procedure I like very much.

This method of placing your XF in a directory with a carefully chosen simple name, lets you add other stuff later.

You can also add a redirect s o if anyone currently uses or clicks www. nowinterpretthis.com
it opens the forum. I forget how to do a redirect but I have done them and they are not difficult. They just move the visitor from one URL to the other.

 

[Morgain]

The HEIGHT of the header logo can be sized in the admincp

Admin CP -> Appearance -> Style Properties -> Header and Navigation ->

Height of Header Logo
is in the main part of the page.

In Firefox I can rightclick the image on the frontend of my site - select View Image Info from there to get the height and width. If you use IE I expect there's something similar.
If not open your header logo in an editor to get the height to put in the setting above.

Width of your image is different because there are various important things placed on the right of the header even if they are not visible. So your width should be resized down to fit the site

 

[seneca]

Ok, I'm not getting this. I know about the height because I adjusted that for the header. I did the View Image Info thing and got "1022px × 150px" So I'm not sure what to ask for with width if I go back to this guy and ask him to fix it. His English is not real good and between the language issue and my lack of knowledge... you get the idea.

 

[seneca]

You can also add a redirect s o if anyone currently uses or clicks www. nowinterpretthis.com
it opens the forum. I forget how to do a redirect but I have done them and they are not difficult. They just move the visitor from one URL to the other.

I do have a redirect on it. Is there any downside to leaving it as is, with the redirect?

 

[Morgain]

Seneca I suggest you simply edit your image to make it a bit smaller (Resize it).

I was going to try it for you but your link in your first post gave me site not found. Either your forum is temporarily closed while work is being done, or it's a temporary glitch on your host company server - very common.

Here's how to do it yourself. You would do well to learn this much as you'll be able to make other images to make your site look good

1. Download your header logo.
Rightclick your logo/ select Save image as, OR Copy image
Save into a folder you keep in your site folder for IMAGES.
If you use Copy, you can Paste it direct into an editor.
SAVE THIS as your original so you can rework it as many times as you want.

I use IRFANVIEW which is a nice free editor that does what I need. Easy to use. www.irfanview.com
I just open Irfanview and Paste direct into it. Then Save the image.
If you used Save as, off the rightclick on the original, then open it.

You will see 1022 X 150 along the bottom.
Use CTRL+R on keyboard. Or Image (top toolbar) and go down to Resize about halfway down the dropdown.
In that box on the left halfway down you'll see
"Set new size as percentage of the original"
you can change the % shown from 100% to say 95%
(Make sure the little box under it is ticked to "Preserve aspect ratio" - it should be ticked but first time you use it best to check)

At 95% your graphic will reduce to 971 X 143 - the look is not affected.
I did this earlier for you, here it is @ 95% and 80%.
You might consider taking it down to 80% of current size. Like many designers yours works on a large screen because s/he likes computers. Doesn't think that the majority do not have huge screens so it will not work well for them.
80%

95%

Open these full size and save them with filenames that tell you the size (without the % symbol)

You then need to upload the smaller graphic to your site.
Your desigtner has put the image on another site called mindblowing.com
http://www.mindblowingidea.com/images/Logo3.png
It should really be on your site.

Anyway I have to close down temporarily while we change a light fitting electrics) back later.

 

[Morgain]

I do have a redirect on it. Is there any downside to leaving it as is, with the redirect?

I believe it's not so good for google to list it but otherwise no problem.

 

[steven s]

Seneca I suggest you simply edit your image to make it a bit smaller (Resize it).

One problem I find with simply resizing images is that they are not fluid in different size windows. If the forum is a fixed width, I guess it doesn't matter.
My suggestion is in post 2.

 

[Morgain]

One problem I find with simply resizing images is that they are not fluid in different size windows. If the forum is a fixed width, I guess it doesn't matter.
My suggestion is in post 2.

Steven your advice is good but I don't think this admin does either tables or css. So a simpler workaround suits this case.

 

[steven s]

Steven your advice is good but I don't think this admin does either tables or css. So a simpler workaround suits this case.

I understand. There are multiple approaches.