Technical Preface
Some Explanations and Hints for enjoying my pages.
(Last updated May 2005)
All of my pages are designed to please my eyes in a screen size of 800 X 600
pixels, but should look fairly reasonable in other sizes. Although I often
write my own bits of HTML, all pages are all begun using the editor that
comes with Netscape: Netscape Composer (or the very similar Mozilla Composer) which is extremely
easy, so I cannot understand why some pages on the web lack important features
like a title to go in the list when you bookmark it or make it a "favourite".
I do like my text right justified (as in books) and I was very pleased when that became possible. Composer makes it easy
Equally, I do not like a boring white background. Composer
has "Page Colours and Properties" in its "Format" menu which makes setting
them very easy. However plain colours, like the
background this page can be boring too so I usually set an image, though there is
a real difficulty in fading it just enough to make the text legible, while
leaving the image recognisable. Yes I am now assuming that most people
have at least 56K modems and up-to-date Browsers. Indeed many like me will have moved to Broadband. If I were providing
public information or selling socks then I would make much more in the
way of allowances. Even so most of my pages especially the serious text
ones are viewable with old browsers. Other pages are frankly
for fun and use Animated gifs and plugins. Simple technical information
is available on the BBC Site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/help_tech.shtml
Like that one, most of my text hyperlinks are in bold blue and
underlined, click on them to go there.
Once clicked they usually turn purple although I may have changed
it for certain backgrounds
Some links are by clicking on pictures and these have a blue border
I am more keen on frames than
I was, so I have provided one which might make surfing the Contents Page
easier. The sections in that can be reached from the front page. However
I still think every page should have enough plain text to keep you
interested while the pictures download. Especially it should usually have
a HEADING, with
format HEADING1 tag <H1>. Alternatively every image should have a text
alternative and again this is easy to set in Composer.
Some pages have sound.
Some sounds are in the form of midi files which most browsers should manage,
although the quality of the result will depend on your soundcard.
Midi files actually play your sound card like an instrument if you didn't
know.
Try this one which is a Prelude I wrote when I was a teenager.
Others are Real Media files e.g. Storm
and
you will need the plugin available from Here
I use these since they are much smaller files than the equivalent
.wav and therefore download more quickly.
The drop down Menu in the Contents frame uses
Javascript I have also used some software
HOTMEDIA to produce panoramas which require Java.
And I especially like Animated gifs, like the ones at the bottom of
this page. I am sorry if people with very old or simple browsers cannot
enjoy
these, but then they must be having a rough time with Commercial
sites too.
Comments welcome Email
me
But
be careful or Wizard Gossil might turn you into a frog like he did with
a cheeky sprite who called him Gossil the
Fossil. You will find the Sprite Stories
from the Contents page
Return to Contents
Page Or to the Front Page