Concerning the 754/939 OC Guide

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited February 2006 in Community
Suggestion for making this excellent guide even better:

I am afraid many readers will see the page link line, "1,2,3...55" as intimidating. There really needs to be a drop-down or mini-index showing the topic for each page. The majority of tech readers will not read an article that long. Give them the opportunity to perform focused browsing, or many of them will see "55" and just go elsewhere without sampling the article.

I do that. At Anand or Toms Hardware, I will focus my reading in long articles to the specific page(s) that address my interest. At other tech sites that do not provide quick, accesible indeces for their long articles, I will usually not take the time for random sampling, because I know I can find other articles more user friendly elsewhere. Most people either don't have the time or the patience to read an entire, long article.

Comments

  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Agree with what he said.... Also... a PDF version might be nice too.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited February 2006
    Great feedback guys, I agree.. a drop down box would be a very welcome addition. It may also be beneficial to create links on the table of contents listing :)
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Matt (General Keebler) is going to kindly index the table of contents for us.. while I work on a simple navigation scheme for it :)
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Hacked a dropdown menu in :)

    Proper indexing will take some time when the rest of it is indexed!
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Good. I recommend that even if you have to put everything else aside, do the front page index under the "1~55" first, and quickly. First impressions are the strongest, and we want that first impression to new viewers to be as good as possible. If it's not comfortable, they probably won't come back. We want them to say "cool, just what I was looking for" and then bookmark us.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    Good. I recommend that even if you have to put everything else aside, do the front page index under the "1~55" first, and quickly. First impressions are the strongest, and we want that first impression to new viewers to be as good as possible. If it's not comfortable, they probably won't come back. We want them to say "cool, just what I was looking for" and then bookmark us.
    1-55 is there :)

    Full indexing to come asap :)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Indexing, you mean like the attachment?
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I'm setting up table of contents links before I e-mail the world about it this evening. :) Been a very busy day so I wasn't able to do it yet.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2006
    This is a big job, but it will be worth it.

    Good man, Matt. :)
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited February 2006
    General Keebler wrote:
    I'm setting up table of contents links before I e-mail the world about it this evening. :) Been a very busy day so I wasn't able to do it yet.

    Noticed you got most of the TC links done, looks good Matt, thanks :cheers:
    Leonardo wrote:
    Indexing, you mean like the attachment?

    A drop down menu like that would be perfect, as it is just as useful as having the entire table of contents on every page. Some back and forward buttons/links would top it off too ;)
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    yeah i agree that we need back/forth buttons. clicking page by page in a 55-item dropdown gets tiresome :)
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    lemonlime wrote:
    Noticed you got most of the TC links done, looks good Matt, thanks :cheers:
    Should be completed just now. I added page numbers next to all the links as well. I have a few more formatting bits to take care of.
    lemonlime wrote:
    A drop down menu like that would be perfect, as it is just as useful as having the entire table of contents on every page. Some back and forward buttons/links would top it off too ;)
    I don't think the CMS can do that, unfortunately. If Dan can hack some back/forward buttons though, I think that would help. I'll get TOC links in anyway.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Stylesheet was only being applied to the first page. I did a find/replace with the entire internal stylesheet so it's on every page now. Fixt. :) I think we're ready to tell the world now. Please let me know (post here or PM) if anyone sees anything else that needs a fixin'.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited February 2006
    General Keebler wrote:
    Stylesheet was only being applied to the first page. I did a find/replace with the entire internal stylesheet so it's on every page now. Fixt. :) I think we're ready to tell the world now. Please let me know (post here or PM) if anyone sees anything else that needs a fixin'.

    Formatting looks awesome now, that corrected all of the titles and section headers :)

    One minor note: On page 48, all of the text appears larger than the others.

    TOC looks great too! that should help. Once we get some forward/back buttons, I think we're golden :ninja:
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Il be adding those in tonight.. it's quite a hackjob for that to work but Il sort it :)

    This WILL be moving to it's own dedicated page system shortly.. so that it has more pride of place and is easier to navigate!
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Dan took care of the Next/Back arrows, and I fixed some ordering the in table of contents, added a TOC link to the bottom of each page, fixed another small formatting issue, and added related links. I think everything should be OK now.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited February 2006
    General Keebler wrote:
    Dan took care of the Next/Back arrows, and I fixed some ordering the in table of contents, added a TOC link to the bottom of each page, fixed another small formatting issue, and added related links. I think everything should be OK now.

    Looks fantastic now! Should be much easier to navigate now. Thanks Matt.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Added a HUGE dropdown index :)
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited February 2006
    I think the linkage has begun :D

    http://forums.legitreviews.com/about4449.html

    attachment.php?attachmentid=19085&stc=1&d=1139511684

    PC Perspective:

    attachment.php?attachmentid=19086&stc=1&d=1139512343

    Modthebox.com:

    attachment.php?attachmentid=19087&stc=1&d=1139512515
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    madshrimps.com
    link.JPG 146.6K
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited February 2006
    Tech Report:

    attachment.php?attachmentid=19088&stc=1&d=1139513932

    XYZ Computing:

    attachment.php?attachmentid=19089&stc=1&d=1139513932

    Virtual Hideout:

    attachment.php?attachmentid=19091&stc=1&d=1139514969
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I wish we could get more than "lumped in with the news of the day" coverage :-/

    But I'm happy :) The day's just begin :ninja:
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Anyone who is members of other forums and wants to link.. go right ahead.. PROVIDED YOU DON'T GET SLAMMED FOR SPAMMING :)
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