LeeSalter

Scrub what I just said, Bluedreamers solution is much simpler! lol!!

Two ways to do this my friend. Using a Graphic. 1. Create a white background of the desired width in your favourite graphics package. Make it 1px in height. 2. in your css file add the following:- body {background:#000 url(<path_to_background_image>) repeat-y top center; margin:auto auto width:800px;} The only trouble with this method is that when the font is resized, it will appear to break out of the white space in IE. Using a 3-Column Layout A List Apart explains it much better than I ever could! You would then just need to set the background color property in the left and right divs to #000; HTH.

Sorry about posting to the wrong section, thanks mods for moving it to the correct place. I agree that the site is totally inaccessible, but sometimes you just need to sit back and admire gorgeousness (if that's a word - wizely?). :-)

Thanks Carl. btw - I've learned from exactly the same two CSS books that you have listed on your Exercises page! spooky.

clicky

Chris, I have a lot of sympathy for your plight and it is a difficult industry to break into full-time. Personally, I have a full-time job working for the Police, writing web-based applications - i started on the Helpdesk, answering the phones but decided to teach myself - first programming, then web design. I've never even set foot inside a college (and a good job too if yours is still teaching web design using tables!). One day, I was asked by the sister of one of my workmates to design a website for her new childrens play centre business. Working for the Police, everything had to be above board and I had to start and register a new company so that everything was fully transparent from a police point of view. Then, another colleague asked me to design a site for the veterinary surgery that his sister works at. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that sometimes you just get a lucky break and everything mushrooms from there. I still work full time as a web programmer but now have a freelance business that brings in some extra pennies. As far as your site goes, I think that it's too in-your-face. The font is difficult to read and this is made even more so by the colour choices (yellow on red). Also, your site does not validate (I suspect that any potential employers checking out your work would test this first). I would totally go back to the drawing board on this and try to gain some inspiration from other sites (inspiration only, of couse, not copy/paste). Further, I find that a subscription to .NET Magazine has helped me enourmously. They have excellent tutorials every month and the Website Build Off section provides me with inspiration. Hope this helps.

Perfect sense, notbanksy.

OK guys, I've reduced the height of the image so that the content fits in 1024x768 (well almost), and changed the navigation and h2 fonts to match the rest of the site.

ok, I've now changed the font on the image and floated the small image left (thanks Dizi, looks much neater). Notbansky - I have tried to make the header image smaller so that the content fits above the fold, but with the current image that I'm using, in order to maintain the aspect ratio, the width of the image reduced to about 500px and as I want everything to line up nicely along the edges, I felt that this width was a bit too small. When I'm stuck in thought and working on these things, I keep on forgetting that most people out there don't have a resolution of 1680 x 1050 - a very bad habit of mine!

btw, I've crafted this using Aptana Studio which is free on the cover disc in this months .NET magazine. It's a great little tool.

Thanks for all of your comments ladies and gents. I will implement your advice and suggestions today. :-)

Thanks for that fixie. Yes, I'll keep experimenting with different fonts for that image. Cheers.

Hi all, Just started work on this design this morning. I'm thinking that it perhaps needs a background to add a bit more interest. Any thoughts? TIA Lee

I clicked on the Services and Printing button and got the content for the About Us page!!

The code above should be:- function show_div(div_id) { document.getElementById(div_id).style.visibility = 'visible'; } function hide_div(div_id) { document.getElementById(div_id).style.visibility = 'hidden'; } No point passing a parameter if you're not going to use it, my friend. :-)

No problem, webhost. Good to see that my 5 years of C#/ASP.NET/Web App development hasn't been entirely wasted! :-)

.toolbar li a { text-decoration:none; } ... should get rid of the underlined links in your toolbar.

Regular Expressions are definitely not a strong point of mine, but you could try:- var checking = new RegExp('^http:\/\/www\.were\.co\.uk\/*')

You need to instantiate the variable called checking as a RegExp type variable: var checking = new RegExp("/*http:\/\/www.were.co.uk$/"); Should work after that. The error message gives it away... Because you've just declared checking as a normal var, it does not have a test() method.

Ok, done some more work on this tonight. More of a contrast now between the red and the text, I think, and centered the content.

Thanks for your comments guys - really appreciate them. The whole black on red debate is a good one, I will experiment with some different colours (it chose them because they match the image that I'm using nicely). I'll have a play around and re-post in a couple of days or so. Thanks again, always good to get some constructive criticism. :-)

Hi Eris, Thanks for that. Do you like it better now?

Hi everybody, Just commenced my new project last night and would like some early feedback. The copy has been lifted from the original site and probably needs a bit of work. Here's the link Thanks in advance.

Marcus, I've just spent around half an hour before work looking through your illustrations, modelling and websites. I'm now late for work!! I think that says everything I need to say about the site and your work...If I need any illustrations for a project, I'll know where to come. Top job!

Really nice looking crisp website. Certainly makes me want to move there (although that might be to do with the fact that it's the middle of august and it's raining in Forest Town!) Nice work.