Sandbox

I would like to announce the completion and release of http://www.ussyorktown.net.

The site was built for the association of the Yorktown's crew members. For those of you unfamiliar with the USS Yorktown, she is also known as "The Fighting Lady," and was one of the ships involved in the Battle for Midway during World War II.  She is now in permanent dock at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant SC.

This site was built using Joomla as the core CMS, a customized version of the Solarflare II template, and features several extensions (GMaps, AcoJoom Newsletter, JSCook Menu, and others).  The site also has an installation of SMF, although there was an executive decision NOT to bridge that installation, and will have a separate installation of osCommerce soon. 

The most "fun" and "exciting" aspect of this particular site is that I gave them a sample of what they could get and the board members (who are also former crew members) really got involved in the process. They kept me challenged in finding ways to make Joomla do all the things they were after and, as usual, Joomla developers and Joomla extension developers made it all possible!

Native Pages

Looks great. You might want to put something in the top module position.

I had something up there, but I had to kill it. I don't do the content on that site. I've got to get them to keep the posts for that category under a certain number of characters in the intro box. They kept overflowing the box.

I wish I could get that particular template to layout as fluid. It would be a lot better for them. Every time I try to modify it, though, it breaks the right hand columns up. But thanks, again!

Have you thought of calling the css for the background "fixed"...that way there are not three or four separate stacked images but rather one over which the semi-transparency scrolls?

I thought I did, but I may not have. I'll take a look at it.  Frankly, I've been considering switching them over to an entirely different template that gives them a few more options and has a fresher look to it. I'm considering Rockettheme's Replicant.

Congratulations on the new site! The Video Tour is really cool!

Here's my two cents on potential improvements:

- I would give that Glimpses of the Past random photo module a bit more prominence on the site. Maybe make it a little bigger or a new module position would help.

- I'm a little confused by all the different text formatting (colors, fonts, alignment). I know that template's CSS file is huge, so you might bookmark this reference: http://www.m65.net/articles-joomla!-kno ... ss-51.html

Alternatively, I bet you'd be pretty happy with that Replicant theme. Since you're considering a different template, you might also want to check out http://www.joomla24.com/ for some free templates.

You've got some really great content on this site! Keep up the great work!!!

Nicole

Hi, Nicole,

Thanks for the comments. I'll keep the glimpses of the past suggestions in mind regardless of the switch and will also check out the free template site.

The content and content formatting aren't mine. One of their board members does the content.  He's relatively new to all this and went into it without any backend training sessions. I think the concept of the two editor text windows is foreign to him, plus he's probably copying and pasting from MS Word or something. Between the two, messes big time with styling and layout. 

I made a standing offer to do some training sessions with him by phone, but he travels a lot with his job and hasn't had a chance yet. The board members are all former crew members from the ship and as proud of "their" site as they are their ship. So I kind of sit on my hands and let him do it the way he thinks it should be instead of asserting my standards on him.

I'm hopeful, though, a new template will kind of handle part of the problem. Or at least inspire him!

Ahhhh the users do love to do write their text and format it 10 ways from Sunday in Word, don't they?

Best of luck breaking down that barrier! ;0)

Anyway, I totally understand the ownership thing (no pun intended). I work in high ed and if there's one place where people really take ownership of their content (and formatting!), it's here.

Regardless, you, your client and crew all deserve to be very proud of their service contributions and their new site!

Best,
Nicole