Hello... I've recently created my first website utilizing the Free Office Live Basics tools and while I have had reviews from the OL community, I am very much interested in learning what the DaniWeb members, espceially comments from web-profesionals, have to offer by ways of honest criticizim, advice, suggestions and so on. Thank you very much in advance and I hope to hear from many of your soon.

My URL is www.cylentstudios.com

Thank you,
Aurealeus

First of all: that's pretty damn good for a first site. Now I don't know how much help windows live gives you but it is quite nice. Here's what i think:

• You really don't need the best viewed in text because it is only going to put viewers off and they probably aren't going to change browser just because of that text.
• You might want to consider a lighter background because dark blue is quite a heavy cooler.
• I'm really not sure about the eagle logo thing. It just doesn't fit with your modernish site.
• I really like the buttons at the bottom... but having looked at your graphic work i would make a guess that you didnt make them.
• Through the rest of your pages I can see that you have tried to keep a consistent design but I think maybe keeping an exact template throughout would be even better
• Especially when it comes to headings for you: you have made them look a bit taky (I dont mean to be harsh) and a bit to heavy like your background. If you remove the beveling off of them it will look 100% better and it is really easy to do.
• Aslo for each section: eg. photo restoration, awning signs etc... you must have a similar header for each not a completely different on.
  • NB. Using similar designs for graphics and pages will make your visitors feel more at home and they will remember your site because it is shoved in their face at every click not a different looking site!
• For your links page I would advise that you maintain more of an orderly text based approach rather than the banners.
• IMPORTANT: flashing gifs should never ever be used on a good website.... just never ever. eg on your site : - links, email etc...

I hope you find that helpful and not too harsh. Just think how easy it is to make your site better. If you seriously think about each of those points you will have a better looking site!

FYI If I didnt say anything about it. that normally means its ok or good.

Thank you for your very detailed critique of my www.cylentstudios.com site. Not harsh at all. Your comments are exactly what I'm looking for and without the Office Live "styled" (bias) critiques and advice one seems to receive within the Office Live forums, mostly due to the nature of the 'OL beast'. Therefore my reason for posting here, in hope of receiving reviews and critiques from "fresh-eyes" unrelated to the OL community.

I agree with many of your observations. Part of the problem with consistency is that Microsoft Office Live does not provide many options for templates, fonts; etc in its Free Basic version and so had to play with code rather than use the horrendous templates they offer. I originally started out with a light blue but find that the graphics tend to stand out better on a darker background. This might change in the future but it would mean redesigning the whole site and I'm not sure I want to deal with that in Office Live again at this point due to its limitations, not to mention other OL system quirks and bugs. Maybe when I start receiving enough business to warrant paying for hosting and my time to redesign, I will move from Office Live.

I used the eagle because of its rich colors and to emphasize the fact that it is a Graphics Site. I also had second thoughts about it but because I like it so much, I think I will keep it for now until I can decide what else I might replace it with and/or when I decide to revamp the whole site.

Actually, I did create the buttons but they were done in haste and some really aren't as relevant to the individual page content as they should be and I intend to change them when I have more free time.

I also agree with your observations regarding the headings and I've actually already begun working on redesigning them along with some other changes such as... splitting up some of the longer pages into separate pages as in the case of the various document types on my Document Restoration Page.

I've been considering your suggestion regarding the links page for some time and will most likely make that change also when I have more time and decide to re-work the site as a whole.

Obviously I let the "artist" in me get out and go crazy a bit and probably should have created a personal website to begin with instead in order to let my "artsy" juices flow but I agree with most of what you say, especially because of being a business site... it needs to be toned down to be presented as more professional.

Thanks again.....
Aurealeus
www.cylentstudios.com

First of all I would like to say that Office Live code (HTML) is very ugly and bloated, I just took a look at code on your site.

I would suggest to anyone who wants to create anything other than a personal page to learn a bit HTML and CSS.

The site looks good though, I agree with most of what royt said.

One more thing that happens (at least in my browser FF 2.0.0.4) is the background-color starts with #436C99 and then when the page is fully loaded it turns to #050729. I assume its a javascript call that acts on document.onload event. The change is pretty harsh and disturbing.

So it does. Yeh I agree that is a bit of a nasty looking effect. As i said I have never looked into the office live stuff but yeh that code is really quite bad.

btw thats roryt to you!

Thank you GiorgosK and roryt. Your observations and comments are well-taken and very much appreciated.

GiorgosK, you are correct in your assumption regarding the script call at my www.cylentstudios.com website. I realize that the page color flashes #436C99 and then when the page is fully loaded it turns to #050729. This is caused by a script I entered to change the background color since Office Live has limited or alternatively, very ugly color schemes in their templates as well as a few other "unwanteds" such as limited colors, fonts, header design capabilites, pre-formatted "Office Live Search Box", and some other pre-existing content and formatting within their templates and page editor. Believe me... there was a lot of nail-biting and hair pulling going on while I was using Office Live to create my site just to get it to this point and acceptably presentable to my eyes.

Roryt... again I thank you for your comments and I am still contemplating what I want to do regarding your previous suggestions and recommended graphic changes when I have some free time.

I suppose my main purpose for enlisting response to my website from the IT Community is to learn whether or not the site is professional looking to the viewer in a graphical sense as well as if the site is easily navigable and content is understood but I also welcome any other observations such as the ones most recently posted so I can learn more.

Regarding technical matters, I appreciate any and all comments in this regard since in helps me understand how what happens on the other side of my computer screen works but when viewing source code, I wouldn't know the difference between "ugly" or pretty code. My background is in the graphic arts and I have no training or education in computer programming or code.

When I was in school 35 years ago learning to create graphics by hand with pencil and paper, personal computers were non-existent and programming was still in it's infancy development and while I've managed to become somewhat savvy (compared to most laypersons) in learning how to use a computer as well as many different program applications over the last several years on my own, computer language, for the most part, remains foreign to me. Unfortunately, my mind works best in creative thought processes while technical data such as code, script, etc., becomes garbled and since I have no "commercial interest" in designing websites for a living, going back to school to learn HTML, XHTML, DHTML, CSS or any other alphabet besides the standard ABC's does not fit within my schedule or interest at this time.

As much as I am a bit disappointed with Office Live, for now... it works for me because it allows me to begin promoting myself online by giving me a web presence by providing Free Hosting, Free domain registration and name and Free editing tools and because at this time, I cannot afford to have a site professionally designed, hosted and managed. Once I start generating a reasonable income from my services, I will most likely have my website re-designed, hosted and managed by a professional web-desinger and hosting service other than Office Live.

My URL is www.cylentstudios.com for those who might care to comment further.

Thank you,
Aurealeus

Is there any way on the office live service for you to go into the code and edit that? if there is I and many other here will be happy to help you with that.

Thank you so much for your kind offer.

Office Live has what is called a "HTML Module" where one is able to add their own HTML code into a variety of several pre-formatted templates with content "Zones" that are also pre-formatted according to the type of page one wants to create. It also has one page type that they call a "General" page template... supposedly without pre-formatting but even that is suspect.

From what I've learned by reading the OL forums at http://officelivecommunity.com/default.aspx, the HTML module does not allow you to view or edit existing OL template or other pre-formatted page code unless you enter a script pertinent to the particular change or effect you want to cause.

MSOL help page states "The HTML module can be used only in the content zones of your Web site. It does not work in some areas of your Web pages." It further states that "Microsoft Office Live Essentials and Premium subscribers can edit HTML Web pages using third-party design software or an HTML editor." and "Only Microsoft Office Live Essentials and Premium subscription users can activate the third-party design software option." This "third-party software option" is not available for the "Free Basic Version" which I am utilizing.

Since I'm not even sure if the information I've provided above is even pertinent to my situation, you can view more of what Microsoft Office Live says about entering ones' own HTML code here if you like: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/of...223081033.aspx

There are a (very) few code savvy members in the OL forums who offer various scripts to counter the existing pre-formatting existing within the OL editor, which is where I found mine in order to alter code provided by Office Live in order to change the OL provided standard template in regards to headers, colors etc.

I assume one might be able to download the source code by going to view/source through the browser... edit and then re-enter the edited code into the HTML browser but I'm not sure if this would be an actual code replacement or just an override as mentioned previously.

If you care to visit the Office Live website to learn more, this is the link: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/of...534261033.aspx to Office Live Basics, which is the FREE version I'm using. There is also a demo there which shows the actual editing window functions available.

Thanks again
Aurealeus
www.cylentstudios.com

sounds like you're stuck inside their close knit templates then.

That reminds me of wordpress.com where you have to pay extra for access to the code.

That is a real shame for you because it does mean you are pretty much stuck with how it looks. And I think by using as you call them over riding scripts it will just make the page slower and worse so you should just try and get the best you can without touching to much code.

Sorry we can't be anymore help.

My 2 cents.

I don't like this as anyone's professional site.

If I were you I would do one of the following

1.
Pick up a host (no more than $5/month)
Pick up a template from oswd.org (free)
Modify it to my likings with a free/shareware HTML editor, learning a bit of HTML/CSS in the process with help from daniweb or any other webmaster forum.
Upload it to the hosting server.

2.
ask people to bid on the project in guru.com or rentacoder.com or even ask someone from a forum to do it for you (a beginner should not charge you more than $500 for about 10 pages site)