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what happened to this forum

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 6:33 pm
by mnettles
it's now displaying in a nearly unreadable font..... EXTREMELY small for my old eyes.....

mj

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:23 am
by ttweed
MaryJo-

My guess is the default "skin" for the forum got changed. When I logged in the other day, the colors were different. Maybe Mike D. can answer? I found it more difficult to read, too. I went to my profile and changed the "Board Style" setting to "subSilver" instead of "pcasdr" (there is a little drop-down menu with two choices next to that setting) and I found that easier to read.

HTH,
TT

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:28 am
by Mike
Since the change all my PM boxes (send or recieve) indicate full, while there is nothing in them?

Savebox Your Savebox is 100% full

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:32 am
by gulf911
Mike, shouldn't you be hiding easter eggs... :lol:

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 9:02 am
by Mike
gulf911 wrote:Mike, shouldn't you be hiding easter eggs... :lol:


Did that was fun finding them, for a challenge next time Yvonne's gonna hide them for me. :wink:
Have relaxing holiday. :D

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 9:45 am
by Kim Crosser
ttweed wrote:I went to my profile and changed the "Board Style" setting to "subSilver" instead of "pcasdr"

Thanks for the tip - that is MUCH easier to read. Also, the lighter backgrounds are much easier on the eyes than the dark ones (especially on a laptop screen)! I have been meaning to submit a suggestion (whine?) to lighten up the board background.

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:12 am
by mnettles
thanks. Better...... still small but better.....

Re: what happened to this forum

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:31 am
by Steve Grosekemper
mnettles wrote:it's now displaying in a nearly unreadable font..... EXTREMELY small for my old eyes.....

mj


I will try to answer in Mike D.'s absence...
He was asked to update the Forum to match the feel and look of the rest of the new site, and this appears to be it. I think it looks pretty cool and like the alternating colors between postings. Tom is right changing the setting does make it easier to read but that wasn't a problem for me and my 40 year old eyes.

If you can't see the type very well you can just adjust your monitor settings. The font is the same size as the rest of the site so no difference there.

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:43 am
by Robert
I like the color scheme, alternating thing, etc. from the new pcasdr skin, but the size of the subSilver one. Any chance Mike can make a third version called something like pcasdr_old_fogey that's an option, where it's the same as pcasdr but just the fonts are bigger (same size as subSilver)? The default can be pcasdr, so it's the same look & feel as the rest of the site, which isn't generally so reading intensive, but if people want (need) bigger, they can get it and still maintain the look.

Re: what happened to this forum

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 3:19 pm
by lowyder993s
Steve Grosekemper wrote:
mnettles wrote:it's now displaying in a nearly unreadable font..... EXTREMELY small for my old eyes.....

mj

...but that wasn't a problem for me and my 40 year old eyes.


When did you get those eyes....when you were 15??? :D

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 4:45 pm
by MikeD
Mike wrote:Since the change all my PM boxes (send or recieve) indicate full, while there is nothing in them?


This is actually a bug in the forum code. It has been present since the last upgrade and I am hoping it will be fixed with the next upgrade. You still get your messages, right?

Re: what happened to this forum

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 4:58 pm
by MikeD
Steve Grosekemper wrote:I will try to answer in Mike D.'s absence...
He was asked to update the Forum to match the feel and look of the rest of the new site, and this appears to be it. I think it looks pretty cool and like the alternating colors between postings. Tom is right changing the setting does make it easier to read but that wasn't a problem for me and my 40 year old eyes.

If you can't see the type very well you can just adjust your monitor settings. The font is the same size as the rest of the site so no difference there.


Steve is right. While I was not explicitly asked to make the forum look like the rest of the site it is part of my responsibility.

I can, and will make a style sheet with the same look and feel with lager fonts. But as it took me 3.5 months to get this far, (with another month or so just to get this one finished), I wouldn't hold my breath. In the mean time you can use CTRL++ to increase the font size, or as Tom suggested use the other style.

As for the colors? With the limited color pallette I used the colors I thought would keep the board looking like the rest of the site while at the same time giving it enough contrast to be usable. But as I am an engineer not a usability expert this is what I came up with. If you want to give it a shot yourself, here is the documentation on how to create forum styles.

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:20 pm
by MikeD
mnettles wrote:thanks. Better...... still small but better.....


That's because the font size isn't any different between the two... which is actually the same size it's been for the ~2 years this particular forum software has been in use.

PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 7:56 pm
by ttweed
MikeD wrote: That's because the font size isn't any different between the two....
I think it is just the better contrast that makes it seem bigger.

TT

Re: what happened to this forum

PostPosted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:53 pm
by Steve Grosekemper
MikeD wrote:
I can, and will make a style sheet with the same look and feel with lager fonts. But as it took me 3.5 months to get this far, (with another month or so just to get this one finished), I wouldn't hold my breath. In the mean time you can use CTRL++ to increase the font size, or as Tom suggested use the other style.

As for the colors? With the limited color palette I used the colors I thought would keep the board looking like the rest of the site while at the same time giving it enough contrast to be usable. But as I am an engineer not a usability expert this is what I came up with. If you want to give it a shot yourself, here is the documentation on how to create forum styles.


I found Mike's comment interesting about font size and contacted him personally for more information and wanted to share it with you all.

As Mike stated if you just hit the ctrl button and then + or - at the same time the font will grow or shrink to the preferred size that accommodates your vision quality. The part he left out was that feature only works for Mozilla FireFox... (And Netscape??) and works very well with this site I might add. The same feature in IE does not work on all sites and that includes this one. (View>text size>larger/smaller)

My suggestion for those who can't see this or other web pages due to their small font sizes should go to www.mozilla.com and download FireFox. There are versions for Windows, Linux, and Mac so it will work for virtually anybody. You don't have to use it all the time, but it really work great here and for the amount of time some people spend here, it might be a nice feature.

The great part is you don't have to change your monitor settings back and forth. Just download it, set the forum as your home page and make it as big as you want. On full size you can see it from across the room!

I hope this helps as I assume there must be someone else out there that didn't know this already... anybody...anybody??? Bueller?
Or maybe it's just me??

And thanks again Mike, I learnt sumpin' new today!