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Thread: Longtime user has suggestions

  1. #1
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    Lightbulb Longtime user has suggestions

    I've been using NOF since MX and have suggestions to improve the product. I'm not a power user, just someone with a business who needs a site, but I do know what the program can do:

    - Even after using NOF for many years it confuses me what is going to take priority when setting style elements like page background, text formating HTML vs CSS. I'd like a simple hierarchy display that shows me what is affecting the appearance of my text and background.

    - There are too many ways to alter the appearance of text and I'm not sure that if I set attributes in one area that they will be in another. Give me a simple way on one window to set my text attributes and put a check box indicating whether the attributes are specific to the selected text; just this page; or entire site. I hate jumping around back and forth between all the tabs and windows. - There is a lot of redundancy in the program that is confusing. Don't have so many places to make the same choices. Keep it simple and stratightforward.

    - The photo gallery would be a very important feature and was wonderful several years ago but is woefully out of date. In addition there are weird quirks like the fact that all styles don't support resizing photos. The flash photo gallery tool is a programming disaster with all the tabs and sub tabs etc. Just start from scratch on that one and make the thumbnails much bigger. Drastically simplify both types of galleries even if it means losing some options.

    - Most of the templates and flash graphics and nav bars in the program are out of date and need to be updated. I don't need a ton of choices but want some very good professional looking templates that can be easily customized with modern navigation bars. Also let me put longer text labels on my nav bars.

    - In site view, let me assign a thumbnail graphic to a page not just a color and title. One of my sites has 500 pages and it's hard to remember what's on every page by just the title. Also a simple spreadsheet view of pages would be nice. I'd like to be able to sort by clicking on a column header by various attributes like: title, size of page, total upload size of page, last revision date, etc.

    - Remove any references to out of date things like web safe colors and 56k modem upload times.

    - Let me choose which fonts to display in a spreadsheet. I've got 100 fonts on my system and don't need to see them. Also make it easy for NOF to convert text in a non safe web font to a graphic.

    - I think the future is going to be in widgets and using NOF as an assembly program to put everything together. It may be okay to scrap the photo gallery, store feature and some other features but make it easy to load these things and look like they are a native part of the web site.

    - When I saw the email the other day about NOF v12 I was vastlyunderwhelmed by the promotional page on the web site. Still using the mountain graphics from 10 years ago and the promo page sample looks horrible. To make it worse, when I click on a feature to find out more, there is nothing to click, just some kid graphics on the page. Honestly, I think it ought to be a top priority to show the absolute best demos of what this program can do and I think NOF falls short on salesmanship. How about some videos showing the program in action too? How about a list of the 300 improvements? For now I don't have plans to get v12 as I'm not convinced that it's been cleaned up enough and the web site doesn't convice me to want to upgrade.

  2. #2
    Senior Member barbara0701's Avatar
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    Hello Texasfrank, welcome in these forums.

    thanks for taking the time to share your wishes and impressions with us. You've got many interesting and valid points there, I hope NetOobjects will follow up on them.

    - Even after using NOF for many years it confuses me what is going to take priority when setting style elements like page background, text formating HTML vs CSS. I'd like a simple hierarchy display that shows me what is affecting the appearance of my text and background.

    - There are too many ways to alter the appearance of text and I'm not sure that if I set attributes in one area that they will be in another. Give me a simple way on one window to set my text attributes and put a check box indicating whether the attributes are specific to the selected text; just this page; or entire site. I hate jumping around back and forth between all the tabs and windows.
    Would it help you if I explained the CSS-priorities and settings to make it easy to apply?

    Do you understand German? If yes, I can offer you a tutorial explaining the ABC: Ein eigenes design in NOF. Otherwise I can make a step to step tutorial just referring to your particular questions.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Adendum's Avatar
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    Welcome TexasFrank,

    Well said. Hopefully someone at NO will take note for V13! Or maybe v12.1.
    Paul - Aditerum Ltd and AllSortsOfStuff Ltd
    NOF11 (in Admin mode!); Vista Premium 64bit; AMD Phenom IIx4 945 Processor 3.00Ghz; 8.0Gb RAM
    Wouldn't it be great if there was only a single browser to worry about!!!

  4. #4
    Senior Member Andy Hoyt's Avatar
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    I wonder if learning German is a shorter curve than CSS ala NOF?

    Eins, zwei, g'suffa!
    Only the Blue Roads

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    Senior Member mia's Avatar
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    Andy,

    love it...... *big grin*......
    http://www.nof-community.de
    NOF-Community, Hilfe, Support, Tutorials, Anleitungen, Tipps und Tricks für Netobjects Fusion und SwissKnife Komponenten

  6. #6
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    Thanks everyone. I'm glad to see others feel similarly and I feel warmly welcomed! Barbara, I don't speak German but perhaps you (or someone else could assist in understanding the confusing text adjustments given the program in its current state. I've read Plotkin's book on "How to Do Everything with NOF 11" the NOF Getting Started Guide and much of the full manual but still am unclear. I understand the hierarchy aspect but what's so confusing to me (any probably anyone else who isn't a programmer) is that there are both CSS and HTML properties palettes, the format button, the text toolbar and the style menu has three tabs. Setting backgrounds is equally confusing. I'm not sure if I should set the background on the style graphics or selector tab or the CSS palette.

    What NOF doesn't tell me is what is a good workflow so I'm left guessing. Most of what I would want to do is to create web sites that look like the NOF site with the exception that I would be using photos or repeating graphics for page backgrounds, layout regions and in some cases different backgrounds on different pages. Up till now I've only modified existing templates but I'd like to start using my own custom backgrounds to put behind the layout and in the master border to give it the polished look that is common these days in professionally designed sites. The NOF templates are all left justified and really out of date but despite searching the web I haven't found design tips on how to use NOF to make modern looking sites. Regarding actual photo galleries to put on the pages, for now I'm abandoning using either of the NOF photo tools and am going to copy and paste HTML for a slide show that is generated by a photo hosting web site called zenfolio. They really have a beautiful slide show that can go full HD screen size with a click on a photo.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Adendum's Avatar
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    TexasFrank,

    It feels like there were a lot of 'almost asked' questions in your last post, if you get my drift. Too many to be adequately responded to in this thread. May I suggest you ask and post individual questions in relevant forum sections. I'm not teaching you how to suck eggs here Frank, just hoping to be able to help with one or more of the issues

    For non-NOF posts there is a great section called chit-chat. I use it all the time for off-NOF stuff. Let us know how you get on integrating Zenfolio into your NOF site - many users have issues with NOF's photo gallery and most but not all tend to look outside and use tools like jalbum or visuallightbox etc.
    Paul - Aditerum Ltd and AllSortsOfStuff Ltd
    NOF11 (in Admin mode!); Vista Premium 64bit; AMD Phenom IIx4 945 Processor 3.00Ghz; 8.0Gb RAM
    Wouldn't it be great if there was only a single browser to worry about!!!

  8. #8
    Senior Member barbara0701's Avatar
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    @TexasFrank:

    I wrote your tutorial today. It was an interesting exercise, since many users don't understand the steps they have to take, just as you described it.

    It's as simple as possible - and it is in english.

    Enjoy it and give some feedback once you have gone through it:

    http://www.nof-schule.de/netobjects-...NOF/index.html

  9. #9
    Senior Member Adendum's Avatar
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    Nice one Barbara!
    Paul - Aditerum Ltd and AllSortsOfStuff Ltd
    NOF11 (in Admin mode!); Vista Premium 64bit; AMD Phenom IIx4 945 Processor 3.00Ghz; 8.0Gb RAM
    Wouldn't it be great if there was only a single browser to worry about!!!

  10. #10
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    Hi, thanks Barbara I'll read the tutorial you posted. I realized I was drifing off topic but thought I should respond to Barbara's comments about NOF's confusing interface regarding CSS and hierarchy. In the future I'll post questions in the appropriate forum

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