Visual Presentation of Magazine- Make Your Suggestions

[Dynasty]

The look of the Magazine will be evolving over the next few months. Kiera Goetz (who does other work for 2+2) has taken over Chuck Weinstock's technical role and some basic changes will be implemented with the upcoming July issue.

Among a few of the changes are eliminating the changing fonts problem, the use of suit icons (and maybe card images), and overall consistency in presentation.

Kiera and I (as well as Mason and Mat) want to hear readers' suggestions on the presentation of the Magazine and how it can be improved.

[Sherman]

I'd suggest finding an old article or two that you liked the formatting for and using them as examples. Post them in this forum or something and tell people to follow the formatting of the said articles. For example, if you want subheadings, provide an example article with subheadings. If you want a specific font, tell authors to write in a specific font only. Don't accept articles that don't meet the guidelines and/or don't follow the example article(s).

Sherman

[BluffTHIS!]

I think it is important to optimize for all major browsers, as perhaps that explains some of the problems readers have not related to lack of font consistency in the magazine. Also I would think it important for Kiera to use cascading style sheets if possible, unless that is not possible if the magazine is just a subset of the overal 2+2 site.

One other minor thing not in your list is that for me at least (Firefox browser), there are no margins on the left and right with the text going to the very edges, which is kind of unsightly.

Also on a matter not related to presentation, perhaps it might be possible to get greater feedback for you to use than you get in your monthly poll threads, by incorporating a poll into each article, and on the main page for each issue for the overall rating.

[Kiera]

Hi,

Yes, css is a major component in the design. At the moment, the magazine is not tied to forum software (making an internal poll difficult)

Please view the following and provide feedback. I did my best to make it browser indifferent.

http://twoplustwo.com/magazine/layou...shman0607.html


Kiera

[Kiera]

Current work in progress is at:

http://twoplustwo.com/magazine/layou...man0607_3.html

Discussion:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...=0#Post10874304

[Buzz]

Kiera - Looks excellent! Very nice job!

On hand 2-24 you show the ace of hearts as A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. That's much better than Ah! <font color="red">A</font>[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] might be even better.

But then on hand 2-25, it's back to Ks9c, rather than K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].

How can I, as a sometimes author, code my submitted manuscripts to make your job easier and more efficient?

Frank Jerome

[Kiera]

Hi Frank,

Regardless of this afternoon’s bumps … I think we did great. For future submissions, it is a big help if you keep your submission simple and follow these rules:

1 - Put and entire blank line in between paragraphs

2 - If you aren't using MS Word for your submission and do not have the symbols for suits available ... just give me something unique to search and replace on. ie: [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] was fine. When we move to including actual card images … well Dynasty and I will have to figure out how best to indicate that.

3 – Make major and minor headings ridiculously obvious.

4 – Anything that you wish to be indented … again make it obvious.

I think it would be beneficial for there to be a deadline for submissions and my conversion to HTML. This way both authors and editor could preview the final product before going live with it.

I’m not ignoring the Red text prior to the hearts and diamonds icons…. Just thinking on how best to accomplish it, without being a tedious task.

Kiera

[Buzz]

[ QUOTE ]
I think it would be beneficial for there to be a deadline for submissions and my conversion to HTML. This way both authors and editor could preview the final product before going live with it.

[/ QUOTE ]Hi Kiera - Great idea!

Thank you for an outstanding job!

I can and will make your suggested changes to my future submissions.

Well done.

Frank Jerome
Buzz