We've launched the changes to the SportingPulse Network Websites this morning. We've had a lot of great feedback, mixed with 2 main concerns in regard to menu items and colour contrasts.
Here's what to do.
1/ Menu items
You haven't lost any of your menu items or content. What we've done is contain your menu items to a top menu navigation in order to better display results, ladders and stats and to prepare the sites for further upgrades in the near future (which I'll blog about soon).
So, in order for you not to have multiple rows of menu items in the short term as you re-arrange the elements of your site, we've added a 'more menus' item at the end of the top nav so your site looks great and you can take your time to plan your menu structure.
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| SportingPulse Websites - before |
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| SportingPulse Websites - More Menus |
2/ Colour contrast
We've had some feedback in regard to being able to choose any colour combination for your website - especially in regard to menus and heading titles.
In essence, we've made the colours on your website more prominent and easier to use, by getting rid of multiple colour options in up to 6 separate tabs in your Website Editor Control Panel.
To access site colours, simply click 'Customise you website > Advanced Configuration > Colours and Fonts and you'll see the following screen
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| Colours and Fonts - the new colour editor and preview function |
Simply, there are now 7 colour placement options - and as you change your colour scheme, you can see the results within the preview pane before committing the changes live.
We have applied some website standards to colour contrasts, which has resulted in some users not being able to show a red on blue background (for instance). However, if your clubs colours ARE red and blue, you can easily show a blue site background with a red menu backgrounds and heading titles. Some adjustments may have to be made, but the ease of use now allows you to do this very quickly.
Finally - whilst we have relaxed the 'global' standard in order to try to bring flexibility of colour - if you truly feel you can't get the colour you need, please email a link to your website to websites@sportingpulse.com and we'll help you out.
Great job Sportingpulse, the websites are looking more professional and I look forward to the further changes in the future. In particular the ability to configure the front page better.
ReplyDeleteWondering what has happened to my photo's. I can't select images from my folders anymore to add to news articles?? I am using IE7 to author.
ReplyDeletehey thanks for the comment - the feedback has been great overall...
ReplyDeleteNice work - but - the default font size for body text is way too small. How do you change this?
ReplyDeleteHi Guys really happy with the site it does seem to have a better look to it. One real problem I find though, both before and after the upgrade, is that it is really difficult to format font. Changing color, size or style can be a real pain, especially if you have used cut and paste to populate the page. Any suggestions that would make this easier?
ReplyDeleteHi guys,The new editor is a disapointment,it has less functionality than the previous one. Where has undo/redo gone? Also pasted Office documents lose formatting.
ReplyDeleteThe text size in the widgets are huge when I look at the 'social' page but tiny on every other page.
hi there - in regard to photos, we haven't had word of any issues...
ReplyDeletesend a link to your site to websites@sportingpulse.com and we'll check it out for you.
thanks, Andrew
Hey Guru - you can change body text size via your wysiwyg editor...if you're talking about news articles and the like...
ReplyDeletePost a link to your website to websites@sportingpulse.com if you want it checked out.
The stats formats are pretty well set - we're still receiving feedback, but all pretty positive to be honest!
In regard to formatting font, we generally ask people to paste into a 'text editor' before cutting and pasting into their website.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Word has some weird HTML formatting rules - and as such, doesn't always format well in WYSIWYG editors.
Then, once you made fonts bold, etc - I'd finally raise the font point size, if you want it bigger than the standard 10pt font.
Cheers, Andrew
I used to have all my tables in EXCELL and pasted the results onto the site. I can't do this any longer. I loose all the borders and colours.
ReplyDeletehi anon - this is a fair comment and we'll definitely look into it for you.
ReplyDeletewe believe we made a good investment into the new wysiwyg editor, so please leave it me us and we'll get back to you on this.
Cheers, Andrew
I currently run a Joomla Based site and when pasting from Word into TinyMCE the site works in Firefox, but not Internet Exporer. I suggest anything copied from Word should be copied to Notepad and then paste to website, this will save your problems, except you will have to re-edit the format of text.
ReplyDeletethanks for the tip - it does seem to be an issue for a few people, esp using Internet Explorer
ReplyDeleteso, taking the time to copy into notepad (for example) and then into your editor generally will work better, as suggested above.
having said that - as above, personally i haven't had an issue using either google chrome or firefox as my browser...
thanks again for the heads up
If only we didn't have to put up with the annoying top advertisement banner on our pages. So bloody annoying and they take up so much space. Surely the side and bottom ads are enough to generate revenue and if you got rid of the top ad the side ones would lift up higher and more prominent. We didn't have this problem with private hosting but now we are forced to use this default page layout. I'm all for ditching the top ad banner. Everything else is fine.
ReplyDeleteHi Lindsay - there is an undo / redo function in the wysiwyg editor. cheers, andrew
ReplyDeleteHi Anon - thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteWe do need to serve the top advertising banner at present. We actually considered placing the ad in the header of the sites; so, for instance, you'd have a logo and then an ad beside it - as opposed to retaining the 900-odd custom headers we have built for sport. We thought this was not the right way to go, and we also researched sites around the world to achieve best practice outcomes.
I'd be interested in your feedback - I understand you don't like advertising. However, the only was we can provide all our tools at no charge (inc membership & league management software, iPhone apps, mobile sites & courtside scoring in basketball is to work with commercial and advertising partners.
We appreciate this feedback. Cheers, Andrew
is it possible to change the heading font in the body
ReplyDeleteHi - there is both a 'Heading Colour' and 'Page Title Colour' available for you to change via Customise you website > Advanced Configuration > Colours and Fonts
ReplyDeleteYou can also change text colour through the WYSIWYG editor.
cheers, Andrew
Would be good if we could change our own headers to something our membership would relate to,
ReplyDeletethis would allow website managers to 'freshen up' their sites.
Andrew, I have a lot of people tell me they can not access the drop down menu boxes. I think they would be using an older IE. Is this the case? what browser is most suited to the sporting pulse system
ReplyDeleteG'day - in terms of browser support, here's the policy from - http://support.sportingpulse.com/index.php/Browser_Support_Policy
ReplyDeleteSportingPulse Browser Support Policy
All SportingPulse built websites follow this policy of Web browser support.
Full Support
The following browsers are fully supported and all sites should display and function properly when viewed by one of these web browsers:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer v8
- Mozilla Firefox v3+
Partial Support
The following browsers are not fully supported but we will make a reasonable effort to make sure that all major functionality works and that layout is approximately correct (or at least degrades gracefully):
- Microsoft Internet Explorer v7
- Safari (all versions)
- Opera (all versions)
Limited functional support
The following browsers are not fully supported. These browsers are very old and may have potential security risks. We will endeavour to make sure that the content appears on the pages, however the display may be different to the display on the browsers listed under the full support heading:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer v6
When SportingPulse builds a website we endeavour to comply with W3C HTML and CSS standards. While other browsers may not be explicitly supported, if they comply with the international W3C web standards then they should function properly.
Note: Some functionality on SportingPulse built websites may rely on the use of one or all of Javascript, Adobe Flash or Cookies. If a user disables one of these technologies in their browser then the website may not function properly.