Ant

Thanks Andrea. So even though my mailchimp style sheet is last in the flow it gets overridden by the first in the head of the page? I thought about copying theirs and pasting their styles into my core stylesheet. A.

I am trying to embed a form (from mailchimp) on an existing page. Here's a portion of the beginning code i pasted onto the page: ------------------- <!-- Begin MailChimp Signup Form --> <link href="http://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/embedcode/classic-081711.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <style type="text/css"> #mc_embed_signup{background:; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ </style> <div id="mc_embed_signup"> ------------------- The page has it's own external stylsheet. (obviously) When I embed the form supplied by mailchimp it has it's own stylsheet attached. (see code above) The problem is the sites css also has a few similar classes to the embedded form. So I had to change some of the forms classes to be slightly different becuase if I don't the pages css overrides the forms css. My question is why doesn't the form ignore the main sites css? Isn't the forms stylesheet attached properly? Maybe I don't remember the rules of "cascading" when it comes to css, i.e. which one takes precedence over the other. Do the forms css styles need to be inline to take control over the main sites external stylesheet? A.

Eddie, thank you. I think I figured it out. There was a div below my images that was overlaying on top of half the icons. Which is why only part of the icons were clickable. A.

I'm going to try and explain my problem. I have 3 images floated left in an existing vertical navigation list. I have replaced nav text for social media icons. All 3 images are links. When I hover over the images(each with a height of 30 pixels) only the top 5 or so pixels are links, the bottom half are not. So I assume somehow I have not defined something properly. It's probably a problem with the existing css and me trying to override it with custom nav links as images. Here's the css:(i'm sure my display:inline or float:left etc is wrong in this css. I wasn't sure which to use) The #menu-item-459(464,465) are the ID's of the existing menu items I'm replacing with the images. ------------------------------ #menu-item-459 a { display:inline; float:left; height:30px; width:45px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px; margin:0px 0px 0px 25px; outline:none; text-indent:-9999px; background-image:url(uploads/2012/03/social_sprite.png); background-position:0 0; } #menu-item-459 a:hover { background-position:0 0px; } #menu-item-464 a { display:inline; float:left; clear:right; height:30px; width:45px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px; margin:0px 0px 0px 8px; outline:none; text-indent:-9999px; background-image:url(uploads/2012/03/social_sprite.png); background-position:-45px 0px; } #menu-item-464 a:hover { background-position:-45px 0px; } #menu-item-465 a { display:inline; float:left; height:30px; width:45px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px; margin:0px 0px 0px 8px; outline:none; text-indent:-9999px; background-image:url(uploads/2012/03/social_sprite.png); background-position:-90px 0px; } #menu-item-465 a:hover {background-position:-90px 0px;} ------------------ A.

I am trying to help someone with an online booking software. The software is currently installed on a windows personal computer where customers, as they walk into the salon, have their info/appointments etc entered and stored on the personal computer. The software also has an add on that allows for online booking. I was told by the company that a link is generated and placed on the website that then records the appointment ON THE PERSONAL computer when the website visitor fills out the form then sends or something like that. So I assume that at some point the personal computer is or will be setup as a server. My questions are: 1. Does that mean the computer must be left on at all times. Sounds like a stupid question I know. 2. I was told an SSL certificate for this would reside on the personal computer NOT the websites server. Is that correct? Do I need both? 3.Does this sound like a safe system to implement? (the personal computer serving as the server/data base) Thanks A.

Thanks for the additional help guys. I'll look at the code posted and see if I can implement it. A.

Benjamin I tried to add a link in the html by itself inside the div and thought I needed to use" " as the text to be linked but I don't think that worked. I lost you on the "block" comment. I am still new, stumbling through css etc so I don't remember how I would use it (block) in this situation. So it was something like this: #floating_contact_image{background: url(http://www.url.com/images/contact.png) no-repeat; z-index:2; width:90px; height: 90px; position:absolute; top:0px; right:0px; } <div id=floating_contact_image><a href="http://www.contact_us.com"> </a> </div> Ant

Thank Andrea. Ok, so I was able to make it linkable by adding the image and the url link in the html AND removing the "background: url" from the css. ( I assume using the "background: url" is valid for placing images with css??) HOWEVER that means I cannot control the image/url link using CSS, is that correct? So I can adjust the position etc of the div to control the image and the link in the css but if i want to edit the link or the image I have to change it in the html? A.

For some reason I cant figure out the best way to do this.When I did this in my first site I used dreamweavers hot spot tool. Thus I do not know how to do it using css. So how do I add a link to a layered image. I want to basically use the image as say a link to get to the contact us page etc. I have the following example code: #floating_contact_image{background: url(http://www.url.com/images/contact.png) no-repeat; z-index:2; width:90px; height: 90px; position:absolute; top:0px; right:0px; } Thanks A.

Eddie, THANK YOU! I have been searching for an answer on this and couldn't find one. I didn't know if the RESET CSS technique is appropriate or makes sense when using a CMS. I guess it makes sense for some things but what about items that are going to be dynamic and have different values. I couldn't figure out how the 2 were supposed to work together. I figured I could remove the tags I need to be dynamic from the RESET but I also thought that defeated the purpose of the reset.(to zero out and avoid cross browser differences) I'm not using tables for the framework of the site simply adding some content to pages. There are 2 problems with adding a class like you suggested. A. I think that means I am then restricted to use x-pixels( a set number) for my padding. If I want to add another table with some different padding I would have to then create another class. (correct me if I'm wrong) B. I have not figure out how to add my css styles to the styles tab under the editor for quick easy styling. I do not want to have to do it by adding the class in the source view. I think I can figure out how to get that to work, so in reality it's not a major drawback, but A. is. I guess I will just remove the tags from the reset that are going to be dynamic. If I did not comprehend your suggestions properly, or am incorrect at all please let me know. I still have A LOT to learn about CSS. A.

I'm working on a WP site that has a RESET CSS implemented. The problem is the reset doesn't allow certain controls in the WYSIWYG editor because it zeros out things like td, tr etc. So I can apply cell padding for a table using the editor but it doesn't take effect on the site because they are set to zero in the reset. If I redefine those tags in the css (while leaving them in the reset)that creates a static style for those tags and I cant override them in the editor.i.e. td tr{padding:5px} So what are my options. Should I just remove the tags from the reset that I need to be dynamic? I hope that made sense. A.

Ok I think I understand now. I planned to have to create the store using this system based off of the previews I have done of both Cart66 and some various WP plugins. Create a Page called SHOP. Then create a page for each category of products say for example one of them is CLOTHING Then on the CLOTHING page (if I don't want to add any other divisions) I list all my clothing products with a description/thumbnail. Clicking on the thumbnail or description brings you to EACH PRODUCTS individual PAGE with the ADD TO CART button. So we have: SHOP>CLOTHING>(which has thumbnail/descriptions to clothing product's)>INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT PAGE (with the add to cart button etc) So in my WP site all these products will have their own PAGE. So if I have 100 products I will end up having 100 PAGES for my online store (more or less) So it seems there must be an easier way to do this using catalog pages etc that probably things like SHOPIFY etc (paid/monthly fee options) do MUCH easier. I guess I will have to demo one of those premium shopping cart/ecommerce solutions to understand how it's easier/different. A. iso

Ben in terms of the "catalog ability" con I searched. Can you clarify if it means the following. In Cart66 theres a products area. I enter each product, price, sku etc BUT NO DESCRIPTION.(mentioned later) It looks like in the add new products area the products are just created WITHOUT any ordering. In other words I cannot create a product and file it under "clothing" instead I believe they are just listed all together when you create them. Is that what is meant by "There is no way to build a catalog page"? I am trying to figure out what that comment means and how it may be a con as I move forward. Also would it be better if the product entering section also included the description instead of adding the description by creating a page called say "blue hat" adding the description and dropping in the product ID shortcode created earlier. Is that part of the problem mentioned in my copy paste? I'm trying to understand what the CONS are however since I have only briefly reviewed/tested a few WP ecommerce solutions I'm not really sure of the terms used (in the copy paste) and how I may want what they are saying it doesn't have. The searched cons I pasted seem to be centered around QUERIES. Since I don't REALLY know (I have a slight understanding) what that is or why it's important I don't know why I need it. A.

BEN, as always thanks for your help. I took a look at Cart66 and all looks perfect. I am still doing a search for CONS to using it. Additionally I'm tallying the total cost's of a PAYPAL style ecommerce solution(no SSL etc) VS Cart66 + SSL + static IP +, Authorize.net fees etc. Somewhere I read that it (Cart66) doesn't have catalog ability etc. I'm not sure what thats about since I never dealt with ecommerce, online stores, product enetring etc. I guess I will have to ignore it and see if I understand what thats about after working with the system etc.and entering products. My guess is this first store I'm creating will probably have no more then 25-100 products, at least for a year or two. So maybe the catalog comment is moot. Here's the content from the site mentioning it. Most of the stuff is out of my league, i.e. loops & queries etc: ------------------ Con #2: Front-end There is no way to build a catalog page. Using CPTs, presumably, you’d create a loop to find all of your product posts and display the title, description, image … and price? Since the price isn’t actually associated with the post (remember, its just a shortcode) there’s no way to query for that post’s price. You could create a custom field that required you to denote which product ID you inserting into the post and then write a function to grab that product info. Even a featured product widget can’t be done. I had to write a custom widget for the user to enter the post ID and product ID into the widget so that I could query first the post to get the title, description, and image, and then query the product so that I could get the price. Conclusion Separating the product data is a bad idea. Pricing, text, image, etc. should all be together. So like I said above, its good for a single product site. If all you need to do is add a Buy Now button for one product all over the place then it’ll work just fine, but don’t try selling a thousand products. --------------- BTW what do you mean by this: (though it's up to you to make sure you are, and there's more to being PCI compliant than making sure the ecommerce software solution you are using doesn't store credit card information, or stores it securely) Doesn't the issuer of the SSL and Authorize.net and Cart66 and the Hosting Co. (for static IP) handle anything to do with being PCI compliant. Do I need to read up on PCI stuff to make sure I know whats going on with it and what I need to do to avoid any legal problems for any online stores on? Thanks A.

I'm returning to the idea of learning the in's and out's of an online store. Since i last asked this question (ecommerce related) I have begun learning wordpress. I noticed WP has a lot of plugins for ecommerce solutions. However after implementing eshop I realized it does not work with an SSL certificate. So I BELIEVE when purchasing products you are redirected away from the site to the the payment gateway??? (not sure, but I assume is not a great idea) So I'm now back to researching etc etc. and thinking those free wp plugins for ecommerce are not that great of a money saving idea. So i'm back to looking into shopify, Megento etc etc My question is what things do I need to be concerned about with regard to security etc. So far my searches have uncovered the following 3 things in terms of security etc. 1. Static IP 2. SSL Certificate 3. PCI Compliant. Is there anything else I need to make sure is part of any ecommerce solution? I think the free ecommerce solutions leave all three of those things up to the website designer to gather and implement. Is that correct? While sources like shopify, magento etc include all those functions and take care of it for you. (which is probably why they are not free ???) Any suggestions as to the best, easiest, cost effective option for an ecommerce solution to work with wordpress? Sorry for all the questions, any help is appreciated. A.

Thanks Andrea I'll try to figure out what that does exactly. The width of my #navbar is 960 so I'm not sure what making the #nav 950 does. The whole problem is when I look at the css it looks like there are nav bars within nav bars etc. So now I have to try and figure out whats for what. Thats the problem I have found when using wordpress. Since I used a template, I had to learn what each css element was and tweak from there. If I had created it myself I could visualize what was what etc.since I wrote it. A.

Heres the site: I have a lot of work left to do on it. This is my second site (first was html/css and no CMS system) and the first time I used wordpress. Also this is the site I mentioned here where the client (my friend) insisted I design it HIS WAY. He also insisted I launch it and tweak stuff later(BAD IDEA) It was a losing battle on my end to steer them toward a different "look". Suffice to say I'm embarrassed to be associated with the design choices I was forced to do. I probably should have refused but I sold out to keep the friendship rather then telling them to find someone else. Whats important is I learned A LOT (drop shadows, CMS, some PHP etc)even if the final product looks as if I do not have a shred of art/design experience. Coming from a art/print design background it's still very hard to design a graphically interesting site as I would like when I'm still fumbling to learn how to do things. A.

I need some help understanding how to address the following problem. On my mac I know there are 2 ways to resize the browsers font sizes (in both safari and firefox) Command + or - and under preferences I can change it there as well. However when I do the command - there is a range(certain amount of time I hit "command -") that makes the fonts in my navigation jump to the next line. Now I'm not sure why that would happen since I'm actually making the font smaller. So why would it act as if the font is getting bigger and kick to the next line? Also how do I address the fact that some people may have their font sizes set in their preferences to a large size. How do I create my navigation size to accomodate that. I had my friend call me and tell me the "contact us" link was missing. I told him it was on the next line and I would attempt to fix it. Problem is I think there are a few variables on his end that I am unaware of that could be causing that.(his browser font preferences, monitor size etc etc) The site is built at 960px wide and the nav fonts are set to 12px. What do I need to learn to make sure I create my navs correctly and have them appear properly on all monitor sizes, browser font preferences and browser resizing key strokes? A.

Thanks guys. My site is already set up to expand per content so I think I just need to tell the boxes to have the bg of my 3 images. top, middle, bottom and have the middle box repeat. Ant

Let me start off by saying I have found myself being forced into following a clients design wishes after repeated attempts to steer them out of the 80's and away from their bad taste/ideas in design. I was unsucessful and should walk away but... So I need to create a background thats a parchment scroll. Complete with rolled up ends and gold tassels (it pains me to even continue this website). So whats the best way to accomplish this. The background will need to expand to fit the content. Do I need to do the following: 3 boxes. One for the top one for the bottom and one for the middle. The top and bottom are the rolled up ends of the paper with the tassels. The middle box is the repeating paper pattern that expands. Then I have to somehow line all the images up so they look like one image. Thoughts? Whats the best way to accomplish this? I have see some great sites with images but do not know how they did it and made the image expand per content without a simple repeating bg. Heres an example of a site with a similar effect I need to come up with. http://www.levilodge.fi/fi/index.html Also the paper needs to be on wood. So do the images need to be transparent png's with a drop shadow? Thanks A.

Eddie, I think some of those jquery options are the ones I am using/testing with wordpress. However I couldn't find ones that allow for a layering of type that fades in or slides on top of each slide. As far as I could tell the only options I had on what I have tested allow for say slides 1-6 with each slide being a static entity. I can link each slide and each slide can fade in and out to the next but I couldn't find an option to have a picture separate from some text (that layers on top of a slide and moves). Does that make sense? Maybe there are jquery option that I need to configure or build myself, but thats not something I have learned yet. I was all excited to learn flash at one point to create a little interest on a site, but now I'm not so sure thats an option. From the work I started on Flash it was a lot easier then creating something from more complex code etc. A.

Is there a way to do fade effects without the use of flash. To be more specific heres what I'm talking about. Say in a 900 x 400 box, I would like to have a photo fade in, then have text slide on top or text fade on top of the photo separately.(maybe the text is clickable) Anything of that nature. I have been learning worpdress and I have been using sliding content plugins, but as far as I know I can only create each slide as a whole and have it fade or slide into the box as one entity. I cannot create separate layers on top of eachother. Ever since the whole Ipad non flash issue I assume it's not smart to start adding flash to my website as it will be missing when viewing it on the ipad. So what options are there for me to look into? I have see html5 and css3 mentioned as possible options but I havent figured out what they offer as possible replacements for some flash effects. Thanks Ant

Thanks again, I will send the joomla plugin to our wd.

Ben, thanks. What we wanted was a search feature on the current site that would search html files that I place on the server. We assumed it would have to be added to the current site as an additional search function/module whatever it's called. I am not sure why the current search function cant be modified to ALSO search for html files in folder X. I'll look into the links you posted. I was told one option was to upload the html files as "articles" and hide them from readers, although I guess thats very time consuming. A.

First I'm asking this question here because our co's web designer cant figure it out. So I figured maybe someone here can tell me if it is possible or where to look to get the answers. This is the type of thing I need to recreate and have it appear on our current site. OR I guess it can be a separate page on it's own. Either way. http://www.crosssection-online.com/search.asp Presently my co. website runs on Joomla. We have a search feature that searches everything on the site. However now I need to create a separate search function on the site that will search a folder with html files in it. I will be uploading all these html files. Is there a way to do that? I was told it cant be done using the current search feature because it's a database using php and won't work on html files. How hard is it to place a separate search feature on the current site that will only search folder X on either the current server or a separate server and output results on the current sites page where that search box resides. Since I was told it won't work on the current site I assume this folder with the html files in it needs to be on a separate server. Thanks. A.