One step forward...

...and two back!  At least, that is how it has seemed to me over the last few days.  If I knew Java it might well have been a different story.  I don't mean the island (if it still called that) or the coffee; I mean the script that gives commands to web sites.  What doesn't help is the knowledge that it's all my own fault for not saying 'no' when the then 1st VDG phoned and asked if I would take on the District web site next year.  In fairness, I should add that I did suggest he waited until after the District convention when he could approach the designer of the winning entry in the club web site competition.  I am, of course, now hoist with my own petard, although this was really the outcome I expected, having been reasonably confident that Brighton's web site would win.  I had looked at all the other club web sites in the District and knew that there were very few entries anyway so that was not entirely a case of over-confidence.

So I took a look at the source code for the current District site, a site which has attracted a fair amount of valid criticism, and was horrified at the complexity of what I was looking at.  This was the equivalent of a university text book while I was still struggling with a primer, my knowledge of the basic HTML being very limited and years out of date anyway.  All the same, I usually manage to get it to do what I want even if I do have to refer to the Idiot's Guide.  I made a start on redesigning the site while keeping as close as I could to the look of what is there now.  Part of the problem with it is that navigation is protracted.  I want people to go to what they want in as few clicks as possible, preferably two and never more than three.  The answer, I decided, was to use cascading menus, the sort that one sees with almost any application used on a computer.  I managed to download a Java script that provided a one-layer cascade, ie when the mouse hovered over an item on the menu further options became visible as a drop-down menu.  And it works very nicely.  But I really wanted another cascade so that when the mouse hovers over an item in the drop-down menu a further sub-menu becomes visible.  I even located a Java script that would do that, but I have spent hours trying to fathom how to put the main menu in the right place on the page and how to change the colours to match what I am using.  I've given up, and will just use the Java that works along with basic HTML links.

I've uploaded the front page as a demo to show the cascading menu: the links don't work as nothing else has been uploaded.  It works fine using the Firefox browser, but when I try using IE I get a nasty message saying IE has restricted this pag from running scripts that could damage my computer.  So, maybe it's back to the drawing board.

But the positive news is that the Old Bat has had her plaster cast removed and the wires extracted from her wrist.