h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I said I would pop over - but time is pressing so I can't stay long.

Why don't you pop back over to my page and put jims links on yours. It lets you know who is on line.

vegiman

Thanks for popping in on OH GNATS. Your views have not only been noted, but will be acted upon soon. I seem to recognise your style and hope to see a lot more of your helpful hints floating around.

Thanks for the mention on your page.
All te best vegiman

I'm glad you RECOGNISE the style, Vegiman - that must mean I'm doing something useful, I guess. You'll probably be seeing a lot more of it around the place: I can't seem to inspire myself to write an awful lot at the moment, and it's much easier when you've something in front of you to write about. I like to be detailed, where possible: it helps people to understand what I'm trying to say, even if I don't say it particularly well!

P.S. I think this is the first smiley I've ever drawn!

Keep it Up Hypoman. Perhap you have found your vocation in life. I enjoy helping others get started and then like chicks leaving the nest they end up flying off and doing their own thing. Thats what its all about.
BTW its good to smile
vegiman

Hey Hypo

Thanx for agreeing with me on the Monday 9th forum - you have no idea how much it means to me to get a direct response from somebody - my first one. I won't say it's like your first kiss (it isn't!)but it still rocks!

If you have any ideas on how to implement the things discussed in the furom (oops, I mean forum), I'd be glad to help.

And another thing, how do you get a visit counter on you page? I am not HTML literate, so pls help!

Thanx again, and keep up the good work

Hi Astrodome Goth

If I can pop in here - you do not have to know Html Java or any other program or script. All you need to know is how to copy and paste. Just follow the link under clock and follow the on screen instructions. copy the program they give you and paste it to your page using the edit in the goo on the left of you screen. For a computer technician it should be easy.

Other bits and pieces on my page which you can copy and make your life easier on h2g2. Feel free to copy what ever you want.

Hi Hypoman
The only problem with the page clock I can see is it will count every time you go to your home page. I asked LE if it could be updated and used off page - they are looking into it.

Thanks for the rewrite on your page - There seems to be a problem - the last three or four Characters in each line are not showing. Not word wrapping properly.

All the best vegiman

Hi Astrodome!

No worries - I'll agree with you any time, as long as I think you're right! I'll probably kiss you (virtually) any time you like! About how to implement these things, it's really just a matter of making a (pleasant, but persistant) nuisance of yourself to one of the people who matter in those sorts of decisions - like Mark Moxon or Yoz.

To get a page visitor counter, you can either click on the little hyperlink under the counter on my page, or go to Vegiman's page, where it's all explained a little more thoroughly. You have to give them a few details like an Email address etc., and then, as Vegiman says, it's just a matter of cutting and pasting.

As Vegiman also says (and as I have also noticed) the problem with the page counter is that it updates every time you go to your home page from anywhere else - even within the 'Guide. This may be something to consider before putting one on your page, because unless you're careful about how many visits there were on the clock last time you were there, then you won't get any real idea how popular your page is. I've only had mine for about three days, and I think only about 10 of the 50 or so visitors have been anyone but me!

Let me know what happens with your enquiries on that score, Vegiman.

I have stopped refreshing my page so often about 169, in fact exactly 169 visitors since the 22nd Aug out of the 244 logged on the counter. I started logging it on a note pad from day one.

I have recieve an E-mail from LE - as yet I have not got round to answering it - I will keep you updated.
vegiman

Hi Hypoman

Thanx for the info to you and to vegiman. You've both been very helpful! I've now got a working counter up and running and some links to other peoples sites as well. I'm trying to figure out the code that has suddenly appeared (by myself - in true techie style!) so I can put a link to your page - if you don't mind. If you - let me know and i'll remove it .

Thanx again.

No worries at all, Astrodome. Go the techies!

Hi monsieurHypo I added another integer to your counter. I see your page has not altered, I still cannot read the descriptions beside the names because the word wrap is not working ( I wonder why). I am still wondering what you said about me - I can only read two thirds of it.

Is it just me - do you have a wide screen monitor or what.
vegiHomosap

Hi Vegibloke!

The word wrap IS doing something funny - for me it wraps OK, as long as I don't have my "Favorites" file open on the side of the page. I have noticed other odd things going on, but only disjointedly, and not enough that I really thought it important (or made notes on where and when it was happening). It does seem to work better for some pages than for others - Fenchurch's page, for example, wraps perfectly, and she's got a LOT of stuff there!

Perhaps Pasty could help, otherwise get yoz or ant to have a look. If it affects your page it will affect others. Get them to put it right.

VegiGeeser

Hi Vegianthropoid!

The word wrap problem has now redefined itself on my browser: the whole page is simply pushed sideways by my "Favorites" column. This means that the comments about each of the links are now visible for me at all times, but the bits in the gutter on the side of the page keep disappearing. Have a look and see if the "tweakings" of the 'Guide have made any difference to the way my page looks to you!

Regards,

H.

Hi Hypo,
Sorry I took so long getting back to you. I've had a quick look at your source and am not too sure why you can't get the right hand side of the page. The word wrap seems to work, in your source code you've got each paragraph as a single line, so if the wrap wasn't working then that's how it would appear on the screen. You might want to try a couple of things though, first up is that you've got the table further down the page set up for a 95% width. That's quite a lot of the page given over to the table, I'm not too sure how that works in here but it could be that the table is 95% of the entire width and the everything else spreads out to counter for that. So if you take the width tag out of the table then in theory it should set it's own width automatically and then the rest of the page should do the same around that. Secondly, Why have you got your favourites folder open? and thirdly don't you have a scroll bar along the bottom of your screen? I don't think screen size affects it too much as the computer I use for coding is only 640x480. I think first up, dump the width tag and see if that works.
Hope that's some help to you.

Hi again,
I've had a chance to have another look at your code and I think I might have found your problem.
Down at the part of the table where you list the researchers you give each coloumn a width, the first being 200 pixels wide and the second being 300, I'm not much of a mathematicion (I can't spell either) but that adds up to 500. Now if you're using a monitor like mine, that leaves only 140 pixels for the stuff on either side. H2G2 take a bit up for their goo (nice goo though) and then there's that little gap after the goo, before the page can start, so in effect the table doesn't start until about 70ish pixels into the page. Add onto that the 500 for the table and that doesn't leave much for the right hand gap or the right hand margin. Also the nobr tag just above that sets the page width a little bigger as well. You could try a smaller font or a smaller heading.
If that makes sense, I hope it might help.
I don't think that it's any one thing in particular but a combination.

I'm back again,
Your main problem is the tag and that long heading, the Good researchers... The combination of these two increases the width of the page. The nobr tag is needed to make the heading stay within the background piccy and not go onto two lines but the length of the title means that the page must be widened to accomodate it. If you were to reduce the title length or even the font size then the page wouldn't be so wide. I would also suggest dropping the 200 and 300 pixel sizes from the researchers table, it makes it look good but I think it may be a bit binding. Perhaps end the previous table and start afresh for the links, on the first row half the title and then after that put in the researchers, then after them stick in a blank row of a few pixels, then put in a row with the guide people header followed by their links. That way the width for the links and the descriptions would still be uniform and look OK. It might also tidy your code up a little. I think though that the main problem is the length of the title, it's just a little bit too long for anyone browsing with a smaller monitor.
If you decide to go with the seperate table (I think it would be a good idea) and you want, I'll draw up the code for you and save you a bit of time.
Hope that works.

I don't know to much about html and the like, but I do rember reading in a forum not so long back which refered to the reference thingy. The person was having problems and the answer was to widen the page and this was done by adding spaces somewhere. Sorry thats all I can remember. If you know where the spaces should go Pastey, it might help Hipofellow get his page right.
GM

I don't think this is the same problem. I sort of remember the one you are on about, but not how to fix it. I did some playing around with his code and I'm pretty certain that it is just that one heading is too long.

Hey again Pastey!

I did have a look at the page as per your recommendations, (mind you I didn't get around to it until just a short time ago) but the institution of GuideML by the 'Guide seems to have solved all the problems - at least, they are no longer apparent to me. The difference between the NOBR tag and the page width I have used for the table seems incongruous, I agree, but at the moment it doesn't seem to be quite as much of a problem as it was. I don't know what Vegiman has to say about things at the moment. I am in favour of the reduction of heading font size to get around the width problem, and will give it a go if the problem persists, but at the moment it seems to be in abeyance.

Thanks for your efforts! Thanks to you too, Graveyman! I'm pleased to see somebody new drop around for a look!