# New Church Website!



## jwithnell (Oct 24, 2012)

Well, our church website has finally launched! Many tweeks remain that will require some coding that would have delayed the launch indefinitely. I'm especially pleased that we switched over to Sermon Audio which will make those resources more accessible. 

Thanks to many of you who answered questions along the way. I have one more, if you don't mind. The page displays well in just about everything except Opera which wants to squish the navigation bar up into the church name -- I've added more room around the navigation which is really pushing the page content down on all other platforms and still hasn't fully resolved the Opera issue. The church name is independent because it is part of the background, so it resizes depending on the size of the window. Thoughts?


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## bookslover (Oct 24, 2012)

Very nice. Very...blue!


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## arapahoepark (Oct 24, 2012)

Very classy!


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## sevenzedek (Oct 24, 2012)

Its eye candy. Good job.


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## Edward (Oct 24, 2012)

The main links fade into the background when I do a mouseover, and more importantly, the drop downs are very light on a white background. For the next major revision, I'd recommend more contrast. The site is clean, well laid out, and functional.


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## JohnGill (Oct 24, 2012)

jwithnell said:


> Well, our church website has finally launched! Many tweeks remain that will require some coding that would have delayed the launch indefinitely. I'm especially pleased that we switched over to Sermon Audio which will make those resources more accessible.
> 
> Thanks to many of you who answered questions along the way. I have one more, if you don't mind. The page displays well in just about everything except Opera which wants to squish the navigation bar up into the church name -- I've added more room around the navigation which is really pushing the page content down on all other platforms and still hasn't fully resolved the Opera issue. The church name is independent because it is part of the background, so it resizes depending on the size of the window. Thoughts?



Doesn't work too well on smart phones. You're missing an autoresponder so people can sign up and be kept up to date with what is happening at the church. It crashes Opera for me. And I agree with the previous comment about the drop down menus and their background.

Other than that, the layout is clean though. And there is no annoying flashy icons like you see on IFB websites. Those are big wins.


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## JoannaV (Oct 24, 2012)

It's nigh on impossible to make a website look good on every single browser.


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## JohnGill (Oct 24, 2012)

JoannaV said:


> It's nigh on impossible to make a website look good on every single browser.



Wordpress and Joomla when done correctly can. But in reality you only need focus on the big three: Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer. Any WP or Joomla theme will take care of that.


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## jwithnell (Oct 25, 2012)

Thanks everybody! We were also monitoring closely on Android and occasionally on iApple products.



> The main links fade into the background when I do a mouseover, and more importantly, the drop downs are very light on a white background. For the next major revision, I'd recommend more contrast. The site is clean, well laid out, and functional.


 These are items that on the list for coding. Squarespace offers no style controls over these things, although the tech said he submit for "requested features." 

Thank you for the feedback!


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## Curt (Oct 25, 2012)

It really looks wonderful. Nice job!


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## JohnGill (Oct 25, 2012)

jwithnell said:


> Thanks everybody! We were also monitoring closely on Android and occasionally on iApple products.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Squarespace, that explains the problems with your site. You'd be better off moving to GoDaddy or HostGator and setting up a WP site. It allows for better customization and comes mobile ready. If you want to go this route later let me know and I'll set up your site for free. Maintaining a WP site is easy. There are a lot of flexible yet easy to use themes perfect for churches. And the menus are more customizable.


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## jwithnell (Oct 25, 2012)

SS-6 completely changed their platform about 3 months ago and it uses responsive design for mobile devices and complies with html 5. The odd thing, though, is that your capabilities are limited by any template you select at the beginning. I have someone who can help me with the customized-coding needed, but it may take a while.


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## JohnGill (Oct 25, 2012)

jwithnell said:


> SS-6 completely changed their platform about 3 months ago and it uses responsive design for mobile devices and complies with html 5. The odd thing, though, is that your capabilities are limited by any template you select at the beginning. I have someone who can help me with the customized-coding needed, but it may take a while.



I'd still consider moving to a WP or Joomla based site that you own. When you leave their service I'm not sure you're allowed to take your site with you. At least if it's a WP/Joomla site on your own hosting package if you switch hosting providers you can take your site with you.


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