I dunno if I like the new floating menubar which has suddenly popped up on the left.

and then when I went back into the forums it was gone. wierd...

Yea...strange but fun to play with! Scrolling then suddenly changing directions makes the critter sorta lurch...I spent a few minutes in absorbed play trying to make it derail, but no luck. Still, its handy for jumping from place to place. I think it's a keeper... Tom

I say it's a plus! Easy to navigate to where you want to go, and it doesn't take up hardly any screen space.

-T

I kind of like the cute little dance it does when you scroll trying to keep in the window. Makes it nice not having to scroll back up to get to certain menu items. Besides, it was an empty space anyway.
DJ

In my book, it's a keeper. I wonder if you could put a "view new posts" link on there too? I think that would be useful.

Ed

It's an experiment. I've also put it on the links and gallery pages. It's possible it could cause browser probs for some folks, and others might not be able to see it at all.

We'll see how the feedback goes.

Do me a favor:

If you can see the floating menubar, post "I can see it" or something like that (opinion optional). If you can't see it, post "What menu bar?" or something similar.

I not only see it but I have been using it. :)
DJ

Not only do I see it, but it is still good for several minutes of mindless play.....what a neat toy!.....Tom

I use a Mac with IE 5. IE already has a menu bar, so what happens is the new menu moves over to the right a bit and sometimes covers what's in the leftmost part of the screen.

Also, even though I have a DSL connection, the pages load very slowly and jerkily since the new menu was added.

Having said that, the new menu is way cool. As a programmer, I can understand the thrill of finally getting something like that to work so I hesitated before voicing any problems with it so I'll shut up if you share the code with us hehehehe

Keep up the good work,

Margaret

I can see it and I like it. Much quicker to jump.

Bob

I can see it and I do like the ease of use. I wish it didn't move, but I think that might be an eye problem with me. Something about things moving in my peripheral vision.

It is easy to use instead of having to use the back button.

Hope it stays.

I see it, and I lke it. The only time I see it moving is when I'm scrolling a page. I have noticed that the site is extremely slow today, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not.

Ed

I see it and think it works great!

YES!!! I was hoping you would ad that link for the Last 24 hours. Now I don't have to go to my favorites to find it. Excellent!!! :bigthmb: :bow: It's perfect now, you can't get any better than that. :)
DJ

I see it and like it!

I'm on a PC with IE 5.0 and a cable connection -- no problems created by the menu bar.

What I like most about it is the link to the new gallery. Having the link to the "new pages" and "last 24 hours" is handy also, since it saves me from having to get my list of bookmarks on the screen to create the links. That "jumping around" habit it has is very noticeable, but not a real problem for me.

Don't forget every single post has a link to the Gallery (that particular user's Gallery, which may be blank, but it still gets you there :) )

Any AOL users here that can or can't see the new floating menu bar?

The color change is great. That is a lot better. Thanks for all your hard work, Doug. I know we all appreciate it.

Doug, I notice that the "hot" spot for each menu item is exactly the same size as the word. I would suggest making the hot spots all the same size.

Just a suggestion

Margaret

Looks great from here. I am amazed at the continuing improvements to the site. Thanks for all the hard work Doug!

Margaret:

I know exactly what you mean, but right now that's not possible. But I'll work on it.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and input.

Still waiting for everyone else's see/not see comments, particularly any AOL users. Also, any Mac users out there, can you see it?

Having been the 1st to comment on it, it's amazing that I can't see it anymore. :confused:

For me it's a case of "now you see it, now you don't" ...

But when I *do* see it, I find it really useful!

I've only had it hide from me once, and hitting reload made it appear. It makes use of your cache, so hitting ctrl-reload might be necessary to replace the version in your cache.

And of course, if you've turned off your cache settings to save disk space, you won't have this problem, but the forum will much slower than it needs to be.

Add another to the "I like it!" vote!

I think Doug had himself cloned because I have no idea how he manages the day to day runnings of this site and yet still finds times to do these nifty upgrades!

Hee hee...a clone of me :)
Somewhere my ex just got a chill down her back, and can't figure out why.

and now it's back. more :confused: I must review my opinion, in that some of the menu options are neat (including DJ's and my favourite: view last 24 hrs)

Impossible hours you work Doug. I 1st saw it at about 3pm SA time (GMT+2) and now it's 9:15am SA time and you still seem to be going strong!

Al:

What browser version/OS are you using? The menubar is really nothing fancy, just some javascript, so if you're having problems here you're probably in for problems with javascript elsewhere.

Note that it doesn't show on posting pages, or any pages where you can type on.

Originally posted by Doug Nelson

Also, any Mac users out there, can you see it?

LIKE the new menu bar. Very smooth.
Works great on IBook using Netscape4.7-? for regular forums. Also with Explorer 5-? which I have switch to for Gallery because Netscape 4.7-? just gives me a black screen (but the new menubar is there). Same on the G3.
P.S. I'm an extreme anti-Explorer person and only use it if forced to. Will have try Opera again to see if it works with both. I have tried Netscape 6, twice and though the latest was better, it's still too unstable for me on the Mac.
Tried and true Mac user (since '86)

Funny that the navbar shows and the Gallery doesn't :) (not so funny for you, though...but don't give up hope, the author is continually improving it).

I've read that MS IE 5 for the Mac is the most W3C compliant browser ever made. This probably means nothing to those without websites, but I think its cool.

Using IE 5.5 sp2, and as I type I can see it, and it is alive.

I've got a feeling that the appearance, disappearance is to do with the university's cache/proxy server. Will check it out from home tonite and let you know (or maybe not, as I'm getting a new car later :grin: )

My problem is definitely something to do with a cache somewhere. If I run down a thread I haven't been on for a while it's available (no matter how many times I go down that thread). If I go down a thread which I've been on and which has been updated (such as this one), it's gone. If I refresh (or Ctl-refresh) I don't get it back, and if I had it before it's gone. (and, I had it on the last reply page I used, but not this one!). On multi-page threads, it's only available on the first page of that thread that I go down.

I'm still :confused: but I hope Doug can get some pointers from this :idea:

Don't y'all love computers?

works fine in Netscape :)

Works great from home. Tried it in my computer lab (win95 remoteboot + netscape 4.08) and it worked there, except that the title (MENU) was missing, so it must be something on my machine at work. Going to try reinstalling IE on that machine tomorrow :(

Hey Doug, glad you added the menubar to the forums page as well!

Hi Doug,

I'm using a PC (Windows XP). I tried it on Mozilla 0.9.2, the built in browser in StarOffice 5.2, Opera 6.0 and Internet Explorer 6.0. It worked in all of them except IE, which I suspect is because IE doesn't come with Java. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it or not but now I use it all the time and it's really usefull!

- David

Sorry to disappoint you Doug, but that floating menubar is causing me problems.

I use a Mac with IE 6 and ever since the menubar first made it's appearance, pages take forever to load and there is a lot of flashing off and on before the page finally appears even though the menubar only shows up periodically.

I don't always get the menubar and since you removed all other navigation options from the pages, I can't navigate to different parts of the site without re-typing the URL for the home page - annoying!

Also, whether or not the menubar shows up, I can't click on a page number to navigate to other pages of a multi-page thread so I'm limited to reading the first page and sometimes I can get to the last page, but as you know, some of the threads have many pages and I might want to follow a thought somewhere in the middle.

I've tried Netscape too but had even more problems there.

Margaret

Sorry to hear about all that, Margaret. As to why you're experiencing it, I have no idea. The pages are actually smaller now, so loading should be faster, not slower. Plus they have zero to do with clicking on the numbers for more pages. Add that to NS causing even more problems, and I'm suspecting something local. Have you checked to make sure you have your cache enabled? Also, javascript is installed by default, but you can de-select it...did you install the full browser?

You have so many different problems, problems that have no commonality...I'm thinking it's a good time for a spring cleaning of your system.

Doug,

My menubar doesn't always show up, but if I "Refresh" the page, it pops up again. As you explained to Margaret, the pages load more quickly -- except when I'm experiencing a cable company problem.:rolleyes:

Margaret -- have you tried using "Refresh" on IE6 to see if that brings the menubar up? (I'm still using IE5, but am guessing that "Refresh" is still on the menu?)

What happens when you try to click on a page number of a multi-page thread?

I noticed the same thing CJ. When I log on from an e-mail thread notice, often the menu bar won't be there. Didn't know what to make of that or if it was just me. I will try that refresh. Thanks. Usually I will have to go the RetouchPro Forum link at the top to get a new page or 2 before it shows up. It's intermitent so I don't know what to say about it. I do love the menu bar and use it all the time now.
DJ

I'll put in a third agreement to CJ and DJ's observation. I've just chalked it up to the fact that maybe Doug is still not done implementing it across the site? -Jeanie

Sorry I misspoke - I'm using IE 5 on the Mac.

I'm pretty good at trouble shooting, so I've already tried all your suggestions to no avail and I waited thinking Doug was still working on it, but since it hasn't improved, I thought I should let him know.

I surf all day long for my work, and have no problems with other web sites. I have a DSL connection and have tried with lots of cache (emptied regularly) and with no cache (forcing pages to load) but no improvement.

Just thought you'd like to know,

Margaret

Aside from some possible cosmetic tweaking, and periodically updating as I add new links (like the new 'search' link I added yesterday), it's done. I didn't write the java code, anyway, so I wouldn't begin to know how to fiddle with that.

It's interesting that more than one has indicated it's when following an email link that they have trouble, so I'll look into that.

I could see occasional menu oddness (stuff happens), or intermittent multi-page number weirdness, but the two have nothing to do with each other, and the combination leads me to think something else is afoot.

In the meantime, don't forget ctrl/cmd-r will also refresh.

hmm thats wierd that it's not working on some peoples browsers. I've tried it in all the browsers I have and I didn't have any problems except in IE 6 when it didn't show a couple times (but it worked when I reloaded it). Margaret maybe it's a problem with the Mac version of Internet explorer?? have you tried any other browsers?

- David

Well, I followed the e-mail link to this thread. I did not get a menu bar - refreshed four times and still no menu bar. Went to the top of the page and clicked on "RetouchPRO Forums." No menu bar. Clicked on "View new posts" - no menu bar on the search results page. Clicked on a thread link and THEN there was a menu bar and it stayed with me for the rest of the session. It's not really a problem - I have no trouble getting around it. Just curious. I'm running Windows 98 and IE5.5
-Jeanie
P.S. I take that back. I had no menu bar while writing this reply and when I hit "submit" and it took me back to see my post, there was no menu bar - and stayed missing when I clicked on the "RetouchPRO Forums" link at the top of the page. Again, I haven't had any trouble working around this, but it does seem a bit sporadic for me.

That's exactly what happens to me Jeanie. And I too never get the menu bar when I'm replying to a post. I figured that part was normal.
I'm using IE 6 also with Windows XP if that helps. It may be something with IE users only. Don't know if that helps or not. It's not a problem for me or probably other seasoned members but it could be a problem for newbies.
DJ

The menubar isn't supposed to be there when replying...but should be there when you're reading.

I'm at a loss to explain this. Do you have trouble getting the menubar on the other sections of the site, or just the forums?

(btw, I used email notification for this thread and got the menubar just fine).

One thing you might try is holding the ctrl/cmd key down while hitting the reload button. That forces a full reload (in case the cached version has something missing).

Further complicating things is the fact that we've been having webserver weirdness for the past couple of days.

Hang on, be patient, we'll get all the bugs worked out one way or the other. Check for browser upgrades in the meantime :)

Doug,
I haven't noticed the menu bar missing in other sections of the site. Sometimes I do get the menu bar when I use the email notification, but most often not. I did try holding down the ctrl key when hitting the reload button and the menu bar DID appear!!

Yes, I have been noticing the server weirdness the past couple of days (esp. this morning.) :( But, that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the menu bar - or does it?

I usually keep pretty current on updates, but I'll check.

Jeanie

I did try Netscape and if anything it was worse!

I didn't have these problems when I first started visiting this site and since Doug had been making major changes, I thought it best to alert him in case it was something he changed.

Doug assures me that any changes he made couldn't have caused the problems.

I did what I felt I had to do.

Doug did what he felt he had to do.

Nuff said.

Margaret

Hey Doug, I've just got back to work after the Easter vac, and my "problem" PC is now displaying the menubar every time. Well done on whatever you did :bigthmb:

Cool :)

IE6, Windows 2000...

Menu work fine for me (after I found it).

My .02
* Consider changing the "Main Menu" border colors to something other than 70% gray -or- change text color of MENU to something other than white. As is, it's easy for the word MENU to get lost among the surrounding B/W/G text and and backgrounds. FYI: I found the MENU 'by accident' while my mouse was wandering (I hate it when that happens). When I involuntarily jumped at the sight of the menu popout, the cat darn near fell off the top of the monitor!
* Last entry under the FORUM submenu, "User CP." Yeah, I know (now) it stands for 'User Control Panel'... but when I was looking to repair my "signature," I looked high and low for a more universal label, such as "Profile" or "User Profile." Opened "User CP" by accident. Yes, I noticed on the UCP there's a "User profile" subfunction, but that shouldn't prevent you from considering a more universal ad user friendly label on the menu.

HTH...
--DannyR

I see it...but..I guess I'm old school and its a bit too distracting for my taste. Also, it took me a couple of minutes to find it from the main retouchpro page. At first, I didn't see any navigation icons, so that thru me a bit.

Have you researched the ability to modify the browser icon bar? I'm not sure if I like that idea either, but it may be an option that will allow navigation without the distraction of the floating bar.

I can see it, but I'm not quite sure if I like it or not.