(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I think the front page of the wiki could be better at presenting essential info to first-time visitors; so I've experimented with a redesign. What do you think?

Existing front page:


A redesign I did:

Edit: the above link will take you to the latest version of the page; th e original redesign can be accessed here.

It's bland but, IMHO, has several advantages over the existing one:

• doesn't overload visitor with names and links for lots of programs that are not in Puppy.
• has a larger number of helpful Puppy links yet without getting too confusing; they are broken into clear, logical categories.
• no html, just wiki code so easier to edit, hopefully

comments? suggestions?

I think languages should be along the top. And installing Flash should feature prominently as it seems to be the main thing people want to do.

personally I like how all the topics are equal..... and the languages section is easy to fine anyway

I like the new layout - gives proportion & viewability & better useability..

Could use a bit of colour though - maybe pale yellow/cream every alternate topic..!!

Just my 2 c's worth..

crafty.
.

two other alternatives that you can edit

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/LoFSandBox

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SandBox

craftybytes wrote:I like the new layout - gives proportion & viewability & better useability..

Could use a bit of colour though - maybe pale yellow/cream every alternate topic..!!

Just my 2 c's worth..

crafty.
.

yeah, it's not very colourful. The existing page uses HTML tables and color tags; mine uses only wikki wakka wiki code floating boxes, which only come in light blue.

I only know minimal HTML, and I suspect the same for many who might contribute to the wiki. The more HTML used, the more difficult I think it will be for anyone to just chip in with a contribution, an update or other edit.

EDIT: wikkawakka tables seem useless as a layout tool, because you can't put any links or do any formatting in them. And floating boxes tend to... float about when I edit them, screwing things up. maybe HTML is the way to go...

darrelljon wrote:And installing Flash should feature prominently as it seems to be the main thing people want to do.

yeah, maybe a "frequent requests" or "Common tasks" box with Flash, WiFi etc.

@anyone:
can the wiki search box be at the top of the page, not the bottom?

I know I'm the one who introduced floating boxes into the design, but the more I use them, the more they annoy me.

If I do any editing or tweaking, I never know where the boxes will be positioned. Sometimes 5 on the left, 5 on the right; sometimes 4 on the left & 6 on the right. Depends on page width & god knows what else. It's a lottery.

wikkawakkwiki tables are no good either. no linking or formatting allowed inside them.

html tables need even more coding than wikkawakkawikiwhatevathafakka, or an external html coding program (both of which defeat the point of a wiki).

So I dumped all that and went with a single "column". Guaranteed to be even blander now , but a hell of a lot easier to edit and to get an expected result.

DOWNSIDES: bland, lot of space wasted
UPSIDES: easy-peasy to edit, gets the basics in there, no surprises depending on window width/height

I wish the puppy wiki had easier, functional tables, like pbwiki.

|Here's|three|columns|
|and|three|rows|
|in|pbwiki|code|

anyways here they are:

• heading>newline>heading>newline format
• Bullet point format
• Left & right floating text boxes format which looks nice... until you try to tweak it and the boxes start popping up all over the bloody place.

if you want to change the color of the tables or anything, you need to link to a new .css file.
I've had a look and the code for the color of the boxes is here The important bit being '.floatl .... background: #EEE

#0033FF gives a nice blue for example!

the .css file for the wikka is here
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/css/wikka.css
so you would need to save it as a new one like 'my.css' and upload it into the same folder eg http://puppylinux.org/wikka/css/
then in the head of the page you are editing, change this to this then the page will reflect your differences!

If someone wants me to attempt to hack at a custom .css i am willing to help (no promises). Do i just register? Does that give you full access to upload/editing html etc?

*Added example wikka page in attachment*
open with firefox to see different color scheme. The .css file is in the folder, compare with the 'live' css file to see color code changes (just five).

Raffy is the person to contact to upload css

another index type page you can edit
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/about

formatting wiki
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/FormattingRules

If you can send css file to me at or attach it here, that file will be in there in no time.

I've been thinking of getting easy html into the wiki pages, so your suggestions will be welcome.

Thanks Lobster and Raffy. I really like the layout of the 'about' page you linked to, its very clean and uncluttered!

I can easily add custom color boxes to css, I would just need to know what colors people are likely to use often (adding too much code will obviously slow page loading!). is the normal left float box but i could add (notice I have simply added a 1 after .floatl and changed the color to ffcc33)
now if you can edit the html to call class=floatl1 instead of class=floatl , you will get a orangey box without affecting the normal boxes. I would need to put in code for left and right boxes so more colors = more code.

wow that other About page is great; that's like a whole new wiki!
changed my main page to link to that instead of AboutPuppy.

CSS
that deals with the colours, but what about layout? is there a way to format the page into columns that won't require people to know html when they edit the content?

PS I notice that other about page and its subsequent pages are all html. When I tried to update some links using wiki code, it didn't work. Which defeats this quote from that page:

Why this page?
...
This page is part of Wiki and you are welcomed to add anything you think relevant. Click 'Edit Page' at the end of a page edit it (or double-click a page if your browser support Javascript). To learn more take a look at this WIKI Howto...

yes I managed to update the links but it took 6~10 times as long.

PPS and there are a LOT more links that need updating; to threads on the old forum, to goosee.com etc.

Css is supposed to be used to control all page formatting (but rarely is).
The html page is supposed to be plain text with calls to the css file, which contains layout and color data. Of course you can still use html code as well, but then its not compliant.
When viewing the wikki in Firefox, go to view/page style and click 'no style'. This shows the plain data without formatting.

As I said above, I can put together a css with multiple options for color and formatting if needed but it will take longer for the pages to load. Perhaps a better option would be 2 or 3 different css files with different layouts but all color options?

The new appraoch is much less confusing than the current. Me I like the design of http://puppylinux.org/wikka/LoFSandBox.

But what I am really missing is a simple tree structure for the information provided. Some items can found within CategoryCategory some are found within PuppyHardware and all these topics branch from PuppyLinux.

So my suggestion is:
1. The main page should be the starting point to a table of content of the wikka with a clear structure. The Forum index is a rather good example how it could look like.

Other items of main page should be:
2. A help item how to use the wikka.
3. A link to the Forum .
4. A link to the Puppy Home Page.

But there should not be to much points diverting the user from the wikka.

The current design involves the following risks:
1. Information is not found.
2. Information is entered twice at two different points.
3. The user is distractated by topics that have not much to do with the wikka itself.

Wosh

LoF has been experimenting on the wiki front page, and I saw that he is having problems with RSS . The wiki's codes are still 1.1.6.0, so am not confident if the RSS will work now. I can probably upgrade to the new codes, but it will take 1-2 weeks of cautious work. And I have not used RSS yet, sorry.

Hey all.

Thanks for the support for a few of my ideas. Like Raffy said, I've been messing about a bit with RSS.

I figured it would be pretty cool to have the latest headlines (both from the wiki news and barry's blog) to make it like an active portal to all puppy. Problems exist in that there is some general code problems with RSS and Barry's new wordpress blog uses a php script link to process an xml file and not just a simple xml/rss file. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to fire them.

What does everyone think of the new wiki? I'm finding I'm not editing it - like I used to with the old wiki. I'm not sure of the new design. Maybe too much the layout is fixed.

Lobster is also posting updates in his tmxxine wiki. I guess people familiar with wikis feel overwhelmed by the HTML elements in the new wiki.