My Small Business - Website Improvements

I recently upgraded by business' website appearance to reflect professionalism and clean design.  A big part of web design is of course graphic design.  I am not a professional graphic designer so I use works that artists provide free to the web design community.  It is important to make sure any images, photos, etc are approved by the artist for commercial application.  This narrows the field quite significantly.

Here are my favorite sources for free, commercial use graphics:
http://www.sunipix.com
http://www.sxc.hu
http://icons.mysitemyway.com/
http://www.devwebpro.com/developer-icon-sets-collection-of-the-best-free-to-both-personal-commercial-use-icon-sets/

(Note: Make sure the images you use are specifically approved for commercial use by author/artist)

Take a look at the new site at www.kirksvillewebdesign.com.  Here's a screenshot for the timid.

Pretty Nice Eh?  Google Sites can look good, I promise!

Google Sites Tutorial - Horizontal Navigation and Drop Down Boxes

Google Sites released the option for horizontal navigation not too long ago.  This new features greatly enhances the professional look of websites, and I have used it on all my new sites.  Please refer to my post on background layout for easy integration of horizontal navigation into your web design.

Horizontal Navigation is more appealing because we process information best that way.  It makes sense, we read from left to right.  Another benefit from this feature is that it eliminates the need for a sidebar.  While sidebars have their place in web design it is better to implement it on your terms, not because you have to for navigation purposes.

Also, horizontal navigation enables the use of dropdown boxes.  These are links that appear when the category is hovered over.  For instance, in my bakery website example.  I have a page called Baked Goods, the sub-pages of which will be scones, muffins, cupcakes, etc.  Those sub-pages, which you designate in Manage Site > Site Layout > Change Layout > Horizontal Navigation using the left and right arrows, are a nice option for less cluttered navigation.

For examples of horizontal navigation checkout: www.kirksvillehousingauthority.com, or www.pancakecitykirksville.com.

For a walkthrough watch this video below.

For more information Google has posted about this as well: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/tips-tricks-making-most-of-your-sidebar.html

Insert A Webpage, Group or Forum In Your Google Site!

There seems to be a lot of people wanting another web page incorporated into their google site. Here is a perfect and simple solution ....




1) Create your group/forum or find an interesting website and then insert it as a web page in your google site.

Here is how to insert the page:



2) Click edit page > insert > more gadgets > search "Iframe Wrapper" > select > paste in the URL customise the display (uncheck display title, uncheck add border)

3) Click on ok and don't forget to save. And you are done! Check out the result!