Website Help and Information

Introduction

This is the 5th version of this website, further details can be found in the Version Text File in the footer of every page. This version has been nearly 6 months and nearly 400 man hours in the making, and has gone through several different designs before morphing into this final version. Technology has moved at an astonishing rate since I designed the last version, nearly two years ago, and I have taken into consideration the use of Smartphones and Tablet Devices when designing this latest version. The result is something of a compromise but should serve its purpose for the next few years.

I have moved from XHTML to HTML5 for this version and the site will display as I intended in all modern browsers including Internet Explorer 10 and current versions of Chrome, Firefox and Opera. IE10 is only available to users of Windows 8 and of Win 7. Users of Vista and Win XP are limited to IE8 and below, although the site will work for you, please consider upgrading to another browser, such as Chrome, to get the full benefit from this site.

The site has been given a more modern look and we have changed our main colour from green to a shade of mid-blue. This is a "political" decision as another website in Wootton copied the use of green. I have tried to limit the use of Java in this design, the main menu and many of the moving displays are realised using only CSS, this and the use of HTML 5 has resulted in a faster page loading time.

Some of the "associated sites" notably Wootton Life! and Creekside WI have been redesigned as well.

If you encounter a problem with this website you are invited to contact the web designer, explaining the problem you are having. A link can be found at the bottom of every page.

Accessibility

Please go to our Accessibility Page.

Another major change is the introduction of advertisements. The rising cost of hosting the site and maintaining it has left us with no alternative to the use of advertisements. We are grateful to the local site sponsors who have chosen to continue to support us, however the ever increasing popularity of the site has made a change to a faster server inevitable. The site's Alexa ranking has risen from a position of over 5 million in mid 2012 to its current ranking of less than 400,000. We have tried asking for donations but despite the site being used by over 215,000 visitors last year the amount donated does not allow us to keep the site running (you can see our stats on the front page). We are currently looking for a major sponsor and if this happens we will remove the advertisements. Until then the only way we can maintain the site is with the revenue generated by the use of these advertisements.

Recipes

We moved the historical recipes to their own site in August last year. They can now be found at www.recipespastandpresent.org.uk. Since the move the new site is attracting over 7,000 visitors a month. The relocation has given us more server space and we have increased the range of recipes available and are constantly adding to the site.

Internet Explorer 6 and Earlier Versions

This website does not support IE6 and earlier versions (5.5, 5 etc). Visitors using these legacy browsers are only about 0.6% of the total and the amount of extra coding involved is no longer viable. Most of the site will function, the most noteable exception is the main menu, except for top level items, and some of the rollover effects. IE6 users are advised to use the site map page to navigate. Please consider adding another more modern (and safer) browser such as Chrome. Links are provided in the next section.

Browser Links

Other browsers are available. A list of browsers can be found on Wikipedia.

How This Site Was Constructed

This site was hand coded in HTML5 and CSS3 using a basic text editor. The pages are served up by PHP. Notepad is a text editor thats available on all systems using Windows and you can normally find this application in the "Accessories" file. A text editor with more functionality is Notepad ++, which is a free application and can be downloaded at http://notepad-plus-plus.org/. Notepad++ was used to code this site.

Images

The images you see on this site where prepared with Easy Thumbnails and PhotoShop. I have resized many of the original scans and where necessary have corrected them in PhotoShop.

Printer Friendly

All the pages on this have been formatted to allow you to print them out correctly. Pages will be printed without menu items, header images, etc, in order to conserve your ink and paper and only print the essential information you need. A Print Icon can now be found at the top of most pages to make it easier to print pages.

Java

Certain parts of the design rely on the use of JavaScript to function correctly. You should therefore ensure that it is turned on in your browser, normally this will be the de-fault setting. If it is turned off the image expander will not work but you will still be able to view the images.

E-mail

All the e-mail addresses on this site have been protected against automatic spam harvesters. The link will open correctly in your E-mail browser.

i-Pad and Mobile Devices

No Flash content is used on this site. The site displays correctly in all mobile devices including iPhone and iPad. If you find a problem viewing the site with a mobile device please contact the webmaster.

Displays in All Browsers

This website has been designed to display correctly in all the major browsers and operating systems including Linux, iPad, iPhone and Android. It has been tested in Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, and 10 and in all modern versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. It has also been verified in other variants of the "Trident" engine i.e. AOL. All variants of the "webkit" browser also display correctly. As previously noted IE versions below 7 are not supported.

Tony Hudson (Web Designer IoW)
February 2013

This page was last edited on: 26th January, 2022 17:50:33

Wootton Bridge Walks