Browser consistency + Margin issues

[chisim11 0]

I have several questions/concerns compiled into one in order to avoid multiple discussions. To whomever reads this, I would like you to try to understand what is exactly what I'm trying to accomplish and perhaps provide me with some realistic expectations on what I can or cannot do. I would very much appreciate your response(s) in layman terms as I'm still learning some of the lingo. I will do my best to describe the issues as clearly as possible. Thanks for your time. I've been working on my site for some time now http://tinyurl.com/7mt26c6. I use google chrome as my main browser and used it since I started building the site. Most of you have helped me one time or another. ISSSUE 1: One of my main issues from the beginning have been the main navigation(home,about,contact, etc). For some reason it has never been completely centered. As you can see, there is a bit more space on the left margin than the right. I tried so many times w/the moderators' help to no avail that I have already gave up trying to have the darn thing centered. I wished I could also add a couple of more menus on the navigation, but that is obviously out of the question as the main nav will stretch out farther/wider than the 1200px already maxed out margins. ISSUE 2: Using google chrome on my desktop & laptop, the main nav appears as one line(as I want it to appear) but when I look at the main nav on my laptop using I.E and mozilla, the main nav breaks into 2 lines, which is a no-no. Terrible! Is the inconsistency of how it looks on the laptop a browser issue or is it some setting regarding mobile laptops/devices that I failed to set on platform pro? Any suggestions how to fix this? Is this issue address with the new responsive design on 2.0, or is that something entirely different? ISSUE 3: And recently I found out that certain content on some of my pages that appear fine on chrome, appear only partially on I.E. for instance: http://tinyurl.com/7thvehy. Why is this happening? I cannot tell you whether this happened from the beginning or whether this is a recent issue. I have thought about revamping the whole thing and creating a website in the same format as www.trump.com where I can have full images as background and having a vertical menu on the left to get rid of all these browser/margins compatibility issues and main-nav problems. I believe they look better and not boxy/square as most website look, but also I could add more menus to the navigation as I will not be tied-down to margins' limitations. I believe Rangelone suggested in the past a fly in menu at http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/website but not sure how that would replace the current menu or how to go about it. Anyways, I've been thinking about upgrading to Pagagelines framework 2.0, but based on my situation not sure if what I want is even possible. I reviewed some of the feedback and read some of the info for framework 2.0 and it still seems there is a lot of coding, CSS involved. I could have certainly go with some specific related theme for Real Estate that is offered by Elegant themes, Woo themes, and many others out there, but then I would be limited by their theme limitations, and I would look like everyone else out there as well. That's why I'm still trying to make it work with Pagelines and possibly upgrade to 2.0 Is it doable? What is your honest opinion about my situation. Sorry, if I don't make too much sense, its 4:15am. Sorry for the looonggg explanation and thank you for your time.

[chisim11 0]

Some website corrections for above/prev discussion. 1)Correct website address for fly in menus: http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/ 2)check http://tinyurl.com/7thvehy using I.E browser where it shows partial content.

[Rob 547]

I'm going to have to tackle each issue separately because of the length of this and the replies needed. [b]Issue 1. Centered Menus and Menu Options[/b] While we would love to center menus, particularly when so many people ask for it, the centering options available just don't work. This isn't a PageLines issue but a CSS and WordPress issue we've struggled with for some time. Because your only option is an offset from the left margin, there will be variations among the browsers on how it looks from one browser to another. As for wanting more menu items, I believe your site needs to have its menu consolidated and to use the menus more intuitively. Consolidating some of those menu links would assure you of a narrower menu. You can use pages for some of your static content and thus apply quite easily, a tiered hierarchical secondary nav (not the subnav which are drop-downs) to bring people logically to places where they will find content. The primary navigation should be just that; primary. It should bring you to principal places of your site and then, from there, take people to other, related places. Respectfully, I believe you're trying to achieve it all in one shot but that never works. Having published sites for 15 years I've become familiar with menus and the public only gets frustrated when the menu is too overwhelming.

[Rob 547]

[b]Issue 2. Menu Width[/b] Your menu wraps in some devices because it is too wide for their allowed space. For instance, if a browser in a laptop can handle 1024px wide views and you have 1200px, then at least 176px are going to be forced to wrap. This is related to what I suggested above - to narrow it down, consolidate the menu so that your menu is no more than 1000px wide. Even with that, on some devices such as hand-held PDAs, Kindles and other readers and smartphones you will still have a greater than 50% chance of wrapping. The subnav menus everywhere don't help. A supplemental fly-in menu would help by providing added links that vanish or technically, minimize, when the visitor doesn't want to see them or doesn't need them. Implementation of a sliding menu can be achieved with plugins (there are many nowadays) or you can apply a section. Probably much easier to find a menu plugin. I believe that part of your problem with wrapping also stems from the very wide flash you have in the slider, which is using way too much of a browser's resources and your visitor's memory. Many developers forget that large files like that will not really work well on small devices, which is why many manufacturers have opted to stay away from flash and some multimedia types. Honestly, I dread looking at your site not because it's unattractive - in fact just the opposite - but because it slows my laptop to a crawl. Check out Sotheby's Realtors site and Christie's Great Estates to see how they implement action without occupying memory resources.

[Rob 547]

[b]Issue 3. Browser Views[/b] I think part of your problem here is you need to sleep more; worry less. Writing at 4:15 in the morning isn't a good way to get sites built. I've done it and each time I found I messed something up. Drink less coffee and rest more. As for the browser views, I checked that link in Firefox, IE and Chrome. With the exception of the gap between the two white-backgrounded bits, they were the same, but here's my dumb question - how does one navigate away from there and back to important content on your site? Now you see why I said less coffee; more sleep. When it comes to menus, navigation, browser checking, cross browser views and the like, I'm really a total amateur and do nothing special. But take a look at http://www.epicurus.com in any of the browsers or on any of the various devices and it looks great with no wrapping. It also loads fast despite having a front page of 1.2Mb. PageLines Framework is a great thing for you because it actually does many things you could use for your site without the added coding needed in PlatformPro, but I'd suggest you work to trim down what you have with an eye towards memory use, size control and navigation hierarchy before you take the next step. Now don't think I'm being critical. I actually like what you've done and think it's very creative, intensely alluring and visually attractive. Bravo!

[chisim11 0]

Rangelone, I really appreciate you taking the time to read my bible. Issue 1. I did not know centering issues was a CSS and wordpress. You are the 1st one to mention it. case closed. Agree w/you on the menu items consolidations. I guess this is probably the most difficult part of the whole thing. I'll be working on it. Issue 2. I agree w/the video flash, the memory for users and the buffering issues. I have tried to make it smaller overall but, unfortunately, everytime I do that, the youtube logo appears on the bottom right corner. When I researched this issue, realized, there is no way to get rid of it since youtube does not allow it, so my only option was to hide it.( I know, I know, what can I tell you). Maybe I will have no choice but to remove it. Darn it! The funny thing regarding the main nav is that it does not break into a 2nd line when I look at it on the ipad, samsung galaxy tablet or even on my android phone for that matter but it fails miserably on my laptop. Go figure. issue 3. More sleep for sure. I will certainly go back to the drawing board and make will try to keep it simple and working efficiently. before upgrading to P Framework. The last thing I wanna do is to upgrade and try to do all these tweaks with the new and unfamiliar P. Framework. Thanks a lot for everything Rangelone.