TIPS - Web Design Tips (in general) and for Microsoft Office Live

Introduction

Web design, like everything else in life requires putting yourself into the task. A good web site has part of you or in the case of web designers part of the client in it. It reflects what matters to you and what inspires you. It communicates essential elements of its purpose. Good web designers learn and know their clients or their client's businesses well enough to really communicate what matters about the business. You and they need to find the passion that's the driving force behind the intentions. Finding that and letting it guide the design is what will result in a page that stands out from others. Find your passion and let it guide you.

Microsoft Office Live is a tool for communication. Some tools are better than others. Some have all the bells and whistles and others are like old hand tools. Even those simple tools when placed in the right hands can create almost anything. For me Office Live is a challenge. A challenge to learn and bend it to present a wide array of communciation forms despite it's quirky nature. I like the challenge. You may see me poking fun at Office Live but thats the way I challenge them to make the tool better. I accept the challenge and hopefully they do to. And now back to the web stuff.

Site Organization:

Should you put a lot on one page or split it up and put it into many pages? Good question. One things for sure, if there is too much on one page don't expect viewers to find that one "all important thing" they're looking for on your site. If you have to put a lot on the page keep it "clean". Take a look at this page - Beauty of Lists. It contains a considerable amount of information but is simply and attractively designed. 

Text:
Write and fix it in a word processor first before you paste into Office Live. 

Writing:
If you say it, say it clearly and concisely. Unless they are reading a blog or really searching your site the browsing public probably won't stick around to read. Will you read all of this page?

Page Size:
Don't make your page too large. People use many different monitors with various resolutions. Forcing people to scroll around a lot is like having to look behind the TV to see the rest of the screen.

Color Scheme:
If you're stuck with themes then your stuck with color schemes. Color schemes are actually good! Choose a color scheme for your site and then repeat it often in your own designs. This gives visual continuity to your site. I won't say anything about the choice of themes we have.

Other Colors:
If you use colors other than your scheme colors use them to accent something, not just for the sake of using them.

Staying Organized:
Create a folder on your hard drive or external drive for your website and put all files and folders within this web folder for handy use and reference later.
(Contributed by Advisor-Norris)

Images:
Using very large images is visually overwhelming and they take longer to download. A smaller image that's placed well can have greater impact.

Fonts:
Choose a couple basic fonts and stick to them. This also gives visual continuity to your site.

Blank Spaces:
Don't fear the blank spaces. Blank or White space can help focus attention on what's important and impart a sense of serenity. It isn't necessary to fill up every square inch of the screen.
(Contributed by RxDave)

Checking Your Work:
After making changes, post your site; get up and walk around; and then go back and view it. Read everything you wrote. That's when you'll find your mistakes. Mine are evident too.

Construction Tips for Microsoft Office Live 

Note: These comments and tips apply to Microsoft Office Live.

UNSTABLE HYPERLINKS:

A very serious problem has cropped up. Hyperlinks created in Office Live pages are periodically altering to the wrong page reference. When this happens they no longer work. I have no idea what is causing this but check your links often.

The Rule of Two:

Office Live has a strange little bug that makes selecting things difficult, i.e., opening the table properties dialog box and selecting border colors. When this happens close the dialog box and do it again. It usually works. It's the Rule of Two, do everything twice to get there.

No "UNDO" Button:

Office Live has no undo button. If something goes wrong with editing, navigate away from the page and click "Cancel" . Don't click "OK" when it asks you to Save or Cancel. Then navigate back and try again. You will have lost your work that was unsaved but will not lose your previous work before the changes. In some cases you can go back a step by doing the key combination of Ctrl and Z. This doesn't always work.

Office Live Web Designer Goes Haywire:
If your "Web Designer" goes haywire and you end up at a page without it just press the "Alt" key and the left arrow key at the same time. You should end up back in "Web Designer".

New Problem: Mysteriously, the Web Designer moves up into the browser and hides the "Web Pages", "Save" and "View" functions. Close the Web Designer and re-open it to get back to work.

Hyperlink Quirks:
If you create a text or image hyperlink and then everything you type ends up linked even after you delete it, click "Hyperlink" again and remove the link address in the dialog box. That should fix it. Start over and it should work.

Router Restarts:
If uploading documents or images is blowing your router connection it's probably a firewall issue. Try adjusting your firewall settings. This problem is strangely intermittent for me.

Embed Align:
After embeding an item via HTML getting it to align correctly on the page can be tricky. Keep fiddling with the boundry box handles until it looks right.

Font Fiddling:
MS Office Live has some very strange font setting quirks. It often does what it wants to do as opposed to what you want it to do. Keep fiddling and hoping. In fact, I'm still messing around with this page. It doesn't view the same in "Web Designer" as it does on the web.  This problem has caused me untold time and frustration fiddling around to get the text correct.

Replacing Content:
Clicking Ctrl+A inside an editable zone selects the zone's entire contents. Hit Delete to delete it and put your own content in.
(Contributed by Dmitriy Belenko - MSFT)

Image Upload:
If the Image "Upload" dialog box doesn't show up then click back to "Website" and then back to "Image Gallery" again. Try uploading now.

Update: Give the "Image Gallery" time to load all your pics before you click "Upload" and then it should work.

Site Bulge:
When you change an image or document make sure you delete the obsolete previous versions in you documents and images folders in Member Center. This will save space that may be needed later.

Right Click:
Remember the power of right-click. Use the right-click button on your mouse to access contextual menus within the Office Live Web Designer. For instance, right-click on a module, image, or table to modify or access the Properties menu.
(Contributed by Advisor-Norris)

Live means "Live":
Using "Web Designer" in Office Live means that everytime you hit the save button your site is visible to your viewers. Navigating away from the page forces you to save or cancel your changes. If you save they will see it. If you cancel, your changes are gone. 

Update: What I now do is create a "scratch page" that has no navigation links to it. I try out all the items I'm thinking about including in my real pages within the "scratch" first. This saves some dire problems later when things go wrong.

 
Can't Sign Into Office LIve Member Center:
This intermittent problem is a tough one. You can be directed to several different "error" messages or be stuck in a forever looping error message. When this happens, I close all instances of IE and start over. At times it's indicated that I'm already signed into the Member Center and at other times it lets me sign into the Member Center succesfully by going to the page at the link below and then signing in.  Keep trying and it may work.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx

New Info: Quote from RxDave: "That little Office Live "Sign In" on the upper right has never worked for me. The way in that I found was to go to the Google search box and type "office live member center." You get a citation something like "Already a member..." That way in always seems to work."

Table Border Color Selection Problems:

This is an intermittent problem that prevents changing of table border colors in the "Table Border Properties" dialog box. The color selector does not appear when "select" is clicked. After closing the dialog box and reopening it sometimes functions correctly.

Email Bi-Polarity:

Another ongoing problem with Office Live. Reaching your email can be tricky. I often can't reach it from my Office Live Member Center, as an error message claims I need to sign up for Live Mail. Obviously I have done so already. When this happens the only way I can get to the mail is to go to MSN and click the hotmail link and sign in via Hotmail. This usually works. 

Update: 11/12/07 - This is no longer an issue. If it is for you let me know.

Email Contacts:

Contacts not being saved and getting an error message when you try? Join the club. Oddly, it has worked a couple times in the three months I've dealt with it. MS says they are working on this.

Update: 02/06/07 As of a few days ago Contact saving now works.