Advice needed on presenting a large links resource

[kotatsuneko]

Soonish, I will finally be restarting work on my Japan info/resources page.

Over the years I have built up, what is, I believe the most comprehensive and well organised set of Japan related links around (after using and getting to know the creator of the original Bridge to Japan resource).

The main resource of the site will initially the links resource, the thing is, as you can tell from the links below my experience with dreamweaver is basic. I will be using some training videos/pdfs and hopefully my skills will improve, but all in all I want to build something really easy to maintain and that will view on older computers also.

Here is what I built last year, and the Japanese links will be of almost the same volume, though with less subfolders.

http://80.56.119.112:8003/sceneguide.htm

If anyone could give me some advice, I`d well appreciate it!

cheers :P

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

Newer versions of Dreamweaver can automaticaly update all links. Even when you drag different pages into different folders it asks if you want to update the links. Both local and remote. I havent used in 2 years but i belive it is in the file manager window.

[gomichild]

I use Dreamweaver MX 2004 - gee just about everyday. But the linkchecker is more focused on the links within your own site.

From looking at kotatsuneko's site it's the external links that need to be checked.

You might want to check out this free resource:

http://www.indiabook.com/webmaster/link.html

[kotatsuneko]

hey, cheers for the replies/advice, and for that link GomiChild =^^=

I guess I wasnt clear in the post, and yes I was really after advice on the structure of the links in the site (as opposed to the links connecting the pages)

Its just with so many links covering different subjects, I was after some advice/comments on the usability of the resource as in how they are organised as in sidebars/menus/hyperlinks etc..

If anyone has time to look and offer some insight into how either they would build such a page, or as a user, how they would like such a page to look I would really appreciate it as it would help me implement such ideas before rather than after building the J info site and having to do it all again..

erm, cheers!

[kotatsuneko]

This is how my old emu sites links are done at the mo:

Menu

Heading per subject > Links to a specific page, for example Nintendo >

Page moves to Nintendo >

Nintendo

Various subheadings (which when clicked link internally to the relevant part of the same html file)

To get back to the links root you click on a link at the top left hand side of the page

What I am trying to figure out is a clearer more intuitive way to present thousands of links where the user can move clearly and logically through them, with minimum of hassle and where I can create the pages with as little technical fuss as possible, which will work on slow machines as well as new.

If anyone has a few minutes to look at the current setup and offer some ideas it would be very nice, as I know a fair few people here have their own sites that they hand built...

A little help/advice please ^^

[gomichild]

Oh! OK, on your wavelength now.

Just a few notes to start off.

Sceneguide links - i would break the pages down even further. Having four categories of links on the one page and it just reference lower down means that you lose the menu and are forcing the user to scroll up again for the menu.

The top menu is a little confusing in regards to that section. This is because you don't have a main title on the pages themselves or use breadcrumbs.

:: Index: - using a phrase like Sceneguide main index, or links index would make it clearer as to what index you mean.

The lists of links are a little condensed. You could break them up a little using a style class with wider line height, or by having a brief description about each link.

Actually everything is a little squashed up - which is odd because there is also a lot of white space. A bit unbalanced.

The text on your menus is a little too small.

Um if i think of anyting else I'll post it.

[kotatsuneko]

great ! this is the sort of feedback/advice i was looking for ^^

for the japanese links, there are currently 34 main folders with 14 subfolders in total holding 1580+links inside of them

so in that respect theres a lot less data and subfolders than the emu/retro scene links resource

on the other hand i want to make both resources a hell of a lot easier to use so any input is amazingly usefull!

btw,what are breadcrumbs?

thanks a lot for taking the time to look at the links and offer some much needed thoughts and advice GomiGrrrrl

[gomichild]

breadcrumbs are the lines of links to tell you which page you are on

for example on the board you can see them at the top of the forums:

fucked gaijin forums > gaijin ghetto > topic name

some info from macromedia:
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/articles/breadcrumbs.html

btw it's gomiCHILD :P , GomiGirl is the one who'll answer your keitai techie-type questions.

[gomichild]

This site is a great resource too:

http://www.alistapart.com/

[kotatsuneko]

heh, soz, my bad, it >was< about 3/4 am when i replied so you`ll have to forgive me ^^

thanks for clearing up the breadcrumbs mystery , that was almost thelma like there also cheers for the links, will have a goood long look at those sites! ta for taking the time to point me in the right direction good luck with the concerts too maybe someone will take some pics so everyone can perv over them like the pshop ones last year ?