The Pub Discussion Board

I will take this under consideration.  I do have one concern, however.

Think of all the screen real estate you just permanently occupied.  Not all devices have widescreen displays, and I would like the navigation to be as similar as possible between desktop and mobile.  (I guess I should have stated that in the beginning...)

And a question: why do you want it on-screen permanently, as opposed to in a slide-out box?  (Given that the site's menu will still reside on the left side of the screen, though hidden most of the time, such a list would not be a "drop down", but a "slide out".)

Eric Storm

PS:  epub and mobi formats, as well as both single-file and multi-file HTML formats, are the expected download formats for completed stories.  PDB and TXT will be dropped as download formats (who uses PDB?  And who wants an unformatted TXT file these days?  blech.)  These filetypes may only be available to donors, however, and HTML would be the only download type available to non-donors.  That is not a decision that's been made yet, however.

Why worry about pages now?  Currently the smallest unit is Chapter or Story for the short stories, anyway.

Just my personal preference, but on a larger screen (i.e. desktop or laptop) I prefer an always there form of navigation on the left.  I can understand for much smaller formats like a tablet or mobile phone using a slide out or drop down box for navigation.  In which case I'd probably put in the drop down box near the top that just stays there like it's in a non-scrolling region of the screen.  Probably put the forward and back buttons there as well.

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<- (back)     -drop down box-     (forward) ->
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mobi sounds good to me, although I think my Kindle Paperwhite prefers the AZW3 format.  I can always convert from movie to AZW3 format myself.  Of course I've already been doing that for my own ease of reading.

Okay, first, a "Previous Chapter" and "Next Chapter" button at the top and bottom are an absolute for me. If you don't want to do both, put the "Previous chapter" button on the top and the "Next Chapter" button on the bottom of the page. There should be a way to jump back to the main page, or move to a specific chapter anywhere in the book but, if I was doing it, I would want it to take up as little space as possible. An always visible pull-down menu at the top of the page sounds good to me. If it's going to always be visible, something like a control bar across the top, you could also put the "Next Chapter" and "Previous Chapter" buttons on it. If you really want to go luxurious, put a "Next Chapter" button on the bottom of the page also. That is, naturally, where the pointer will end up if you're scrolling down to read the story.

So, my recommendation, now that I've typed out my thoughts, is an always-visible control bar at the top of the page with a "Previous Chapter" and a "Next Chapter" button and a pull-down menu that allows you to jump to any chapter in the story, or back to the story's main page or back to the first page of the site. You could also have the name of the story, the author's name and the present chapter listed up there also. And maybe put a "Next Chapter" button at the bottom of the page. I, personally, would rather lose a little space at the top than on the left. I like my stories, the one's I'm reading, to be full screen.

To tell the truth, a demo page might be best for people to better visualize what your describing.  It would also give a visceral feeling so that people could better express whether they like it or not.  I don't know if a 1080p screen is considered wide screen any more.  For a desktop, I doubt it.  For a tablet or hand held device, maybe.  Although it might depend on how the device is held/operated.

No real suggestions on layout for the site, aside from not really liking the drop-down menu currently in use.  They work, but not as well on phones and tablets.

Any way to get stories to play well with the Kindle would have my vote.  Looks like you're planning on that anyhow, so that will make me happy.

Based on one of the comments from barbarian3165 it seems that there may be an ereader format available already?  Did I read my own hopes into that, or have I just been missing something?

The current site was designed at a time when "mobile compatibility" meant WAP, which you may have never even heard of.  I made no effort at mobile device compatibility in this version.

As to an ebook format, the only one currently available is PDB format, and that only to donors.  Though if you use Calibre (or a program like it), you could convert the downloadable HTML file into an ebook.  (Tip for those who want to do this:  Import the nav.html file from the book download and it will automatically import all the chapters.)

Eric Storm