Can you make the envelope a brighter shade of red when you have mail? The burgandy is easy to overlook.

Change can be hard, but I think I'm getting the hang of the new site layout I've customized my home page, although I'm sure I'll make adjustments as time goes on. It is much cleaner and, I think, easier to read. It's nice that I can put things in the order that I want.

Thanks, Dave and Trish, for all your work on this!!

Bootstrap's a handy tool, but it ignores all screens larger than 1200 pixels, which I think is a form of mobile-centric myopia at a time when screens are getting ever larger resolutions. I'll probably put in a .container override for my main browsers on this site, but I'm sorry to see another website go to massive blank margins and tiny central content widths.

terrafirma said:Is this the way each forum page is supposed to look? Lots of blank white space. Hard on the eyes.

That is what mine looks like too, but with white space on both sides.

Mayo reported that the icons are there, just extremely far over so they were easy to miss.

aspenhill are you using any special add-ons in your browser that might be blocking scripts?

I tested on my laptop at home which was fine and now I am seeing how it looks on the computer at work and it's quite different, lots of white on both sides.

dave said:

In order to use the customize feature, you must be on a device with a mouse. Touchscreens don't have the ability to click and drag as far as I know.

What you can do is use a desktop to customize it. Then when you come back using your iphone, the customizations will still be there.

That lets the ole iPad out..havent used a desktop in years,

Maybe i can find a friend who has and do from there....oh drat....now I will have to find a friend that I have not aggravated....well, .i will just have to wait a bit until the election is over......

psa said:Bootstrap's a handy tool, but it ignores all screens larger than 1200 pixels

Getting this redesign launched was step 1. Now the part begins where I continue to refine the experience. Ideally we'll get this all perfected in the days to come.

Question...is there some hardware i can purchase to adapt to ipad to use a mouse??

psa said: but I'm sorry to see another website go to massive blank margins and tiny central content widths.

I am so computer illiterate! @psa This is the only part of your post that I understood!

The left margin on large desktops should be gone now.

dave said:

Getting this redesign launched was step 1. Now the part begins where I continue to refine the experience. Ideally we'll get this all perfected in the days to come.

That would be great. Adding larger @media type(s) or adapting the 1200px one already there would much appreciated.

It is and the right is HUGE!

Being able to customize the front page is a HUGE and welcome addition. What would be great though, is if the customizer actually stated what the 'Cool NGA Feature' is.

It would also be nice if we could add things like seed swaps and plant lists to our custom page.

Is there a site map forthcoming?

Thanks!

Yes, but now the box is all the way over to the left and there is miles of white to the right. I would really like the left margin back.

Dave, it is entirely possible that there is some script blocking in the browser here at work. I'll try it from my home computer this evening and see if those icons show up there. The security settings at work are probably the issue. I'll report back in later this evening to let you know one way or the other. Thanks!

terrafirma said:

I am so computer illiterate! @psa This is the only part of your post that I understood!

Sorry! It's website development thing, common to those of us who do this professionally but unfortunately obscure to everyone else. I should have directed my comment more clearly to Dave, who's always been good at making his websites highly usable and non-tech-insider friendly.

@RickM, one option you may find handy is set those pages you want to access more often to your Custom Menu bar, you can then click on it from the top (between the bell and your profile icons).
Go to your profile and then 'change your site preferences', it's near the bottom, 'Manage your custom menubar'.

I just finished my layout and I'm happy with mostly 2 columns per row mine looks like this:
Row 2, Column 1
Watcher Notifications

Row 2, Column 2
Recent Threads
Fun Random Idea
Fun Random Plant Image
Fun Landscape Photo

Row 3, Column 1
Today's Featured Plants
Recently Popular Photos

Row 3, Column 2
Recent Database Photos
Recent Acorn Tips

Row 4, Column 1
Forums List

Row 4, Column 2
Popular Pages
Recent Database Comments
Recent Ideas
Plant Logs
Recent Landscape Photos

Row 5, Column 1
Primary Feature

Everything seems to be proportionate without any empty spaces.

gardenglory said:I dont know how to do any of that stuff or move anything around. So long good friend. Talk about feeling stupid.

You don't have to use any of the new customization features in order to use the new layout. In fact, Dave spent a long time developing that tool for the 5% of users that will actually be using it.

The site works just like as always if you don't choose to customize. The only difference is you will be "stuck" with the order that we decide for the casual user instead of what may be your personal preference of what you want to see.

95% of visitors to NGA do not use the forums at all- they are here for content, and our new layout reflects this change. The customization homepage was developed for those of our users who are "power users"- here multiple times through the day/week. Those are going to want to see the conversations and newest happenings--each of these members like different things best about the site and now each person can make NGA look the way they like it.