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Inventive Page


Duc996

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Posted

Whose got or seen a really inventive looking cache page. Not the actual cache but a way of showing the information in a more colorful or visually stimulating presentation than the generic page.

Posted

Here is one I did. Not real fancy, but different than the regular stuff.

 

Clover Leaf

 

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I have never been lost. Been awful confused for a few days, but never lost!

N61* 12.041 W149* 43.734

Posted

Do a search for "the artfull dodger" his cache pages are awesome

 

migo_sig_logo.jpg

__________________________

Caching without a clue....

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Jomarac5:

I'm a bit partial...


 

This is really fine example of what can be done with a cache page.

 

I only wish there can be two versions as something like this is a pain on a lower-end PDA like my m105.

 

CR

 

72057_2000.gif

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Sissy-n-CR:

 

I only wish there can be two versions as something like this is a pain on a lower-end PDA like my m105.


 

You shouldn't need two versions. You need legal HTML (and my experience shows that's a minority of the geocaching pages that get 'cute' with the html) and tools that know how to read the GPX descriptions correctly.

 

After all, the would POINT of these markup languages like HTML and XML is to separate markup from data, making it possible to render it sensibly on anything from a cell fone up.

Posted

Get a pocket query for some of the caches mentioned above, run it through GPX2HTML to load into your PDA and set out on a hunt. Then see what you think of these "inventive" pages.

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by robertlipe:

Get a pocket query for some of the caches mentioned above, run it through GPX2HTML to load into your PDA and set out on a hunt. Then see what you think of these "inventive" pages.


 

I was just going to mention this.

Posted

As a web developer, I don't design pages for combined onscreen and pda use. I design two sites, either dynamically using templates or static -- one for each purpose. Graphics and formatting are distinctly different for pda use. Since this site caters to onscreen viewing and printing that is what I build my pages to look best for.

 

The only solution to this (unless the site removes graphic images and html for pda downloads specifically), is not to use any graphic elements.

 

*****

Posted

My objection isn't to graphics themselves; it's to someone embedding critical text inside a jpg and not providing enough text to make the cache findable without it. Even someone whipping through the offending sheets in "printer friendly" mode will be hosed when seeking a few of these.

 

There are a few caches that you just can't do without pictures (a couple in Louisville come to mind) and there are a lot of caches that can benefit from well designed pretty pictures, but very very few cache pages should *require* the associated graphics. That's my beef - a lot of these "inventive" focus so hard on being pretty inside IE that they forget that many folks don't carry IE into the field with them.

Posted

quote:
robertlipe wrote:

My objection isn't to graphics themselves; it's to someone embedding critical text inside a jpg and not providing enough text to make the cache findable without it.


I agree. One page that is listed above does just this and then it takes you off of the site for instructions (which also has all text embedded in a graphic). I must say however, that the graphics on that page are quite good. I always copy and paste the printer friendly pages to my pda and this page would be a problem.

 

quote:
there are a lot of caches that can benefit from well designed pretty pictures, but very very few cache pages should *require* the associated graphics.
I agree. But done well, they do look nice with a few good graphics, don't they?

 

*****

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by umc:

Do a search for "the artfull dodger" his cache pages are awesome

 

http://www.mi-geocaching.org/

__________________________

Caching without a clue....


What is the code needed to change the background like that. He is good.

 

I can explain it to you; but I can't make you understand it.

Posted

Jomarac5 and I are agreeing that pretty pictures are nice and he clearly identified one of the potentially problematic example cache pages that I was talking about without actually calling it out by name.

 

So if there's a punchline to this, I think it's "feel free to use legal HTML techniques to adorn the page, but please don't go so overboard with it that you impede the usefulness of the cache page to those that are printing the pages in print friendly or jamming them in a text-only PDA or such."

 

The background thing is a troublesome one, but at least it's relatively benign. Since the cache page already contains a BODY tag and the cache description sits inside the "wrapper" provided by the main side and BODY tags don't nest, I have yet to see a cache page that does this that's valid HTML 4. I'm not sure that it's impossible to do this within the constraints imposed by the site, but the common approach of nesting BODYs isn't technically allowed.

 

Fortunately, most programs degrade gracefully on illegal code like this. (I've had to fix at least two that did not.)

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by robertlipe:

I'm not sure that it's impossible to do this within the constraints imposed by the site, but the common approach of nesting BODYs isn't technically allowed.


It depends on what the "this" is that you're ultimately trying to accomplish. See our Perfectly Perplexing Puzzles for a completely legal way to add a background image to "your" part of the cache page.

 

pirate.cgi.gif

Posted

Ive seen lots of cool cache pages. Its a big letdown though when they turn out to be a plastic jug thrown in the middle sagebrush and have nothing to do with the supposed "theme".

Some seem to be a cut and paste of someone elses web content as well.

 

icon_geocachingwa.gif

 

Cachin's a bit sweeter when you've got an Isha!

Posted

quote:
robertlipe wrote:

I think it's "feel free to use legal HTML techniques to adorn the page, but please don't go so overboard with it that you impede the usefulness of the cache page


And please, please, if you have a sound file playing, give us a way to turn it off. icon_smile.gif

 

JoGPS, sorry about the d/l speed -- I'll try to make future pages load a bit faster for the "bandwidth challenged". icon_biggrin.gif

 

Typically, the connection speed in our area is cable or dsl so we don't worry too much about d/l time.

 

*****

Posted

I like The Knock List, very elegant. And, you will note, the text is available even without the pictures.

 

Flat_MiGeo_B88.gif

Well the mountain was so beautiful that this guy built a mall and a pizza shack

Yeah he built an ugly city because he wanted the mountain to love him back -- Dar Williams

Posted

I enjoy "dressing up" some of my cache pages. It all started by trying to make my Ebay pages look nicer.

 

I use FrontPage, but any HTML editor will work. I like the WYSIWYG editors, then click the "html" tab, cut and paste everything between the "<body>" tags and there you have it.

 

No Bonz About It!

Posted

I just did my first 'non-vanilla' page on here, but hope it illustrates a couple things ... you can change the look to a certain extent just staying within standards (CSS in this case) and the nice thing is that the 'call out' section will degrade nicely on a pda or text browser by just showing at the top of the cache description ... a definite advantage over using graphic elements for descriptive content.

 

It's not gee whiz, wow type stuff, but it's offset, highlighted and plays nice on lower end browsers ...

 

Call Out

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