Best Cache Page Layout

[+Kit Fox]

I recently started dabbling in HTML, to enhance my cache pages. I enjoy "viewing the source" of other well done caches, for ideas. Please post links to cache pages done nicely, using HTML.

 

Here are a few of my pages. Mine are not very exciting, but I enjoy enhancing the pages anyway.

 

114B

 

San Andreas Multi

 

Mount Emma Mystery

[T@rget]

My only hide is set up in html format. I didn't do it to make the page prettier, just more functional. Looking at it now, I need to fix a few spelling errors and probably should tweak the alignment.

 

A Killer Smile

[+Isonzo Karst]

I've actually gone back to basics on cache pages, every since learning what a pain the ones with all the embedded pictures are for folks that print cache pages. I never did (print cache pages) before PDA I cut and pasted a ton of caches on a single sheet - but a lot of folks do. Obviously the pictures may be crucial to some puzzle caches.

 

That said, here's a great cache page

Edited April 7, 2005 by Isonzo Karst

[+Trekin Triad]

I really enjoy the caches that include pictures. Makes me want to go and actually see it for myself. I like doing the html too. Helps me learn something new. Here are a couple of my own caches.

 

Abby's Cache

 

Brown Canyon Ranch

 

I never thought about those that print the cache pages. I print them too and have only ran into a couple where it made it difficult.

 

Crystal

Edited April 7, 2005 by Trekin Triad

[+Criminal]

Try this one,

 

and this other one.

[Tahosa and Sons]

Heart Transplant

Gliddens Wares

The Buck Hunt

 

And I may put several of these on the next one I'm going to hide. It tells you that this is not a drive and bag.

[+NotThePainter]

I guess it is ok to toot your own horn. I'm quite happing with the way that my recent hide, Cube Root of 39.304, turned out.

 

Paul

[+Dan-oh]

I recently started dabbling in HTML, to enhance my cache pages. I enjoy "viewing the source"  <snip>

Sometimes you can find some interesting info within the source code. A few puzzle caches have info hidden there.

[+WARedBear]

I was going to start a thread with this question but this seems like a good place to start it. What program do you use to create your cache page? I use Microsoft Front Page or Publisher.

[+Jamie Z]

My page for Long Distance Call utilizes hyperlinks, a hyperlinked image, a bulleted list, table, horizontal line, and some text/font changes.

 

Jamie

[+briansnat]

Here are some very good ones.

 

Cauldrons of Courage. With certain browsers you may have to click on the link on the page to show the imbedded page.

 

Phantasmorgia. Same as above

 

Passaic Hideaway

 

Video Shop

 

Rapture of the Deep

[+One of the Texas Vikings]

I do all mine in HTML. Much more fun..

Here's Two.

 

Thorolfur's Treasure

 

Thorolfur's Hitchhikers

 

 

Rick

[+habot]

I like much the pages of the GCB Event 2004

 

[Mode Advertising On]

The Ardennes Offensive (now : In memoriam), Dambuster, Le Chemin de la Liberté

Merville, Comèt Escape Line, Combat, Propaganda, Chez René, Spearhead, Group G

Battle of the Bulge, Wall Haven, This is London calling, Pegasus, Enigma, Major C.E. Manierre

[Mode Advertising Off]

 

but too : THE BLAIR CACHE PROJECT, Guardians of the Alignment and The 7 th Spirit (by LV-426) in other style.

[+BigFurryMonster]

This one has a very nice page layout:

 

Rottige Meenthe

 

The puzzle is cool, too. Find 10 waypoints and put the given photos in the right order.

[+Kit Fox]

I recently started dabbling in HTML, to enhance my cache pages. I enjoy "viewing the source"  <snip>

Sometimes you can find some interesting info within the source code. A few puzzle caches have info hidden there.

One of the harder puzzle caches I solved used that method. When you copied and pasted the hidden weblink, in a new broswer, all you would see was a blank page. After "highlighting" the blank page, the coordinates revealed themselves.

[evilcacher]

Here is one...

 

I.T.B.P. Oklahoma Branch

Edited April 12, 2005 by evilcacher

[+Kit Fox]

Bump.

[+greengecko]

I'll toss in a few:

 

The Old Scout

 

Gorky Park

[+Davispak]

Ok I am writting this one to here because it seems about the best place for it. I am not the fastest typer in the world and I barely know html commands. My question to you guys is, with only 45 minutes to input the data are you setting the info up in a Word document then importing it to the cache page or are you guys just that fast and where is a good place to go to get a comprehensive list of HTML commands?

Help with this would be appreciated as I would like to make my pages look a little better than just a bunch of words.

[+NotThePainter]

My question to you guys is, with only 45 minutes to input the data are you setting the info up in a Word document then importing it to the cache page or are you guys just that fast and where is a good place to go to get a comprehensive list of HTML commands?

 

You should always work in another file, get your page looking good, then cut and paste it into Groundspeak's web site.

 

I don't use Word for this, it can generate some really bad HTML, I do my HTML by hand.

 

The best way to learn HTML is to read HTML. Any decent web browser lets you look at the source of the page. Sometimes this can be a bit imtimidating however. If you google "HTML beginner" you'll find tons of resources.

 

Have fun!

 

Paul

[+Davispak]

Thanks I'll do that. I am intimmidated by HTML. You look at it and your like "what sadistic monkey came up with this?" I'll give it a try and see how my HTML skillz improve.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Ok I am writting this one to here because it seems about the best place for it. I am not the fastest typer in the world and I barely know html commands. My question to you guys is, with only 45 minutes to input the data are you setting the info up in a Word document then importing it to the cache page or are you guys just that fast and where is a good place to go to get a comprehensive list of HTML commands?

Help with this would be appreciated as I would like to make my pages look a little better than just a bunch of words.

 

I have created listing pages for some of our caches in HTML, mainly so that I can highlight warnings, hazards and caveats, as these are largely Terrain 5 caches, as well as offer some fotos and graphics. I am the first to admit, however, that managing a complex HTML page via the "edit page" feature on the geocaching.com site can be painful and tedious, and I feel that many of our HTML pages are somewhat messy -- still far better than non-HTML -- but some of them could stand another four hours of painstakngi editing and fine-tuning! I will talk more about how I have created HTML pages for the geocachign website, it and how I do it now, below. First, however, the links for a few of our HTML cache listing pages are reproduced below; I really want to spend at least two more hours fine-tunign each one someday:

• Psycho Urban Cache #10 - Derelict Grunge Acropolis
  
• Psycho Urban Cache #9 - Hot Glowing Tribulations
  
• Psycho Urban Cache #8 - Ghost in Ancient Citadel (Premium Members Only)
  
• Psycho Urban Cache #7 - A Good Day to die (Premium Members Only)
  

First, I really should be asking my wife Sue, who is a very good programmer and far better at HTML than I, to create our HTML pages, but so far I have done all of them. I created our first few HTML pages using HTML code which I wrote at the moment, off-the-cuff, and entered by hand into the "long description" text entry box on the cache listing "edit" page. I have never hit a problem with any 45 minute page timeout, as I have developed the habit of saving the page -- well, whatever I have written so far -- every 15 or 20 minutes, taking a quick peek at how it looks, and then clicking the "edit listing" link to do another round of editing. Thus, I am constantly resetting the timer clock and have never yet hit a problem with timeout.

 

As we started to get into creating the listing page for Psycho Urban Cache #9, which demanded ever-longer and ever-more-complex HTML coding, I grew quite nauseous at the thought of trying to manage that large volume of somewhat complex HTML code via direct text entry onto the "edit" page. And so, after playing first with trying to use Netscape 4.0 Composer (HTML editor), I created the pages in Microsoft Word as HTML pages, and then, when finished, opened the saved HTML docs with a text editor (Notepad or wordpad), copied all the HTML code, removed any header junk up at the top of the page, and then pasted the code directly into the cache listing page. This process however, was not entirely trouble-free; a couple of examples follow:

• First, I had to enter the HTML code for each image only after importing the text into the geocaching.com edit page.
  
• Next, I hit several problems on the PUC #9 listing page where bold headers (particularly bold green headers) would disappear entirely or would appear as normal black font 10 or 11 point paragraph text, and not as header text. I finally had to bite the bullet and perform HTML code surgery using the small text entry box provided on the edit page at geocaching.com.
  

I am not really happy with using MS Word as my HTML editor, as I feel it introduces way too much idiosyncratic MS-type HTML code into the page. I feel the same way about MS Front Page, and stopped using that for any HTML work years ago! Ultimately, I plan to find another HTML editor which will be more suited for exporting pages to the edit page at geocaching.com.

[+JohnnyVegas]

These are two of my caches. I use HTML on some of my caches, depending on the theme of the cache.

Road to Bunn land

After hours

[+Googling Hrpty Hrrs]

I'm partial to my Muggled Cache Series

 

There's another real nice one in our Pineywoods Cache Collection series.

[+ThePropers]

I'll throw mine out here too:

 

The Legend of the Wretched Cursed Treasure of Gold

 

Oops, Our Bad

[+StarBrand]

I think My Sandhills Earthcache Page looks pretty good.

[H to the Bizzle!]

When I have to do a lot of HTML in a cache page I submit the cache with just the plain text and then un-check the box that says the cache is active, so it is not in the approval queue. Then I work on the HTML until satisfied and check the box to put in the the queue.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

When I have to do a lot of HTML in a cache page I submit the cache with just the plain text and then un-check the box that says the cache is active, so it is not in the approval queue. Then I work on the HTML until satisfied and check the box to put in the the queue.

 

Yes, I have done much the same with a few of our early Psycho caches, where I allowed the page to be listed, and active, first in plain-text format, and then, as time permitted, I went back and converted to HTML.

[+Kit Fox]

When I look back at my original post, and the caches I used as examples, I realized that my HTML skills have improved quite a bit. Like others have said, I uncheck the button "this cache is active" and then work on the cache pages, until they are were I want them.

[+5¢]

I am proud of the page that Gibson5string and I have put together for our event cache 5 Star Frog Splash By the way, everyone come!

[Pto]

ok, I'll toss mine in too.

I havent been back to work on or update/fix the html since I created them-

a few changes are in order, but Ill have to get to that. . .

 

Historic Como Park Series: #1-StreetCar Station

#2 - The Lily Pond

#3: Hamm Memorial WaterFalls

#4- The Sundial (currently disabled/frozen)

#5: Joyce Kilmer Fireplace

[+nfa]

Adirondack Murder Mystery ...well...maybe not the best..but pretty cool...

 

jamie

Edited February 23, 2006 by NFA

[+dogbreathcanada]

J5's cache pages are well laid out, no matter what you may think of him otherwise.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...16-f5ac50be2dcc

[+dogbreathcanada]

Tinkernoonoo also has quite nice cache page layouts:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...fe-8c11c364ac9f

[+kentuckygirls]

I find HTML very interesting. I am trying to use some new aspect of it everytime I create a new cache. I am getting better. It has been alot of fun trying to learn something new. I always go here first: The quick and dirty guide to bad HTML for your cache page. Most of the time it helps me out. If it doesn't google is always my friend.

[+Mighty Nimbus]

I was going to start a thread with this question but this seems like a good place to start it. What program do you use to create your cache page? I use Microsoft Front Page or Publisher.

 

I used to build websites using HTML & PHP. If I was using Windows I used Notepad and if I was using Linux I used VIM. Now When I want it done quick I use an open source freeware app called Nvu.

[+nfa]

I was going to start a thread with this question but this seems like a good place to start it. What program do you use to create your cache page? I use Microsoft Front Page or Publisher.

 

I use Arachnophila for all of my html coding.

 

Jamie

[+Corp Of Discovery]

My first try. What do you think? Edited February 24, 2006 by Corp Of Discovery

[+Team Snorkasaurus]

I like using images too... I know it can make pages difficult to print, but there are always techniques to rectify that. Here is one of my cache pages:

 

Little Spanish Bull

 

I also like using HTML on my Travel-Bug pages:

 

Trick Or Treat Travel-Bug

 

[+baloo&bd]

Hows this for blatant self-promotion. I have noticed that since GC started messing up the HTML, some pages who were very cool looking before have changed significantly. The one I show here, for instance. I have been trying to go thru mine fixing the HTML as I get time.

[H to the Bizzle!]

Hows this for blatant self-promotion. I have noticed that since GC started messing up the HTML, some pages who were very cool looking before have changed significantly. The one I show here, for instance. I have been trying to go thru mine fixing the HTML as I get time.

 

That is a great looking cache page.

[+M-T-P]

For my cache called The Woodway Witch Project, the HTML on the cache page itself isn't terribly exciting, but I did have fun in Photoshop hacking together this graphic to go with the page.

 

[+M-T-P]

My first try. What do you think?

 

That TB page is awesome!

[+BillsBayou]

Best I could do with my Earthcache page:

By Your Bayou Earthcache (GCPW9W)

[+samirsky]

The first html page that I took the time to do in another program (Dreamweaver) before uploading:

Solar Eclipse.

I used a backpage on my web server to test the html.

 

I have not seen many other pages with a different background color. GC.com made this a little difficult, because it seems to have an 'html validator' or something that changed my html until I conformed to what it expected.

 

It would have been smarter to use the "Yes, this cache is currently active." checkbox (uncheck, it is checked by default) on the report a cache form. This allows you to test your html on GC.com and see how it looks on their servers (after they 'fix' it for you) without actually submitting it for approval.

[Bashaw]

Best I could do with my Earthcache page:

By Your Bayou Earthcache (GCPW9W)

 

That's a pretty cool-looking cache page, but I BEG all to remember that some cachers use paper all the time, and even for those of us who only print cache pages sometimes, your 13 pages of cache info is just a pain in the a**! PLEASE if you must have 13 pages of info, add it as a link to your own website and don't make me print a novel.

 

Thank you

[+Corp Of Discovery]

My first try. What do you think?

 

That TB page is awesome!

 

Oops...remember, 'quote' is on the bottom of a post...

[+4leafclover]

when it gets published...

 

I am particularly proud of my newest page, GCTM6N, Badgers and Bells.

[+Rathergohiking]

Of all of the caches I've placed, here is my favorite:

 

GCRKWF "I'd rather be abducted by aliens!"

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...d8-1b030847cb95

 

Here are some other ones of mine:

GCRKG1 “I’d rather bring my own toilet paper!”

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...7f-77142fcb7c2d

 

GCRDYM “I’m rather afraid of Trolls!”

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...13-c57242787f6a

 

GCRVH9 “Life is rather good in Northern Michigan!”

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...31-99e82ed65a63

Edited February 27, 2006 by rathergohiking

[+Mystery Ink]

Legend of the Blue Pearl has a great story.

 

ANX is another great one which the angles on the picture actually help you find the cache once your at the final stage.