[Helpers] fscnew-fstlinks.html

[Sandra Davis]

Wow Mystress. 

I was finding it so difficult getting started again, since the new
pop-up link files you pointed me to looked nothing like I remembered
working on. 

The templates have Previous-Home-Next links on them that are partially
connected, for some of them, there are new lessons in that pop-up links
folder I didn't recall, some have a list of links I was familiar with,
some had new-changed links. Some lessons I'd done hours of work finding
new links - and I'd think "Oh - good, this is a good one to update" -
and when I'd find it, it'd be 100% working with all different links
entirely!

I just wanted a safe-spot that I understood, and the list of links
became it - especially since I have spent hours and hours this week
flipping through nearly every single email in the archives and reading
them again. I got through nearly all but one month so far - and I just
wanted a single place that seemed solid.

> >The revised fstlinks.html is now in my FTP folder. I'd love to >
>overall. Would you swap it in please?
> 
> no.

Sachiko has already swapped it in, after I wrote my email yesterday.
http://www.fire-serpent.org/fscnew/fstlinks.html

>   Heh. Theoretically, if they are doing the lessons in order
> there is no need for a "back" link. I do like people to do the
> lessons in order, and I don't make it easy for them to skip
> around. Deliberately make it difficult, in fact!

Well, on this page - there's no code to prevent someone from clicking
on any lesson link they'd like. My 'back' is just getting people back
to the top of the page table of contents.

The same with the pop-up links template & indiv. files- there are
'back' and forward buttons there too. I imagine there was a different
understanding when someone made your template.

> >- I added more closing tags for some of the table elements.
> 
> Table element closing tags missing? I usually check them. Hmm,
> maybe I had nested tables that you changed to stacked tables?

Absolutely missing. Dreamweaver couldn't even display anything on  that
.html. All tables are still exactly nested as you had them. All
spacing, width, height, everything is the same.

> >Biggest thing I noticed was 1 of the numbers was missing
> betweenlessons 14 and 17.
> 
> Yeah, I screw those up... Maybe a lesson with no links?

After I wrote this, I looked again carefully. The fstlinks.html I
started editing 'said' 58 total lessons during display, yet it in the
code the numbers were different. Since no one really sees the code, it
was just another clean-up. All lessons with no links are retained as
is.

> The total will be 60.
> I think I sent a work file listing them all in order? That may
> change as I do the edits...

Okay great! I'll look again for a work file. There was a link I saw
that might have been it, yet I couldn't tell if it was current.

> elsewhere! They are in the archives. Maybe it would be easier
> if we switch the list over to a bulletin board!

It sounds like it was a mistake for me to start back into this task
without having re-read that last month's worth of archive material. I
apologize.

> >....I understand that re-numbering might have been a big no-no, yet

It turns out I didn't renumber anything. The fstlinks_old.html file had
58 lessons in it as well.

> For that file, it doesn't really matter.. I planned to abandon
> it once the new site is up, because I think link checking on
> the all popups in a folder will be easier anyway, than link

Understood - from what I remembered however, it was the master list
that I was to edit first, and from there we'd simply pick up the 5-6
links of <a href> code and plunk it into each pop-up link template. 

That some, not all of the pop-up link files are made - that some, not
all have links that match the master list, etc. ?? I have no idea
what's been going on there, and I didn't want to go backwards and
negate anybody's work. I knew a master list was how I'd been doing any
of my work - and if it only helps me, then so be it. I needed the help
getting a foothold again.

> >is there ever going to be a time of renaming, or resorting
> these new files to be exactly as you want?
> 
>     Wait with it, for now.

Okay.

> If you are getting finished with the popups and finding library
> files, you could go through the old work file (in the archives)
> and come up with a new name- old name list for all the files for each
lesson, it would be a good first step, and help to keep
> things straight.

I am just getting started with understanding all the work that's
already been done on the pop-ups. I really don't get just yet all the
differences between the notes I have, and what's already there.

> Getting the link popups and library files is the priority.

I am working on that, and that only. 

> >and making sure they connect back and forward to each other,
> in the proper order.
> 
> I don't want them to connect to each other, only to the lesson
> page they belong to. I want to keep people coming back to the
> lesson. I don't think a "back to lesson" link is even
> necessary since it is a popup

I agree. Who would you like to change the template then? I will, if you
want. Let me know. I won't touch it until you say change it. There are
currently Previous-Home-Back at the bottoms of the pop-up link files.

> >Looking forward to hearing from you,
> 
>    There ya go! Thanks for your work...
> 
> but please Sandra, stay focused. Updating the FSTlinks file was
> not on the things to do list, not necessary because I did not
> intend for it to be included on the new site. I only used it as
> a reference.  It did not need "back" buttons either, they were
> not wanted.  I did not care that the numbers were out of order,
> the links in the top worked and they have names. Numbering the

I am focused, and I use this file as a reference too. Like I wrote
above, and now I'm figuring it's all just a huge misunderstanding - I
understood it was this master list that I was to update first, that was
then to be cut-up in chunks and put into pop-up files. 

When you sent me the link to the folder with all the pop-up files, I
couldn't make sense of what had been done there. I couldn't see any
sense of asking you to help me make sense of it either, because you'd
already told me in a previous email to "figure things out myself a
little more", to look in the archives, etc. 

So I did the work, I went ahead with helping myself figure things out.
I'm sticking by it. Having the master list user friendly, if only to
me, with very clean code - is a huge help.

> If you get distracted and wander off doing other stuff, then
> email me with questions about your distractions, and I get
> distracted responding... well I cannot afford to! I am too

I'm sorry you felt this was a distraction. I simply wasn't able to
proceed without getting some ground in this task.

> I think this stuff is one of the ways you make things hard for 
> yourself... and others!!  Took me nearly two hours to respond

It's took me many many hours too, just to get through that master list
of links again. I expected some 're-entry' difficulty, just not really
this response from you. It's kind of hard.

> ..  please, just do what you agreed to do. 

Yep.

Sandra