Lodge St. Andrew #518

• To make it more cross browser compatible. According to the tracker that I've been using, whilst Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser, the use of alternative browsers such as Mozilla FireFox are on the increase, and if you did use one of these browsers last time you were here you'll remember that a few things didn't look quite the way they should have, or in some cases didn't work at all..!

• However, I can now confidently state that this site has been fully tested on the latest versions of the following browsers...

  Internet Explorer	Mozilla FireFox	Safari	Google Chrome	SeaMonkey
  Opera	Netscape Navigator	Avant	AOL Explorer	Maxthon

  ...and apart from a slight difference in some coding interpretation works well in all. The differences are so minor its probably just down to the fact that I've spent a lot of time bouncing between them checking that I noticed it at all.
  I know that there are other browsers, but as I now have quite a few browsers installed on my PC (for the purpose of testing this site) I will just have to hope that this site works just as well on all of them. Any problems, please let me know.

• I was goaded into actually learning html code rather than rely on the WYSIWYG capabilities of Microsoft FrontPage. For this I either owe a debt of gratitude or I should curse my brother Andre, who thought I should know the code and lent me a book all about XHTML and CSS.

• The future of web design is XHTML (or something similar), eventually the old HTML versions will be phased out as developers move on to other things, and I would rather be there sooner than later.

• Faster upload time than the old frame set design.

• For those with visual disabilities and have their browsers set to display larger fonts, this site is fully compatible as all font-sizes are dictated by a percentage of the common font size, in this case small. For most people this isn't an issue but it is something I could add with very little extra effort, so why not ? I'm not saying it will look great with a bigger base font, but it will work..! So if the text you're reading appears too small or too big you need to adjust your browser settings - TOOLS menu / OPTIONS. My default setting is for font size 16.

• Also the screen size is now fixed to 955 pixels, which I'm hoping will allow me a bit more control on what you actually see.

I've also stopped using specific fonts, including the much loved (by me anyway) "Black Chancery" font, rather it is now set to use specific types of font common to all computers, which should give me a bit more control over the site as you see it. Also - so I'm told anyway - the sans-serif type font (which you're now reading) is the most user friendly font for text on a screen...?

And if all of that isn't reason enough I've also added a bit of PHP just to make it interesting. The Guestbook will eventually be on my own database, so no more annoying adverts or waiting on a response from another server. There's also a few other bits of PHP added here and there, which is why all the page extensions are PHP and not HTM. Its a case of it either all works or nothing works..!

One of the things I wanted to change on the old site was the size of the navigation menu, so what I've tried to do here is split the site into relevant sections.

Of course there are a few drawbacks, but hey you can't have everything..!

I've tried to make this site as eye pleasing as possible by using a multitude of different backgrounds, colours and themes. A sort of break the monotony type thing. All the backgrounds used on this site are either created specifically by Bro. Steve McKim for this site or are self created using Bro. Steve's graphics, to whom a huge debt of gratitude is owed by this Webmaster. The ICO graphics (the little graphic the appears beside the URL) have also been created in the same manner.
For some reason ICO graphcs don't work very well in IE ???

This site originally came about in 2004 as something I thought I could do to promote our small village Lodge, originally hosted on my own free web space with Virgin. net it steadily expanded and had to be moved to some web space provided by my brother. With the help and encouragement of the then R.W.M. Bro. David Gillies we acquired a domain name and the site was truly born. At some point after that I recognised the potential audience and expanded my ideas to create what I think of as more a Masonic Website as opposed to a Lodge Website. In early 2005 we purchased our own web space and the site was moved to its current location. However much I promote the Craft in general this site is and will always remain at its core about Lodge St. Andrew #518 but it is at the same time so much more. The potential for new material was I saw - and still is - limitless.

Regarding the content, on the whole its been very easy to write without being biased one way or another, but at times my own opinions will creep in, for this I apologise in advance. Maybe I need an editor..?

    Bro. Duncan Russell    (Webmaster)