All the requests were in initial specs, which he ignored and either didn't implement or expects more money to do so. For example, he calls the 2-level horizontal navigation "non-standard," and says it's impossible to insert anything but photos in the "non-standard" right column of the two-column layout.
The basic design is a horizontal 2-level menu/submenu; body is two-column layout with right column about 1/3 of total screen width. One section of the site (Properties pages) has a 3-column layout with a third-level vertical navigation. www.zackproperties.com
Developer created a table with rows for left and right columns within it; has an "overflow" in the right column. Placed photos into the right column OK, as well as "print page" and "email page" scripts (he's fond of .asp). Issues:
1) RIGHT COLUMN. Claims he can't put plain text or links into the right column (though he managed "click to enlarge" links under right-column photos on the Furnishings page). Says if client wants to place text such as customer testimonials in the right column (one of the design specs), she'll have to make each as a graphic rather than a simple HTML paragraph <p.../p> in the right column.
2) IMAGE MAP. On the LOCATIONS page, he used an image map with two sets of x,y coordinates, circles and rectangles. I requested numbered circles on the map and apartment names as links in the right column, each with a single line of descriptive text. He included the apartment names as part of the image map, with corresponding rectangular coordinates in his map code. Seems he could remove the rectangular coordinates from the image map and create HTML paragraphs/links in the right column.
Comments out the sub-menu (BREMERTON/SILVERDALE; we'll add more cities later) as "extra navigation."
- Makes the submenu the same Level2 class as the main menu.
- Level 1 is global nav: about, contact, etc.
- Level 4 is the left-side nav on the Properties pages reached from Locations.
- There is no Level3 nav; seems to me that's what the submenu should be.
The PROPERTIES pages aren't getting indexed by search engines because they're in the image map; the ALT tags he included won't do the job. (I'm still pushing to get him to enter the META title and description tags I provided for all the pages.)
3) NAVIGATION. When the submenu is open, it and the main menu should be in white text, not yellow, for active page "you are here" context. (Example: AMENITIES> FURNISHINGS.) He claims it's not possible, despite examples I've sent (such as Apple.com, where main and submenu turn blue). He says the white text can only show when hovering or clicking the link (i.e., link:hover and link:active) and not after the page is selected. (I've also shown him several examples where the user can click a main menu item to display its submenu, yet stay on the current page until after selecting a submenu item. He says that can't be done in the "non-standard design" I requested.)
This is only for starters! He works at Microsoft on enterprise-wide databases using .asp. Seems to have one cookie-cutter mode using frames and .asp scripts. (He first developed this site in frames that took 50% of the vertical screen real estate, saying "the design called for it," when the specs were emphatic about no frames.)
Anything outside of his already-developed frames templates and .asp scripts "can't be done" or he wants hugely increased fees. Example: I tried to convince the client to get an XHTML/CSS developer, that .asp was overkill for this simple site. The developer said he could do it in CSS but demanded an 80% fee increase because he "would have to develop a template for each page." (Then I had to show the client why this statement showed his lack of CSS awareness.) He also said he would develop in XHTML 1.0 Transitional; when I pointed out he had a DOCTYPE declaration of HTML 4.01 and a namespace xml declaration, he removed the namespace and said "the XHTML pages kept collapsing and couldn't be used."
Hope you can help. I'm not a developer, and the client thinks because the developer works at Microsoft he "knows so much" and (by implication) I must not know what I'm talking about. :-( ...Thanks.