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Kill the header

Why wast the above fold space?

         

webjourneyman

12:58 am on Feb 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Is the above fold are of a sites front page not the most valuable? What is visible without scrolling?

I find it strange that especially so many content management systems like drupal and wordpress come only with templates that presume the site owner would like to use up to 30% of the above folder space for a header, sometimes fully graphical, often just emply space with a few tags.

I would much rather go with a narrow header and a fat logo to the left. Much like webmasterworld here and wikipedia plus I'm sure countless others.

Is that type of layout perhaps more recognized by surfers as indicating board-like, wiki-like functionality in your oppinion? Does that type of layout belong to the user generated web?

Some may be wondering why I don´t just shut up and do the layout any way I like and that brings me to:

Is there any drupal savy person out there who knows how to shrink the header and place the logo to the left (with a block?)? Do I mess with the css or php for the header? Or should I just hire a coder to do this for me?

simey

7:41 am on Feb 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hmmm... my most successful (by far) site has a ultra skinny header and a nice fat area full of links on the side.

bill

9:39 am on Feb 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Drupal has tons of free themes available for download. Do any of them meet your needs?

webjourneyman

10:51 am on Feb 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Simey: Perhaps its because it has more nanoseconds to capture a new reader. What did you use to build it?

Bill: I´m not satitsfied with any of the themes, I wan´t to make the header much narrower than any of them has, aprox the same width as from the top of this page to the underlined control panel, site, etc. Or half an inch, just enough room to place a line of tabs.

bill

12:37 pm on Feb 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



It sounds like it would be worth your while to look at setting up your own template then as it sounds like you have some specific criteria. There are several templating options available in Drupal. You can make a custom layout and drop the CMS portions where you like in the page. There are directions in the Drupal manual.

webjourneyman

1:00 pm on Feb 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks for the instructions, I´m going to invest the time to learn the basics of templating in Drupal.