Changes to our website May 2011
We have made some major changes to our website.
These are the most significant changes for some 10 years.
This process will involve the moving of many pages. This may mean that some links from external sites get broken. Please let the webmaster of any third party site know if you come across any such breaks.
If you find any broken links or mis-formatted pages within our site, please let our webmaster know via our Contact page.
Phase 1 — Appearance
Phase 1 is the reformatting of the website to remove frames and introduce new title panel, menu panel and footer panel.
- The initial page has been completely redesigned. It has two modes:
- Welcome which provides an introduction to the ABD for first time visitors, and
- Dashboard which gives quick access to sections and key pages
Both modes show the latest updates from our Twitter account.
First time visitors will see the welcome page. You can switch between the two modes as you wish.
You can bookmark whichever you prefer, You can go back to either from any page by clicking the links on the left of the footer panel.
Clicking the logo top left will take you back to the dashboard page.
- The frames have been removed so you can now see the URL of each page directly in the address bar.
- The title bar at the top of each page is now ABD blue, with just the one logo on the left. An advertising banner appears on the right unless the page title is long.
- A new cascading menu helps you to find pages more quickly.
Each section has it's own index page, and the appropriate menu automatically opens when you select a page in that section*.
The colours are intended to reflect UK road sign colours, so far as is possible — we've used poetic licence for Quotes and Search.
- A new dark grey footer panel provides buttons that link to the welcome page or dashboard, followed by breadcrumb links to the section you are in*. In the centre may be links to related pages. On the right are standard links to the About and Contact pages, and a top of page link.
- If your browser displays navigation links (Home, Index, Contents, Search, etc), you will find most pages now have these. You may need to show your navigation bar in your browser to see them
- On some pages, the old blue buttons near the bottom of the page have not yet been removed, this will be done during phase 2.
- Note that the 'Last updated' date at the bottom of most pages currently reflects formatting changes, not necessarily content changes.
- Some local pages are hosted remotely by our local members, these pages have not yet been updated to the new format. You should use the back button to return to the new format until these are updated.
* This feature is not implemented yet on all pages — the functionality requires amendments that will take place in phase 2.
Phase 2 — Restructure
Phase 2 is the relocating of pages into sub-folders, especially with regard to topics.
- Our website has grown over the years and many pages remain in the root folder. By relocating them into topic subfolders we will make it easier to find information and to maintain the site.
- Some pages have already been relocated, including most of the topics directly linked from the menu, but there are many more yet to do.
- Once this has been completed the breadcrumb and automatic menu selection features will work on all pages.
- This process will take place over the next few months on a page by page basis, as it requires the manual relocation and editing of many pages.