Question about "Todays_Notes"

[Ripps818]

I love the Todays_Notes feature. It makes adding a blog easy and it works well with my archives. The only thing I wish to add is the ability to post my last 3 Notes on my index page. That way I can actively keep the blog up to date and not have to wait until I update my comic to update my blog and I'd be sure that those who only come on that day will still be able to see the last several posts I made.
Is there any way I'd be able to implement this now?

I know there are several blogging options out there, but I don't want to have to import all of my previous posts into a new system to keep them consistent with my archives.

[Dr Neo Lao]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: It's a little complicated, but here's a way that might work, but will be tricky to do and will probably need javascript to work.

You would need to create some type of unique marker or container for each todays_notes section in the dailytemplate. The way to do this will probably be to change the dailytemplate so that there is some type of "this is the stuff" marker, and in each todays_notes text include a unique identifier, such as the date.

On the index template you'll need to set up an iframe or something that will get the information out from the previous three updates. If you update every day, then this won't be a problem since you can just set one up as date minus one, another as date minus 2 and the last as date minus 3. If you want to do "the last three pages, irregardless of dates" then you'd need some type of code that will follow links or something... no idea about that one.

All this will be inordinately difficult to set up and is probably much harder to do than is worth the effort.

The second simplest way would be to continue to use your todays_notes in the same way as you are now, but don't put the todays_notes tag on the indextemplate. Instead, copy + paste in the last three posts manually and update by hand.

The simplest way would be to simply bite the bullet, re-do your old posts and use a third party blogging accout and just import the relevant days to your comic...

[Ripps818]

Okay, assuming I just bite the bullet, what third party service could I use to put individual posts with my archived comics? I really don't want to have another Iframe on my site, I find them so unsightly.

Also, I don't really want to load offsite pages into my archve's pages because I think it makes them load slower, and I want readers to be able to go through the archives smoothly. I'm already doing it with my comments, I don't need something else slowing the page load time.

[Dr Neo Lao]

In your case, I think the second last option I said would be the best.

Use the current system your are using now, but remove the ***todays_notes*** keentag from the indextemplate.html file and in it's place put the text files that you want on their by hand.

It'll be a little bit more effort on your part to do, but it's the only way to get it to do what you want.

A third party blogging program will have great difficulty displaying the individual posts with the comics they are meant to go with.

Just keep in mind that the todays notes system was designed for including data about the comics and not as a blogging tool. That's why having the last three show up on the index is so difficult...

[Ripps818]

I also have a bit unrelated question: I want to add the capability to search my comic. Do search engines index hidden text? If so, I want to put the scripts for my comics in a hidden field, so that the page can be searched for particular details or dialogue, without readers having to see the scripts written.

[Dr Neo Lao]

Do search engines index hidden text?

Define "hidden".

If you have a spot of text that is the same colour as the background and a really small font then yes, as far as I'm aware they will index that text. If you put it inside a div that isn't displayed t all, or is off the page then I'm not sure.

Adding the 'script' for your comics into the body of your comic is a good idea, and is something that I've done. In my case, I used the todays_notes for that fashion.

In your case, since that is already used, you can use yyyymmddA.jpg for your image and yyyymmddB.txt for the text you want indexed. That will appear directly below your comic.

If you want it to appear somewhere else, then you're going to have to give up the todays_notes and use that for the comic text.

Your comic has the blue and white cross-hatched background, so that'll make it harder to hide the text. I don't think that you can define "transparent" as a text colour, and I don't know if it'll be indexed properly if you set the size as "0".

What most comics do (as can be seen in mine, here) is just create a box with "transcript" or something in it. Most readers will know what it is when they see it.

I can't think of any quick and easy way for you to hide the text, but if you can think of one, go for it.

Edit: It'd be hard to work out exactly how to do it, but here's a way: put the comic into a floating div and have it sit directly on top of the text, effectively hiding it. Getting the positioning right would be hard and cross-browser compatibility would be a nightmare, but that seems to me to be the way to go...

[Ripps818]

I suppose the real question is: does Google index text within a <div style:"display: none"> field?

I like the "hide behind the image" idea, but it would be a nightmare to get working consistently with every browser.

Update:
Okay was reading some stuff online, it appears that google does indeed index hidden text, but if they find out, they'll remove your site from the search engine. The solution is to change it so can be viewable to users. I think making it accessible through a javascript button like I did with my comments would allow it to be hidden without issue.

[NakedElf]

What about the text which goes along with the image code, like the alt and title text? Is that considered 'hidden' text?

[Ripps818]

What about the text which goes along with the image code, like the alt and title text? Is that considered 'hidden' text?

I think that since the image code is automatically generated, we can't alter the code of the image tags, unless it was done manually. But that would kinda make it too difficult to integrate well.

[NakedElf]

I think that since the image code is automatically generated, we can't alter the code of the image tags, unless it was done manually. But that would kinda make it too difficult to integrate well.

Sorry, I should have been more specific--I mean other images in the site, like banners and whatnot which you do hand-code. Obviously that doesn't get at your question about labeling the comics, I'm just curious about the definition of 'invisible' here, since I hadn't heard the term before. (And frankly, would hate to have Google blacklist my comic.)

[C.w.]

Google isn't exactly the hidden text nazi. That rule is generally for keyword stuffers, and while i'm not sure of it, it generally applies to both white on white text, and display: none; text. Having a transcription of your comic under it with display: none; isn't going to get you blacklisted, and if it does, you could lodge a complaint and i'm sure they'd get you off it eventually.

Filling out the alt tags for every image on the site is not only a good way to get them indexed better, it's the valid way to write an img tag (which is why the generated comic has an empty alt="").

As of this time, there's no way that i know of to fill out the alt tags of any image CG generates - if they were to add one feature, i'd suggest that they take the contents of YYYYMMDDalt.txt and YYYYMMDDtitle.txt and fill stuff out.

I have trancriptions under most of my comics (i do them whenever i get the time, the newer ones don't have them yet because i am lazy.) and of all the things you could possibly do to improve and diversify your site's ranking, adding transcriptions is number one on the list. If you want it user viewable, here's the code i use:

Code: Select all

<script type="text/JavaScript" src="/toggle.js"></script>
<script type="text/JavaScript">
<!--
document.write('<a href="javascript:toggle(\'transcription\')">Toggle Transcription</a>')
//-->
</script>

I should probably use a button and then style it to look like a link, but whatever. If you use that code, you'll have to download toggle.js. It's in the Javascript section of my CG HTML generator, at the bottom of the page.