I agree, it's a major improvement. Thanks for working on it!

I also think the fonts should be sans-serif, since there aren't lots
of blocks of text.

The issue of what to name it is important - we should probably mention
both the fact that it helps you manage PDFs and that it's based on
BibTeX. (and a front page link to the MacTeX site for people who don't
know what BibTeX is wouldn't hurt)

Other concepts that might fit on the front page: flexible templates
for working with other programs, searching (maybe a search group
screenshot or a webgroup screenshot?), and scriptability with a link
to the wiki page for scripts...

I also wonder about the Autofile Prefs screenshot. It's a great idea
to highlight autofile, but without any context, it's not clear why
we're showing a screenshot of the prefs...

Finally, about bandwidth - I doubt we need to worry about images. I
think even screencasts are OK, but might want to check.
We're supposed to host downloads on their download servers, so maybe
they don't want big files, but "big" is a relative term these days.

-mike

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 7:51 AM, Adam M. Goldstein <[email protected]> wrote:
> This looks really nice overall---a few suggestions
>
> (1) I think a sans-serif font looks better as the base font. A matter
> of taste, I suppose. But I think that it's generally clearer for a web
> page, as opposed to reading a book or article. It looks cleaner too.
>
> (2) Maybe this is what you mention with the screen shots---they come
> up pretty slowly, for one thing, but something more important---the
> big comment at the bottom appears a single line, which is wider than
> the screen. I don't know if it's possible to make this wrap, or else
> maybe just shorten the text.
>
> (3) In the download links area, the word "build" appears by itself on
> a new line. Shouldn't this all be kept on one line? Maybe the word
> "download" is unnecessary in "older download" and "newer download",
> since it's all under the heading "downloads," and since links
> consisting of the version number are pretty much self-documenting.
>
> (3.5) Radical proposal: Make the downloads links the same width at the
> main text; move the sidebar with the screen shots up so that it's
> flush with the top edge of the main text, i.e., the top of where the
> downloads links are.
>
> (4) The raised dot before "Mac Bibliography editor" makes it look like
> ".Mac bibliography editor."
>
> (5) Should it say something about BibTeX on the home page?
>
> (6) Should it say something about managing PDF's and other attached
> files, managing references, and in general organizing them? This is
> something we're always saying seems to come as a surprise to users.
>
> I think that Reference manager or bibliography management tool or
> something else probably a better description than bibliography editor.
>
> (In the above two comments, I mean, should it say something more
> prominent about these things---it does say something in the main text,
> but that's probably the last thing people will look at---I think a
> bullet list of features like on the current home page is better.)
>
> Great job on this, I hope you appreciate the comments from someone who
> is definitely way too neurotic about web page design/architecture.
>
> On Mar 4, 2009, at 2:09 AM, Sven-S. Porst wrote:
>
>> … moving the discussion from the bug tracker to this more accessible
>> venue:
>>
>> I started looking into cleaning up the BibDesk home page and put a
>> first attempt here:
>>
>>       http://earthlingsoft.net/ssp/bibdesk/bibdesk/
>>
>> It's still unfinished (the screenshot zooming doesn't work reliably,
>> the font choices may deserve further thought and testing) and this
>> would be a good opportunity to add comments/critiques before I try to
>> get the details right.
>>
>> I'd also like to know whether or not bandwidth usage is an issue, so
>> the design can be more conservative if needed.
>>
>> Best
>>
>>               Sven
>>
>> --
>> Sven-S. Porst . http://earthlingsoft.net/ssp . AIM: cv47al
>> Pass as best inventor!
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San
>> Francisco, CA
>> -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the
>> Enterprise
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>> _______________________________________________
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>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bibdesk-develop
>
>
> ------------------
> Adam M. Goldstein PhD, MSLIS
> --
> [email protected]
> [email protected]
> http://www.iona.edu/faculty/agoldstein
> --
> (914) 637-2717
> --
> Dept of Philosophy
> Iona College
> 715 North Avenue
> New Rochelle NY 10801
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA
> -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise
> -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation
> -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
> _______________________________________________
> Bibdesk-develop mailing list
> [email protected]
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bibdesk-develop
>



-- 
Michael McCracken
UCSD CSE PhD Candidate
research: http://www.cse.ucsd.edu/~mmccrack/
misc: http://michael-mccracken.net/wp/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise
-Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation
-Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD
http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
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