[Tigratrus]

@NBeth

Actually the new annotated versions and the older versions are in the exact same place, the IKEA Instructions forum. I've been going though and creating the annotated versions out of the files that Macks13 and others have uploaded to the site. Our search engine numbers absolutely tanked in September, so I've been focused on adding those new instructions as those tend to help pull in new members, which we desperately needed to survive until we started to come out of the September Slump.

The problem with the annotated versions is just the sheer amount of work required to pull the images out for each page. Many of the instructions pdfs have 2 pages together as well as some pages sideways, so you have to manually split them all and then save them as individual images in the right sequence.

So I've been focused on getting new instructions in in the format before revisiting the pre-existing instructions, changing the 300+ older versions over to the annotated versions is probably going to take me several weeks/months. Maybe I should focus on getting those done, but then we're not making any progress in getting new instructions up, and thus more traffic, in the meantime.

The annotated version hasn't really caught on yet, nobody but me has actually used it, so I'm having trouble deciding to allocate that much time to retrofiting the existing instructions.

@clinch

I *Totally* hear you on the search issues... That's been a monkey on my back for a long time now. I tried to address the basic layout with the new site organization (totally reorganized the forums and added the new menu system) in IKEAFANS 4. But the search being split is something I've been desperately trying to find a way around. The Blogs are in one pool, the Forums/IKEApedia are in another, the Galleries are in anothing and the new Articles system are in yet another.

Believe me, I understand that that's a problem! The problem is that we're dealing with fundamentally different software systems. We've looked at third party search systems like sphinx, that could be integrated with the multiple different systems, but there's some difficult issues with that as well.

I think what we may need to do, is to simply generate a custom Google search component as Google should be able to bridge the different components (because they are crawling the pages rather than reading directly from the database) and present unified results. The problem is the Google search won't be as up to date, but I'm hopeful that we can handle the more time focused searches with the built in forum search (just leave the existing "Recent Posts" in place).

Anyway, It's something Susan and I have been talking about, and she's looking at it on the testbed to see if she can figgle out a way to integrate it visually (it's a CSS issue mostly) into the existing template, then we have to port it to the Forum side of the house.

We're working on it... Stay tuned!

It's mainly just a problem of only having so many hours in the day... If we had an actual budget and could hire some extra hands it would be soooo much easier. Well... Alex should be up to helping with some of the coding, in a few years . I think 7 years old is prob a bit too early to strap him to a workstation eh?

James

[NBeth]

LOL! I don't mean to be a drag about the search issue--I know there are conflicts there. Tell me more (privately) about what's required on the image splitting thing. I have Adobe pro so I can do some stuff, even if just one set a week....

[Tigratrus]

@NBeth


Thanks. Will do! I don't think Acrobat 9 does the kind of splitting I'm talking about but I'll PM you .

@clinch

'K I got three of the RATIONELL Drawer instructions upgraded to the new version. Take a look at:

Rationell Pantry Pullout Drawer Front Instructions Annotated
Rationell Deep Drawer Instructions Annotated
RATIONELL Drawer Instructions Annotated

and see if one of those covers the step your talking about? I think I also need to get a copy of the instructions that has the new metal support in it, did that come with the corner cab, or the less-than-motivated-spinning-tray accesory?
::carefully avoiding product names that would get me hit by my sensitive-susan::

James

[clinch]

I tried to post it, but it wouldn't let me. I've submitted a trouble ticket

[Tigratrus]

'K Thanks for the heads up. Looks like there's a bug in the permissions for that forum somewhere... I've swapped IMs with the friend of ours that built the "Notes" system for us, we'll see if we can run it to ground.

As a positive sidenote, Susan's been making some really good progress on the Google Search integration. Hopefully we can look at rolling that out out in the next day or two!

Right now IE7 (Internet Explorer) is being (as usual) a Pain in the Buttocks. It would be sooooooo nice if everyone would just use Firefox or Chrome instead! IE is sooooo slow and bug ridden, seems determined to misinterpret CSS style info *whenever* possible. :p

James

[fisheggs]

Yay Firefox!!!!

I have various forms of acrobat available here as well, so if there ends up being a scripted sequence you want us to go through to prep things for you, I'm sure that I and others would be glad to help out.

[Tigratrus]

I had to go and knock out some chores at my mom's house, so I took the kids with me and left Susan in relative peace while she wrestled with the Google search integration. Apparently, that was a good idea! It's looking good in both Firefox and Chrome at the moment, the search box is off a bit in Internet Exploder 7, but Susan's got a handle on that and should be able to whack it into compliance in a bit.

Hopefully the integrated search will help out as far as making it both less confusing and more efficient. Plus since it's a google driven search, it will work exactly the way everyone expects it too.

Thanks to all for pointing it out and making it a priority. And BIG thanks to Susan for beating her head against the wall all day to make it happen!

James

[Susan]

Thank you for thanking me. And thanks for the kick in the butt to get this done. It's been needed and necessary, but with just two of us working, and no funding from IKEA, well...there's LOTS of things high on the priority list that don't get done in a timely manner.

The good news is that this should help a bit with some additional income (ads at the top of the search results - sucks, but they help pay the bills!) and maybe, (hopefully), maybe, someday we can hire some help.

Susan