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New Menu system and Mobile devices

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Hi everyone

As you might have noticed, we are trying out a new dropdown menu system.

In theory it should work for people with modern mobile devices. But there's a chance it will cause trouble!

Some mobile devices might not like it and may not show you the dropdown menu when expected. Please let us know if you encounter any bugs so we can fix them.

We have updated lots more things today and details will come shortly.

Thanks!

IB
Viewed: 275 times
Added: 8 years, 11 months ago
Site News Item: yes
 
75 Comments on this Journal
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Tweaker
Tweaker
8 years, 11 months ago
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Testing this on my Optimus T. When I try and bring the menu up by clicking it in the android browser, while it'll occasionally show up by some means I'm not fully aware of, most of the time it simply goes to the established link on the menu (my account, submissions page, et al). It'd probably work better on mobile if the menu was first toggled by clicking and only acting as a link after the menu is already confirmed to be extended or something.

In any case, I'm liking the new changes so far! Looking forward to hearing what else was tinkered with.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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I tried changing how it works. Try it now! Can you see the dropdown options for "Account"?
Tweaker
Tweaker
8 years, 11 months ago
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Yup, that did it! Works great now. :D
HerrAardy
HerrAardy
8 years, 11 months ago
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Works great on my phone, it seems~

Also using an android.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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You're able to access the items in the dropdown menus?
HerrAardy
HerrAardy
8 years, 11 months ago
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Yes I can... Seems you've made some changes that make it easier, though.
supremekitten
supremekitten
8 years, 11 months ago
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Edited 8 years, 11 months ago by Owner
The font sizes seem broken to me, tested on two of my browsers. Not sure if this is on purpose or an error of some sort. Not sure if this is some general problem or just me.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Screenshots plz? :3
supremekitten
supremekitten
8 years, 11 months ago
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starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Looks like all your fonts are scaled up. Try pressing ctrl+0 and let me know what it does!
supremekitten
supremekitten
8 years, 11 months ago
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Edited 8 years, 11 months ago by Owner
Nothing happens, because this is the view when I'm using default view, without zoom. Only way to make the font inside the menu is when I deliberately zoom-out with the "text only" option.
Note, the problem is the fonts all have different sizes, the "username" font is much smaller.
Note, I turned off noscript and request policy plugins for the screenshot, I may be missing something though.
My humble personal opinion is, maybe there are a bit too many different font sizes/styles used in the page overall?
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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From what I can see in the screenshot all your fonts on the IB site are zoomed up from the size they should be. It could be the default browser font size is set higher than normal? IB isn't designed to allow font scaling very gracefully. Hmmm a mysterious one.
supremekitten
supremekitten
8 years, 11 months ago
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Hmm, can be, I don't know.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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I'll do some research! Are you able to take a look in any other browser type? Interesting to see if it's doing the same there too.
supremekitten
supremekitten
8 years, 11 months ago
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Edited 8 years, 11 months ago by Owner
Ok, bare with me as I'll be nitpicking quite a bit here, but all for the noble goal of art! ; )
(none of these are vital flaws of any sorts, just small design/template elements which I think could be slightly better; You probably know but I already think this site is great, and looks great, but there is no reason to stop looking for better solutions)
http://www.mediafire.com/?34qxwqgts1x0vzy here are 3 screenshots from a different browser (chrome based)
While this browser doesn't have the problem with all the fonts being scaled up, it reveals to me a bunch of other potential problems. The large font in the upper right is (still) partially covered by the lower window frame, the menu font/coloring/size stands out from the rest, in my opinion doesn't exactly fit, there is some issue with gray fonts hard to read on gray background, the small gray fonts hard to read on the white background, the gray font on the green background which is the first time i noticed that button (which let me remove the frame, the text in the upper right still overlaps with the lower frame though). Finally the bright green font on the white background is also somewhat hard to read.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Yeah some of the font colors and sizes aren't ideal. I'll see if I can make some of that easier to read. The text for page titles is meant to be like that. It's tilted at an angle and kinda "emerging" from the frame. :3
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Just made some changes to the welcome message (the one that had the very hard to read "hide" link) so it's way more readable.

But my fonts in Chrome on Windows aren't the same as yours for some reason. Screenshot! http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11025048/Screenshot.png

They seem thicker and I have no idea why. I'm using XP. What operating system do you use?
supremekitten
supremekitten
8 years, 11 months ago
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same, my guess is it probably has to do with screen resolution or something like that
Alfador
Alfador
8 years, 11 months ago
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" starling wrote:
IB isn't designed to allow font scaling very gracefully.


Apparently not! I experimentally tried scaling up the font size with Ctrl+scrollwheel and the rate at which the page scrolled up and down became ATROCIOUS! The menus worked fine, though. After verifying that, I hit Ctrl-0 and all was well again. :3 (Firefox 3.6.17, Windows XP Pro, NoScript on but inkbunny.net is on the whitelist)
RealZero
RealZero
8 years, 11 months ago
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Edited 8 years, 11 months ago by Owner
Similar problem as Tweaker on Opera Android phone. In general it works, but "clicking" on "account" immediatly loads the userpage, so the menu is only visible for some seconds. It sure is inconvinient as you cannot "hover" or anything on a smartphone.

Hope this can be fixed somehow, maybe like Tweaker suggested.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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I tried changing how it works. Try it now! Can you see the dropdown options for "Account"?
RealZero
RealZero
8 years, 11 months ago
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This way it works, thanks.^^
Shokuji
Shokuji
8 years, 11 months ago
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I love being able to pick what submission you want to do w/o loading up a new page to pick (like it was before you had to make things more IE friendly =p). ^_^
Flygon
Flygon
8 years, 11 months ago
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I'm alright with this, but would prefer if users had the option to choose between dropdown and 'normal' though.
Alfador
Alfador
8 years, 11 months ago
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Agreed!
polkakitty
polkakitty
8 years, 11 months ago
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Hmmm.  This should be more convenient than having to go back to your userpage and click on something on the "user administration" bar in order to change stuff (especially since that bar was only displayed when looking at your own userpage, so it was a bit unintuitive for something to be there when there was no equivalent on other people's pages.)

I don't really think the order of the links under the "Account" menu makes sense, though.  The Userpage link doesn't seem necessary to include in that menu at all, since just to the left of the menu is where the interface displays your username, and you can just click on it to go straight to your own page.  And presumably people will look at their private messages, bookshelf, and friends list (but especially their private messages) much more often than they will change their profile, settings, or blocked items, so I think Private Messages should be the 1st item in the menu, and Bookshelf and Friends List should be 2nd and 3rd (or possibly 3rd and 2nd, if anyone has any particular preference there.)

In any case, having cut out one click and one page load from the process of posting a new submission doesn't sound like much, but it actually ought to make a pretty huge difference in user-friendliness.  Not just for people that are uploading 100 submissions at once either, just from a psychology perspective, each step that you have to go through creates a perception of difficulty way out of proportion to the actual amount of time it physically takes.  (The people at amazon.com supposedly have a formula that estimates how much the profitability of each item in their store is affected by the loading time for that item's page, because as the loading time gets longer, a statistically measurable number of people lose interest, and I could actually believe that.)  So even though it sounds ridiculous, and I don't think most people will be consciously aware of it, anything that reduces the number of steps necessary to do stuff on Inkbunny should make a huge difference in how usable people feel that it is.

So anyway, it's getting better all the time, and it's always good to see a new update!
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Changed the order around and got rid of Userpage. :P
polkakitty
polkakitty
8 years, 11 months ago
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Wow, I'm honored that you thought my idea was worthwhile.  =3

One thing, I'm still seeing Userpage show up on the menu as the 4th option.  Just thought I should say something in case that was accidental.  (If it was put back because others wanted it to be part of the menu, that's perfectly fine.  I realize that not everyone has the same expectations for how the site should work that I do.)
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Yeah it got put back again but as a lower-order option. It was counter-intuitive to have an Account menu with no way to actually get to your account. We all know the username link in the top-left goes to your userpage but a new member doesn't!
mbmar
mbmar
8 years, 11 months ago
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Edited 8 years, 11 months ago by Owner
it works fine on my android 3.1 tablet, the only problem that i get is that when i type in the reply box, the text doesn't show up
EDIT: now it doesnt seem to be working, i touch account or post, and nothing happens. logout does work, however.
im using the stock browser.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Just made some changes to how it works. Try a cache clear and reload the site then let me know of any bugs! Touching the menu items should just show the dropdowns (for Account and Post anyway).
mbmar
mbmar
8 years, 11 months ago
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alright it all works good  and it looks good a well!
SleepyChi
SleepyChi
8 years, 11 months ago
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Hey there! Just wanna say that I'm lovin' the drop-down menu. Took me by surprise first but now it's really a lot easier for me to find things now. Thanks for adding! :D
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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No problem!
Lamia
Lamia
8 years, 11 months ago
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hah the little icons were pretty endearing but it's not a bad change, I got a preference for button grids instead of dropdown menus so that's just me though

but in the end I'm sure it will be one of those little things that make things better for the general public
CapraKID
CapraKID
8 years, 11 months ago
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I really like the idea, but the menu itself is a bit of an eyesore, if you ask me. Is it supposed to look like this? http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1456/unledky.png (On Firefox; Windows 7)
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Yes that's how it should look for now. A bit more functional than pretty until I can add back some nice icons and play with it some more.
CapraKID
CapraKID
8 years, 11 months ago
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Well, priorities are priorities c:
Hitsunekun
Hitsunekun
8 years, 11 months ago
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hey, the new dropdown menu looks great!, and it seems to be working on my android phone with the default browser
i just wanna point something (not so related)

when you upload a profile picture which is bigger than the allowed size, it is scaled down automatically
but when you upload a thumbnail for your submissions which is bigger than the allowed size, the browser responds with an error message, and i always have to scale it down manually.

could you please run the same script to scale the images there too?  that would be nice, and time saving :3
thanks!

keep up the good work
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Ahh good point.. I'll see if I can fix that soon!
ottering
ottering
8 years, 11 months ago
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They seem to be working fine on the Motorola xoom tablet.  Just have to do the usual 'click to show thing, which is fine.

Background still has some display issues, but I think that's thanks to the stripped down WebKit back end.

Other than that?  The waiting indicator seems to have a white background, so it doesn't properly "dim" when messages are recycled.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Hmm yeah I'm using a dodgy premade gif there that has a static white bg. Need to pretty that up ^^
Quiet269
Quiet269
8 years, 11 months ago
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I was able to use everything fine with my iPhone 3GS. I also like the new button setup; much easier to work with
Zeikcied
Zeikcied
8 years, 11 months ago
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Looks nice.  I'm glad there's one less page for uploading a submission.  Now if you were to make a sub-menu for the type of submission (regular, sales, or bulk) that would be yet another page taken out.  Then you'd just have to find a way to condense the rest, and the process would be much better for all. ^_^
MatthewWulf
MatthewWulf
8 years, 11 months ago
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it works/looks great to me :3 if i had a smartphone of some sort (lol, brokeness) i'd test it out but all i got is my netbook x3. still waitin' for pdf support though!
InsecureFlaky
InsecureFlaky
8 years, 11 months ago
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The Pretty icons... D=
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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I'll see if I can add some back as part if the new menu xD
AishaLove
AishaLove
8 years, 11 months ago
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I liked the old look much better, with the icons, this is allot less fun and inviting, more like some accountant designed it. I like the drop down menus, but please just put it back to the old icon based nav bar or at least let us choose.
billmurray
billmurray
8 years, 11 months ago
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you should use the CSS "strong" value for the top level menu items so they stand out better !!  They kinda look ugly right now and don't stand out very well on default msttcorefonts......
RyuuKishi
RyuuKishi
8 years, 11 months ago
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font-weight: bold (?)
billmurray
billmurray
8 years, 11 months ago
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bold or bolder  @w@
RyuuKishi
RyuuKishi
8 years, 11 months ago
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Humm i don't see a difference between those two.
Do you use a mac? is there one?
Immelmann
Immelmann
8 years, 11 months ago
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I really hate drop-down menus in navigation, and I can't imagine why anyone would use them. They're so annoying and unintuitive :c

I've seen so many professionals talk about how bad an idea they are, so I'm pretty disappointed to see them here.

It may make things less 'cluttered', but it also simply makes navigation slower, and it means a simple mismovement of your mouse makes the drop down disappear.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Yes, that's why Inkbunny didn't have them for over a year. :O But they are essential when you have a whole pile of links to organise. We just ended up with so much junk up there it looked ridiculous (you'll see why when Sales gets launched). The other benefit as you can see is we can now fit all those account settings links in the menu when they used to be hidden away on on the userpage (a place lots of people couldn't find them).
Immelmann
Immelmann
8 years, 11 months ago
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If you say so, I guess. It's not like I have a super great solution either - website navigation is really difficult when you have a lot of links. SoFurry is trying a sort of switchable sub-menu idea and I'm not 100% on that either :S
DraculJOSHI
DraculJOSHI
8 years, 11 months ago
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I just want to be able to switch between the different designs. I don't HATE the new one and I am sure that I will get used to it, but it really is a lot less inviting or clear to me now. Especially considering I will never need the sales function anyway.
Amaterasu
Amaterasu
8 years, 11 months ago
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Needs icons, for the three drop down (i know there are icons INbthe drop downs but i mean the dropdowns themselves) or aleast nicer font and or design

also i personally beleve "log-out" should be under account since its technicly an account action =3
DraculJOSHI
DraculJOSHI
8 years, 11 months ago
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I prefere the old Icons, Is there an option with which I can change it back for me?
MaDrow
MaDrow
8 years, 11 months ago
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Where is the rollback-when-i-login-option in the settings page?
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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What do you mean? :o
MaDrow
MaDrow
8 years, 11 months ago
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I meant 2 checkboxes with the options: "Use old 2010 icon-menu-bar" and "Use new 2011 text-menu-bar". Aka a way to let the user choose which type of menu bar they want to use |3
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Ohhh I see! Well I might be adding back some of the "feel" of the old menu when I get time. :3
MaDrow
MaDrow
8 years, 11 months ago
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tnx, I'll look forward to that :3
Xanthe
Xanthe
8 years, 11 months ago
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Oooh! Quite like the menus. =)

Hmm, before you changed how it worked, the drop down menus didn't work, although it took me to a page with the options anyway, as it was for the first person that commented. But now, I click an item and get nothing. Logout asks me if I'm sure though.

I am a minority, however, as I'm using a 'proper' old PDA running Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (HTC Kaiser circa 2007) It's a dinosaur but I love it. x) While I'm at it, site works fine! All apart from, I can't delete messages... The script just doesn't seem to run. I suppose it's just too old and incapable. ^^; I think I used to be abled to, but that was a few site updates ago. =P
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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What happens when you click the "Account" option in the menu? Does the dropdown show?

If you know how to check javascript errors (or turn javascript error messages on) on that PDA browser it might be doing something odd when you click Delete. Also try disabling plugins (like Adblock etc) and see if you can Delete then. Sometimes they actually interfere with Javascript and cause bugs.
Xanthe
Xanthe
8 years, 11 months ago
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WHOOP! Working! I came to the conclusion that your coding is sound, but I needed to update the version of Internet Explorer Mobile (version 6) I was using, or even the version of Java if that was possible. Turns out I was using the most up to date already. WM6.x has been abandoned by Microsoft since the release of WP7. So, I thought I'd have a look at alternatives. Turns out that Opera make a pretty neat browser (Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile), and hey, couldn't hurt to try, right? My conclusion; It's puuuuurdyyyy. @w@ Everything is working 100% now. =) The site has never looked more beautiful on my PDA!

Answering your question anyway; 'Account' would simply take me to my userpage and IEM6 doesn't give me any options to enable error reports/alerts in any way and I don't use any plugins. In honesty it's proved itself to be too old and cruddy. Opera Mobile 10 is WIN though in comparison.
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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Cool! Yeah some of the older browser types may start to hate IB as we add more and more modern stuff to it. xD
Xanthe
Xanthe
8 years, 11 months ago
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I really think it's great that you're always so eager to update & improve upon what you've created! It's unfortunate when you get websites that aren't updated for years, or simply that the Admin/Owners don't have the drive to follow through with promised upgrades. Truly refreshing stuff!

Plus, it's made me have to find a new mobile browser, & Opera Mobile totally kicks IE's butt! ;P
FakerFace
FakerFace
8 years, 11 months ago
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I love the new menu bar. You should also add something for site news. :) Well, even if the journals are at the bottom of the main page, I think it might be a cool addition to have a link to the most recent journal.

Also, I just tested with my iPhone 4 and everything seems to be working just fine so far. :)
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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I had to be very picky about what goes in that menu.. not much room! When the Sales system comes back online, it has to fit Basket and Sales links there, plus Admin link for some of us. :P
Shiuk
Shiuk
8 years, 11 months ago
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Love the new changes <3
starling
starling
8 years, 11 months ago
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tyty!
Zoichi
Zoichi
8 years, 11 months ago
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I love the new menu! Now I can see all options easily and don't get confused between profile and settings =P
DaniiPachiiBlackfire
DaniiPachiiBlackfire
8 years, 10 months ago
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um,im having a few issues using the drop down menu on the computer.when i put my mouse over  the menu the options drop down behind the page,making me unable to click anything on the drop down menu.what should i do?or is it just my computer?
Inkbunny
Inkbunny
8 years, 10 months ago
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If you are using IE make sure you update to version 8 or 9!
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