Bravo! Wonderful Facelift of shroud.com

We owe so much to Barrie Schwortz for all his great work over the years. Barrie, thank you!

From the Late Breaking Website News page of the wonderfully redesigned site, today, on this this sixteenth anniversary of shroud.com:

If you have managed to get to this page and are reading this article, you will have already noticed a dramatic change in the look of this website. After sixteen years online, we have given the website a long overdue "facelift" to make it more modern in appearance and much easier to navigate. I have had many criticisms about the look of the site over the past few years, but some months ago a reader pointed out that the site was difficult to view and navigate, particularly on the smaller screens of smart phones or tablets. Although we have always put more emphasis on content than design, it is hard (or downright stupid) to ignore the fact that over 100 million Americans alone now view the internet on such devices. It was certainly time to make some changes.

The first thing I hope you noticed is the dramatic redesign of the front page. We have replaced the original variegated, multi-colored background site-wide with a solid light gray background that is easier to read and loads much faster. We eliminated all the link buttons that littered our Main Menu and other pages and replaced them all with simple text links. Most importantly, we combined the Main Menu into the front page, where it belongs. The menu is broken into two sections, one for General Contents and the other for In-Depth Contents, the latter of which is now listed on the page in alphabetical order. Instead of having to click a link to view a separate Main Menu page, just scroll down a bit and the menu content is right there. (You can still click on the Shroud photo if you like, which simply jumps you down the page directly to the menu items). You will also find that the Search Engine box has been moved to the front page. Of course, as always, a second search box is still available from the Website Library page. You will also find a Navigator bar at the bottom of every main page that gives you quick links to other important pages of the site. Navigator bars have also been added to the top and bottom of the Scientific Papers & Articles page and the Links To More Information page that allow you to find papers and links alphabetically instead of scrolling through scores of listings. There are many other changes and refinements you will find as you navigate the site, all designed to make it more user-friendly. I hope you find the new look of the site a good step in the right direction. And it only took sixteen years!

Speaking of sixteen years, one friend and viewer of our site recently asked me how the website got started and what prompted me to build it. In fact, he strongly urged me to write an article telling the story and include it in this update. It seemed like a good idea, so you will find links to the new article titled The History of Shroud.com from all the appropriate pages of the site. Of course, as I’ve already stated, content is still our primary focus, and this update is no exception. Although it is not as large as some previous anniversary updates because of the time necessary for the redesign, it still contains some very important new materials. I have included the usual Update Table of Contents below to make finding the new content easy.

Finally, no update would be complete until I thanked each and every author, scholar, researcher, student and viewer who, by their continued participation and support, make this site possible. You truly make this all worthwhile. Thank you for being there.

Barrie Schwortz, Editor & Founder

Late Breaking Website News!  and the Home Page