The History Files

The History Files underwent a large-scale style refurbishment between 2007-2008 which resulted in the general layout standards which are still employed today.

Since then there has been an ongoing process of updating and improving the site's general presentation and organisation. The site's frontpage design changes every few years to keep that fresh, while the feature pages are still being improved to meet 2024 standards for presentation.

Feature pages

Each feature page is split into two sections. The main body text is on the left-hand two-thirds of the page.

The sidebar (established in 2002 and not related to the later Microsoft use of the name) is on the right. This is reserved for associated images, related internal links, external links to other websites, and links to other content around the History Files website.

An upgrade in 2024 introduced the sidebar slider specifically for responsive use.

Smartphones and the smaller tablets may not display the sidebar if the screen size is too narrow. When tapped, the three-bar menu icon at the top of the body text will display the sidebar as a slider over the body text.

This image shows on the left a standard feature page display on a narrow responsive screen (such as a mobile phone in portrait mode), and on the right the slidebar slider is now visible.

Simply tap the cross in the top right corner, or tap the main body text area away from the slider to re-hide the slider.

Features: photobox, video, and photo focus

A special type of feature page is a photobox page. This has a photo-slide application which takes up the entire width of the main body text area and sidebar combined. A basic introduction will be found beneath the photobox, along with source material and links.

A photobox feature page will look like this (tap or click on image to be taken to the page shown):

More recently developed is the video player page. This uses the same page format as the photobox above, with basic introduction text, sources, and links below it.

As would be expected of any good video player, it contains all the usual options, plus the ability to switch to the same video on the History Files' very own YouTube channel if for some reason you are having trouble playing the video from the History Files server itself (tap or click on image to be taken to the video player sample page):

Another new format is the photo focus page. This was developed especially for the 'American Lives' microsite which launched in summer 2021, to provide a more flexible method for displaying a relatively small number of large-format photos on a handy page layout (no more than twenty photos, in theory).

In essence it is a replacement for the less wieldy photobox format, although the latter's ability to handle anything above twenty photos makes it irreplaceable for the 'Railway Walks' pages.

Use of the photo focus format was extended to the main History Files site in autumn 2021, while a version also appeared at the start of 2022 in the 'large photo' page format which usually links directly to timeline photos in king list pages. The main photos focus format is shown below.

More updates are likely to come in the future and those will be listed here.

The History Files is not responsible for the content of other websites.