When I complain about something on a forum, I feel morally obligated to send a note of praise and thanks when I see something that I really like.
I have complained about not having a persistent, obvious, and visual navigation system on Moodle (e.g.- ALWAYS visible left menu). BUT!!! When I was browsing through the most recent update of the moodle.org site, enjoying Martin's variations on the theme, I saw a new button at the bottom of the page that linked to the course home page.
I WANT THAT BUTTON!!!
How do I get it? And, by the way, thanks for helping me with my navigation ankst!
Brent
It's always beeen there (since Moodle 1.0) ;-) It's simply a normal link - all I did was add this CSS styling to it:
.homelink a:link,
.homelink a:visited,
.homelink a:hover {
background-color: #dddddd;
color: #000;
text-decoration: none;
}
.homelink a:link,
.homelink a:visited {
border-top: 1px solid #cecece;
border-bottom: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
border-left: 1px solid #cecece;
border-right: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
}
.homelink a:hover {
border-bottom: 1px solid #cecece;
border-top: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
border-right: 1px solid #cecece;
border-left: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
}
.homelink {
margin: 1em 0;
}
.homelink a {
padding-left:1em;
padding-right:1em;
}
.homelink a:link,
.homelink a:visited,
.homelink a:hover {
background-color: #dddddd;
color: #000;
text-decoration: none;
}
.homelink a:link,
.homelink a:visited {
border-top: 1px solid #cecece;
border-bottom: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
border-left: 1px solid #cecece;
border-right: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
}
.homelink a:hover {
border-bottom: 1px solid #cecece;
border-top: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
border-right: 1px solid #cecece;
border-left: 2px solid #4a4a4a;
}
.homelink {
margin: 1em 0;
}
.homelink a {
padding-left:1em;
padding-right:1em;
}
It's always been there (since Moodle 1.0) 
...
Now it's a button (and more obvious) I am finding I am using it all of the time. In fact, I am scrolling down to use it as my primary way of getting back. I would imagine a lot of people are starting to notice it also.
So ditto - thanks
Now it's a button (and more obvious) I am finding I am using it all of the time. In fact, I am scrolling down to use it as my primary way of getting back. I would imagine a lot of people are starting to notice it also.
So ditto - thanks
Dohh! 
My first thought: I should have known that!
My second thought: The whole thing kinda proves my point: The need for a more obvious visual navigation cue.
Anyway: Thanks for Martin for clearing it up for me.
Brent
My first thought: I should have known that!
My second thought: The whole thing kinda proves my point: The need for a more obvious visual navigation cue.
Anyway: Thanks for Martin for clearing it up for me.
Brent
Personally I find that button overly eager to be pushed, but it's obvious from the comments that this behavior makes very good PR! 
I added a fair bit of whitespace before the footer because when I first put it in, I found myself hitting it instead of the "Save changes" button on many forms ...
This I think is reason enough not to use a button, but rather some other more visually (or textually) distinct method. The purpose of a button on the Web is to submit form information, not navigation. It's simply not logical. Why not just make it a normal link, but one that reads something like "Return to Using Moodle"?
Hmm, I think that is a bit strict. The purpose of a button in a form is certainly to submit form information, but surely the purpose of a button is context sensitive.
The $homelink button is big & easy to find, much better than the link which few of my users ever noticed.
I don't think many people are going to think they are submitting a form when they click it (though in fact, in a way, they are
).
The Moodle newbies and occasional users I've shown it to all seem to like it.
The $homelink button is big & easy to find, much better than the link which few of my users ever noticed.
I don't think many people are going to think they are submitting a form when they click it (though in fact, in a way, they are
The Moodle newbies and occasional users I've shown it to all seem to like it.
Since then I just changed the color as you can see below ...
I like the idea of making the button a different color, but I got to thinking [insert 'point at which I usually get in trouble']. . .
How about wrapping the dynamic text inside a stylized button with rounded corners that has a 'return' arrow on the right side of the text, just like the last page of the 'book' module. It would give a graphic representation of what the button does.
Just a thought. . .
Brent
How about wrapping the dynamic text inside a stylized button with rounded corners that has a 'return' arrow on the right side of the text, just like the last page of the 'book' module. It would give a graphic representation of what the button does.
Just a thought. . .
Brent
It's a nice idea and I'm not saying it's not needed but the button doesn't do that.
What the button does is take you back to the course homepage but you may not have come from the course homepage. For examples you may have come from an activities overview page, if that makes sense.
In other words, you may have got to this forum from http://moodle.org/mod/forum/index.php?id=5 and having a back icon for that button would be misleading as it wouldn't take you back to where you came from - it would take you to the course homepage.
What the button does is take you back to the course homepage but you may not have come from the course homepage. For examples you may have come from an activities overview page, if that makes sense.
In other words, you may have got to this forum from http://moodle.org/mod/forum/index.php?id=5 and having a back icon for that button would be misleading as it wouldn't take you back to where you came from - it would take you to the course homepage.
Just noticed - it's grey in IE
Here's me thinking it was changing colour all of the time during alpha testing 
Orange in IE over (down) here.
Just noticed - it's grey in IE
A forced refresh should turn it orange!
A forced refresh should turn it orange!
I knew that ... I was just checking that you did 
BTW, ygm 