Work In Progress
So - All Change? Not quite all, but quite a bit of change.
I've given this place a new look in time for the new year. I liked the old one, but this is a bit lighter, with a slightly more upbeat feel, I think.
I've also done some serious rationalising - I've dumped everything I wasn't updating on a regular basis, the Links, People, Words pages, and the entire Opinion section, and brought the focus firmly back to the blog and its related pages.
I've always done that thing of advocating websites as living, changing things, and having all that stuff there as dead as a dodo was not exactly practicing what I preach. I will reintroduce some bits, like a dedicated links page, when I can find a way to do it that I'm happy with and that I can keep up to date.
As far as the Opinion stuff is concerned, I have a plan for that, but it's going to take a little while to get organised. I'm going to build on the idea I mentioned a few weeks back of setting it up as a blog so that it's easier to update and also so that people can comment on it. I'm just vaguely planning the expansion of that at the moment, but I'll hopefully have something in place within a few weeks.
Anyway - this is indeed a work in progress - I'll need to run through various odd pages that launch from old journal entries and the like to make sure they're behaving properly and a few other bits of housekeeping like that. Plus the search templates need completely redoing, but the core stuff is all where it's supposed to be for the moment.
December 30th, 2003 - 17:16
oooh, all very nice….
December 30th, 2003 - 21:12
In Safari 1.0 (v85) running on OS X 10.2.8 the layout of the archive entries is all to pot, with the sidebar taking up the entire width of the page and the entry below.
I’ve posted three screencaps: here’s the , which looks to be fine. Here are of this archive entry.
For what it’s worth, the new design renders nicely in Mozilla Firebird, but IE5.2 screws up the formatting of both the archive and the main page. I’ve posted a screenshot of IE’s view of part of your main page .
Let me know if you want any more screencaps.
December 30th, 2003 - 22:29
Thanks John.
Being at home, I don’t have access to everything I’d usually test in – I’m going to be tweaking for a while I think.
December 30th, 2003 - 23:09
The sidebar is back where it belongs for archive entries when viewed in Safari now, and it’s still just fine in Firebird. However, both archives and the main Journal page are still out of whack in IE5.2.
December 30th, 2003 - 23:14
The dodgy sidebar widths were caused by one too many DIVs being closed, which I’ve now fixed in the templates.
The IE5.2 issue might have to wait a while – the code is fine now as far as I can tell.
Ho hum. I hate browsers.
Thanks for the help though – as soon as I saw the screencaps I was pretty sure what was causing the main problem.
December 30th, 2003 - 23:54
pah! ie sucks
looks fine in moz firebird on linux !
December 31st, 2003 - 01:01
Wow.
The difference is shocking!
It’s going to take a bit getting used to, but it’s looking REALLY nice!
December 31st, 2003 - 08:35
I wasn’t expecting any changes which is usually the best time to overhaul!
You know what strikes me about this design?
It feels younger, in a positive yet naive way. It gives the page a sense of youthful optimism. Its a pleasant suprise for a blog in general but especially from a seasoned veteran like you.
This is in no way meant to be taken as anything OTHER than the biggest compliment by the way. Design never makes me think like this and when it does I feel all warm inside.
Dx
December 31st, 2003 - 09:12
Incidentally, I should have mentioned in my last post that now I can see the new design properly I think it looks quite spiffy.
January 3rd, 2004 - 00:15
“Youthful optimism”?
“Seasoned veteran”?
I’m all of a fluster now.
Thanks for the kind words all.
And hey look! I made Darian feel all warm inside, and I’m not even one of his co-stars….
January 7th, 2004 - 18:27
Ooh, very nice – didn’t recognise you
February 6th, 2004 - 17:46
Hi Jon..
Havn’t said much for a while I know, but I have, as usual been reading your blog.
And just thought I’d say today how much I like the new presentation.
Funny really, to start with, at the time others were saying how nice it is..I really wasn’t sure, perhaps it was just because it was so different..but now I’ve got used to it..I think it’s got a good “clean” look to it.
Pete