Monday, May 07, 2007

Wha happa???

The astute observer will notice that there have been a few changes around here lately.

The old original Blogger template seemed to be growing a little clunky. It seemed there was a lot of neato stuff that could be done with the shiny new Blogger.

So, for the last couple of weeks I had been experimenting with a new template on a supersecret test blog. Then yesterday, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge, pull the trigger and flip the switch.

At least one astute observer (perhaps the astutest) John B. of Blog Meridian noticed immediately. He left a comment on the post previous to this one:
I like the new layout; in a couple of places I've seen hacks for the 3-column layout, and I've wondered, given all my blog's links and geegaws, if the 3-column might be helpful.
Have you lived with it long enough to know whether you like it?
Well John B., the short answer is... No, I haven't had it up long enough to know whether I like it. It seems like it might be a little too busy, that it offends my minimalist taste. Maybe I need to get rid of some of the chicklets in the side columns or something.

Actually, it occurs to me that maybe widening the gutters between the columns would help. If there are any CSS Code Ninjas out there who can help, I would be very grateful.

But I'll probably stick with this layout, out of inertia and laziness if for no other reason.

I am interested to read what everyone thinks, so please post positive reaffirming messages in the comments section.

PS -- I wanted to say a special thanks to Stavanger at Blogcrowd who put up with a lot of my dumb questions through this process. For anyone thinking of updating their template, this is a great resource.


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10 comments:

  1. Hey,

    www.webmonkey.com is the tome you seek. I use it on occasion when I do nt have my CSS reference guide on me. But what are you trying to do exactly?

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  2. I'm no web techie/html writer, so I really liked the New Blogger. It's also fun to play around with the coloring selections to create your own signature look. Your blog looks great! - Cate

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  3. Few things comfort me as much as the realization that other people can be almost as geeky as me.

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  4. Me likey!

    I hate the new blogger so I keep monkeying with my layout. My supersecret test blog is http://jcdtbeta.blogspot.com/ but it's gonna take weeks to get it to look like I want it.

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  5. Smedrock - One of the things I'd like to do is have more "whitespace" (or in this case, blackspace) between the center column and the right-hand column, while keeping both columns the same size. Let me know if you have any thoughts on that.

    W.O. - Thanks for the comment and the link. You rock!

    HIB - Geeky? I don't think so. You can't spell Happy In Bag without HIP.

    Cara - You've got a great start in your secret lab.

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  6. I like it and thanks for the props. But I do have to say, that I didn't have any help with my layout. But of course that is prolly why mine is having "issues". I bet my issues have something to do with the widgets.

    The surgery begins in
    5...
    4...
    3...
    2...
    1...

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  7. I will re open my lab and take a look at the original template, and tweak it to see if I can give some cut and paste code. Today is go to the pain inflictor day (dentist), so my mind is not at all on the technical side of things at the moment.

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  8. Ok, figured it out. In the code to appear below, look for this in your blog html;

    .main .Blog {
    border-bottom-width: 0;
    }

    and make it look like this:

    .main .Blog {
    border-bottom-width: 0;
    padding-right: 15px;
    }

    The last statement has a number 15px. That is the space in pixels that YOU CAN CHANGE. the padding-right will just effect the right side of the blog content column. You could just cut and paste it in over the old code too.

    Good luck.

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  9. Smedrock-- That did it. Thanks! I've got it set to 10px now and I'll play around to see what I like. Thnks again for the excellent Blog-fu.

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  10. Not a problem. Lemme know if yuou have any other tweaks. The book I grabbed that line from is called:

    CSS Pocket Reference by Eric A. Meyer, published by O'Riley and was printed in 04, so it should be up to date. Best $10 I spent on coding.

    L8r...

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