Last Updated 10.02.06

…and I do what I can

Two days ago I decided to make a small change in the site. I wanted to change the “print” and “send” options for two neat little icons, like the ones shown in simplebits. Actually I was about to buy the Stockholm Mini set, but in the end I decided to make them myself (cough).

Then, while testing the new icons, I discovered that they only worked properly when accessed from the front page, so I went back to the site where I got the plugins, GaMerZ, and exposed my problem in the forum. The developer, Lester Chan, answered very soon and not only helped me find a solution, but also showed me an issue with the permalinks I wasn´t aware of. Thank you very much, Lester!

In between reply and reply, I decided to go over another thing that had been around my mind for quite a long time: the background. The “shadow border” has become very popular and is perhaps overused, but I think that it is still a valid solution and so I spent some time this evening creating one (there´s an example here).

A quickly easy explanation on how to do it: (on how I did it)
1.Create a new image, 2000 pixels wide, and say 100 high. Make it a grey background.
2.Create a new layer, draw a filled rectangle 100 pixels high and give it the width of the body of the blog. Center it.
3.Give the rectangle a shadow.
4.In my case, I also added a gradient in a new layer (from transparent to black in the sides).
5.Merge the layers and cut a thin stripe (mine is 4 h x 2000 w).
Save it, and you´re done.

By the time I got the new background I also had a solution for the “print and send” options, and several other minor aesthetic changes. But then, I realized that the place where the icons where, right over the articles, was misleading…

…and so, little by little I continued changing things up to the point where they are now. I tried to keep the same “feel” the site had, but at the same time I retouched almost everything, from the position of the title image to the fonts (you can see how the original black-letterhead theme looks like here). I´m kinda happy with the new look, and at least everything´s working fine, plus I´m starting to understand how CSS works.

Well, I hope that you like the new look either if this is the first time you come or if you have been here before.

By the way, this is the original article which inspired the title; don´t hesitate to read it, it´s really interesting.

Update 31.01.06 I have added an Archives section: now it is possible to browse through the contents in a variety of ways which I hope will effectively improve the site´s usability.

Update 10.02.06 I added a TopLinks section to the site. Since we write articles on various topics, I thought it would be useful to give the option to add content via links to the readers´sites.

Tags:how to , self , website

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