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Posted by: Stuart

I enjoy working with HTML, XHTML, CSS and designers as a web developer. At home I enjoy listening to music, playing music, reading and food.

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Posted on: 11 July 2004

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Comments: 42

I May Have Something Here

So for the last couple of days I have typed my fingertips to the bone to come up with this. I have combined my expanding layout with Root’s quest for the sticky footer and come up with an expanding layout with footer. Apart from the layout I think I am happy with the design as well so I may start using it for my Blog but not go sitewide with it. As far as I can see this layout looks fine in FireFox, Opera and IE. Oh, and before you ask, it validates.

I’ve removed the link cuz, as you may have noticed, I’ve gone live with the new Blog layout. Do let me know if you see any glitches.

Comments ( 42 )

Lizz
Ohhhhhhhh Sir, it so pretty!!!! I definately like the new theme you're building up!!! :dance:

The only thing that seems odd (which may occur in the other theme too) is that the side bars on the main page are MUCH longer than the actual webinformation you're trying to give. this is an aesthetic problem more than anything else... but that's the only type of comment I can make, cause I don't know how to code.

Anyway, yes I like it. You get brownie points!!!
11 July 2004, 09:20
Stuart
Well thank you though now you have your new Firefox browser everything should look better because it will look the way it was intended and not the way some nerd at Microsoft wants you to see it. To prove my point why don't you look at my home page with FireFox then IE. I've sorted the little glitches I was getting with IE for this layout. I've also used a different way of "colouring" the menu so the grey background in the content (but not the margins) should go to the bottom of the menu if the menu is longer. I should mention that trying to get the menu and content lengths roughly the same is nigh on impossible with the Blog because as people add their comments, the content length, which probably starts off shorter than the menu, gets longer and longer.
11 July 2004, 16:55
Root
Stu which test site is *the one* for feedback etc? BTW footer positioning should not be affected by the width.
11 July 2004, 21:01
Stuart
Well at the moment Root it's just the "Ramblings" one above. I think I prefer this new header to the "mushroom". I'm still messing with colours etc in the menu but I could do that live if there's no problem with the layout side. (I need to see how the comments side turns out anyway before it's complete.) As for width I only mentioned it as part of the "variable width" phrase as that's where it differs from your template. Other than that, excluding the header and title bar mine goes "wrapper - container - content - escape content - escape container - menu - escape menu - clear both - escape wrapper - footer". Why didn't we just say that in the first place? :doh:
11 July 2004, 21:36
Root
But you are still using position: absolute for the layout right?
11 July 2004, 22:35
Stuart
No. They both float. By that I mean content is float: left, menu is float: right. I don't just float the menu and let the content take care of itself which is what my current layout does and which is why the footer doesn't work with this kind of layout, wrapper or no-wrapper. There are a couple of other tricks which you may know of but go looksie My CSS. I have actually annotated this one so it should be easier to follow. :dance:
11 July 2004, 22:59
Stuart
Think I should do a WP template Root? :roll:
12 July 2004, 00:02
Lizz
Ok, after carefully reviewing your site with both FF and IE, I've found only _1_ difference. ::ramblings:: is centred vertically between the bombsite andthe first entry in FF and it's flush to the top in IE... is there anything else I missed?
12 July 2004, 04:06
Stuart
Well I did say my HOME page eb. Take a good look at those horizontal dividers for a start. I also find the text in IE is larger than both FireFox and Opera. I know you can adjust it but I'm talking about differences in default mode. Now you're on a higher res. than me but I also find the content area in IE is narrower than I see with FireFox and as I know how the page is constructed I know that what I see in IE is not what I've written. Anyway as all us good "designers" try to take account of as many quirks as we can, browsing with IE shouldn't pose major visual problems. The main problem with IE is it's insecurity. So how's my layout doing? Do you like the red background for the "important" menu box?
12 July 2004, 04:44
Root
Brilliant. You have moved to float. Everything seems fine on the layout front. Even qualifies for the *perfectly positioned footer* kite mark. Nice work. Your footer has got a top margin and it is clearing. Shouldn't be necessary with a clearer div first and top margins on cleared divs can behave erratically. Just my 2c but looks fine in FF at the mo..
12 July 2004, 05:59
Stuart
OK. The margin was only there to separate the footer from the main body. I've removed the margin and put a line-break in the HTML instead. I shall start using it now cuz I need to see the comments-side of the page.
12 July 2004, 06:33
Root
OK. You are looking good. We are proud to announce the launch of Trident - a WordPress template in 3 columns. Details on the blog. Good luck here and nice work.
12 July 2004, 23:25
Root
Do you know - when I see that plump fully formed footer - beautifully positioned I think - well - it does it for me I can tell you. Congratulations stu on the upgrade. I hope that you and float will be very happy together :)
13 July 2004, 01:00
Lizz
Root may like the "perfect float" or what have you, I like the little TBS at the side of each post!!! :clap:
13 July 2004, 06:57
Stuart
Nice isn't it. Came up with that this afternoon. You were probably still in bed. Add a little touch of colour don't they? That's the beauty of this game. You have the technical side to do with floats and stuff, then you have the arty side with those cute little touches. You're just after my font aren't you? :boohoo:
13 July 2004, 07:02
Lizz
Sir, of COURSE I'm just after your font!!!!! Please please please please please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :pray::pray::pray:
14 July 2004, 01:15
Stuart
I'll have to go and find where I got it from. :doh:
14 July 2004, 05:00
Lizz
Ok, now I think you've over done with with TBS at the end of every comment.... better if just after comments that YOU have made.... selon moi, bien sur
14 July 2004, 10:02
Stuart
I'm afraid it's all or nothing.
14 July 2004, 15:46
Root
Well it might be time to start some php. :boohoo:
14 July 2004, 16:41
Stuart
Nahhhhh. :shock:
14 July 2004, 16:46
Lily
hiya!
been awhile and i'm so clueless
i think i like the colours :-)
i probably need to wait for everything to load tho..
17 July 2004, 03:51
Stuart
Well howdy stranger. Yes I think you've got some catching up to do. I doubt there was anything left to load. The menu doesn't get this far down. :pray:
17 July 2004, 05:03
Thomasso
Holy crap Stuart, you made some changes here! HUmm when I get some more time, I'll pick your brain on some of these "items" you have here. But does this "post views (#)" mean, does it count how many times it has being open? And the funky graphic... I like it. Anyway, I'll talk to you later. :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
17 July 2004, 10:41
Stuart
Yes Tom. A few changes, but you've been watching the test site so they shouldn't be too big a surprise. There are 2 view counts here. The one in the menu under the "user online" tag is visits to the complete page. The one under the "comments" button basically counts how many times the "comment" button is clicked giving you a count of sorts for how many times the post has been viewed. Of course they only count from when they were installed so not too accurate yet. Need some new posts for them to work on.
17 July 2004, 15:48
Thomasso
Are these veiw counters plug-ins from the Wrod-Press Winki site?
17 July 2004, 22:17
Stuart
I believe it's there. It's called D-Stats2 by DelMyth.
17 July 2004, 23:28
Root
Well my d stats 2 has just borked. Right after podz gave me the fix in fact :)
18 July 2004, 00:31
Stuart
Fix? Mine installed OK. No problems yet. :pray:
18 July 2004, 01:16
Thomasso
KEWL, an update "stats" plug-in.... I never got "stats2" working right, always kept getting phrasing errors and "can't access the datebase," oh and that 402 page. Trouble it was. :(

So how dificult was the "dstats2" plug-in to install? I just downloaded it and noticed that there are some other directories: __MACOSX. ? Does this serve any use for the website? And it has its own CSS, good or bad?

*Root, do you have yours up and running yet?
18 July 2004, 01:18
Stuart
I think that MACOSX stuff is for Mac users only so I deleted them. I didn't have any dificulty with the install. The fact that it has it's own CSS isn't a problem. At least you don't need to worry about styling it straight away. You're probably going to be the only one to view them anyway. Might be fun to integrate the styles though.
18 July 2004, 02:28
Lily
i need plugins!
i need to wander to the wp support site!
18 July 2004, 04:51
Thomasso
Another thing that got me with the new wp-dstats2 is, the first step where you are to make a table, listed in the readme. How do you take that "code" and make a table with it? Where do you run it?.... I know, the newbie part in me comming out here?:think: Everything seems like it is simple..... urr ummm, I think. :shifty: :hithead:
18 July 2004, 04:54
Stuart
Assuming you have MySQL you have to login to your database admin then select your WP database. There should be a tab with SQL on it. Select that and you will see a box where you should copy/paste that code. Then click the go button.
18 July 2004, 06:50
Stuart
Oh eb!! That font is called altamonteNF and you can get it here.
18 July 2004, 06:58
Thomasso
Hey Stuart,
this is the first time I went into the MySQL Admin Page. I see the tab SQL however, there is no Wp database, there is everything inside WP, all the comments, polls etc. Does it matter which one I paste it to? Perhaps I should sent you an Email for this.... :help: I'm stepping into new stuff here...:think:
18 July 2004, 09:02
Root
Well - on the stats2 I have just upgraded my blog to Mingus. Did the full monty and rebuilt my index from scratch because the files are different. Now I need to get my stats back. But - now I know what I am looking for - I am not sure I really like them dstats2 . Any ideas for the coolest? @Thomasso: My advice? Do not mess with that mysql stuff unless you have a very clear head.
19 July 2004, 05:30
Thomasso
@Root: I hear ya! Oh, I hear ya. :naughty:

Stuart just showed where to back up the database and load the table for dstats2. Ya, I'm sort of thinking about the changes right now. I never knew I could look right at the data from the server until yesterday. So, I might sit down and realy think about this next move.

Right now I'm troubles with this weather plug-in. I can't get the cache folder to work... I can see the weather icon, read the METAR report, but that stupid weather_cache_CYVR.txt file will not read.... :pray:
19 July 2004, 07:49
Stuart
I know of 3 other stats plugins. You can see one of them in my Blog Stats entry in the menu. There is a second that produces similar stats to this but can be "called" separately to go into your menu. I use this as well but I only call the "comments words" and have included that in my Blog Stats page. Then there is another one that does similar stats to dstats2 but I can't remember where it is. I'll go look and let you know. If my memory serves me right this one comes with graphics.
19 July 2004, 14:41
Stuart
I found that other plugin. You can go here to see it in action.
19 July 2004, 14:51
Thomasso
Thanks Stuart..... Ya, I'm still fighting that weather plugin. I got Beel looking at it over at the Word Press support site. I'm still having problems with that cache file?

But ya, thank, I'll have look at this stats plug. Thanks :clap:
20 July 2004, 06:05
Stuart
Email on the way Tom.
20 July 2004, 08:57

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