Tweaking | Articles | the bombsite

Well a whole week has gone by and not a word out of me, good or bad. It’s down to the fact that I’ve been tweaking the site a bit. My plugins list grows ever longer and there is still one more to add but it isn’t ready yet.

So what have I been tweaking? Well first I set about styling my archives list in a similar fashion to my blog. Then I piled into my search results styling in a similar manner and my individual category archives. The next things to attract my attention were my static pages or, to be more accurate, the static pages that make up my website. These are now dealt with in two slightly different ways. First, those pages which are not about software all use the same template but have their own sections and are written as single articles. The software pages have their own templates and sections and each software item is a separate post which is assigned to the appropriate section and listed in ascending date order so the newest additions are at the bottom of the relevant page. You may think that is upside down but I prefer it that way. The software pages are also now included in the site search.

Next I gave my Contact page it’s own section and page template and I’ve installed a plugin that allows me to add an email form to the page. I think that completes all the available options for contacting me. Whilst we’re on that subject you might note that if you hover over my name in the post title area of the front page you get a mailto link just in case you feel like it. It is a coded link using javascript so no bot access. They still get an email address but it’s gobbledygook. Ha ha. To see what I mean try it on the comments page and see what you get. Actually that needs fixing but I haven’t had time to sort it out with the plugin developer yet. Still, the example is there for the time being. Sorted it now.

What else is there? Oh yes. I’ve replaced the previous posts and later posts buttons at the bottom of the front page with numbered paging navigation. Another nice plugin. It does output an un-ordered list though so a bit of CSS is required to finish it off. I’ve styled the buttons to match the existing styling in my three designs.

All this messing about has meant getting my Sitemap up-dated and it threw IE a wobbly too. Bloody browser needs scrapping. It’s nearly as old as me. Had me reaching for a conditional statement in the header and a separate style sheet for a while there but I managed to sort it out a little earlier today so that’s a headache avoided.

I have to say that, now I am getting used to the little details of Textpattern, it is by far the finest CMS in existence. And yes, it is streets ahead of WordPress. There is no way I could have The Bomb Site the way it is now with any other software. The site is totally managable. And no, I’m not bragging. Just saying it as I see it. I usually do as those that know me will confirm.

And to round the week off nicely a big welcome back to cyberspace for Jess. (I have a Guest Book now you know Jess.)