osWorld has a new look
Inspired by the recent updates of a few blogs that I read, I decided to give osWorld a overhaul. It's not completely finished, so if you find any bugs, please let me know - thanks!
The design should be unique, as I put this together myself from bits and pieces I've found on the net (eg, the freebie css structure, stripe generator and so on).
Let me know what you think of the new look. Good? Crap? What could be made better? Thanks.
Comment by burt — November 7, 2007 @ 6:30 pm
Ahem. Comments should now be working!
Forget to set the comments templste to point to the renamed comment processing script. Doh!
Comment by Roberta — November 7, 2007 @ 6:37 pm
I really like the new design, it looks great! I just noticed that the comment box runs over into the two sidebar columns, though. Besides that, I like it
Comment by burt — November 7, 2007 @ 6:51 pm
Thanks Roberta
I don't see that (I tested in Internet Explorere and Firefox [both Windows]). Which browsers/OS do you use please?
Thanks, Gary
Comment by Mike K-H — November 7, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
No problems with latest versions of Window XP/IE and Firefox.
I quite like the 'two RH columns' layout. Not sure about the white-on-black masthead. Seems a bit harsh. (However, at the moment I'm using a VDU where the red gun dies when the voltage drops, so probably not a fair way to view…) Must get that laptop charged up with all my apps.
Comment by slee — November 7, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
needs more colour it's a bit dull but i like the layout it is a very popular blogging layout which i think works very well.
Comment by SarahG — November 7, 2007 @ 8:28 pm
I definitely like the full screen. My only thought is that the digg icon isn't lining up on the left but actually right on the edge of the page. Kinda looks a little out of place. I like your little post meta box too.
Comment by Eddy — November 7, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
Looks good, but as others said, needs a bit of colour.
The recent comments on the right, the right padding doesn't look right, on some it pushes right up to the right hand border.
Comment by Roberta — November 8, 2007 @ 4:00 am
I responded from work earlier and it was from a computer using windows xp and it was IE6, I think….It looks great on Firefox, though
Comment by burt — November 8, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
Thanks for all your feedback guys - I made some changes so it should now be a bit better.
Comment by Toxie — November 8, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
Different
Comment by Empress — November 8, 2007 @ 10:37 pm
Oh fabulous the comments are working now
I tried to comment yesterday about your template… and got sent to Yahoo! .. hehe. The only thing I could think of is maybe having a contact form somewhere - so if something like that happened again we could tell you. If you do have a contact me page… I'm probably blind and can't see it.
Overall love the new design
Comment by Oli — November 8, 2007 @ 10:58 pm
Empress: There is contact information on our individual pages
Comment by burt — November 9, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
Yeah, I'm not sure why it was redirecting to Yahoo. Very strange.
Further advice for anyone updating their blog theme - be sure to add in any 3rd party extras like Google Analytics. I was wondering why it was showing no visitors
D'oh.
Comment by Mike K-H — November 9, 2007 @ 6:23 pm
My VDU's red gun is working again,and I see SNCF orange letters. Were they there before? Looks good now.
Comment by Mike K-H — November 9, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
"decided to give osWorld a overhaul" - s/be "an overhaul" (:>
Comment by burt — November 9, 2007 @ 6:32 pm
Don't start
Comment by Chance — November 9, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
I go out of town for a few days and the whole world goes crazy- just look at this place!
Comment by burt — November 18, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
A few requests as to how this was done…
1. i got the layout from Layout Gala - I think it's layout 16.
2. I then changed the layout a bit to make it prettier. First step was to make a stripey pattern. I used Stripe Generator for this - easy as 123.
3. I then opened the stripe I made in Photoshop and defined it as a "pattern". I then made a balnk canvas the same size as the header in the html layout, and placed the pattern on top. I then added a drop shadow.
4. Once this was done, I placed it as a background image. The 2 columns didn't look quite right, so I overlaid the background with an image, aligned right. This gives the impression that the columns do not have a drop shadow.
5. I then had to make a similar graphic to define the two columns, which is done using the faux column (false column) technique.
6. I then wanted to make the text look a bit more "web2". To do this I increased the font size, and made the gaps between the lines bigger. I also made the headings into a very large orange font, with an underline. All done using CSS.
Once complete, I then transferred the design to wordpress. And after a little bit of tinkering, the result is what you see…
So, the blog has just 3 colours: white, orange, very dark grey. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.