Hello everybody.
For the last month or so, I have been busily hacking away at
a duplicate blog. It’s what I like to call a “sandbox” – I imported several of
my posts, closed comments, removed the blog from search engines, and ta-da! I
had a semi-private sandbox in which to experiment.
What I have wanted to do for a while now is to redesign At the Scene of the Crime. I rather
liked some of the features I came across in my wanderings, including drop down
menus and a dynamic slide-show cover. Eventually I selected a template and got
cracking, trying to create something that would work for my blog, something
that would look decent while retaining the “crime scene” feel that the maps in
the background give.
Well… my efforts are pretty much done. I can’t do much more
with my limited knowledge of HTML and I think the result is okay. But this blog
is dedicated to you, the readers. And so I’d like to give you a chance to
participate in this potential redesign.
Here is a link to this sandbox,
complete with the design that I have come up with. Let me know what you think!
I welcome all feedback. And please vote on the poll at the side of the page,
which I am keeping open until Saturday. Rest assured that the blog will not
change at any time until next week, and even then it will depend on the results
of the poll and the feedback I get.
(P. S. This is why the second part of Fair and Foul Play has been delayed. I will get the episode up very soon.)
UPDATE: The proposed template has been altered due to my finally figuring out how to change the colour scheme. The result is a lot closer to what readers are used to seeing on this site. Please let me know what you think of these changes. I genuinely welcome any input, including constructive criticism.
UPDATE II: Fixed a few technical issues that were brought to my attention. When visiting the site, you can click at the picture on top of the page to come back to the home screen. All the gadgets are now in place and the site finally shows the slightly-larger-font that should help make for a more comfortable reading experience.
(P. S. This is why the second part of Fair and Foul Play has been delayed. I will get the episode up very soon.)
UPDATE: The proposed template has been altered due to my finally figuring out how to change the colour scheme. The result is a lot closer to what readers are used to seeing on this site. Please let me know what you think of these changes. I genuinely welcome any input, including constructive criticism.
UPDATE II: Fixed a few technical issues that were brought to my attention. When visiting the site, you can click at the picture on top of the page to come back to the home screen. All the gadgets are now in place and the site finally shows the slightly-larger-font that should help make for a more comfortable reading experience.
Print size a teeny bit bigger for us ageing readers?
ReplyDeleteI succeeded in making some things bigger, but the posts themselves don't want to cooperate. But you will now find stuff like the tags, the "Posted by" section, and the gadgets on the sidebar have larger fonts.
DeleteIt isn't showing up on the sandbox, but the text will be larger when it is applied to this blog. I'm going by the preview I'm getting when I copy the sandbox HTML to this blog. Here is a link to a preview:
Deletehttp://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu200/ohl_patr/preview.jpg
For some reason or other, there are a bunch of minor differences between what I've got in the sandbox and what will show up here. Some of these are good, like the slightly-larger text. Others are not-so-good, like the post headers getting smaller and in a different font. I would likely have to close the blog for a few hours to edit these things properly, or just put a note at the top informing people of just what is going on and why.
I like the slick look of it, but didn't you hate that Barney purple?
ReplyDeleteI was working off a pre-existing template that used it. Unfortunately, when I tried changing the colour into the green I currently use, the result was the same: the background image at the top (behind the slideshow) disappeared. If I can find a way to change that I will.
DeleteAnd would you look at that? I finally figured out how to change it without getting rid of the image! I went for something a little bit different in the end, but overall I like the new look better. It's a lot closer to what we're all used to seeing, but it's got a few new elements that I really like quite a bit.
DeleteI must admit, the sixe of the font was the one thing I picked up on too (but maybe it's my new specs) - I voted yes!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you say so, Sergio. I notice that there are a considerable number of people voting "No", but I'm not sure how much has got to do with the unusually small font that the template had before and how some of the links didn't altogether work. Now that I've got all the gadgets and what not in place, transferring the template over to this blog would be relatively simple, although I'd have to make some minor adjustments.
Delete