Well, I got tired of the old one, which was the default “Trendy” MovableType template. I pretty much decided on the colors and the main image up top a while ago and had been playing with drawings on my morning Metro commute on and off. I drew some useful help from Blue Robot’s 2 column template, as well as some inspiration from the CSS Zen Garden (which is where I got the idea of the slight white lines for the window-pane effect, as well as the second green tone).
I’ve tested the new design in Opera 7.02 and M$ Explorer 6.0 on a PC running Windows XP. I don’t have the resources available to me that I used to, so if folks using other browsers on other platforms would be so kind to point out issues, I would be much obliged.
And I, of course, would love to hear what you think – what works for you, what doesn’t, etc.
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Genrally looks cool, but I can’t really see the right margin at all on my monitor.
I think the design’s pretty cool, too. I browse on OS X, with Safari (on a Powerbook), and the left half of the right column is buried under the middle column. (So I can see the last word, but not the first, for each blogroll entry.)
Jason – your Powerbook has a 15′ screen?
Chuck – what OS, monitor size, and browser?
Thanks to both of you… maybe I need to narrow some of the columns. Hmm…
If either of you visit George’s site (http://ghw.wordherders.net/ ) – do you have the same issues?
Very nice design! Looks good on my set-up, J: NS 7.1 on Windows 2000. 1024 X 768.
They make 15-foot monitors for the PowerBook!?!
Yeah. That’s why they’re called *power* books. 😉
I suspect I’m going to run into issues with the width of the page … which, when I add it up, is probably just shy of 1000 pixels. Fine on a setup like George’s, but not so great for smaller monitors or laptops. Hmm.
Think the columns are 200 – 500 – 250 right now. Might need to chop that down a bit. Durn.
Good to know that it works with Netscape though. I really didn’t feel like re-installing another browser…
Really freakin’ awesome, J. Love it.
Looks good but on OS X 10.2.8 Safari, right hand column is cropped on the left side (so I see omments instead of Comments, and the o is half cropped to boot). Different but similar problems under IE on same system. There the calendar is cropped, comments ok but they disappear behind the first image (welcome to my garden).
Holy sh*t, looks great.
looks great, jason! works well in all the browsers on my computer (it is even legible in 4.7). i really like the layout, not sure about the green/orange combo though.
Should have mentioned: Mozilla 1.4 likes it fine.
On another note, your blog comment form never “remembers my personal info.” I have to type it in anew each time. Not a problem on other blogs or even other wordherders blogs. Weird, huh?
That is totally weird Matt, because it remembers my own info fine? Does anyone else have this problem?
eriC – I’m glad to know it works (at least a little?) in 4.7. I thought green was your favorite color? 😉
Thanks for all of the great comments and feedback folks (and keep it coming – especially if you see any problems)!
I think the main issue is that I need to narrow the minimum column width on the first and second columns – what is happening is the images (500px each) of the robot and the one in “welcome to my garden” are keeping the middle column from collapsing too far, which makes the right column slide underneath in browsers set to sub-1078 pixel screen resolution.
Hmm. Might help if I add a padding to that right column too, so if it slips under a little, it might be less of an issue.
i have the same problem as Matt on your blog, and so far ive only had this problem on your blog…
in 4.7 the layout is scrapped and everything appears in a vertical line, but ive seen plenty of css styles that degrade more grossly. i wouldnt worry about it.
i think it would be a good idea to put your recent comments and we.blog(2) within white outlines as your left hand menus are displayed.
and green is my favorite color. but not necessarily with orange…
Question for both of you about the remembering comments thing – did this start just now, or have you always had this problem?
And, anyone else? How weird, since it remembers my info… Hmm.
eriC – I’ll think about the right hand side a bit more, although I’m not sure – part of my intention was to avoid having one mimic the other (I also want to avoid putting too many more pixels in an already big design)… but a little padding definately might be in order.
Netscape 4.7 tears up most CSS, so I’m glad that things are at least readable… I refuse to design for that browser anymore, however.
Thanks again for the input!
Holy moly — great redesign! I am, of course, having the same right-column problem as the others (browsing via Safari). Just one thought: is there a particular reason (and I’m really asking here — this is an issue about which I am ignorant) why you’ve specified pixel widths for your columns rather than percentages? It seems to me that percentages would scale to whatever monitor/window size…?
the first time i noticed the problem was this morning… but i dont think ive commented on your blog recently before today
Smashing design, Jason!
I’m using Windows ME at home, but my monitor is less than 1000 pixels, I believe, so that’s likely the problem. It looks great on my office monitor (Windows XP, better monitor).
KF – No good reason, really, other than the fact that I was initially looking to establish a *minimum* width, especially for the middle column. The header image (with the robot) is 500 px, so that holds the width no matter what. I’ll likely have to change that to 450px, and then I’ll try switching the whole she-bang over to % to see if that works better for people’s browsers. Good suggestion.
eriC, Matt – I’m not sure what the problem is – I’ll dig through my code later this week and see if I can figure it out.
kari – thanks!
Chuck – thank for checking at work. I think the issue is only that the window is too large for any computer sitting at less than 1078 resolution. I’ll try to knock my pixels down a bit to accomodate all (or most) users…
Flawless in Mozilla Firebird 0.6.x at 1024×768 on Win2k. The only think I might suggest is to put a couple more px of left margin in your rightmost column. That’s an aesthetic, rather than a usability, suggestion.
dang. double dang. i much prefer the new to the old. dangity dangdang. nice one!
The new Netscape design is too big for my monitor everything else is fine. I use Windows ME. I can’t register because I can’t see all the Netscape page.