new year, new wordpress theme

[1.10.10]

Being that it's the new year I figured it was time for a theme change, hence the new look.

For those keeping tabs, this is what's been changed around:

1. Back to two-column.

I thought the three-column format was a good idea but it actually turned out to be more annoying than anything else.

2. Top buttons.

I moved some stuff that was in the sidebar to the top, button-style.

3. Darker background.

Blacked out with a fading PNG that I used two themes ago and decided to bring it back. :)

4. Dark sidebar.

Previous the sidebars were a light gray. Now it's a single sidebar with a charcoal-ish color.

5. Verdana

I was using the newer Segoe UI font because it comes bundled with Windows Vista and 7, and is installed if you install Windows Live stuff in XP. However I'm finding that Verdana is far easier to read than Segoe UI, so I went back to using that. The title areas of articles for now is Georgia, but I may switch that to something else. Or not.

6. Tables

Sticking with "tradition", the code of my layout is more HTML than CSS based using good ol' tables. I do this because no matter how hard I try to make a complete CSS table-less layout, Internet Explorer or Firefox will screw it up on view. Tables don't do that; they always look perfect no matter what browser you load it with, hence the reason I use them to begin with.

7. Skinny

My previous theme was 900 pixels wide. This one with the elimination of the sidebar is 725. I actually prefer this because it's viewable on more browsers on mediums that don't have high resolutions like smartphones and Opera on Nintendo Wii.

And yeah, that's about it.

5 comments

  1. Aaron Fournier says:
    01/10/2010 at 10:47 am

    Really love the new template! :)

    Also, about the tables, I know exactly what you mean. When coding the site I’m using now I wanted to use a table-less layout because it’s supposed to be the “right way” of doing things nowadays. Everything seemed perfect as far as cross browser compatibility was concerned. The only problem is that since I use Linux, I can’t really see how it looks in Internet Explorer. I was able to view it on my brother’s computer using IE8 and it looked fine, but I recently looked at it using IE7 and was shocked one of the div boxes didn’t stretch down like in every other browser I checked it in. Still have to figure out a way to fix that <_<

    • Rich says:
      01/10/2010 at 11:09 am

      I gave up all-CSS a while ago because it’s too much of a pain in the ass to make work in all browsers/OSes.

      Using a hybrid of CSS with traditional HTML stuff is the only way to go.

      • Aaron Fournier says:
        01/10/2010 at 11:27 am

        Yeah I think you’re right with that. I wish browsers would just stay consistent with W3 standards in that regard to make everyone’s lives easier, haha.

        Anyway, I have a question about WordPress layouts. I decided to make a WordPress account like you suggested to me. It was definitely the better route to take. I found a nice theme I really like, but was put off how expensive it is to be able to customize and save edits to the CSS code. Is that bypassed if you host your blog elsewhere using the WordPress plugin?

        • Rich says:
          01/10/2010 at 12:15 pm

          When you host your own WP blog you can edit anything and everything, cost-free. The freedom to do that is basically what you’re paying for when you host your own site. I use FluidHosting; they’re based out of Connecticut. The plan I use is AHA Economy UNIX. Gives me all the flexibility I could ever want.

          • Aaron Fournier says:
            01/11/2010 at 2:12 pm

            Okay that’s good.

            And thanks for the info on the hosting plan you use. I’d like to look into getting something like that when I have a chance.

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