New Design and Apology to IE Users
Category: Navel Gazing...
Posted Sunday, August 14, 2005 at 08:56 PM [GMT-6]

The new design is a work-in-progress; that should go without saying, since every website should continue to evolve.

Anyway, while the content hasn't changed any, and even the basic layout is the same, what you see represents a lot of tinkering under the hood, primarily to get all the templates onto the same style sheet, with consistent tags across the board. The previous design was a coding hodge-podge which made it really difficult to make any changes.

The new layout is also table-free. I have mixed feelings about that. I don't see anything wrong with using tables for layout purposes, despite the protestations of the CSS nazis. The previous layout was built around a three-celled table...hardly a browser-choker by any stretch of the imagination. It was also 100% compatible with every browser on the planet (AFAIK). The new layout isn't. It also reminds me of how much IE reeks. But, working with this kind of design is good experience and it is, after all, just a blog.

The one thing I'm really unhappy about is the way the blogrolls appear (or, rather, don't appear) in IE for Windows. In competent browsers, you should see a nice rollover effect on the blogroll. In IE 6 (Win), the links appear and disappear as if they're faulty neon lights. That may be an interesting effect, but it's not what I was going for. If anyone has a clue about what the problem might be, I'd like to hear it. I've used this rollover effect on literally hundreds of pages in the past and haven't seen this problem. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that the links are actually being delivered by Blogrolling.com and my assumptions about how the <div> tags are being applied are bad.

If you spot anything else funky, let me know and I'll try to fix it.

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Comments

Eric, I LIKE it ... a lot!

Posted by: Jeff at August 14, 2005 09:22 PM

Jeff, thanks!

Posted by: Eric at August 14, 2005 09:34 PM

It does look nice. And I'll have to mention now, that on the old site I used to get a strange effect on the "FireAnt" graphic. Mainly on my computer at work [or maybe the monitors' fault?] I used to see what looked like eraser tool marks around the little ant. i.e. it looked white in certain spots around the border of the ant against the yellow background. No big deal, but I never could figger why I saw those on one of my systems and not t'other.

Back to this one....using I.E. 6+ looks like your roll over effects are working for me. Background and font colors change when "moused".

Also, on my 800x600 setting I'm getting a lateral scroll bar, by about 20 or so pixels.

Posted by: Wallace-Midland, Texas at August 14, 2005 10:09 PM

Wallace, maybe my Windows laptop/IE combination has a problem unrelated to the website; I'm relieved to hear that your installation is displaying the rollovers properly.

The horizontal scrollbar was expected in lower resolutions; you should still be able to see all the content at 800x600. If that's not the case, let me know.

Posted by: Eric at August 14, 2005 10:17 PM

I honestly don't understand why people still use I-Explorer. Then again, I still like windows and office and others think those are really lame. . .

I use firefox browser and Hubby used IExplorer. It is nice to have "his and hers" browsers, but IE still bugs me. . .


Btw, I like the updated look!

Posted by: TulipGirl at August 14, 2005 11:09 PM

The page looks fine on Firefox, but the blog listings is very erratic with IE6. When you scroll to the listing, they all look fine, but as soon as the cursor goes over any blog, half the listings in "Midland Blogs" and "The Church" disappear.

Posted by: Jim Howard at August 14, 2005 11:29 PM

but as soon as the cursor goes over any blog, half the listings in "Midland Blogs" and "The Church" disappear.

Yeah, that's the problem I referred to. It's very strange behavior; I've not encountered it before and have no clue as to its cause.

TulipGirl, I like the MS Office products, too. But, then, they actually work! ;-)

Posted by: Eric at August 15, 2005 06:34 AM

I give the new look Two Thumbs Up!! Love it! The lite OD/ black color scheme is fantastic!!

P.S. In case you're wondering, it works fine with Mozilla!

Posted by: Mr. Freen at August 17, 2005 12:23 AM

Mr. Freen, I'm glad you like the new design. I figured it worked with Mozilla, since it works with Firefox, but it's good to get confirmation.

However, you might want to calibrate your monitor's color settings. The background is actually "Dark Khaki" with a hex value of BDB76B. "Olive Drab" has a hex value of 6B8E23. Of course, depending on the color depth of your monitor, the background could be dithering to a different hue. Just another of the myriad challenges facing a designer with no control over how the visitors see the final product! ;-)

Posted by: Eric at August 17, 2005 08:00 AM
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