Testing a New Theme – Feedback Welcome

I’ve been sitting on this three-column version of the Regulus theme for a few weeks. I got the idea and the basic theme files from Bertil Gralvik. I’ve been putting in some tweaks and tonight I got motivated to bring it over to my live blog. I’m still working out a few kinks, but I’d love to get some feedback, especially from those of you who have been reading for a while. What do you think? I won’t ask more specific questions, but rather leave it up to you to share your impressions.

Thanks.

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under blogs, Personal Growth, technology

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21 Responses to “Testing a New Theme – Feedback Welcome”

Steve Johnson on October 23rd, 2006 1:03 pm

Hi Ed,

Like the new look. I’m not a big fan of super-skinny content columns, though. I know there’s a school of thought that says thin columns are best because they mimic the newspaper, but personally I’d like to see a little wider content, although it might help if you reduced the font size a little.

Many developers, myself included, have pretty much abandoned developing for 800×600 screen resolutions, because they are normally less that 2% of viewers. A fixed width of 930-960px is getting to be the norm now.

Also, you have a missing closing blockquote tag on your ‘Photographs and Memories’ post. It’s causing the rest of your titles to stay in blockquote display.

Cheers!
Edward Mills on October 23rd, 2006 2:37 pm

Hi Steve

Thanks for the comments. I get what you’re saying about the skinny columns. I think I’ll stick with this for a while before tackling that change.

I did reduce the font size on the content, which, as you suggested, does look better.

Also, the blockquote end tag got cut off in the excerpt. I’ll have to watch that now that I’ve switched to an excerpt format.

Thanks again.

ed
David on October 23rd, 2006 4:40 pm

Looks great in Flock on Mac, not that that means anything to most of the world.

I checked out Archives and Law of Attraction Carnival.

I’ll submit something to your carnival soon.

My personal taste is for a slightly larger font for the main text,
so it stands out. I like that the sidebar text is lighter.

This comment box runs over textwise a bit into the right margin sometimes.

I assume you are validating for CSS and XHTML.

Davdi
Steve Johnson on October 23rd, 2006 7:40 pm

Excerpts can do funny things, I’ve found out. That’s why I knew where to look first. 🙂

I like the reduced text size much better.
Edward Mills on October 23rd, 2006 8:01 pm

Hi David

Thanks for the comments. With the font size for the content, I tried to split the difference. I agree with Steve that the size I had up originally was too big. I downsized it probably a bit too much and then found what I think is a nice compromise. Of course I’ve only looked at it on two computers so it might look much different on others.

As for validating it, I still have some xhtml errors. I’m working on those. And I have not yet attempt a CSS check. Tomorrow!

And I see what you mean about the comments running over into the right column. I’m not sure what that’s about.

Steve: Yup. I agree with you about the new text size. And thanks again for the catch on the excerpts.

Take care

ed
David on October 23rd, 2006 8:41 pm

Ed, I actually have a PC and tried to download IE 6, but it automatically goes to version 7. I found an article saying most users will get auto updates to 7, perhaps without even knowing it. It mentions what a nightmare IE6 has been for MS with its security errors. I had IE7 (which I deleted to get 6 to check the sidebar) and my blog showed all the sidebars fine, though no custom colors showed. What a mess IE is in general.

I think they planned it this way, so we’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to unravel the mysteries of the IE God.

ciao,
David
I shrunk the right sidbar some more. Let me know…
David on October 23rd, 2006 8:42 pm

Ed, I actually have a PC and tried to download IE 6, but it automatically goes to version 7. I found an article saying most users will get auto updates to 7, perhaps without even knowing it. It mentions what a nightmare IE6 has been for MS with its security errors. I had IE7 (which I deleted to get 6 to check the sidebar) and my blog showed all the sidebars fine, though no custom colors showed. What a mess IE is in general.

Here is the article I refer to:
http://www.webstandards.org/2006/07/26/ie6-the-end-is-hopefully-near/

I think they planned it this way, so we’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to unravel the mysteries of the IE God.

ciao,
David
I shrunk the right sidbar some more. Let me know…
Edward Mills on October 23rd, 2006 9:16 pm

Hi David

Success! Your right column is where it should be!

As for IE 7 I just read a post in a local BB from someone who had a horrible experience upgrading to 7. I’m sure there are bound to be a few glitches. But I think I’ll hold off as long as I can on upgrading. I’m using Firefox now most of the time anyway. But there are a few things that IE does better than FF, if you can believe it!

Take care

ed
Tom on October 24th, 2006 7:55 am

Hi Ed,
I like this theme, and I liked your previous theme. I have commented to friends and family that I have been reading blogs related to personal growth and that your’s is my favorite, one reason is its readability, i.e., the amount of white space, choice of font, etc.
I don’t think butterfly image in the top banner image fits in well with the mood of the top banner image, it’s too white. Also this text entry box is truncated so that I cannot see the last 6-7 characters in the far right of the box (Note: after copying and pasting this problem was just corrected. If I enter more text than what fits vertically no scroll bars are presented. I think the comment box deserves further technical investigation). I have my resolution set to 1280 x 1024 and I primarily use Firefox for my browser. I’ll take a look at in in IE 7.
This is the first time I’ve submitted a comment. I look forward everyday to see if you have posted a new article as I enjoy reading your material.
Edward Mills on October 24th, 2006 9:13 am

Hi Tom

I really appreciate your comments and feedback.

I’ve been wondering about the butterfly. One part of me likes it because of it’s symbolic association with growth and transformation, another part of me agrees with you that it’s a bit incongruent with the feeling of the header image. For now, though, it’s going to stay since it’s part of the included image and there are other issues to address before that.

One of those issues is the comments. I too am noticing problems in the comment box when they are being written. And also, the style on my comments doesn’t work – dark font on dark background = not a good combination.

Again, thanks for your comments and your interest in the site. I’ll look forward to hearing more from you as the site continues to evolve.

Take care

ed
Edward Mills on October 24th, 2006 12:29 pm

A special thanks to Steve at http://www.thefastlane.info for this note that saved me a lot of time figuring out how to correct the overflowing comment input box. He wrote:

Hi Ed,

I just left a comment on the Carnival post, and I noticed that the comment form is overflowing the column, making it so you can’t see the last few
letters in each line.

The relevent part of the stylesheet is:

#postComment input, #postComment textarea {
margin:5px 0 0 0;
width:400px;
}

A change to 360px makes it look about right. Just thought I’d give you a
heads-up.
Petit on November 1st, 2006 3:21 am

Eward : I’m very pleased that my three column version of the Regulus theme comes to good use. I never got so far as to an official release, but you’re certainly welcome 😉

Your tweaks are really fine too, and someday it will even validate, I’m sure.

I’m also happy that you try to link to my site in your post, although something seems to be wrong with that link.

Bertil ( aka Petit )
Edward Mills on November 1st, 2006 6:29 am

Hi Bertil

Thanks for the note and the inspiration. I doubt I will ever have this theme clean enough to release as an “official” wordpress theme. But if anyone wants the files to play around with it, I’d be happy to make them available.

Yes, someday, perhaps, it will validate! 😉

I’ll check the link to your site and see if I can get it working.

Thanks again.

ed
Petit on November 20th, 2006 4:36 am

Thanks Edward!

It works now;)
Sorry I was late to check this.

Keep up the good work!

Petit
Edward Mills on November 20th, 2006 12:59 pm

Hi Petit

Thakns for the kind words. I’m glad the link works for you now.

ed
Petit on March 30th, 2007 4:37 pm

Hi Ed!

Long time no see 😉
The theme is still a beauty, but you have to take a look at what happens to your links. Mysteriously my name in this post doesn’t link to me, but to your friendly 404 page.
Edward Mills on March 31st, 2007 8:40 am

Hi Bertil. Fixed it. I just had a goofy link in there. Sorry about that!
Petit on March 31st, 2007 1:07 pm

Thanks!
It’s good to be linked to – again 😉
Rich Owings on July 24th, 2007 9:30 am

Is this three-column version of Regulus available? Is that what you are using now?
Edward Mills on July 24th, 2007 10:58 am

Hi Rich

I haven’t made this modified version available only because my mods are most likely not up to snuff.
Rich Owings on July 24th, 2007 11:04 am

Well, it looks pretty good. I really like Regulus but may need an extra column before long.

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Testing a New Theme – Feedback Welcome

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