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Blog Makeover: Very, very geeky post

As I get more sophisticated, I get more tempted to get more complicated templates and then GASP! recode them to my own specs.

I know.

Get a life.

LOL

So this is the new look...so far. What do you think?

I have a few links and kinks to work out.

And a few words:

1. Clicking on the tabs will move you to a new site. I'd rather it default open a new window or tab, so I have to work on that. But for now, if you want to click, right-click and open new window or tab manually. Sorry to ask you to work.

2. One of the tabs (About Me) isn't working. I'll have to muck about to figure out why and fix it. I'm sure it's obvious and I'm just tired.

3. There are more bells and whistles that I will slowly add.

4. Fair warning: I may be moving my blog to my own domain. Summer seems to be a good time to do this as numbers and stats are running a bit lower than usual.

5. Some of the linked sites, such as Awards, are a little quick and dirty. It's a make-do for now. My sidebar is going to get very cluttered if I keep adding stuff in. I tried a three column template but remained unsatisfied. I like this solution. I like a one quick clean glance elsewhere for awards (rather than blinging you out on the sidebar) and the like.

6. I just love love love organizing and tidying up. Now there will be a place for everything and everything in its place. Sigh. All is right with the world.

Hope this is good for you, too. :)

copyright 2007 Julie Pippert

Comments

S said…
I like it! And more importantly (because I'm a narcissist), it loads much more quickly! Yay!
Snoskred said…
I love it, I sometimes long to simplify my template to something like this.. I think blog templates are a love hate thing - when you first finish it you love it, and as time goes by you begin to not love it, and when you start to hate it you end up messing with it. I'm keeping off ooo this time because one blog I went to was changing the template every day for a couple of weeks and each time I went there it was like whoa, whose blog is this? They finally settled on a template I really don't like, but I'm dealing with it.

I agree that getting your own domain is a good idea. You can use it with blogger still, like Sephy and I are doing.. or you can jump into the deep end, get your own webhost and figure out wordpress. WP looks great but I took one look and went ok, too complicated for a technical non smart like me. ;)

Sephy's just offered to do how to guides for pretty much anything computer related, if anyone is struggling with how to do stuff.. ;) like me!

Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
Julie Pippert said…
SM...so glad it loads faster. I had worried about that. I think the sidebar got too heavy...hence the tabs.

This is much cleaner and better code for the template, anyway.

ACK, I just geeked myself out LOL. ;)

***

M-L, thanks!

***

Snos, I liked my previous template, but as I sat there freaking HAND CODING extra bells and whistles today I thought...seriously, if I'm making a change, why not start from a better foundation that has more of what I need. LOL

I did try to keep certain elements consistent, and keep it clean and basic (minimal) so it's not too strange.

I do already have my own domain and webhost.

I just haven't been willing to sacrifice my rankings until now.

I've been working with WordPress on my review site.

Luckily I'm REALLY old and recall working in programs when you had your code at the bottom, and I worked in development so many years it doesn't intimidate me too much. But I remember why I changed fields for sure LOL!
flutter said…
I love it, the layout is gorgeous
Anonymous said…
I think the new layout is lovely.
Christine said…
beautiful! i especially love the yellow flower and tabs across the top.
Anonymous said…
I love how much faster it loads. I am sure I would have aboslutely no idea whatsoever how to do something like this, but I think yours is nice.
Anonymous said…
I think it looks beautiful -- so clean! I am very impressed that you did this within the blogger template. I paid for a redesign a few months back and kinda have buyer's remorse (just things I wish I had done differently).
Lawyer Mama said…
I love it. It's loads very quickly and it looks clean and classic.

I love my template, but I need to clean it up. The sidebar's getting to widgety. I've also need to make the jump to my own domain, but haven't yet for the same reason. I figure now that I'm much more comfortable with HTML I should just go ahead & do it already!

Loved the geeky post.
Love it! But how did you do it, oh goddess of the template?
thailandchani said…
I like it! It solves the problem that I still have at my site... slow page load. :)


Peace,

~Chani
Sephyroth said…
It looks really slick; I have to say that if it weren't for the blogger bar at the top, you'd think it was a Wordpress blog ;)

With putting the links into new windows, all you have to do is add this code to your <a href=...> code - target="_new" - and it should be set to go.

Also, switching to a domain is a great idea. Like Snos said, Blogger does offer free hosting on your domain, but I've seen quite a few hosts that will preinstall Wordpress onto a domain hosted there.

Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
Jen said…
It looks wonderful. How did you do it?
Unknown said…
pretty, pretty!
I agree - very clean and pretty!
Anonymous said…
Hmmm... your load time is much slower today. Any idea why?
Unknown said…
Our host will one click install Wordpress, but tbh I am planning my own blog on movable type...which I won't launch until they complete the MT4.0 beta...and a couple of other RL milestones are achieved.

So I will probably beg her to wait until then so we can keep just one blogging platform. They claim you can easily migrate the content...and the current address should be redirectable to the new one.

As for the pagerank...that would be a hard pill to swallow. I think you'd have to start from scratch there.

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