Flynn's Paws: My Thoughts, My Gripes

Tag: css

  • 20091105-Tweaking Again

    I’ve been sampling different `web-safe` color schemes for the following elements:

    • a:active
    • a:link
    • a:hover
    • a:visit

    I tried blues, pinks, oranges and greens. But I found the yellow tones for these fonts blend well with the overall warm, sunny feel of my weblog. The color tones are muted and the only two colors that appear to `break-up` the monotone of yellow are the muted colors of green (for the `header` element) and the purple (for the `title` element).

    As a result and because I noticed how difficult it was to read the pale fonts, I’ve changed the font color from gray to black for both elements: `content` and `sidebar`.

  • 20091013-Tweaking Again

    I’ve been tweaking my weblog again!

    Here is a summary of the changes for the paid CSS stylesheet upgrade:

    • Background color of `title` element is black (#000000) and
    • Hover after `title h1` element reads: `Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare` (Japanese proverb).

    Here is the new order for widgets in the left sidebar:

    • Text widget – about: Shorter tagline reads as `god`S GOLD for a SuNNY LiFe`;
    • Search form;
    • Page widget – main menu (showing one parent, three children and six grandchildren with great-grandchildren hidden);
    • Image widget – home alone: Dante’s Inferno Satan and words of encouragement;
    • RSS links widget for my posts and comments;
    • Image widget – recommended reading: Four books authored and signed by Don Bradley;
    • Flickr widget – orgone and orgonite (3 most recent images);
    • Image widget – want to help? (PayPal donation);
    • Akismet widget – spam blocked (currently 88,650 spam comments); and
    • Blog stats widget – (currently 37,304 visits).

    Here is a summary of the changes for pages:

    • Contents – the only parent page.
    • Pages (six children): about, blogger, contact, faq, orgone, and welcome.
    • Book (six children): service page of old, religious poems modeled after a Catholic mass and five web-book sections.
    • Archives (no children).

  • 20091005-Two Columns

    I searched online for a 2-column CSS generator. And found the layout worked well for my `Sitemap` page AND my `Welcome` page. I tried it for the rest but the margins don’t automatically fit for the next line. I may try three columns for the `Welcome` page just to get the images lined up horizontally with the text below each one.

    The codes must be entered for both the CSS stylesheet and each post or page entry, though. And it’s tedious work to copy and paste exactly where the text must be cut off for a readable and visually pleasing layout.

  • 20091004-Old Theme

    Well, I’m trying another free theme here at WordPress.com:

    Contempt by Michael Heilemann

    A more professional version of Kubrick, sporting hard lines and 2-columns.

    Tags: blue, custom-header, two-columns, fixed-width, right-sidebar, widgets, sticky-post, white, light, rtl-language-support

    Personal PROs:

    • Blog name, tagline, top/navigation menu bar.
    • Notification on the very top of the sidebar: `You are currently browsing the Flynn’s Blogs blog archives for [whatever here].`
    • Nice shades of gray and white.
    • Neat layers of backgrounds in gray, giving 3-D picture frame effect.

    Personal CONs:

    • Time stamp shown only under single view.
    • Cannot hide visibility of `.postmetadata` or `.small` without hiding time stamp via CSS stylesheet.
    • The button effect is narrower via the Gravatar widget. I want the width of the buttons to fill the full width of the sidebar!

  • 20091002-Tweaking Again

    Yippie! In just a couple of minutes, I made my `Calendar widget` look prettier! It now has the button effect with blue puffing out and yellow denting in! I love tweaking my paid CSS stylesheet upgrade! I cannot get enough with perfection, which explains why I am still SINGLE and UNMARRIED! Brouhaha!

    In addition:

    • Added back my four poems but this time they are inside their colorful tables: light yellow for the angel poem, light blue for the epitaph and light red for the two vertical-shaped poems – elegy and prologue.
    • Added two widgets (month and calendar) to visually balance the horizontal length of both the sidebar floating to the left and the content floating to the right.
    • Reverted back to the `Dusk` theme.
    • Temporarily set the large custom header featuring the sylph to hidden visibility.

  • 20090923-Tweaked Again

    Well, I’m back to the free theme here at WordPress.com: Dusk by Becca Wei. It’s new and improved. Check it out! I’m tired of changing themes and will [probably] stay with this one.

    For details, here is a list of the latest tweaks to my weblog:

    • Lightened background color to gray, a neutral shade.
    • Adjusted margins and paddings for both sidebar and content.
    • Used six widgets.
      • Text widget of table containing a tagline, an image with caption, a simple greeting and two links to the feeds for both the posts and comments.
      • Text widget of main menu containing nine parent pages, complete with brief descriptions in italic and in mouse over.
      • Search form widget for inquiries within my weblog.
      • Flickr widget of  current three images from maximum display of ten for `Orgone and Orgonite` administered by MessiahMews.
      • Text widget of table containing an image of four books authored by Don Bradley linking to a hosted site by MessiahMews.
      • Text widget of five links to donate, link, translate, disclaimer and copyright.

    Personal PROs:

    • Customer header of a cloud formation featuring an image of a sylph.
    • Wrapper width of 780px to accommodate screen resolutions of 800 by 600 pixels.
    • Two columns with the sidebar floating left and the content floating right.
    • Full visibility of posts in archives mode.
    • Ordered and listed elements perfect.
    • Automatic adjustments for browser zooms.
    • Time/date stamp and meta data underneath the post title.

    Personal CONs:

    • No tagline.
    • No top navigation bar of parent pages with drop-down menu features for sub-pages.

  • 20090922-Old Theme

    Well, I back to a free theme here at WordPress.com:

    Sandbox 0.6.1 by Andy Skelton & Scott Allan Wallick

    A theme with powerful, semantic CSS selectors and the ability to add new skins.

    Tags: white, left-sidebar, theme-options, widgets, two-columns, one-column, three-columns, right-sidebar, flexible-width, microformats, rtl-language-support

    Personal PROs:

    • Time/date stamps for posts (not pages) and underneath the entry titles.
    • Three columns for content, archives and my LONG list of blogroll links.
    • Automatic adjustment of views for different screen resolutions and browser zooms.
    • Very simple CSS stylesheet for easier editing by very pick web designers, like moi!

    Personal CONS:

    • Excepts and not entire posts for archives mode.
    • No navigation bar without a drop-down feature near the header.

    I’d like the meta element near the date element and underneath the entry title. But with my FireFox web browser, I am able to `View Page Source` by right clicking near the area of the weblog site, find the < div > code and make the adjustments in my paid CSS stylesheet upgrade:

    • Hide the visibility of the entry date for the sticky page.
    • Hide the visibility of the entry meta for the archive mode and sticky page
    • Add a light gray background color # eee for the sticky page.
    • Add a mouse over effect (per the `Solipsus` theme) for the sidebar link items.
    • Add a custom header showing a cloud formation (or a sylph elemental).
    • Add a `Character code` from `Unicode (hex)` before the entry title, page title and entry meta.
    • Add more widgets to even out the bottom of both sidebars.

    If only I know how to get the secondary sidebar from the `Sandbox 1.6.1` theme, I would use that theme.

  • 20090920-Tweaked Blog

    I’ve tweaked my weblog:

    • A`Front` (or `Home`) page of four poems and renamed as `Blogger’s note`.
    • A customer header showing an etheric cloud formation (or a sylph, really)!
    • Cooler colors of blue and gray to match the customer header.
    • Reduced number of widgets to six.
      • Text widget: a tagline, an illustration by Dante and two links to my feed.
      • Search form for text queries.
      • Pages widget listing parent pages as the main menu.
      • Flickr widget of orgone and orgonite.
      • Text widget of `recommended readings`.
      • Gravatar widget of useful links.

  • 20090918-Large Background

    I want a nice large background with purple scrolls but cannot resize to fix different screen resolutions without Javascripts! I tried uploading several `stretched images` with a center-top and no-repeat via the CSS stylesheet but without success! Waaahhh!

  • 20090918-Old Theme

    I’m back with the free theme here at WordPress.com: `Dusk` because, once again, of its time/date stamp feature, followed by the categories and tags element. I  found a `color scheme generator` for my light, purple and gray color based on the default background color #556677 as per the `body element` found on my paid CSS stylesheet upgrade.

    The `before` and `after` content feature was added as a text for the #footer element and the #title element, both of which only appears for the FireFox browser and shows up blank for the Internet Explorer browser. I removed that feature from my CSS stylesheet.

    I’ve tried other themes:

    • `Unsleepable` for sub-pages on the main menu of the right sidebar.
    • `Blix`  for pages AND posts viewed without sidebars.
    • `Kubrick`, `Pool`, `Sapphire`, `Sunburn`, `Black Letterhead`, `Connections`, `Andreas09`, `Solipsus`, `Almost Spring`, `Fleur De Lys`, `ChaosTheory`, `Sandbox`, `Rounded`, `Contempt`, `Misty`, `Quentin`, `White As Milk`, `Redoable Lite`, `Garland`, `DayDream`, `P2`, `Silver Is The New Black`, `DePo Masthead`, `The Journalist v1.9`, `Hemingway` for time/date stamps primarily.

  • 20090915-Tweaked Weblog

    Yippie! I’ve done two new things with my weblog site via my paid CSS stylesheet upgrade:

    • Added my `copyright` and disclaimer notices as a `content“before` the #footer element. I learned how to do this with the`Kubrick` theme.
    • Added a mouse over effect of a button for the sidebar links. I leaned how to do this with the `Solipsus` theme.

  • 20090911-Old Theme

    I’m back on a free theme here at WordPress.com:

    Sandbox 0.6.1 by Andy Skelton & Scott Allan Wallick

    A theme with powerful, semantic CSS selectors and the ability to add new skins.

    Tags: white, left-sidebar, theme-options, widgets, two-columns, one-column, three-columns, right-sidebar, flexible-width, microformats, rtl-language-support

    The Current Skin is:

    Three-Column Minimalist 1.0 by Scott Allan Wallick

    Minimalist style with left and right-sidebars

    The left sidebar is for archives of my weblog. The right sidebar is for the orgone, such as the Flickr.com group pool, links to vendors and recommended readings. The length for both sidebars are almost even. I had to increase the gravatar image of a small white flower against its green leaves to 128 pixels. This compensates for the shortened gap of the left sidebar.

    The main colors to my paid CSS stylesheet upgrade are mostly gray and blue:

    • Body and block quote #eee;
    • Header #ddd;
    • Content #fff;
    • a: #006699; and
    • a: hover #3399CC.

    I had to remove the light blue to purplish background color to something more monotone like gray but lighter than dark. I didn’t want to present anymore weird symbolic weight to color coding for TPTB and thought that the gray tone would symbolize something more neutral, neither red nor purple.

    The `Front page displays` has be set from [My] latest posts to:

    • Front page: Home and
    • Posts page: Archives.

    I wanted to keep track of the many times people viewed that `front page` (aka `home page`) and if people would view the archives page of `Blog pages show at most`: 3 (three) posts instead of 15 (fifteen) posts, which I felt was too long to view at one page.

    I pray that this would be the VERY last time I’d tweak the overall appearance of my WordPress.com weblog.