Flynn's Paws: My Thoughts, My Gripes

Tag: WordPress

  • 20110216-Trying Theme

    Once again, I’ve been switching my WordPress.com themes. As per one of three recommendation from one of the support members, I’m trying the default 2010 theme. It’s supposed to be good for those whose computers and internet connections are slow.

    My former commentator said she like this theme and uses it for one of her blogs for her DJ gigs. I like this theme because it’s got the “path.jpg” image for the header and compliments my recently purchased domain name: “thebloggingpath.com”.

    Plus, the fonts are big enough to fill the screen and that makes reading easier for those with myopic visions. Forget the single sidebar to the right of the content! I’ve made use of the bottom/footer bars of four!

    So far it looks fine until I find another theme here. Earlier today at work, I tried the new “Duster” theme by team Automattic but I couldn’t figure out how that one sidebar widget worked.

  • 20101224-Trying Theme

    I’ve trying yet another WordPress.com theme. This time it’s:

    DePo Square by Derek Powazek & Noel Jackson

    A minimal, eclectic, and rich theme. Featuring customizeable post types, streamlined archives, and three widget areas. Read more about DePo Square →

    —
    This is the only WordPress.com theme with a top bar used for “sidebar” widgets, of which I’m using only four:

    • Left – “Gravatar widget” of moi and “DePo Square About widget”.
    • Middle – “Custom Menu widget” of five selections.
    • Right – “DePo Square Flickr widget” of eight most recent photos.

    I may actually like to keep this simple theme for now and maybe edit the stylesheet to my paid CSS upgrade.

  • 20101213-Trying Theme

    Last night, I couldn’t stand editing my paid CSS upgrade. As a result, I stumbled upon a pretty theme:

    Sweet Blossoms by TalkXHTML.com

    A narrow two-column design that satisfies the pink lover in all of us. Read more about Sweet Blossoms →

    —

    I love it! It’s all pink, sweet, flowery and full of hearts and butterflies! AND it’s a narrow column theme. Although the fonts are small, use the “zoom-in” feature of web browser.

  • 20101210-Trying Theme

    Can anyone say Emeritus? I’ve switched back to a tried-and-true WordPress.com theme known as in Kubrick. It’s prettier, too, with the Typekit fonts via the tweaking of my paid CSS upgrade. I think I”m using only two types of fonts with one font family borrowed from the body element of the Daydream theme by Jim Whimpey. I don’t know when I’ll make my peace with the appearance of my weblog. There are so many elements that I’d like added and deleted.

  • 20101207-Trying Theme

    After one day (or night) with Theme: Sandbox 1.6.2., I gave up trying to play around with my paid CSS upgrade. My employer’s web browser is still IE7! And the “drop-down” feature of my precious “Custom Menu” on the top/navigation bar does NOT work!

    As a result, I’m trying P2 by Automattic without the sidebars. The “home page” is now front and center and sports an image of Satan falling down. The friggin’ “Custom Menu” is below the image and is really HTML codes and links! There are features, such as “Header” and “Background” and a group functionality of posting.

    So I got my wish again – the appearance of a webpage with the engine of a weblog and the time/date stamps. There are no templates for “Archives” and “Links”.

    Addendum-Last edited by FLYNN on 20101208 at 07:00:09 AM UTC: Bah! I’ve switch theme back to Tarski by Benedict Eastaugh and Chris Sternal-Johnson. Nice and neat!

  • 20101206-Trying Theme

    Yippie! I’m happy again! Really? Hell no! Why? I’m not satisfied! Dammit! What’s wrong with you? I can’t help it! I don’t know CSS all that well.

    Tonight, I’m trying:

    Sandbox 1.6.2 by Andy Skelton & Scott Allan Wallick

    Rich with powerful and dynamic semantic class selectors, Sandbox is a canvas for CSS artists

    I can’t seem to code the “auto width”; the “entry meta” and the “access” elements perfected to my preference! Sheesh!

  • 20101128-Trying Theme

    Gosh darn it! I’ve switched WordPress.com themes again! This time it’s:

    DePo Masthead by Derek Powazek/Noel Jackson — A classy template that draws on classic magazine design design for a simple, bold style. Read more about DePo Masthead →

    —
    The header:

    Since my “Site Title” — “The Blogging Path” — was really big, I changed it back to “Flynn’s Blog” without the letter “s” – a plural form. I made use of the Theme Options (Author Box Text: Leaving this field blank will insert the blog author’s name.) It’s supposed to be for the “author’s name” but used the longer “Site Title” instead. By using the mouse/hover over “The Blogging Path,” one could see the “Tagline” read as “Alternative topics and other rants”. The header portion now looks “logical”.

    Since this theme doesn’t have a “custom menu” I had to redo the pages and make five pages parents with the rest children under the “Contents” page. The “front/home page” is now a static page – “Howdy!” And the “posts page” is called “blog”.

    The sidebar widgets are placed logically in the three bottom bars as usual – links, archives and other crap.

    —

    Addendum-Last edited by FLYNN on 20101129 at 02:03:11 AM UTC: Forget it! I switched themes again! Bah!

  • 20101115-Trying Theme

    This time I’m trying the latest WordPress.com theme: Pilcrow by Automattic – Pilcrow’s 5 different layouts, with multiple sidebar configurations, four default color schemes, custom header images, and a customizable background, make personalizing your blog a snap.

    It’s a home-run! The ball’s out of the field! I love you team Automattic! Of course, I’m being facetious! Why do I like this newest theme?

    PROs

    • Time-date stamp for single view of each blog entry.
    • Templates for “Archives” and “Links”. Bigger bragging rights for blog-rollers!
    • Custom menus.
    • Backgrounds.
    • Headers. I choose the yellow-tile pattern.
    • Feature widget, like the Coraline theme.
    • Five-layouts. I choose the feature-widget on the right.
    • Two footer/bottom bar wide enough for longer text! Whoo! Hooo!

    CONs

    • I’ll get bored again, of course. It’s my mutable sign – always changing.

    —

    Other notables are:

    • Blockquotes – normal font and set against light gray background.
    • Caption for images spaced nicely and easy to read. But squooshed slightly to the left!
    • Horizontal bar viewable.
    • Links in blue color.
    • Header size in darker color.
    • Readable fonts.
    • Sidebar element wide enough to accommodate “image widgets”.
    • Footer bar, dark and unique. Captions for “image widgets” not readable.
    • “Jump to comments” feature.
    • Automatic width to smaller screen size! (So, I could “hide” my weblog while at work! Ssshhh!)

  • 20101114-Trying Theme

    Okay, I give up! I’ll never be satisfied! This time I’m trying an old WordPress.com theme: Day Dream by Jim Whimpey – A narrow one column theme with four color schemes and custom header support. Read more about Day Dream →

    It’s one-column: That’s a plus. And the single view has the time-date stamp. I like how the meta is all mashed together. Some themes don’t have the categories and tags together. There’s only one template for “Archives” and none for “Links”, which is the only widget located in the footer (or bottom) bar. As for the top/navigation bar, there are only three: “Home”, “Contents” and “Recent posts”.

    For whatever reason, clicking on the “posts” page results in a “404 error”. So I had to move this page as it own parent. The “home” page is my “Howdy!” page, showing the introduction and of course my YouTube.com video. The “contents” page is the parent page to the rest of my “pages”.

    The “theme option” has been set from “blue” to “pink”, which sports a nice pink rose. How cool is that? The site title is centered now.

    The static pages are “howdy” for the “front page” and -Select- as the “posts page”, which means none of my page could be viewed as an index posts. Again, I prefer the look of a “webpage” as opposed to a “weblog”.

    Addendum-Last edited by FLYNN on 20101115 at 03:37:01 AM UTC: Never mind! I changed my WordPress.com theme again! Sheesh!

  • 20101110-Trying Theme

    Based on my “blog stats”, my blogging days are just about over. I can’t find an ideal theme to my satisfaction.

    And as a result I’ve switched WordPress.com theme to: Steira by Made by Elephant – Read more about Steira →.

    The colors are basic white and blue. The sidebar contains only six widgets – four are Steira (“About” Text, Recent Posts, Categories, Recent Comments), one is a “Text widget” and one is the Meta.

    I had to use my paid CSS upgrade to remove the font type – “Arial Narrow”; so now the text is more readable.

    I should “KISS” this WordPress.com theme with pleasure and stuck with the motto:

    “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”

    And that is the appearance of my weblog – simple and stupid.

  • 20101102-Trying Theme

    I’ve switched WordPress.com themes again: It’s “Sandbox 0.6.1”. Will I keep this theme? Nope! I get easily bored and never could be satisfied.

    A “sticky post” – “Howdy!” – features moi firing a military rifle and right below this YouTube video is the introduction, which used to appear in the “Gravatar widget”. The “Gravatar profile” can be viewed as a mouse/hover over via the “Recent comments widget” located in the sidebar.

    Three new images appear in the sidebar: Archives, Links and Dorkboy. I had to remove the redundant widgets to make my weblog “shorter” and easier to load up for slower connections. And since this theme features templates for “Archives” and “Links”, the plain-looking buttons of gray color shouldn’t be hard to overlook.

    The sea foam colors of light blues and hot pinks are made possible by tweaking my paid CSS upgrade. The sticky post looks like are larger widget when the visibility of the “entry-meta” and “entry-date” elements are hidden from the front page. I may create another sticky post but I’ve not yet decided on its contents.

    Oh! And the readings settings it just one recent post entry per view. I prefer the look of a static page than that of a hierarchical order of post entries. I noticed that the background to the first post is light-brown, tan or buff in color.

  • 20101030-Trying Theme

    I’m trying another WordPress.com theme. This time it’s:

    Coraline by Automattic

    A squeaky-clean theme featuring a custom menu, header, background, and layout. Coraline supports 7 widget areas (up to 3 in the sidebar, four in the footer) and featured images (thumbnails for gallery posts and custom header images for posts and pages). It includes styles for print and the Visual Editor, special styles for posts in “Asides” and “Gallery” categories, and has an optional full-width page template that removes the sidebar. Read more about Coraline →

    I didn’t like how the sticky post was “in the way” and on top of the most recent post entries. So, I placed my “Gravatar widget” in the “Feature Widget Area”, set the default layout to three columns with two sidebars placed to the left of the content and selected the “light” color scheme for darker fonts against a lighter (or yellow) background color.

    The “Aside Category” is set to “rant”, which is ALL of my posts. The post titles to each blog entry is eliminated when viewed from the front/home page. The “Gallery Category” is set to “images”. I’ve yet to find out how this feature works out.