A great template!

  • I want to do a personal blog about my contributions to the Amiga scene in the late 80s.

    Have server, downloaded wordpress2.05. Been browsing themes for quite a while now. I’d like some features that can’t be selected in the filter, maybe a seasoned veteran or someone with a taste for templates could help me out? ??

    I noticed some things in the theme browser:
    – when you filter for only left sidebar, themes with right sidebar pop up. Is this configurable in that theme then?
    – even though the screen shots show correct in-text pictures, i.e. a full paragraph of text flowing to the side of the picture, when you Test Run, text will start in the lower right corner of the picture, i.e. most of the space to the right of the picture is blank. Why is that?

    What I want in my blog is:
    – preferably completely changeable graphics “in the panels around the blog text”, bar that, to change the top logo and perhaps change background. Is this easy, or do only certain templates allow this?
    – left sidebar that doesn’t scroll with the page so you have it clickable no matter where you read.
    – say, 5 or 6 clickable categories at the top that lead to a completely other page, i.e. all panels change content
    – text flow with inlaid pictures and blockquotes must work 100%.
    – ability to put the occasional gif anim in a few places
    – retro style (think old computer CRTs), wouldn’t mind some shades of blue or Zbrush color scheme though.
    – smallish fonts for the text
    – maybe smileys/icons in the text are possible?

    Thanks to anyone that perservered reading this far ?? Do you have any cool retro themes to recommend?

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

  • – preferably completely changeable graphics “in the panels around the blog text”, bar that, to change the top logo and perhaps change background. Is this easy, or do only certain templates allow this?
    This is usually done by changing the images in your theme, either by replacing image with a new image of the same name, or adding the new image and editing the CSS

    – left sidebar that doesn’t scroll with the page so you have it clickable no matter where you read.
    There was a plugin to achieve this, but not sure the name off the top of my head

    – say, 5 or 6 clickable categories at the top that lead to a completely other page, i.e. all panels change content
    not sure about that, you might want to read through the codex (https://codex.www.remarpro.com) about the differences between categories, posts and Pages

    – text flow with inlaid pictures and blockquotes must work 100%.
    Again, a CSS issue. Some themes will have CSS in place to float the image either left or right, you simply add the class to the img hmtl Blockquotes are the same, CSS. Some will have it coded, some won’t

    – ability to put the occasional gif anim in a few places
    Another CSS issue, unless you are wanting to put it in a post

    – retro style (think old computer CRTs), wouldn’t mind some shades of blue or Zbrush color scheme though
    just gonna have to wade through themes.wordpress.net or do some googling

    – smallish fonts for the text More CSS

    – maybe smileys/icons in the text are possible?
    smileys are built into WP and there are a few plugins to extend them

    It really sounds as if you need to adopt a theme that suites you to a degree, then slowly work on customizing it.

    Blog_Design_and_Layout is a good starting point, and just digging into existing themes, pulling relevant code, CSS, and hack away.

    Thread Starter scxphoton

    (@scxphoton)

    Hey, thanks miklb!

    – replacing images will be fine. I want a template as close as possible to mine so I can fill my blog quickly

    – !! yay !! anyone else know the name of that fixed sidebar plugin?

    – will read the Codex, thanks!

    – text flow is Priority One for me. It mustn’t look bad in another browser. Which themes are cross-browser compatible; i.e. work with FF and Opera, too?

    – Well in the sidebar will be fine.

    – Theme style: well, yeah, but thought someone knew just the right one for retro computing style ??

    – small fonts: ok CSS, should be simple?

    – smileys: great!

    So I guess I’m looking for a well-coded, compatible theme with item placement that roughly matches what I want.

    Optimally, I’d like to just get the theme, change colors and background graphics, and start filling it with text ??

    Thread Starter scxphoton

    (@scxphoton)

    OK, looked through the codex and learned some things.

    The style I’m after is that it should look less like a blog and more like a regular personal homepage. So I need Pages.

    Maybe if I say the keywords ‘retro-computing, coin-op games, pixels, assembler programming’ someone will snap their fingers and go, “I know just the thing you want!”

    Will browse themes (but I don’t know how to find out if a theme is cross-browser compatible or not, which is my biggest must) and check in on this now and then.

    Thread Starter scxphoton

    (@scxphoton)

    Will try the theme ‘blog.txt’ when I get home. Hmm miklb, I would like to have that plugin for fixed sidebar. Anyone else know what it’s called or where I can get it?

    https://aranea.zuavra.net/index.php/27/

    Jeez…. that plugin addy fills my whole page with “access denied bad referrer” graphics. Stupid – I’m using a normal referrer for FF2.0+….

    Too bad too, because I have a use for that plugin, but if I can’t see the page for the idiotish dreck….

    Thread Starter scxphoton

    (@scxphoton)

    Quote from the Known Issues: “I tried hard to make it as cross-browser as possible, but I don’t have all the possible browsers at my disposal, and there’s no substitute for actual testing.”

    geez, how hard is it to download latest version of Opera, Firefox and update IE?

    Dare I try this? ??

    Thread Starter scxphoton

    (@scxphoton)

    btw it isn’t fixed – it follows you up and down, lagging behind at 4 frames per second or something. ??

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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