vonsomething

Thanks Peiq. the proper terminology escapes me, but I’m talking about like a visual link to (for example) XHTML validation, and to Technorati. They provide code which includes a link for the image that resides on their server, and with Technorati, the ability for someone with a account to click the image to add your site to their Technorati favorites.

I’m on OSX, using Safari and it looks nice. Good job fitting so much content in view. Very well done all around.

Great feedback, thanks everyone. I have bumped the type up 1/2 -1 point across the board. Any more and I just didn’t like the way it looked anymore. Maybe once I’ve gotten used to this, I’ll bump it again, and it won’t seem so drastic.

I’ve also made most text elements darker – but only slightly.

Epicalex – I’m not sure what font(s) displays on your browser, I assume Georgia, and Verdana – If you don’t have those installed on your system, something could be defaulting. Of course I’m limited to using typefaces that are commonly found on all platforms – I can code it to use Blair, for (a very square) example, but not all machines are going to have that, and I would just end up guessing at what it will cascade down to, rather than being fairly certain that Georgia and Verdana are on the computers of 90% + of visitors…

I did actually start out with Verdana on the headers also, but just didn’t like the way it looked. Trebuchet looks pretty good for the headers, but apparently ever third blog thinks so too, and I didn’t want it to look like every third blog. I have meant to do some research – since it’s been a while since I’ve done any web design – to see what fonts are found on the majority of computers now – but I haven’t gotten around to it. Finally, I’m not sure minimalism and serif typefaces are mutually exclusive, I guess that’s debatable. Either way, I’m fairly pleased with it at this point, but I will get to some typeface research eventually.

OldPhart, I did paste that hex number in just to see – it’s not too far off of one of the original color schemes I looked at initially, and I like it – it just didn’t work on this layout for me – different strokes…

Again, all the feedback has been really helpful – I’ve given every comment serious thought (well, the serious ones anyway ??

Thanks for the feedback. I’m pretty happy with it visually, but agreed pizdin – especially the body copy is too small – if it’s actually going to be read (although that remains to be seen:)

I may darken up the sidebar headers and the links below the main header. I’ll have to find a place to view them in Windows myself before I decide. I can always go to the public library…

As for the all monochromatic appearance, vkaryl – I’m fairly drawn to that personally. Not exclusively, in fact, I tried two other color combinations before this – I just wasn’t happy with either of them. I’m in the process of setting up another site – in glorious technicolor! But with this one, I wanted subtle. The concept was that the design would be so subtle as to force the content to stand on its own (okay, give that some time). Kind of the minimal thing sewmyheadon referred to (Thanks SMHO!).

Thanks again. I continue to be impressed with the nature of the wordpress community.

One of the reasons I settled on WP after much internal debate is the fact that their is the support community that exists. As Clint said, it’s a free product, and while I can complain about the organization of the documentation, the fact that there is so much documentation, and so many people in these forums offering assistance (whether it results in a full-fledged resolution or not) affected my decision. I looked at every similar product available, and visited these very forums before settling on WP.

I am having better luck with my 3rd template, but vkaryl – unfortunately there is no option for “clean valid code” when searching templates. That would be nice though. I guess it takes more research, but I have to say that WP installed easily, and has ‘managed the content’ of the site pretty much flawlessly from the start. That’s the part I wouldn’t want to face without WP.

I’ll just have to exercise patience. Thanks to everyone who is using their time and expertise to help the WP uninitiated.

Maddening. Agreed. I’m having a similar problem. I just switched to the default template from one which was a little closer to the end result I wanted, because it was suggested that maybe the theme I was using was complicating my attempts at customization.

But I’m having similar problems. My header image briefly showed up, but then was gone. I too have a little experience with css, and if I struggle briefly, still get the result I want. I don’t know if it’s the PHP, or just the wordpress method of having code in so many separate files, but it’s really frustrating to spend the few hours a week I have to spend on my blog scrolling repeatedly through the same page(s) of code, making changes that don’t have the expected impact. Again I agree with Clint, there is a lot of documentation on line, but it’s self-referencing, and there are almost too many directions for each subject.

That (rant, sorry) said, I have a similar problem with the same template, but mine doesn’t have the code ghanshyamgadh references in my header.php file(?) There seems to be a lot of code devoted to the gradient in the header in various files, but I have no idea what it’s safe to delete. I’m considering switching templates again, but my whole intent was to implement my own design by modifying a template -and switching templates is beginning to seem pointless – the default has a lot of code I don’t need, and seems to complicate editing, and the other templates may well have non-standard code that other users can’t help me with. Not sure what direction to take…

Thanks for the help. I thought of something else overriding this, but couldn’t find anything. The CSS seems a little convoluted (or maybe it’s me!). But you bring up a good point, I should probably start with one of the default templates, thereby increasing my odds of someone in the forums being familiar with the file (or at least having it installed). I just chose something a little closer to the look I was working towards. I may very well change to one of the defaults if I continue to run into issues trying to modify this one.

Also, thanks for the tip regarding em for line height. What is the reasoning for preferring em on line height, and px on font size?