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New Look!

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I know the old Blog from Italy look was becoming a little confused, so I decided to give it a facelift.

The new theme is based on yet another Brian Gardner theme, called Revolution only I have modified it a wee bit. I say ‘yet another’ because the previous Blog from Italy theme was also by Mr Gardner.

One of the adjustments I’ve carried out is the addition of a space at the top of the side column menus. I can use this space to place just about anything. As you may have noticed, there is a YouTube video presentation, which will live there for a time. Every so often I’ll change the video or add something else.

Other jiggery pokery is down to Michael Oeser, whose BranfordMagazine code I’ve adapted, well cut and pasted, into the Gardner Revolution theme so I can display bits and bobs from past posts. This is something I’d been wanting to do, but not being too hot with css, it took me a little while to work out how to achieve the double column effect I was looking for.

Along with other small modifications, such as a new Blog from Italy graphic, I’ve slotted in a section at the bottom of home page where I can display photos and the like. Again, this is something I had been thinking about doing for a while.

Finally, I’ve retained the ability to display full posts on the front page, because a number of people voted for this in one of my polls. Now, there is the best of both worlds.

Hope you like the new look. If you do have any problems (loading time, funny layout etc), let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.

Should anyone want a copy of this modified Gardner/Oeser(/Roe!) theme, then let me know, and I’ll place a download link somewhere.

As always, thanks for reading.

Alex Roe

PS I’m still tinkering, so things will move and change over time.

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Comments

  1. AlexR says

    Hi Rajab,

    Yes, I know the social bookmarking has invaded a bit too much – I’ve yet to work out how to exclude them from the post snippet columns. I’ll have a play with the plugin which does this.

    Thanks for the observation.

    Cheers,

    Alex

  2. Rajab says

    Alex, I just noticed that you have a lot of Social Bookmarking Icons on the home page, I think you should only show them within posts or pages.

  7. AlexR says

    Hi Joe

    Great to hear that you prefer the new look to the old one and that you think it is a ‘massive improvement’ – that’s very good to hear.

    Thanks.

    All the best,

    Alex

  8. Joe T says

    Alex —

    Love the new look! The arrangement of items is much cleaner, more organized and easier to follow. Massive improvement!

    Joe

  9. AlexR says

    Big thanks Miss E 🙂

    As for learning how to do this stuff, it’s not too difficult, but you do need to have some knowledge of css, and how WordPress does it’s stuff.

    I’m slowly getting a handle on what does what, and can work out how to adapt things to my needs.

    I’m no expert though! My system involves lots of trials and errors! Best way to learn though.

    The alternative is to pay to have someone do it for you, but this is not cheap, unless you only want small mods.

    The easiest thing to do, at least I think so, is to find a theme that is just about what you need, and then change colours and images. This is not too difficult, but you still need to know how to save graphics for the web and to know how to change colours and stuff via css.

    It’s great when it works, but annoying when it does not, as you can imagine!

    All the best,

    Alex

  10. Miss Expatria says

    It looks great. I REALLY want to learn how to do this kind of stuff. It’s driving me insane that I can’t wrap my head around how to do it.

  11. AlexR says

    Hi Andy – Glad to have been of service! Thanks for the feedback.

    Re: 442 – odd that the place was closed. Has not closed down as far as I know!

    I’m off out in a mo with dog and kid – and I could do with a beer. If it’s open, I’ll ask about the tennis.

    Alex

  12. Andy says

    Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted.

    Re: 442. They were closed! The website is down too. Perhaps they’ve closed down?

  13. AlexR says

    Forgot to add Rajab – this blog can now be viewed on mobile devices, like phones and PDAs. Not as pretty, but works fine.

    Alex

  14. AlexR says

    Hi Rajab,

    1- I think post titles should be bold – Good idea! Thanks – done.

    2- How about if you insert a blue background behind the white one (so the sides would be blue as well as the areas above the header and footer) – I’ll see what I can do…

    “But did you try the one I gave you?” – To be honest, no – there was something that I was not sure about – can’t remember what.

    Many thanks for the feedback, and for remarking that it’s cleaner and faster – useful to hear.

    Cheers!

    Alex

  15. Rajab says

    ahaa, cleaner and faster. But did you try the one I gave you? Anyway. this one is cool too. However, I’ve got some suggestions:
    1- I think post titles should be bold
    2- How about if you insert a blue background behind the white one (so the sides would be blue as well as the areas above the header and footer) Otherwise, I like it

  16. AlexR says

    Thanks Andy – I’ve added the recent comments section – hope that’s what you wanted.

    Sorry I didn’t make down to the 442 to ask about the men’s final. Still, if you’re off there now, you’ll soon find out, and you can get a cool beer too!

    Cheers!

    Alex

  17. Andy says

    Nice new look, Alex.

    But…where’s the latest comments feed? I always go for the latest comments.

    Going to 442 shortly to see if they’re going to do tomorrows final.