Every so often I feel compelled to give this blog an overhaul. Today I decided to experiment with the new blog transforming options provided by Blogger.
On a technical level, I'm not sure it has the sophistication of the previous blog design, but that said, sometimes a more technical template design can cause upset in the Blogger engine and accidentally disable or corrupt certain options.
Anyway, if you see any weirdness happening with this blog over the next few days, it's because I am working to create what I believe to be v4.0.
Showing posts with label ZCT168. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ZCT168. Show all posts
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
ZCT one sixty eight v3.1
Well I think I'm about done.
The transition to the new version of my blog took a few days and a little frustration, but I think it's been worth the effort.
I began with a very lengthy search for suitable templates, and found a really nice one called Nitelife, that was actually one of the first I liked when I began looking. It featured a very cool background image, and layout. But one of the issues I've found in looking for templates is that many are either amazing looking graphically, but with very crap font and formatting choices, or they look like crap, but have good font and layout choices.
Although I am a web design hobbyist, I am not really a true expert on CSS and XML, so I have to fight it and spend a lot longer messing with it than I should. Understanding the idiosyncrasies of Blogger, combined with how the template is coded can be quite a pain.
To make matters worse, this template I chose was created initially for Word Press. It was then converted by someone else to Blogger. I've a funny feeling that such a conversion can introduce some annoying cut corners in the process, so finding things in the code becomes even more of a pain.
Over last weekend I managed to get 3.0 to work just fine, but it was little more than a modified theme at that point (with a few bug corrections from the original template, that I suspect were missed in the translation to Blogger). This week however I took it to the next level by providing myself fully custom features including the ability to change the main image at will. I needed to redraw all of the original graphics in my art package (still using Photo Impact X3).
With a few finishing touches, I'd say I am about done. I may find the odd minor fix I feel I need to make here and there, but generally speaking, I think I am going to leave it alone for a while.
The programmer in me is always frustrated when a web page does not look 100% the way I imagined it in my head. But I will probably get over that and leave things alone.
In any case, time to stop messing with the template and get back to some blogging.
The transition to the new version of my blog took a few days and a little frustration, but I think it's been worth the effort.
I began with a very lengthy search for suitable templates, and found a really nice one called Nitelife, that was actually one of the first I liked when I began looking. It featured a very cool background image, and layout. But one of the issues I've found in looking for templates is that many are either amazing looking graphically, but with very crap font and formatting choices, or they look like crap, but have good font and layout choices.
Although I am a web design hobbyist, I am not really a true expert on CSS and XML, so I have to fight it and spend a lot longer messing with it than I should. Understanding the idiosyncrasies of Blogger, combined with how the template is coded can be quite a pain.
To make matters worse, this template I chose was created initially for Word Press. It was then converted by someone else to Blogger. I've a funny feeling that such a conversion can introduce some annoying cut corners in the process, so finding things in the code becomes even more of a pain.
Over last weekend I managed to get 3.0 to work just fine, but it was little more than a modified theme at that point (with a few bug corrections from the original template, that I suspect were missed in the translation to Blogger). This week however I took it to the next level by providing myself fully custom features including the ability to change the main image at will. I needed to redraw all of the original graphics in my art package (still using Photo Impact X3).
With a few finishing touches, I'd say I am about done. I may find the odd minor fix I feel I need to make here and there, but generally speaking, I think I am going to leave it alone for a while.
The programmer in me is always frustrated when a web page does not look 100% the way I imagined it in my head. But I will probably get over that and leave things alone.
In any case, time to stop messing with the template and get back to some blogging.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
ZCT168 3.0
I am in the process of re-skinning my blog to give it a fresh new look. This will be the third major renovation of my blog since it began.
During the next 24-48 hours you may notice some weird things here and there as I get things looking just how they should be. Please be patient.
During the next 24-48 hours you may notice some weird things here and there as I get things looking just how they should be. Please be patient.
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