After playing with the layout for a bit I think I have gotten Behind Dreaming to where I want it to be: at least for now. This means having the same template as To Write is to Dream but I have altered the colours to suit my current mood. Like my moods I may look at this next week and want to make more changes.
My next challenge is to figure out how to refer to the online petition organized by the Creative Freedom Foundation on Monday morning. In New Zealand on February 28 a new copyright amendment to the Act is coming into force - Section 92a. Even though someone will be given 3 warnings about downloading content that is copyright protected: the kicker is really that that a person can have the internet access cut without the sort of evidence a court would require. Welcome to the age of Guilty until proven Innocent and the innocent part - well it does not seem very clear how you can prove your innocence.
Creative Freedom Foundation has some fantastic information on their site about what is happening in New Zealand. If you are not from New Zealand this does not mean it has no connection to you as there are other countries like Australia that are facing similar laws. You can bury your head and think it will not happen to you but never say never and try to remain informed just in case.
My profile picture here, in twitter and on Facebook have been blackout as a form of protest. Many others have done the same, including Stephen Fry in twitter.
On Monday there are many sites will refer people to the online petition organized by the Creative Freedom Foundation.
Showing posts with label template. Show all posts
Showing posts with label template. Show all posts
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Planning changes to my blog
I have run into a couple of problems with the template of Behind Dreaming and this has made me think about whether I should make some changes. I realised that the date I posted was not listing and now I have fixed that. While I was finding the code for this I also discovered that those looking at this blog through Internet Explorer have been having the right-hand sidebar pushed below the main body of the blog. I have now fixed this.
By playing with this template I have realised it seems to take too long to load. So I am now thinking about matching the template of Behind Dreaming to my blog of poetry To Write is to Dream... This does not mean they will look exactly alike but I love the floating template of my blog of poetry. What will probably be different will be the colour theme and background image. So I guess this is a "watch this space" sort of post.
The other things I want to change in both blogs is to make it clearer that the current Search Box is to search only each blog. I am also aiming to add a Google Search Widget so those who come across my blog can then keep moving along: though I would still prefer you to all stick around :-). I am hoping by posting these plans that it will motivate me or more even get my editor to have a reason to remind me that I posted these plans.
I have tried to avoid adding advertising though I am aware that especially in IE a pop-up add started appearing a few months back, maybe longer. Maybe I should start thinking a bit about advertising as well, though I will not rush into this.
The other long term plan is to add more to the connected delicious account and add a greater range of labels to different sorts of writing blogs. You can only have so many that only have poetry/poet and blog. Once I have enhanced these bookmarks I am thinking that I should make them easier to access on this blog. I would love if some of the writers of the blogs I may have bookmarked could give me some ideas of labels so others can find there blogs this way as well. If you also have a delicious account that is writing related please let me know so I can add it to my network. I have actually created this delicious account for this reason and have other accounts for personal and work bookmarks.
Finally I have recently added Feedburner to both my blogs but I am aware that it has been having problems lately.
By playing with this template I have realised it seems to take too long to load. So I am now thinking about matching the template of Behind Dreaming to my blog of poetry To Write is to Dream... This does not mean they will look exactly alike but I love the floating template of my blog of poetry. What will probably be different will be the colour theme and background image. So I guess this is a "watch this space" sort of post.
The other things I want to change in both blogs is to make it clearer that the current Search Box is to search only each blog. I am also aiming to add a Google Search Widget so those who come across my blog can then keep moving along: though I would still prefer you to all stick around :-). I am hoping by posting these plans that it will motivate me or more even get my editor to have a reason to remind me that I posted these plans.
I have tried to avoid adding advertising though I am aware that especially in IE a pop-up add started appearing a few months back, maybe longer. Maybe I should start thinking a bit about advertising as well, though I will not rush into this.
The other long term plan is to add more to the connected delicious account and add a greater range of labels to different sorts of writing blogs. You can only have so many that only have poetry/poet and blog. Once I have enhanced these bookmarks I am thinking that I should make them easier to access on this blog. I would love if some of the writers of the blogs I may have bookmarked could give me some ideas of labels so others can find there blogs this way as well. If you also have a delicious account that is writing related please let me know so I can add it to my network. I have actually created this delicious account for this reason and have other accounts for personal and work bookmarks.
Finally I have recently added Feedburner to both my blogs but I am aware that it has been having problems lately.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Finding a template that suits your mood
I started a few months ago wanting to find a template for my blogs that fit the mood of each blog.
The most important blog being To Write is to Dream and finding the perfect template for that in the end meant a lot of searching. I kept thinking I wanted a background with clouds and so I used that as a keyword in my search. I ended up finding the floating template that I am currently using - however there was a problem. The image used as the background would break if you viewed my blog through IE or had a larger monitor and so forth. I knew that the template was what I wanted and could figure no easy way to fix the image problem.
At the same time I wanted to make it easier to browse my blog. The first widget I used was the cloud tag widget and I have included this widget in all my blogs. However, this still did not seem enough. The answer to how I could make my blog more searchable came when I found the template for this blog Behind Dreaming. This template had tabs that I could name myself and add URL that I wanted. Further stil,l there was a widget that meant I could search the blog's content. Now this is where I admit that I took the code from this blog and added it to my main blog. However, by doing this I had created a new problem. The black colour of the tabs and search box also came with the code as it was a part of their images.
I would like to say at this point it was my genius that helped me figure out how to remove the black images - but I am a wee too honest to let the occur. The links to the images broke within this template and of course within the code I had transferred across. It made this blog look silly but meant I now had the tabs and search box looking perfect for my main blog. So I was very happy on one hand and annoyed on the other. I found where the creator had moved the template images and replaced all the links. I then left main blog alone with the broken links. Now I was truly happy.
So a note at this point: you should save your templates for your blog somewhere else, especially the images embedded within the template. There are different accounts that you can store the images like photobucket or if you have a paid LiveJournal account.
The last stage of creating a blog template that suits the mood is to think of combining a template you like and then changing things like colours and images to fit what you want. This is why you need to back up your template. The other night I have a moment of clarity and realised that the perfect image for the background of my main blog To Write is to Dream was something my friend had taken. After going through many of Graeme's photos we selected the one we thought worked best. If you like the background image then you can see more at Araquel's Pictures, which I have directed you to the landscapes.
This same friend kindly has provided a link to the high res image from one of his accounts. So thank you Graeme for allowing me to use the image and also providing access.
The most important blog being To Write is to Dream and finding the perfect template for that in the end meant a lot of searching. I kept thinking I wanted a background with clouds and so I used that as a keyword in my search. I ended up finding the floating template that I am currently using - however there was a problem. The image used as the background would break if you viewed my blog through IE or had a larger monitor and so forth. I knew that the template was what I wanted and could figure no easy way to fix the image problem.
At the same time I wanted to make it easier to browse my blog. The first widget I used was the cloud tag widget and I have included this widget in all my blogs. However, this still did not seem enough. The answer to how I could make my blog more searchable came when I found the template for this blog Behind Dreaming. This template had tabs that I could name myself and add URL that I wanted. Further stil,l there was a widget that meant I could search the blog's content. Now this is where I admit that I took the code from this blog and added it to my main blog. However, by doing this I had created a new problem. The black colour of the tabs and search box also came with the code as it was a part of their images.
I would like to say at this point it was my genius that helped me figure out how to remove the black images - but I am a wee too honest to let the occur. The links to the images broke within this template and of course within the code I had transferred across. It made this blog look silly but meant I now had the tabs and search box looking perfect for my main blog. So I was very happy on one hand and annoyed on the other. I found where the creator had moved the template images and replaced all the links. I then left main blog alone with the broken links. Now I was truly happy.
So a note at this point: you should save your templates for your blog somewhere else, especially the images embedded within the template. There are different accounts that you can store the images like photobucket or if you have a paid LiveJournal account.
The last stage of creating a blog template that suits the mood is to think of combining a template you like and then changing things like colours and images to fit what you want. This is why you need to back up your template. The other night I have a moment of clarity and realised that the perfect image for the background of my main blog To Write is to Dream was something my friend had taken. After going through many of Graeme's photos we selected the one we thought worked best. If you like the background image then you can see more at Araquel's Pictures, which I have directed you to the landscapes.
This same friend kindly has provided a link to the high res image from one of his accounts. So thank you Graeme for allowing me to use the image and also providing access.
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