22 June 2009 - Ahh - Victory!
After talking with Ali at Mission Field Designs and making a few minor alterations, I finally have my header back where I want it. Now I feel confident that I can make the same kind of updates to my main blog. Gotta love messing around in this lab environment! I think I'll come up with a new color scheme for the other blog though...
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19 June 2009 - Changing the layout...
Yesterday I found a great resource for blog templates including Homeschool Blogger. I decided to use Ali's 3-column HSB template here to try it out. As you can see I have been able to get much of my backgrounds & other elements in the right places - all except my header. I need to chat with Ali to find out what I'm doing wrong with the header, but so far I really like this layout. If you have been wanting to update your HSB blog but need a template or someone who can help, head over to Mission Field Designs and see some of Ali's creativity in action.
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18 February 2009 - Notes on adding the header...
I just learned something interesting, by way of trial and error. When I changed my header previously, I uploaded the header graphic to my HSB photos file and pulled it from there to insert it into my template.
This time I thought I'd upload it to PhotoBucket and use it from there (I'm trying to keep all my blog backgrounds and template graphics together in one place). When I inserted the header graphic into my last post, it was too big for the post, so I removed it. Then I created a copy of the header in PhotoBucket and resized it so it was smaller and re-inserted it into the post (I didn't realize "medium" would be that small - maybe should have chosen "large").
When I pulled the graphic from PhotoBucket for my header, it was much smaller than the header area. I had the coral pink (from the previous color scheme) showing all the way around the header, instead of it filling the whole space. This is not what I wanted so I canceled that change.
I knew I had created this new header the same dimensions as the previous one, so it should fit perfectly. Finally I decided to upload it to my HSB photos file and insert it into my template from there. That did the job just as I wanted. Sooooooo, if you ever run into this issue, try uploading it and using it from a different location. I don't know why it works differently, but it does - at least for the header graphic.
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18 February 2009 - More changes on the horizon
After letting this blog rest a while, I made some changes to my regular blog using my new-found template-altering knowledge. I'm not done there yet, but I decided to play around here again for a while.
I found a video tutorial for creating a digital scrapbook layout in Photoshop Elements and now have a few more tools under my belt. I am a visual learner, so hearing the tutorial as I watched her make her changes and then pausing it to flip back to my PSE and work on my parallel project was great. Using the techniques I learned from that tutorial, I decided to create a new header for this blog, and to use a completely different color scheme. It's perhaps a triffle busy, but I was playing with my newly-learned techniques. I may create a simpler one later.
So, I will be gradually making alterations to this blog in the next few days to get it to match my new colors. The finished (well, finished until I decide I want to tweak it again!) look should be very fresh and pretty. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
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8 February 2009 - Changes... again
There are definite advantages to being married to a computer geek (his choice of word, not mine). My dh was able to figure out what changes needed to be made where so that the background in my post area covered the whole space. Thanks, honey! You're a genius! Unfortunately, since he fixed it, I can't tell you how he did it (he showed me briefly, but I can't remember). I do know it had something to do with adjusting the width of the background in the table in a couple places. I'm sorry it's vague, but maybe it will help point someone in the right direction.
I have also been trying to learn how to use my new Photoshop Elements software. That's what I used to create the header graphic. Until yesterday, all I could figure out how to do was take a digital scrapbook "paper" and crop it and resize it to my header dimensions. Once it was the right size, I added a layer of text. That was it. Very simple, and just a trifle boring. This morning, I finally figured out how to add an overlay to my header project (yay!!!). Since the swirly overlay is black, I changed the font color in the header to black also - the brown color I used before got a little lost in the black swirls. I moved the text around a bit so it fit with the overlay and, voila! we have a very pretty, un-boring header!
Now since the header details are now black, I decided to change some of the font colors on the blog to black as well as the table background areas.
I darkened the taupe color of the date font and changed the border color in the post and sidebar areas to a cranberry color (to better match the deep red background color). All in all, I think I like this new look. I think that's all for now. Sounds like the coffee is done brewing - gotta go!
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7 February 2009 - A couple more changes...
I figured out how to put a border above the date on each post. I made the border color "dusty coral" (#cc6655) to match the header background. I'd like to have a little more space between the line and the date, but don't know how to fix that yet.
I also decided to change the divider lines in the sidebar from my "very dark brown" (#362f2d) to the "dusty coral" (#cc6655) for a little accent color on that side.
Finally, I resized my header graphic and centered the text before uploading it to my HSB photos. The "new" header graphic fits perfectly and my text is nicely centered in the space. Yay! For reference, the first header I uploaded was 6" wide X 1" high. The height was fine, but not the width. This "new" header is 4.9" wide and 0.95" high - just a little better fit. Sweet!
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7 February 2009 - About those changes...
The list of changes are the final, saved changes. Before I made any changes at all, and even before I entered my first "test post", I copied and pasted the un-altered template HTML code into a Word document. That way I had a reference point to go back to if I wanted to put things back to where I started. I also chose to make one change at a time in my template, then preview that change. If it did what I wanted it to do, I saved that change before going back into the template code to make another change. If I didn't like a change when I previewed it, I reset the template and tried something else. This made my changes slowly, but if I didn't like something, I was only resetting one thing at a time, not 5 or 6 changes at once.
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7 February 2009 - Blog changes to date...
Just to keep things straight in my brain, I'm going to list the changes I have made on this blog so far.
First, I started with the "On The Lake" HSB template. Second, color names in the list below are my description so I can remember what they are. They are not the "official" color names for the HTML color codes listed. I might call something "dusty rose" and another person would see it and say it was "mauve". This list is mostly for my reference. If it helps someone else too, well, that's a bonus. Here we go...
- Added "georgia" to the front of the list of fonts (because I like "serif" fonts better than "sans-serif").
- Replaced header image with one I created in Photoshop Elements - I still need to tweak the size of the header graphic. It looks like it's a little too wide (my text is not centered and is getting cut off).
- Changed "head" background-color from "deep dusty rose" (#663333) to "dusty coral" (#cc6655) to match header color better.
- Changed "td" [posts] font-size from 9pt to 10pt (the first was a little too small) & changed the font-color from "very dark teal blue" (#001e20) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d) to match font color in new header graphic
- Changed "body" background-color from "very dark teal blue" (#001e20) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d)
- Changed ".pagetitle" font-size from 18pt to 0pt to make it disappear - since I have my blog title on my header graphic, I did not need it here. Changing the font size to zero makes it "invisible" but does not erase my blog title from my General Settings profile (which is necessary unless I want an untitled blog)
- Changed ".posttitle" color from "very dark teal blue" (#001e20) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d) and font-size from 11pt to 12pt (just a little bigger)
- Changed ".sidetitle" color from "very dark teal blue" (#001e20) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d), border-color from "med-dark teal blue" (#0d3648) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d), and font-size from 10pt to 11pt
- Changed "a:link" color from "black" (#000000) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d), font-size from 8pt to 9pt, and text-decoration from "underline" to "none"
- Changed "a:visited" color from "black" (#000000) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d), font-size from 8pt to 9pt, and text-decoration from "underline" to "none"
- Changed "a:link" font-size from 8pt to 9pt & text-decoration from "underline" to "none"
- Changed "a:active" color from "black" (#000000) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d), font-size from 8pt to 9pt, and text-decoration from "underline" to "none"
- Changed ".bgtable" border-color from "black" (#000000) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d)
- Changed "font.blue" color from "med-dark teal blue" (#0d3648) to "very dark brown" (#362f2d) & font-size from 9pt to 10pt
- Changed "table" color [the left hand table where the posts go] from "med grey" (#999999) to "basic beige" (#eeccaa)
- Added a background image to the "body" and left hand post areas - still need to figure out how to get the background image to cover the whole post area (there's a thin sliver of "basic beige" showing on the far right side)
- Created a couple "categories" to tag posts
- Added several test posts with Latin gibberish (at least it's gibberish to me!)
I think that's all for now. Looks like a pretty extensive list. It's amazing what one can accomplish when one wakes up at 4 am and can't get back to sleep!
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7 February 2009 - About the Latin text posts...
Yes I just posted about a half dozen entries in Latin. I copied the text from an HSB sample template so I would have several entries. I needed to see what my test blog looked like with more than just one post. Maybe not the most creative idea, but it did what I wanted it to do. It also gave me the opportunity to try out a couple different category titles. After all, I am using this blog as my "lab environment" so I don't completely ruin my main blog. Works for me!
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7 February 2009 - Vestibulum placerat consectetuer massa
Nam orci est, malesuada quis, fringilla placerat, ornare et, erat. Suspendisse diam. Phasellus dolor tortor, elementum eget, tincidunt et, mattis at, quam. Proin convallis risus eleifend tortor fermentum gravida. Aliquam eleifend ornare sem. Aliquam erat volutpat. Sed mollis eleifend felis. Sed aliquet accumsan augue. Duis scelerisque, pede egestas dapibus viverra, mauris dolor viverra leo, non nonummy nisl lorem nec velit. Sed et lorem eget neque ultrices viverra. Sed commodo. Ut turpis libero, scelerisque vel, mollis non, consectetuer sed, ipsum. Nullam aliquam tincidunt sapien. Donec turpis turpis, egestas ut, gravida vitae, suscipit eget, lorem.
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7 February 2009 - Nam mattis
Etiam quam massa, pharetra eu, volutpat et, blandit vulputate, nisl. Nunc ut nunc. In a purus convallis neque gravida adipiscing. Nunc a est quis felis adipiscing ultricies. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi nec ligula. Maecenas non nibh et massa egestas lacinia. Vestibulum vel diam. Praesent vestibulum sodales urna. Suspendisse ultrices leo. Vestibulum quis nulla non purus fringilla pretium. Sed ac urna.
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7 February 2009 - Praesent feugiat metus et eros
In tortor lectus, mattis in, venenatis sed, adipiscing et, mauris. Integer lectus arcu, nonummy quis, ultricies auctor, semper at, nisl. Vestibulum sollicitudin eleifend dui. Sed magna dui, commodo gravida, dapibus nec, commodo quis, enim. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Curabitur rutrum eleifend velit. Quisque magna. Aenean quis elit. Praesent molestie iaculis turpis. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Quisque tempor ante sit amet augue. Quisque fringilla. Nam facilisis nonummy pede. Praesent pede. Duis ultricies purus nec sapien. Proin condimentum iaculis nunc. Proin lacus libero, semper vel, lobortis ut, fringilla porta, tortor. Aliquam facilisis enim faucibus leo.
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7 February 2009 - Quisque suscipit pharetra arcu
Maecenas tristique placerat enim. Vestibulum felis. Fusce euismod massa vitae sapien. Fusce dui. Pellentesque ut neque a tortor molestie varius. Morbi placerat, wisi vel tristique tincidunt, dui urna blandit leo, in lobortis metus magna sed risus. Nulla non eros. Vivamus tortor. Donec in erat. Ut augue nunc, egestas in, interdum nec, porttitor quis, nunc. Maecenas placerat posuere urna. Nullam et wisi. Nam egestas massa nec dolor. Cras felis leo, tempor a, bibendum vitae, tempus et, dolor. Fusce eleifend, est at laoreet faucibus, leo nulla rhoncus dolor, at tempus purus odio eu lacus. Cras est erat, luctus a, fermentum sit amet, pellentesque vel, nulla. Suspendisse eget enim. Mauris vulputate fringilla erat. Morbi porta. Aenean et diam.
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7 February 2009 - Proin ullamcorper congue mauris
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam velit justo, malesuada at, egestas vitae, lacinia nec, mauris. Duis auctor, nisl et venenatis dapibus, turpis risus tempus dolor, at vehicula metus enim et neque. Mauris sed lectus. Maecenas tempor, augue quis tincidunt imperdiet, dolor ante mattis est, sit amet vulputate libero arcu quis turpis. Sed varius, neque sit amet ornare ullamcorper, massa orci vestibulum purus, sit amet ultricies enim purus nonummy nibh. Nullam ultrices. Nam odio. Vestibulum posuere magna. Suspendisse potenti. Cras vitae nunc non tortor euismod rhoncus. Etiam nonummy. Aenean sodales. Suspendisse tempus, mi ac consequat venenatis, lorem sapien scelerisque lacus, sit amet sagittis nunc ante non turpis. Nunc ornare.
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6 February 2009 - Test Post - take one
This is a test. This is only a test.
The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog.
I repeat, this is a test.
This concludes the first test post.
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Recent Posts
Ahh - Victory!
Changing the layout...
Notes on adding the header...
More changes on the horizon
Changes... again
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