Izzie's adventures in Secret Diary Land

[izmeina]

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. It's a grey day in Izzieland. The most wicked of Cocytusian Cats has led Iz into all sorts of evil distractions and temptations. This is like being like a kid let loose in a candy store. One big squishy grey and green thankyou is in order and a basket of fish! Iz had no idea of all the interesting nooks and crannies lurking in the darkest corners of Secret Diary Land. Most fascinating stuff indeed. Lots and lots of exploring to do.

But the green won't be gone for long. Iz finally finished that nasty essay this morning - like properly finished - references, the silly page with a sentence summarising every paragraph and all those itsie bitsie tweekie sorts of things. But there still is the stuff to be prepared for the possible weekly random collections on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings. But once this month is over - Iz can be almost as tempted as she likes. And then we will get out the can of green paint. Iz will also take a peek at the other colours in the Cat Basket. Both layouts seem rather similar except for the colours. But what Iz needs to know - which title does the main text font have in the 'component' layout.
The one thing Iz does not like about it - there is not much contrast between background and font and it makes it so very very hard to read.

Tomorrow night will be decadent night of online indulgence at the Dursleys - no Goblins stuff at all to be done over there.

Comments

Grey or Green?

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Bad Iz yielded to temptation and took a quick dip in the murky green waters of Opal. Very nice indeed. There is much greater contrast in colors. Much much easier to read than this grey layout but does not look as simple and elegant.
So Iz wants to know from the Cat and the Python what they each like about their own layout and what special featureses the Iz needs to know about. At this stage - adding the gorgeous green haired Izzie doll is way past Izzie's technical capabilities.

Re: Grey or Green?

[cat-irix.livejournal.com]

These 2 layouts do look pretty similar. What I especially like about them (as opposed to my previous layout) is the page summary - it allows to see very quickly if there's something new and how many new entries, and with my own addition of number of comments per entry - also if there are some new comments on specific entries - without having to scroll down all the way and looking carefully.

All the other stuff on the sidebar is eye candy (which doesn't mean it's not important ! I enjoy Mysti's dollsie so much :) and maybe also useful for occasional visitors to get more precise impression on me, and for me to hype some of my favourite sites :)

What I like in my layout (Opal-Libra) as opposed to a couple of similar ones (Component and another one) is that it looks "less flat" because all "items" are enclosed in visible boxes and the links are highlighted with all the rectangle around them (so they look like real buttons) instead of being only underlined. I know it should be pretty easy to change in the source if needed. Btw the source of Component seems to be unavailable :( don't know if it's an oversight or the author really doesn't want it to be used this way. If you get any layout with the source, I can show you how to add the green dollsie.

Also, my layout uses the screen space more efficiently because the user icons in friends view are located in the corners, and the text of the post uses the full screen width (what's left after the sidebar). In the Component, the posts are more narrow because of this unused space under the icon, so it's longer pages and more scrolling. (and also this red heart on each post - ewwwww !) My previous layout was even more efficient in this respect, but I really like the page summary and the sidebar is the best place for it.

Re: Grey or Green?

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the lowdown on the layouts. Iz wants to know the trick of adding the comment count in the page summary. Most useful indeed. Surprised it isn't a regular feature. Iz also agrees that it is better to have the user icons on the right as they are not so much in the way.
For some inexplicable reason Iz prefers to have navigation information on the left and finds the sites where the calendars and stuff are all on the right side to be a bit disorientating.

What I do like about Component is that it is the only layout that lets you change the font size. Yesss. I know you can do that with page settings in general but Iz just likes it. It makes the page so much more legible. I don't like how it does not seem to show the date and time of posting at all except for comments. Most peculiar indeed.
Iz likes how you can have settings for each different layout and not lose them when you switch between them. Will be trying out the green Opal this evening.
On Friday - did clear out the cache (following the LJ instructions) and even resorted to trying another computer but neither worked. But next day it did. Most peculiar indeed. Some computers do have a habit of getting stuck on previous pages no matter how many times you press 'refresh'
As for advanced options - that sort of tinkering will have to wait till the Izzie holidays from work in May - but as is - is already plenty of layout varieties to keep Iz more than amused.

Re: Grey or Green?

[cat-irix.livejournal.com]

Adding the number of comments is only possible in advanced customization - adding it directly into the source, as I've briefly explained before. Same way you can change all the fonts even in the layouts which do not allow changing the font through the wizard. You can also add the date/time at any place and in any format you like (for example, I changed it to 24-hours format in my sidebar on the recent entries view, because adding am/pm was making it too long and I had reduced the width of the sidebar so the entry text will have more space).

Hmmm I guess having the navigation on the left is more natural for the left-to-right writing system - the navigation "comes first" (is "toplevel") and the content is a "child" of the navigation so it comes second. On the other hand, the layouts with the navbar on the right can be perceived like the content comes first, and the navigation is just an add-on which should be as much out of the way as possible. As for me, I don't care either way (maybe have just a slight preference for the navbar at the left).