Thanks for all your comments on the new design. I’ve made a few changes based on what you said, as described below. If things look a little odd you may need to visit this file and click the Reload button in your browser.
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I’ve made the text at the very top of the page, to the left of Pepys’ portrait, a bit lighter, so hopefully it’s more readable for everyone now.
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I’ve made the main column on all pages slightly wider, and the sidebar slightly narrower.
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I’ve increased the space between the lines in the diary entry texts. This should help make it more readable without having to increase the text size.
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I’ve re-instated the email links for each annotator’s name which I accidentally left off when I launched the new design.
I hope that’s all helped make things just that little bit better, and thanks again for all your kind words.
25 Comments
First Reading
Phil Gyford • Link
As an aside... you may or may not have noticed that the asterisks next to each annotation/comment indicate whether that item appeared since you last visited the site (the asterisk is dark if so, pale if not). It's not immediately obvious, and it's far from 100% foolproof, but it's better than nothing.
Anyway, I've just noticed these haven't been working properly since the weekend, but I gave it a nudge and it should gradually begin to work from now on...
Guest • Link
I tried reloading your global.css style sheet, but am still having the same problem:
Links are always the same color, whether I've visited them before or not. Your asterisk is always bold, whether I've read the annotation before or not. Other than that, the new site is excellent.
Xjy • Link
Nice few tweaks, especially the "if things look odd" file reference right at the start! Thanks!
Off we go again!
Phil Gyford • Link
"Guest": I didn't say that the new stylesheet did anything about the link colours. I'm thinking about that one.
The asterisk should be working OK -- it's working fine for me now at least. Your browser needs to accept cookies for it to work.
Nate • Link
Firefox 2.0.0.2 on XP. I don't see any picture and the comments still appear one word to a line. The Encyclopedia section follows each diary entry. The diary section is readable but not the comments.
Nate • Link
Just got on and can now see the site as you meant it to be. Nice.
Vivian Pitney • Link
The tweaks look very good. However, I am having a problem printing the day's diary & annotations. Can anyone help?
Phil Gyford • Link
I mentioned in a previous thread that I haven't even looked at the issue of printing pages yet. I'll try and find time soon to make printed versions better than they are at the moment...
Phil Gyford • Link
I've now made links to pages that you've already visited a different, lighter colour. It's tricky to get the balance between them being noticeably lighter, but not so light they're hard to read.
You may have to visit and reload that global.css file linked to in my initial post, above, to see the changes.
Guest • Link
The new, lighter color links for visited pages work fine for me in Firefox 2.0.0.2, as do the asterisks now that I have cookies enabled. Many thanks from this long-time "lurker".
Bruce Ward • Link
Excellent new site design! I shall enjoy "Mr.Peeps" even more than before. Thanks for all your hard and creative work.
Phil Gyford • Link
Printing pages of the site should work much better now. I haven't tested all sections of the site in all browsers, so let me know if you try printing something and it comes out particularly ugly or unreadable.
Saul Pfeffer • Link
By the bye: Prints just fine. This looks like a good oportunity to get into the DTP business. Thanks for a mighty experience, now even better.
Willie • Link
Phil --
At the top of the page, the tabs for "encyclopedia," "in depth articles," etc., have somehow on my IE browser been transformed into a set of four rows of gray bars which obscure the title heading and the illustration of our hero, Sam.
Willie
Han Duijvendak • Link
It is fabulous!
Bradford • Link
Subtitle is indeed easily readable now. Everything works handsomely, and without recourse to puppy-dog water, whatever its composition.
Saraswati • Link
Hello,
I usually read this via Livejournal, but the livejournal link doesn't seem to be working. Any ideas.
Thanks for all your hard work on this site. I'm missing my little bit of Samuel each day.
Phil Gyford • Link
Wilie, sorry about that - the problem with the tabs in Windows Internet Explorer should be fixed now.
Saraswati, LiveJournal seem to have started looking for the feed of diary entries in the wrong place. I've set things up so it should soon start working again for them all the same.
Matt • Link
The link on the search results page in the text 'You could also try searching the site using Google.' is broken.
It should probably look something like:
http://www.google.com/custom?hl=e…
'%s' being where the search query goes.
mary mcintyre • Link
Snazzy new layout -- very nice! I've been v busy @ work the last couple of weeks, and clearly missed a major development.
Phil, you are performing a major public service, and are "gathering treasure in heaven", as my late Nana McIntyre would have said :)
cumsalisgrano • Link
Great work;
one minor issue, can thee break the text into 5 line segments, a line space for easier reading, instead of useing a 'blinking' cursor to follow eyeball tracking.
Again many thanks from one of the unscholarly uncooth procrastinator .
MJP • Link
It looks GREAT!!!! Thanks.
Jesse • Link
Sidebar blues, or beigy greens
Well, it's going on what, three months? It may be heretical but why not use the space (in the meantime) for something like Ads by Google? We the readers can be regaled (non intrusively of course) with Pepysian peraphernalia and perhaps you can pick up some "pin money" on the side.
Todd Bernhardt • Link
I wouldn't mind if Phil made a bit of green (beigy or otherwise) for his efforts ... plus, given the nature of the discussion, and the keyphrases the Google Adbot would parse from it, think about the potential for amusement caused by some of the ads that it would display!
Phil Gyford • Link
The thought has occurred to me, but personally I don't like advertising and do my best to have ads hidden on all sites I visit. But maybe I'll experiment sometime -- if only to see what kind of ads appear, as you suggest!
Sorry for the lack of further changes -- my time is extremely limited and just keeping the diary entries coming takes up what little free time I have available.
Although I did change how the tabs on the Encyclopedia pages work not long ago, which took a while. Hopefully no one has noticed the difference, but they are (I hope) more accessible (eg, work better in screen readers and old browsers) now.