I’ve spent a couple of hours this morning doing some general tweaking on Meandering Passage.
It wasn’t done as much in an effort to change things as it was to fix minor annoyances I’d been noticing. These were small issues that I’d been mentally tagging with “I’ll fix that someday.” Well, someday was today!
These items included:
- Changing and enlarging the content font (making it a bit easier on the eyes);
- Widening the main content column slightly while narrowing the two right columns an equal amount;
- Changing the way “blockquotes” are displayed;
- Moving the “search this site” form to the header from the footer;
- Correctly aligning the “Archives” form in the right most column (darn thing had never been right since the day I installed it); and
- Changing the header text.
No doubt these are things that no one else would even notice…but to me it was like a ding in my car door that I noticed every time I got in to drive.
If you experience any problems with this site now that I’ve been messing under the hood, let me know. ;-)
Hey Earl,
I think the site looks good. The changes in column widths must have been fairly minor, because I don’t notice the change. ;)
I like the sans font on the sidebar categories – although you should check your spelling on the Calendar widget title.
I’ve been thinking of shrinking my blog header or ‘sider’ I guess. I like it being on the side, but I think I sacrifice a little too much space with it. I might come up with a spruced up but narrower graphic. I think your content width is just right. Even though you’ve got two sidebars I think it works. What’s the overall width your working to? Checking my own google analytics data, there are a surprising amount of people visiting my blog with monitor resolutions 1280 or wider now – which is a good thing.
Also, about the search box. I thought the google/meanderingpassage search box in the sidebar would be enough no? Is the one in the header any different? To be honest I never even realized you had one down in the footer! :)
RQ
I can tell a difference! Much easier to read :)
@Richard – Thanks for taking a look at things. They were minor changes so if I hadn’t said anything no one might have noticed.
Damn! Thanks I fixed the Calendar spelling. I’m hopeless! :-)
My over all site width is 960 px and the content width now is 535 px (up from a previous 490 px). I like the 3 column w/2 sidebars design. The sidebars are each 190 px with 15 px left padding.
I too like your blog header on the side. I wonder how it wold look if you had a large graphic element that not only encompassed a similar header element along the left side but also extended across the top to include your menu/page items? Just thinking, but would that help to pull all the other elements/sections of your blog together? You could also have a second side column under this element on the left if you wanted too.
I think I’m going to remove the Google search widget. The “search on site” form does an internal search using SQL giving a better display of results from my site.
Thanks for the imput.
@Sam: Hi! Glad you find the changes easier to read. Thanks for taking a look and leaving feedback!
Earl, you’re always riding the bleeding edge! You update your blog as soon as the new WordPress updates, tweak here and there, and are just a leader! :-)
@Paul – I believe “Bleeding” is the key word here! ;-)