Added a new category and link list to the left - tweaklog! This is a way to show and review the progress of the blog, be it code changes or new features.
Technically speaking, the tweaklog (see left toolbar) a list of the last 5 posts having to do with new features, edits, code changes, etc. on this site. The last link shows the entire category's archive. So six links maximum. The technical part of how it works (which is, of course, pretty darn simple) is in the full post.
Added a new link to Web Nouveau's list of table-less CSS sites. From what I can tell, there are 800 or so sites listed - some work, some don't (fair warning!) - but those that do offer an interesting gallery of design ideas. All of them are designed without using tables, which means lots of examples of CSS positioning, some more experimental than others.
Adult Panties with a Christian Message at Jesus21.com A post outlining the definition of the 'float' property in css, a useful tool, as demonstrated with the 'callout' box to the left.
Okay, I was wondering, what is the CSS property 'float'? So I looked it up a little.
The W3 Consortium defines float as such:
5.5.25 'float'
Value: left | right | none
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentage values: N/A
With the value 'none', the element will be displayed where it appears in the text. With a value of 'left' ('right') the element will be moved to the left (right and the text will wrap on the right (left) side of the element. With a value of 'left' or 'right', the element is treated as block-level (i.e. the 'display' property is ignored).
I've added a few links to the 'links' sidebar over on the righhand side. While none of them are particularly mindblowingly entertaining reading, the offical specifications from the World Wide Web Consortium for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, CSS 1, and CSS 2 are the end-all be-all of reference works for any of this mess we're playing with. I printed out the CSS 2 specs last week, and (believe it or not) read through the whole thing, cover to cover. Not much for plot, but hey....
I've added another small change to the CodeTweaking CSS sheet: the 'callout' class. This is a 'callout'. Woo! You can use it to create a small sidebar if there's something relative to your post that you'd like to add, but might not necessarily need to be included in the main body text (for an example of a more normal usage, see the full text of my Kung-Tunes post).
To create it, enclose whatever text you'd like to put in the callout within span tags. For example, the callout in this post was created by typing this in the above paragraph: …the 'callout' class.
. Hopefully that makes sense.<span class="callout">This is a 'callout'. Woo!</span> You can use it…
I've been having a lot of fun finding tricks to play with the redesign of The Long Letter.
Much of my project last night was integrating a program that displays the current .mp3 that I'm listening to, and then getting the page set up so that the display text will auto-update to keep the display current. It seems to finally be working correctly - details follow...
(And yeah, the redesign doesn't display correctly in IE <= 5.5 at the moment - Kirsten told me about that, and I need to find a way to fix it, but as I don't have 5.5 running on my PC here, it may be a bit difficult...grrr.)
MORE...Since a lot of my experimentation has the final goal of redesigning my site, I've got a 'beta' page that i'm using as a testbed for the new site design. I'm keeping the CSS embedded in the file until I get it finalized, so a quick 'view source' will allow anyone to see some of the tricks I'm working with. Feel free to take a look, if you like.
Addendum: ARGH! Here I am all excited about the neat stuff I'm figuring out that I can do using CSS, plugging away, viewing my pages with Netscape. Then when I take a look at the page with Internet Explorer - it doesn't recognize half the tricks. Grrr. I'm gonna stomp around for a bit now. So much for standards compliance.
Talk about making CSS look easy, god i love GUI apps. Hee hee. What a geek i am.
Here is an interesting point. or two... I am running IE 6 and it changes the mouse to 'help' but displays only when you hover. Is that how its supposed to work? I'd think an automatic mouseover would almost be better, because I thought I was supposed to click on it.
Hmm, for reference purposes, here are sites I have been looking at for CSS tutorial information. Some of them are more for beginners, some have lots and lots for everyone in almost anything.
ooo, that URL button is neat. so nice for lazy people (like me).
and one i will look at more later when i'm not still in early stages
Other than that I mostly go in and look at other people's blogs and their stylesheets. How old fashioned, I know, but it works. :)
Plus I learn lots more that way.
I'll stick those in the link box over there.
I have a suggestion for a good way to run this site - that being - if you're going to tweak the code, make a new stylesheet, duplicate the other's text and paste, or make your own. But that way there is always one stylesheet that isn't broken.
See, this is why i am called a 'multimedia specialist,' around here. Because I am SMRT.
This blog is currently using the basic default templates as created by a fresh installation of MT. I've been reading a lot stylistically correct usage of HTML lately, and a few of the articles have focused on the correct use of the ACRONYM tag. It seemed like a good idea, so I used it in my previous post (and now a couple times in this one), but the default MT stylesheet didn't do anything to display the use of the tag.
So, following the advice of Evolt, I've added the following to the CodeTweaking stylesheet:
/* abbr and acronym tags added by woody 02.07.01 11:20pm */
abbr, acronym {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #000; cursor: help;
}
Now, all acronyms should are designated by a dashed line underneath them. Mousing over them changes the cursor to the default 'help' cursor, and the expanded form of the acronym will appear by the cursor in the form of a tooltip (well, on a Windows box running IE 6 it does...Mac IE 6 displayes the tooltip if you hover, but doesn't change the cursor or even display the underline - grrr...).
Okay, so this is CodeTweaking.
My new position at my job has me diving headlong into HTML, CSS, and other such goodies, which has put me into full-on geek mode. That got me started on thinking about what I could do with my website as far as cleaning up the CSS code that I use, fixing other things up as I stumble across them, and so on.
I figured blogging my work as I went would be a good way to go about tracking the things I come across, so I set up this blog to do just that. I fully expect things on this blog to be fairly dynamic, as I'm more or less planning on using it as a testbed for a lot of the ideas I come across.
Additionally, I've got two friends who I know are in the process of looking into starting their own blogs. I figured that this could be a good way for us to keep track of things we find, helpful sites, good tips and tricks, and so on, and so I'll be sending both of them e-mail inviting them to participate as co-authors of CodeTweaking. I'll just have to see if they accept - and if they do, then we'll just have to see where things go from there.
Off and running...
Just a quick (ahem) 'first post' to make sure everything's up and working correctly....