eclecticism

Surf like it’s 1994!

May 18th, 2004 |

This may be the last CSS-related post for a while — though I’m considering a writeup of how I implemented the stylesheet switcher into my TypePad setup, so there may be more yet to come. We’ll see. In the meantime…

I got an e-mail from a reader who still uses a 640x480 resolution monitor. Because the new designs use a fixed layout width rather than the fluid layout that my old single-column layout used, he was running into an issue with his browser where the webpage was cut off by about 40 pixels on the right and left hand sides, rendering the site somewhat unintelligible.

As that’s hardly the effect I was going for, I’ve added a fourth stylesheet to the switcher: Old School. Basically, this stylesheet is actually no stylesheet at all. Because this strips all presentational code from the site and leaves only the structural markup of the HTML code, it’s not very “pretty” by today’s standards, but is gauranteed to work in any browser on any platform — all the way back to NSCA Mosaic, should anyone still be using that!

I’ve also designated the “Old School” stylesheet as the “handheld” stylesheet for the site, so that handheld users should (if their handheld browser works correctly) get that unstyled version of the site rather than having to cope with a layout designed for a more standard viewing portal.

It’s all about the content, baby.

iTunes: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana from the album Nevermind (1991, 5:01).

« Shades of Gattaca | Spitting Image returning? »

8 Responses to “Surf like it’s 1994!”

vince Says:
May 18th, 2004 at 6:28 am

and how can I reverse to the other stylesheets now ??????? I am stuck on the no-stylesheet version of the site ! I tried to clear the cookies, but it still doesn’t work and there is no link to the stylesheets on the “no-stylesheets” version!!! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP !!!

Ryan Waddell Says:
May 18th, 2004 at 7:37 am

Sweet baby jesus. I think Vince wants to switch back to a different stylesheet.

Vince - there ARE links to the other stylesheets on the oldschool version, they’re just at the bottom of the page.

Vince Says:
May 18th, 2004 at 8:51 am

Thanks Ryan…

ok, I feel like an idiot now, but at least I am back to a stylesheet layout :o)

sorry for the 8 posts, my computer went mad (as it often does… thanks Mr Bill… :o( )

Todd Says:
May 18th, 2004 at 8:53 am

I had the same problem as Vince but I just scrolled to the bottom and switched back to the “Manly Pink” that I’ve been enjoying.

Deep breaths Vince…deep breaths

Michael Hanscom Says:
May 18th, 2004 at 9:49 am

(laughs) Whoops! Y’know, I hadn’t even thought about that little side effect! Sorry about that Vince.

But yes, the stylesheet links are still there on the Old School layout, they just end up further down the page, as everything in the sidebar comes after everything in the main column.

kirsten Says:
May 18th, 2004 at 10:08 am

hey, i have a fairly unrelated question - are there any movable type blog composition interfaces for PC like there are for Mac? I remember you talking about Espresso a while back.

It’d be super helpful, especially if it knew how to show me all my comments so I could start the mass spam cleanup… =0

Michael Hanscom Says:
May 18th, 2004 at 11:49 am

The blogging client I’ve been using lately is Ecto, which recently gained a windows-based sibling in Ecto for Windows.

It’s a good little desktop client for posting and editing — however, it doesn’t include comment moderation/deletion ability (in fact, I don’t know of a desktop client that does). I may be able to help with deleting some of those spam comments, though, I’ll just need to poke around with the SQL database that holds everything. I’ll try to remember to look into that tonight.

Ryan Waddell Says:
May 19th, 2004 at 7:20 am

I haven’t seen a blogging tool that lets you deal with comments, but that’s a damn good idea… I used to use w.bloggar for my blogging interface, but it didn’t support Wordpress so I just went back to plain ol’ web-based when I swapped from MT to WP… but you could try that one out as well.