lewro’s blog - 2.1 - web designer beginner

Today is the big day for me. I have finished my 1st blog with all the features and functions as it should have. The previous version was simple website which has only simulated real blog functions but from now on you can enjoy commenting all my articles in the real time. As you can see the blog has completely new design (if you use text browser or mobile device for accessing this site then you can not see the design yet but do not worry I will get there…keep reading, more in section “To do”.

How have I done it?

Simple, with a little knowledge and a big expectations. The blog is powered by Wordpress engine. By the way I wrote in the past that I will use Expression Engine but at that time I did not know it is not free service. So that is why I went for Wordpress. I was told I will need some programming knowledge to get it up and running but the true is I managed to do it even without it. Xhtml and CSS was pretty much enough. Only in some cases I had to touch the PHP code such were: defining of displaying the upcoming tasks in the side bar or adding ID attribute in body tag and few others. All of it was done very simple straight-forward way. So if you are considering what blog engine to chose, even if you are beginner like me go for Wordpress. It is easy and free. If you will need a help there is plenty of information on the Wordpress site or you can find lot of useful information in the book Blog design solutions.

Complains?

There is only one think I would change if there was the possibility. In some cases there is no way how to structure the code which is generated by wordpress tags and plug-ins. As I am a big fan of semantic code I would really appreciate if the code was generated that way. The code itself is generated correctly and it is valid but when it is not align as it should be then it is hard to read. There is nothing you can do about it as long as you do not want to touch the Wordpress code itself. It is only minor issue for majority of the readers because most of them do not go true your xhtml code anyway. So enough for complains.

Wordpress is amazing product!

Generally I think Wordpress is an amazing product and I really enjoy working with it and I am sure I will like it even more when I will fully discover all the possibilities and interesting. For you guys who are interested what am I currently using here is the list:

• Author Highlight
• BlogStats PCC
• BDP Referral Tracker
• bdp-comments
• BDP Referral Tracker bar chart add-on
• SRG Clean Archives
• Gravatar
• WP-OnlineCounter
• WordPress Database Backup
• Weighted Categories
• Contact Form

Categories

As you can see I have changed the categories. I have decided to do a blog more IT & Web design related and all the other stuff like cooking, gardening, culture, will go to personal category.

Focus

I will try to keep an eye on the newest web design technologies and techniques and IT industry generally. I will bring all this information to you as quick as can. The main focus will be on

• XHTML
• CSS
• DOM-Scripting
• PHP
• MySql
• Flash
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Typography
• Iconography
• Colour management
• Photography
• Cameras
• Education
• Hardware and software in general
• Internet, internet applications and web browsers

Access Keys

I have implemented the access keys for Navigation menu. The highlighted letter should be used with ALT on Windows and CRL on MACs .Example - Home ALT/CRTL+”H”. Unfortunately it does not work in all browsers and their versions but most of the standard new browsers support it.

To do:

What is coming next?

Be aware that this is only beta version. There is plenty things I want to implement but I have decided to go ahead and publish this version because it is functional so all the spice will follow soon later. I plan to create special style sheet for handheld devices because this is the fastest growing web market. At the moment the content of this blog is accessible by mobile devices but the presentation will be done more interesting way so stay tuned. I plan to implement some DOM scripting. For example the statistics section on the top right corner will not be displayed by default but will be accessible by hover effect. Alternative CSS with the light background will be used for people who find hard to read text on the dark backgrounds. Text size adjusting will be implemented for better readability for people with high-resolution monitors or readers with eye problems. I plan to support older browsers. I have tested the blog in IE6.0, Firefox 1.5.0.7, Netscape 8.1, Opera 9.0.1. I will test the blog and include necessary hacks and filters for older browsers asap.

I am looking forward to see you again!

Hope you like the new version and you will come often to “talk to me” on this my little playground.