Saturday, November 17, 2012

New Template?

Hoo, baby -- those new Blogger templates look mighty fetching. I'm toying with trading this one in for one of the "dynamic" templates. If you click the link, then enter this site as the "preview," you get a pretty good idea what it would look like. It defaults to "sidebar" mode (yawn), but if you head to the upper-left corner you can see what the flashier "flipcard" "magazine" and "mosaic" modes look like.

In "dynamic" the preferred view is left to the visitor. If "classic" is your thing (as it is mine), you just set it to that. And I think -- I think -- I have the HTML chops to make the sidebar semi-interesting.

It's been nearly nine years with the current model. What think you, dear reader: reach for the flash, or should I back away from the light?


Update: in the comments Joel points out how to view the blog via the "Dynamic" template without trashing the trusty old HTML jalopy I've driven for the last nine years. Viewers who want the flash can click below YOWSA! on the upper right, and you'll get fed the "Magazine" view, which I'm rather partial to (it's flashy, but not burdensomely so, as it gives text preview the right of way). Once there, the viewer can select "Classic" "Flipcard" etc. Or just return here, for that beloved orange banner we've been loving this past decade.

9 comments:

DarkoV said...

Darrell,
Got to get used to it.....there's some good things, but with all of the gadgets/widgets, it's lost its homeyness. It seems bare. I'm not a fan of the new look at this point.

Joel Swagman said...

Far be it for me to tell you what to do with your blog.
On my own blog, I took a look at the dynamic view, but thought it was more cute than functional, and was reluctant to lose some of the things on my sidebar (like the accordion blog archive, or the list of labels). Plus, any blog can already be viewed in dynamic mode already simply by adding /view/sidebar to the end of the post. So if that's what the reader wants, they can just do it themselves.
But on the other hand, you say you have the html chops to make the sidebar interesting? This intrigues me. Now you've got me curious to see what you can do.

Joel Swagman said...

Further thoughts--since my original post I've gone and added a link to the dynamic view on my sidebar. That could be a way to have your cake and eat it too.

dpreimer said...

Cool tip! Thanks, and consider it done.

Ray Sawhill said...

I'm a plain-ol' plain-ol' kinda guy. Hate the fancy new looks, which only get in my way.

Joel Swagman said...

By the way, I noticed some time ago that the Dynamic mode is working again. Time to add it back to the sidebar?

Whisky Prajer said...

Ha! You know, it's tempting. I'm a little cautious, though, about alienating any of my dozen of readers -- including my dad, who might give up if he couldn't read this on his phone.

Joel Swagman said...

I've gone ahead and put the link back on my sidebar. (Same thing I did 8 years ago, when we first had this conversation.) It's completely unobtrusive to. It's on my left hand side sidebar under "Search This Blog" and right above "Twitter Feed"--this is the same thing I did 8 years ago when we first had this exchange, but since then dynamic stopped working for a while, and I took it down. But then dynamic started working again, so I put it back up.

Whisky Prajer said...

Your blog looks pretty cool in "Flip-card" mode. It's like the opening of The Brady Bunch, if the only Brady left was Mike.