Geekzone Blog CSS Help

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exportgoldman

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Topic # 73645 18-Dec-2010 11:06
Hello Everyone, I have realised that I suck at CSS - my Geekzone blog is the standard ugly template, and I want to make it pretty, like freitasm's, or sbiddle's but don't know where to start. I downloaded a few CSS editors, but can't seem to find a good one and get a pretty layout done. I thought about stealing someone elses CSS from here :) but throught that may be a bit mean. How does everyone else editor their blog formatting? Most other sites have built in templates to choose from. Or does anyone want to make me a pretty blog for a box of beer? Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

manhinli

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Reply # 418795 18-Dec-2010 12:38
The first step really is to get a good understanding of how web elements are manipulated with CSS. Using a good browser with their own element inspector (Firefox has DOM Inspector, but use Firebug instead; Chrome and Safari have Web Inspector, Opera has Dragonfly, and IE has one but I don't think it has a name) check out how the elements of a web page are styled. It'll take a while to get used to it. I took about a month of free time initially to understand how it was put together and decided I didn't want anything fancy so ended up with what I've got today. Can't really give more advice since this is on an iPod touch... Find me on Twitter! I posted 1, 2 x 10^3 times!

dhazen

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Reply # 419141 19-Dec-2010 18:13
Hi Export Goldman, Your timing couldn't be better as I've just finished a 2-part article on "How to do it" -- CSS that is, and I plan to follow that up with a third installment to walk through the Geekzone CSS. The posts should be up today so feel free to give me some feedback on them as the response will inform part 3. - Deck ps. Did you know that the Geekzone spell checker doesn't recognize Geekzone?

freitasm

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Reply # 419159 19-Dec-2010 19:08
dhazen: ps. Did you know that the Geekzone spell checker doesn't recognize Geekzone? We don't have a spell checker. It's your browser's spell checker. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

dhazen

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Reply # 419161 19-Dec-2010 19:17
Crap -- this doesn't mean I have to turn in my "Master Geek" badge does it? My family was so proud when I told them about it.

antoniosk

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Reply # 419182 19-Dec-2010 20:34
dhazen: Hi Export Goldman, Your timing couldn't be better as I've just finished a 2-part article on "How to do it" -- CSS that is, and I plan to follow that up with a third installment to walk through the Geekzone CSS. The posts should be up today so feel free to give me some feedback on them as the response will inform part 3. - Deck ps. Did you know that the Geekzone spell checker doesn't recognize Geekzone? Oooo good very timely... is it up yet? ________ AK Works for Vodafone

dhazen

63 posts

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Reply # 419408 20-Dec-2010 13:18
Howdy, Well, yes and no. As it turns out I'm having trouble with the GeekZone formatting as I attempt to copy my posts over from my web site using Live Writer. (and it's pretty hard to write about formatting when you can't show the results) If you'd like to see the first 2 parts (an overview of the technology in part 1, and a quick run-through of a basic CSS file in part 2) feel free to visit my website and check out posts 14 and 15. I've extracted the default CSS file from http://www.geekzone.co.nz/blogconfig.asp and I've asked around for examples of modifed CSS files to see how to do it. With a bit of luck I hope to have something to publish this week. - Deck

chiefie

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Reply # 419421 20-Dec-2010 13:35
My GZ Blog with my radical CSS re-theming. http://www.geekzone.co.nz/chiefie Though the web server that hosts my CSS may "died" at anytime, as I have canned my web hosting... So check it out while it's still operating and if you're keen to explore it. Internet is my backyard... «Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...» «Photo blog: I see...» Please read the Geekzone's FUG

dhazen

63 posts

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Reply # 419622 20-Dec-2010 18:55
Excellent - thanks chiefie - do you reckon that using an external CSS is the way to go? I'm having a bit of a time with the built-in stuff.

freitasm

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Reply # 419626 20-Dec-2010 19:02
Using an externall CSS is not the way to go. The difference is that external is hosted by yourself and loaded from a file, while the one you enter in the Blog Config is loaded on the page. It's not a good thing because you might close your hosting and the file will disappear. It's good because it can be cached. But in reality using external or internal will make no difference in rendering. Chiefie, just copy the contents of your CSS to the Custom CSS box in the Blog Config and don't worry about where the file is hosted. Simple. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

chiefie

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Reply # 419640 20-Dec-2010 19:28
@Freitasm yup one of many few things I need to get around to do... :-D Internet is my backyard... «Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...» «Photo blog: I see...» Please read the Geekzone's FUG

chiefie

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Reply # 419647 20-Dec-2010 19:38
I've switched over to hosted CSS at GZ... :-) I used import() as I can tweak the CSS quicker without using the Staging CSS option. But all that has changed and hosted custom CSS at GZ is safer. Internet is my backyard... «Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...» «Photo blog: I see...» Please read the Geekzone's FUG

dhazen

63 posts

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Reply # 419658 20-Dec-2010 19:52
Hi Mauricio, Happy to comply. (sorry for outing you chiefie) The problem I'm having goes like this: step 1 - create a nicely formatted post using either Live Writer or DreamWeaver with the default CSS for the later (I'm guessing Live Writer loads that CSS file when you tell it you intend to post to Geekzone). The results look as expected in the editor: In the example above I switched to HTML mode, loaded the HTML and then switched back to view. When you "update" the page, the formatting appears to disappear: and remains disappeared when the page is posted: This seems to be the result regardless of the input method - direct entry, Live Writer, or HTML paste from DreamWeaver. It also seems to be case regardless of the state of the CSS - the default or a slightly modified custom. Any ideas? - Deck

chiefie

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Reply # 419660 20-Dec-2010 20:00
@dhazen nah it's ok. I'm not hiding the fact I'm using import() :-) Internet is my backyard... «Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...» «Photo blog: I see...» Please read the Geekzone's FUG