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Revised theme now live... Site News
Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 11:42AM PDT • Contributed by: robg
Those of you who visit here as guests, or who have the "Hints1" theme selected in your preferences, have probably noticed that we've got a slightly revised appearance as of, oh, about five minutes ago. New logo, new story title colors and topic icons and text, and some links to other Macworld sites in the header are the most visible aspects of the changes we've made.

Going forward, we'll probably be tweaking things a bit more as we move to the just-released Geeklog 1.5 -- hopefully including a CSS-based theme that eliminates (or greatly reduces, at least) the use of the <table> tag in the current theme.

-rob.
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Revised theme now live... | 35 comments | Create New Account
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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Revised theme now live...
Authored by: adrianm on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:09PM PDT
With 'hints1' theme, there is no welcome message, so the "To see your posting history, click your user name in the above 'Welcome' message" message in prefs hard to obey...

---
~/.sig: not found

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: robg on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:18PM PDT
I'll work on getting that back, somewhere :).

-rob.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Revised theme now live...
Authored by: robg on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:42PM PDT
As a bit of a hack, I've modified the box text to tell you where the link is -- it's in the User Control Panel box, in the Show My History link. We removed the "welcome" line to save space in the header area.

Also, the search box is missing, but I'm working on putting that back right now.

-rob.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: nmerriam on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:12PM PDT
FWIW, I like it a great deal. It feels much crisper, sharper, cleaner, brighter.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: stukdog on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:14PM PDT
The new theme looks great!

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: dustin5 on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:21PM PDT
Didn't realize the background color was not white until now.
Turns out it was #FAFFFF all along.

That little "A" goes a long way toward avoiding eyestrain.
The icons and everything else looks great, though. Nice work!

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: asmeurer on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:31PM PDT
The header is somewhat intrusive. It should go on the bottom or the side in my opinion. The Mac OS X Hints logo is a little tall for the white bar to the right of it, or is it supposed to be that way?

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: robg on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:34PM PDT
What white bar? Can you either email me a screenshot (robg at the domain you might guess), or post it somewhere so I can see?

As for the header area, I believe we managed to make it either the exact same vertical height as before, or perhaps just a few pixels taller, so it shouldn't be intruding much more than it was before...

-rob.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: robg on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 12:48PM PDT
I know what you mean now -- that's a cache issue with your browser; reload it, and the header will be much less intrusive (and look right :) ), and the white bar will vanish.

-rob.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: asmeurer on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 7:49PM PDT
Oh. Thank you. It is much better now.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: BB on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 1:28PM PDT
While I agree about the new look being overall better using white as a background color is too intense. I never even noticed it wasn't white before so if anything I'd move back to that background color since my eyes are already beginning to feel strained looking at the new white background.

I've never understood why some sites choose white backgrounds, it's like having pages in a book glow while you read them. I've always hoped that the slightly off white pages of novels (most anyway) was intentional.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: asmeurer on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 7:51PM PDT
I agree now that I look at it. The gray at the very top would be a good background color I think. The white particularly makes the blue links on the side harder to read.

It can't be too bad though, because I didn't notice until I read this comment.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: baltwo on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 1:42PM PDT
I don't like it. The Classic theme is my preferred selection. Too bad it only pops up if I log in.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: zelet on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 2:00PM PDT
The only thing I would change is to create a little more definition between the main content and the sidebar information.

Otherwise, great work. I like it.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: T0b1 on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 2:13PM PDT
This reminds me of Win. Vista - just joking, but i like the old theme better.
How about a ?css=something and some more choices, perhaps provided by some of your readers ?

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: cuban321 on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 4:10PM PDT
Please just fix RSS so it shows the whole posting!

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: slb on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 4:12PM PDT
Nice!
Much easier on the eyes!
Keep up the fine work!

SB

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Some tips...
Authored by: theyoda on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 4:47PM PDT
Much improved over old design - some little notes you might take into consideration:

1) Using CSS to reduce the BODY padding (and manually add it again as margin for the content area) so that the header doesn't have a white border around it.

2) Maybe the menu-bar (including the 10+ hints thing) could be more contrasting (blue BG color?)... but ok as is

3) Change the comments over from the light blue (from old theme) to a more vivid blueish (new theme)?

4) Footer is still purple gradient!

Although it won't win any graphic design awards - it is a great improvement.

---------------------

As an aside, MacOSXHints has proved useful for me for many years, but I haven't signed up as a commenter until today.

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Some tips...
Authored by: theyoda on Fri, Jun 27 2008 at 7:23AM PDT
And also - like the new icons much. To those who say the white background is too intense - I disagree, but create a bookmark of this:
javascript:(function(){var%20newSS,%20styles='*%20{%20background:%20#e3e3e3%20!%20important;%20color:%20black%20!important%20}%20:link,%20:link%20*%20{%20color:%20#0000EE%20!important%20}%20:visited,%20:visited%20*%20{%20color:%20#551A8B%20!important%20}';%20if(document.createStyleSheet)%20{%20document.createStyleSheet(%22javascript:'%22+styles+%22'%22);%20}%20else%20{%20newSS=document.createElement('link');%20newSS.rel='stylesheet';%20newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles);%20document.getElementsByTagName(%22head%22)[0].appendChild(newSS);%20}%20})();
(drag link here into your menu bar) Change Style and click it when you get to a part of any website whose background you find to white (it will also change a dark-light scheme too) including MOSXHints to a greyish color. (you can change color by replacing #e3e3e3 in the script with anything... Script modified version of one by Robert, commenter at 456bereastreet.

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Some tips...
Authored by: theyoda on Fri, Jun 27 2008 at 7:28AM PDT
Reply didn't go to right place - so...

The link above does NOT work because MacOSXHints removes the javascript: part for security. So just copy and paste the orange text above and add as bookmark.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Revised theme now live...
Authored by: asmeurer on Thu, Jun 26 2008 at 7:54PM PDT
I like the new icons, or at least the ones that have been updated. It feels almost like using a new version of Mac OS X with them, as often as I visit this site.

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: poenn on Fri, Jun 27 2008 at 12:13AM PDT
Hi,

I like the new design, but I'm with some of the other replies: The white background is not easy on the eyes, I just compared it to the classic theme. Please make the background a little more greyish...

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: unimatrixzxero on Fri, Jun 27 2008 at 4:27AM PDT
Love the new theme. It's like going from OS 9 to Leopard on the eyes :P

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: interlard on Fri, Jun 27 2008 at 6:30AM PDT
I hate the new theme and stick to the the old (very blue) one. However, because the site expires my automatic login every so often, I get the default theme and have to click the login button again. I don't like that, so if you could hint your way to fixing it I'd be very happy. ;-)

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: theyoda on Fri, Jun 27 2008 at 7:26AM PDT
Link doesn't work... sorry.

MR is removing the "javascript:" part of it - so you will have to create a bm and copy and paste the
javascript:(function(){var%20newSS,%20styles='*%20{%20background:%20#e3e3e3%20!%20important;%20color:%20black%20!important%20}%20:link,%20:link%20*%20{%20color:%20#0000EE%20!important%20}%20:visited,%20:visited%20*%20{%20color:%20#551A8B%20!important%20}';%20if(document.createStyleSheet)%20{%20document.createStyleSheet(%22javascript:'%22+styles+%22'%22);%20}%20else%20{%20newSS=document.createElement('link');%20newSS.rel='stylesheet';%20newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles);%20document.getElementsByTagName(%22head%22)[0].appendChild(newSS);%20}%20})();


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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: Andreas. on Fri, Jun 27 2008 at 1:24PM PDT
I've been a daily visitor to the site for years, and a very grateful one. I registered and logged in today for the first time just to be able to use the elegant and clear Classic theme. Thank you for leaving 'Classic' available. The new theme, IMO, would be more suitable for a site trying to sell me something on the cheap, and that something looks suspiciously like something "X-rated". Sorry!

Andreas

[ Reply to This | # ]
Revised theme now live...
Authored by: rcohen on Sun, Jun 29 2008 at 12:45PM PDT
Where is the choice to view comments as nested or flat or ? I have it set up in my account, but I cannot see the menu any more.

- Rick

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: Andreas. on Mon, Jun 30 2008 at 2:17AM PDT
It's in the usual place but may not be on your screen because horizontal scrolling has been triggered. Stay near the top and scroll to the right.

Andreas

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Revised theme now live...
Authored by: rcohen on Mon, Jun 30 2008 at 7:41AM PDT
Ah thank you.

Is there a preference setting to prevent horizontal triggering (aka wrap)?

- Rick


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Enable/disable 'wrap'?
Authored by: Andreas. on Mon, Jun 30 2008 at 8:35AM PDT
robg would need to answer that as I don't know anything about Geeklog. AFAIK we users can't disable it once a previous post has caused it with a long line containing no spaces or just non-breaking spaces. I would be pleased if we could - it's a nuisance on all sites when it happens.

Andreas

[ Reply to This | # ]
But...
Authored by: Andreas. on Mon, Jun 30 2008 at 8:41AM PDT
robg would need to answer that as I don't know anything about Geeklog.
AFAIK we users can't disable it once a previous post has caused it with
a long line containing no spaces or just non-breaking spaces.
I would be pleased if we could - it's a nuisance on all sites when it happens.

We can, though, be kind to others by doing this!

Andreas

[ Reply to This | # ]
Revised theme now live...
Authored by: dzurn on Mon, Jun 30 2008 at 10:33AM PDT
Should have this added to the MacOSXHints [pre] tag styles CSS: 
pre {
overflow-x: auto; /* Use horizontal scroller if needed; for Firefox 2, not needed in Firefox 3 */
white-space: pre-wrap; /* css-3 */
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap !important; /* Mozilla, since 1999 */
white-space: -pre-wrap; /* Opera 4-6 */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap; /* Opera 7 */
word-wrap: break-word; /* Internet Explorer 5.5+ */
}

---
Madness takes its toll.
Please have exact change.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Revised theme now live...
Authored by: robg on Mon, Jun 30 2008 at 12:47PM PDT
The problem isn't the pre code -- well, yes, that's a problem as well. However, if you look at what caused the screen to grow horizontally in this thread, it's a long line of JavaScript *plain text*. However, there aren't any spaces in the JavaScript, so the browser can't figure out where to break it.

I'm not aware of any CSS to handle wrapping of indeterminate-length pure text strings -- but if such a thing exists, please post it!

regards,
-rob.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Revised theme now live...
Authored by: TonyIC on Wed, Jul 2 2008 at 9:24AM PDT
I couldn't revert to the old theme fast enough...

[ Reply to This | # ]
Agh!
Authored by: astack on Fri, Jul 4 2008 at 10:02AM PDT
Agh! My eyes! The goggles... they do nothing!

Robg, I'm sure the new theme was a lot of work, and itlooks very much like 10.5, which I guess was your goal so nice work. Unfortunately I think the styling in 10.5 is hideous, I never upgraded partly because of it. At least, darken the background a bit to soften it and make it more readable. Thank you!


[ Reply to This | # ]

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