Neil Merton

Web2.0* Version 1.7.0 Available

To celebrate the new website I’ve also released the latest version (1.7.0) of the theme.

New Features

• Full i18n support - this means that you can create a translation for the theme. Big thanks goes to Christoph Voigt for his hard work in getting this done.
• Print Stylesheet - the theme will now render in an easy to read format when any of the pages are printed.

As this release is a MAJOR RELEASE if you are planning on upgrading then please make note of any custom changes you have made to any of the files before updating.

Web2.0* 1.5 Available

I can happily announce that Web2.0* version 1.5 is now available for download.

Here’s a summary of the improvements, fixes, etc:

1. Options Page
   This took up most of the development time. It meant that all the stylesheets had to be edited, along with creating the actual options available (of which there are 41!) Click the thumbnail to view a cropped screenshot.
   - Font options
   - Colour options
   - Change layout from fluid to fixed
2. Bugs
   - Images that are taller than the content will no longer cause the layout of the post meta data and comments to wig-out.
3. Miscellaneous
   - I’ve removed support for Lightbox as it was causing the CSS to be invalid.
   - All the public viewable icons have been replaced with png. This is to aid transparency when the theme’s background colours are changed. For visitors how might still be using Internet Explorer 6 I’ve used transparent gifs - this may look odd if the theme’s background colour is changed to a dark colour. I may try and sort out a fix for this at a later date.
   - I would still like to get the theme i18n compliant, but am not willing to commit to a time-scale. If there is anyone out there who would like to help with this then please do get in touch.

On a final note - This is the final major release of Web2.0* - I will only be updating the theme with fixes as and when bugs are found and reported. Please do not request personal enhancements, etc. My free-time is very limited and I need to concentrate on my paying free-lance work. Thank you for your understanding and more importantly your continued support - it is much appreciated.

ALA Web Design Survey

A List Apart has decided to run a Web Design Survey that will hopefully provide people inside (and outside) the web design/development industry useful information about those who are currently employed in this sector.

So, if you’re employed as a Web Designer / Web Developer then why not take the survey (shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes)?

Initial Thoughts on Dreamweaver CS3

No, I’ve not received an early copy of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 - but I have been spending some time reading up about the release on Adobe’s website, so I thought I’d share what my initial thoughts are on this upcoming release’s main new features.

1. The support for Spry (AJAX): How many people use Spry (it’s Adobe’s AJAX framework)? I looked at it briefly, once, but didn’t like how it inserts ’spry:command‘ into html tags - so that’s where I left my investigation. So, no, this feature is not one that interests me.
2. Photoshop & Fireworks integration: Ok - it is just me or is it really not that diffecult to have Photoshop/Fireworks open while you’re working in Dreamweaver? Do I really need to copy directly from either of these programs and paste directly into Dreamweaver? I don’t think so. So again, this feature doesn’t interest me.
3. Browser Compatibility Check: Code semantic and valid css and xhtml and your code should be compatible with most browsers! This feature isn’t for me.
4. CSS Advisor website: Won’t this be available to the general public anyway?
5. CSS layouts: Glad to see that this is included - it should help those starting out in web design to get to grips with css layouts, but it’s not one for me - I prefer to get my hands dirty thank you.

So there you have my initial thoughts. This isn’t a release that will excite any hand-coder. Sure there seem to be some great new features for people starting out in web design - but are these people really going to be willing to shell out their hard-earned cash for this release?

Will I be paying $199 (upwards!) for the upgrade? Unfortunately not - I’ll be putting my money towards an editor that is trying to make life easier for coders.

Windows TextMate Port

I’ve never really used the TextMate editor, but have always heard good things about it from the Mac community. It’s an ingenious approach to code writing as it tried to aid writing code quickly by offering snippets in a variety of coding languages (including ColdFusion).

It was purely by chance that I happened to stumble upon a new text editor that has just become available for the PC called e-TextEditor and it seems to emulate TextMate very closely, which is nice.

So, naturally I was quick to download and install it. After applying the ColdFusion Bundle (which was a breeze thanks to cfTextMate) I tested out the editor’s nifty features. Very impressive, and I’m sure with regular use writing ColdFusion will be an even more pleasurable experience.

Here’s a few items I really like:

1. Indent guides - provides a visual guide to your code indents
2. Themes - loads of different colour themes to choose from (not essential, but a nice bonus!)
3. Bundles - these are code ‘packages’ that allows the magic to happen (e.g. simply type ‘cfif’, press tab and be amazed!)
4. TODO / FIXME / CHANGED - simply add these to comments and then view the list of things to do

The editor is still in beta stage, so it’s a little rough around the edges, but I know I’ll be keeping a very close eye on it’s progress.

Gem of an Editor

I recently had the need of a code editor that could make backups of files before saving them - a feature that I though I wouldn’t be able to find in a free application.

After a short Google session I came upon Crimson Editor. It’s no longer being maintained but it is definately worth investigating if you’re looking for a light-weight code editor. The one feature that I do love is the ability to create a copy of the file before it was editted when you save it. This can also be done in such a way that they get autonumbered - thus creating a simply version control system.

There is a set of ColdFusion tags in a syntax file (click on ‘Syntax Files’ and then search for the term ‘ColdFusion’) and these are very easy to install. It doesn’t have an auto-complete feature, but this can be a good thing as it forces you to remember the tags.

Web2.0* Wordpress Theme Updated

Well, I’ve finally managed to get my Web2.0* Wordpress theme to utilise AJAX commenting. I’ve also cleaned up alot of the code on the comments.php page.

I strongly recommend that you re-download the theme and reply it.

The theme has now had over 2,000 downloads - so a big thank you to everyone. Could I request that if you are using the theme that you rate it? That would be greatly appreciated.

Update 26 January 2007: There was a problem with displaying the links.php page when used with Wordpress 2.1 - this has now been fixed. If you don’t want to replace the whole page then download the updated page.

Update 28 January 2007: Another small update to the theme - more work done to try ensure that the theme is Wordpress 2.1 compliant and I’ve also added more option to the Admin area on the sidebar (see image below).

Update 26 March 2007: One more small update - this time to do with IE7 and the drop down menu. So if you’re experiencing problems do re-download and apply the theme.

Update 28 March 2007: Found that the comments page was a little screwy - this has been fixed in the latest version (1.2.5). Thanks to Hasan for the tip about automatically pulling the post’s author email address so that it isn’t hard-coded any more.

Print Styles Not Working In Firefox?

I’ve just recently update my freelance website design website and whilst updating the website I decided to incorporate a print stylesheet. All was working as it should in Internet Explorer, but for some reason Firefox was ignoring the print stylesheet. A little Googleing revealed that if you have titles assigned to the link tag calling the print stylesheet then Firefox ignores it.

Not sure if this is a bug, but it’s worth knowing when creating print styles (which you should be doing).