So we’re switching from Blog to Movable Type. I have no complaints about Blog; I think it’s a terrific piece of software, and I’d recommend it to anyone doing an individual blog. But Alas is becoming a group blog, and Movable Type is just better software for multiple users.
Anyhow, with help from Kip and Kirsten (thank you both! Mwah!), the “dress rehearsal” of the Movable Type version of Alas is now up – in fact, you’re looking at it now (although some of the kinks are still being worked out). If you take a look, please leave a comment and let me know if anything’s not working with your browser and system.
As always, extra-big thanks to Jenn for aiding and abetting.
Note: Due to this post being published as Alas was switching commenting software, the original comments to this post have been “stranded.” They can still be read here. However, please leave any new comments in the new comment system (link below).
Couldn’t you have warned us before the switch? [Insulting comment deleted by Ampersand.] What’s a girl to do for entertainment?
Looks great to me with MSIE. I also use Opera and it looks great in that browser as well.
Good luck with Moveable Type. I have been using Radio and have not had a lot of problems with its basic features. Getting it to blogroll has been problematic for me however. It is easier to do direct links and I have you on my list. From the standpoint of the popularity sites though it would be better if I could get you your site blogrolled.
It is probably something that I am doing wrong, but for the life of me I have tried all kinds of things. I can get all Radio sites to go into my RSS feed just fine. It is those outside the Radio world that I have problems with.
Good luck with Alas. I read you daily.
The fight to get people to realize what is going on with Bush Co. over issues of public lands is not going as well and I fear that people just do not know what is happening. I think that they would care if they knew but am having a hard time figuring out how to get people to realize that no mainstream media attention to the loss of our public lands does not mean that IT IS NOT HAPPENING. Opps… sorry for yelling. It is very frustrating to me.
So far so good, but I’m using exploder and windoze, so that’s not surprising. When I get home I’ll tell you how netscape and icab treat it from a mac.
Not sure what’s up with the comments link–you may want to check the javascript there against what’s in the original MT template. In IE whatever-it-is I have here at work (6?) on a Windows NT box, I get a weird scrolling jumping effect, and no comments pop-up. –I’ve seen this happen once or twice before on MT sites, usually with the first click on a link; I’ve never had it happen over and over again, rendering the pop-ups unaccessible. Weird.
But it all looks cool.
Of course, then I reload it and it works fine. Must’ve been a problem on my end. Never mind, nothing to see here, what a lovely brick red you have, sir.
Does this mean you’re gonna have a sitewarming? Do I need to bring a bottle of wine…
I dunno. On exploder there is a brown stripe down the right third or quarter of the screen and all the links are on the left at the bottom.
Alles gute on Safari. Congrats on the successful transition.
Jake–how wide’s your screen set? 800 pixels?
Barry–70% might be too wide for easy viewing at 800×600, given the calendar that will kick everything in the sidebar to the bottom if the 30% column isn’t wide enough to hold it.
Kip, would just deleting the calendar altogether – or maybe repositioning it to the bottom of the main bar, rather than having it in the sidebar – solve the problem?
If you kicked it all the way to the bottom of the sidebar, then everything else on top of it will display just fine–if the 30% column is too narrow for the calendar, the calendar will just appear at the bottom all by itself, alone.
But the calendar’s a useful thing. And it’s more useful up top than at the bottom. And we still don’t know for sure if it’s the 800 px width causing the kick-down. Anyone else having that problem?
Well, Lorenzo is having some sort of problem, but I’m not sure I understand what it is. Over on the other blog’s message thread, he wrote:
Float the link bar right, PLEASE, so it never disapears under the content area.
PLEASE!
Any idea what he means?
It’s the same problem, Barry. He wants you to float the sidebar div to the right at 30% so that it doesn’t lap all the way back to the left margin when it outruns the content div.
Since this is an extra layer of divvyiness, and you will NEVER have the problem that the sidebar is longer than the content, it’s unnecessary. –I think he was just reacting to a very early prototype without so many entries in content.
probably the same problem, but here goes: i’m using IE 6.0 and my screen’s at 1024 by 768, when the window is about as big as i usually make it, there’s nothing except backround in the right column. when i make my window bigger, everything shows up over there.
also personally in the right column i like the smaller tighter font on the old blog better.
good luck!
This, I say, is great. MT, of course, is also great. But this and MT, nay, that is really great.
Looks good in safari, ‘cept the font got smaller– tiny within the boxed quotes
Also, Barry: the calendar is not too big to screw up the right sidebar on an 800 px screen. At least, in a Mozilla beta build I really need to get around to updating, on a Mac iBook. –Looks fine in Explorer, too, except for Explorer not handling the margins quite right in the gutter between content and sidebar. (It lops any div with something in it in the sidebar a pixel or so left, giving the gutter a weird, choppy look. Not sure how to fix that without some complicated kludges.)
It doesn’t work very well in iCab on mac. The main content takes up about 2/3 of the screen (as it’s supposed to) but the sidebar shows up at the bottom, and where the sidebar should be is just all red. Other than that it’s working fine.
Melanie, I’ve increased the size of the text in the boxed quotes – do they look better to you now?
Jake, how large is your screen, do you know? (Are any other readers with Mac/Icab having that problem>)
My screen is 800×600, apparently. The red thing on the side is still happening but, like I said, it’s not the end of the world. hang on a sec while I check…okay. The page works okay on netscape (still on my mac), but the quotes in the sidebar show up funny. Instead of just being black type on peach background I get a peach rectangle, then, only behind the type (like in thick lines) is the dark red. Makes the quotes hard to read. now there’s something funky goin’ on with the comments, but I think that’s just my ‘puter being stoopid. I hope I can post this… Gah! Something exceedingly wacky with the comments (and thank god for the copy function or I would have had to rewrite to whole thing. The bottom of the text window is just above the bottom of my comments window (like, there’s no post button) but if I move my cursor around on top of the text box it will sometimes turn into a hand, and then when I click it turns out that the button was there, it’s just hiding under the text box. Now that’s screwy. But, like I said, I can’t see where the buttons are, so I just have to guess which one is which. Last time I hit preview, I’ll go for post this time (this is all in iCab, btw)
Sorry, I’m not used to having to type my info in, the above comment is by me…now where’s that damned post button….
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education. Wilson Mizner (1876 – 1933)