Development and subtext skins/theme posts have been very little over the last month of so and the reason for this is that I have been doing freelance web development projects. We all know how important it is to make sure that no matter what type of website your developing making sure it performs at its best is vital.  I’m not going to go into topics such as code-behind, data access, ETAGs, or caching, I’m going to touch on the basic level of html and CSS. The number of http requests our site makes can be the difference between a potential customer and...

This post was influenced by some prototypes I have been building over the last couple of weeks. Radio button lists used correctly are a fantastic way to get information from your users. Boring Radio Button List One problem with radio button lists is that no matter how you present them either in a list format going up and down or horizontal they look boring. Good looking Radio Button List I was thinking of a way to make the above a little bit more exciting and make it more interesting to the end user.  I decided to make it more graphic this is where...

I wrote about my hunt for a css framework previously. This post is going to be about building my design in html using the YAML css framework before putting it to use in a subtext skin.  I have published a couple of posts related to subtext skins and other features you can quickly implement: 2 subtext skins ready to rock Free Online backup storage - alternatives to BT Digital Vault fSpring skin for subtext Subtext Galleries, using jQuery for funk Sharing the...

Previously in my looking at CSS frameworks post I outlined numerous Yahoo! UI Library: Grids CSS Blueprint YAML ( yet another multicolumn layout ) Logicss Elements ESWAT Typogridphy In order to grasp what each framework has to offer I have come up with a small checklist so that they can be evaluated. Once I have gone through each framework I plan on going through the process of putting together a subtext...

I am a big fan of CSS.  It's not a very difficult concept to pick up. I would say that the only frustrating  side of implementing a pure CSS based layout is cross browser compatibility.  If you have your own site and have changed or even created the skin/design you use then you'll know yourself depending on the change requires looking at it with a variety of common web browsers. This will be done on a local testing environment or through an online service like BrowserCam. For anyone not heard of BrowserCam this service takes screens shots of a url...

Carrying on from my previous posts: 2 subtext skins ready to rock and roll 3 Subtext skins in the works fSpring is now available.  The skin is quite nice. If you click on the above image you'll get a better view. Download fSpring Skin I have enjoyed converting the 3 skins so much that I will be doing another 3.  The plan is to get them all done and do one post about it so keep checking back or subscribe to my feed.

4 hours work over 3 days = 2 skins.  I am fairly confident that the 2 skins, Leia English and CopyBlogger are both ready to be pushed out into the real world.  I am hoping to get another 4, yes 4 skins out over the next 2 weeks that will hopefully result in atleast one of them being shipped as default with subtext. They are both "version 1" which means they are pretty basic. Leia comes with only 1 stylesheet, no javascript files, CopyBlogger I think has 4 style sheets, no javascript.  Andy Kemp is "hacking" the Leia template already...

Yesterday I posted an article about contributing to subtext by creating some more skins. Well this morning I slapped together the 1st one (about 90 mins work).  It's in an early development stage but I think it looks good.  There is only 1 css file (9kb) which means it's a very basic skin. No comment preview, lightbox, xfn, printer friendly or code formatting, however I am sure I will expand on this in the future. There are some little areas that need attention which I will iron out over the week. One are is that the 2 columns on the original has just been made into...

A couple of days ago Simone Chiaretta posted an article in relation to the progress of the next release of subtext. I can't wait for the next release as it will come with quite a few new features.  Anyway, until I get my local copy working I am going to contribute a little by creating and uploading 4 themes.  The first one will be my current theme.  The second one will be a migration of Leia English 1.0 by Kapikua The third one will be a migration of CopyBlogger by Chris Pearson The fourth one will be a migration of...

I haven't spoke about subtext for a while so I thought I would throw together a quick 10 things you can do with subtext. 

There is nothing worse than starting to read an article or a tutorial on a website and thinking I should print this out and read it on the train home (I print duplex and 4 pages to 1 sheet of A4, save the trees and all) to then look at the print preview to an absolute mess. Nine out of ten times an article will sit on 2 pages and adverts, comments will take up another 8.This then results in having to cut and past the web page into a document and formatting it so it's readable which can...

There are blogging engines/CMS's out there that have built-in functionality to prevent or certainly reduce the amount of spam being pushed on to a site via comments/trackbacks or from a contact form. If your not using software that prevents these invasions then there are free components out there you should be able to integrate very easily or you can implement some simple methods.

Welcome to my first article discussing the creation of a skin within the .NET blogging engine subtext. If you have downloaded and installed subtext you will have noticed that it comes with several pre-defined skins. While the pre-defined skins are varied and could easily be used it's sometimes necessary to create your own. The initial template will be styled to work in Fire Fox 2. I will be covering "styling for a specifc" browser in another article.

Have you ever found a site you thought "wow" that's quite cool? Do you have a list of websites you visit on a daily basis? I was asked this by a friend of mines a couple of weeks back and it got me thinking. The following are sites that I use for work and for my hobbies all broken down into categories. Snowboarding Sites SCUK - Snowboarding Club UK My Fav Scottish Resort - Nevis Cairngorms Interesting Blogs CSS and web design right from the source ...