Dancing Building, Prague © Ricky Yates
Regular visitors to this blog will have noticed that, in the last 24 hours, its appearance has changed. After three and a half years, I’ve decided the time has come to alter my ‘theme’. No – I’m not changing the theme of what I write about. What has changed is the way it now visually appears on yours and my computers. I’ve adopted a new WordPress theme.
As always, when it comes to technical matters in relation to this blog, it should really be what my internet savvy wife has done. Whilst I outlined the appearance I wanted and am responsible for the photograph of the Prague skyline featured in my new header, Sybille has been totally responsible for implementing the changes you can now see. If you like what you see, her services are available to you – for a donation 🙂
Why have I made the change? Partly just to freshen up the blog appearance. But a major factor was that my previous theme was fluid. This meant that the way any post appeared on my computer was not necessarily the way it appeared on other people’s computers. It depended entirely on each person’s screen resolution. Seeing several blogposts as they appeared on other computers made me recognise the problem. Therefore, I am now using a theme with a fixed layout.
Inevitably, as you fix one problem, it is very easy to cause others. A quick journey back through the blog shows that a few photographs now run partly into the sidebar on the right. This is a problem I hope to fix in the next few days. But if any of my readers spot any other issues, please let me know either via the ‘Contact’ page or by leaving a comment.
I have also taken the opportunity to change the tag line for the blog. It used to say ‘Ricky Yates – a blog and more…..’. Now it’s ‘Ricky Yates – an Anglican in Prague’ which is a far more apt description. My thanks to ‘Girl in Czechland’, who has used this tag line for my blog in her blogroll for quite some time and which I’ve now chosen to adopt myself.
What has also changed, is the computer on which this blog is being compiled and published. Courtesy of a generous donation by one of the members of the St. Clement’s congregation, together with a contribution by Sybille and myself, I am writing this on a shiny new laptop computer which functions using Windows 7 and speaks to me in English! My previous machine had Windows XP, spoke to me in Czech, and was rapidly dying.
Once more, courtesy of my computer savvy wife, in the past forty-eight hours, the whole contents of my old computer – email, photographs, a vast variety of files – have all been safely transported onto this new machine. There are sure to be a few teething problems as, with Sybille’s encouragement, I’m now drafting this in ‘OpenOffice’ rather than ‘Microsucks Word’. But as far as I am concerned, it certainly is, ‘All change!’
If you like what you see – tell me. If you don’t – please also tell me!
The blog looks great Ricky! Now if only I can get back to blogging I might be able to send some traffic your way 🙂
P.S. – Thanks for keeping me in the family and friends section!
Hi Wandering Pilgrim – Good to hear from you as I was beginning to wonder where you were. Please do get blogging again or I just might remove you from the side bar 🙁
Great layout! Like it! (Just letting you know)! 🙂
Hi Karin – Thanks for the approval & letting me know 🙂
I love the layout, the tagline, the way it appears in the banner, the photo of the Fred and Ginger building, and of course, the content! Bravo on the team effort.
Thank you Karen – Team effort indeed as I could never have created the banner with the title & tag line in it.
It looks great, Ricky. Well done, both of you! 🙂 I’m also very pleased to hear about the new laptop. That will make a BIG difference to your working life.
One minor quibble about the new look. Both as a blogger and a reader of blogs I much prefer nested or threaded comments, like your old layout had. I find it makes each exchange more of a conversation and it’s also easier to match replies to comments. I wonder why you changed it?
Thank you Perpetua – I’ve already passed your congratulations onto the good lady 😉 I’m enjoying the laptop though I’m still getting used to certain features. OpenOffice has inevitably thrown certain Word.doc documents slightly out of sync!
I’m not sure that I did have nested or threaded comments before though I do know what you mean about the arrangement helping you follow a conversation. But courtesy of my computer savvy wife, I do have them now. Your wish was Sybille’s command 🙂
Brilliant, Ricky. 🙂 It looks really good and is so easy to follow.
Well done to you both! I like what I see and read and great news about the laptop!
Thank you Ann – Glad you like the blog & thank you for taking the trouble of leaving a comment to say so!
You must be loving the laptop – there is nothing more frustrating than a computer that refuses to speak English to you! One of the reasons I now carry a netbook around with me is that struggling with non-English keyboards and computers in Internet cafes gets old rapidly!
Like the new layout too – very fast to load and easy to read
Hi Lis – I’m still getting used to certain aspects of the laptop but no longer having to deal with Windows XP and Outlook Express both speaking to me in Czech, is a great boon.
Glad you like the new layout. I’ve passed on your compliments to SY.
Love the photo Ricky 🙂
I also have been caught out with fluid themes so now just stick with the fixed width. Like the new look. Cheers