New skin for the old ceremony
I started using WordPress with one of the default themes. That worked fine until I wanted to make some changes, so I found that it would be better to start from scratch to get complete control over every element on the page. The best solution seemed to be to build a new skin based on Blank Theme.
CSS only
It did not take too much time or effort to get from blank theme to the current layout. Apart from a few minor changes and bug fixes in the template files, almost all the work was done in the style sheet and in Photoshop.
The right tool for the job
Everything went like a dream after I found the wonderful program CSSEdit 2.0. CSSEdit makes both Dreamweaver and the web developer plugin for Firefox look like amateur toys. It is a really elegant way of working with style sheets that gives full control and a preview that updates instantly. My only complaint after using CSSEdit is that it does not display element sizes, and that it should be possible to select elements in the editor from the preview window. Still, anyone doing web design on a Mac should check out this little gem. And anyone not working on a Mac should cry their hearts out.
Help and be helped
CSSEdit lets you view any web page side by side with its style sheet to see how it is made.
It also lets you edit the style sheet (locally of course) to see how the changes would look instantly. This is great for collaborative work – or for asking others for help with your own style sheet. They can do all the necessary changes in CSSEdit and send you the corrected style sheet when they are done.
Let me know…
Please leave me a comment if something is not right with this site after the update. The result that you see here is to be considered a starting point for future updates. I know that things might look a little strange in Internet Explorer below version 7.0 due to the poor way IE handles transparent PNG’s. I do not have many visitors using IE, but I will probably fix this some day and make a version of this theme available for download.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:37 am
[...] Read the rest at herrklein.com. [...]
January 11th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
[...] offer for a great bundle of 11 mac apps that I highly recommend. The bundle is going to include CSSEdit that I have previously mentioned as the best tool for easy and elegant creation and editing of [...]