Follow Through

[itsallovernow]

Due to the LJ excitement yesterday, I went through and archived my favorite drabbles and then sent Cave Canem (otherwise known as the Trading Card porn) to Kansas and Leviathan. It's not my best work, but I'm glad that it'll be archived somewhere.

I seriously need a vacation. I just tried to edit a quote because I couldn't imagine that I'd written something so awkward, and then realized that it was someone else's quote and I had to keep it. This is partially my fault, and partially the fault of my boss who is only now laying in the copy I wrote three months ago. He was mad at the client because they hadn't paid us yet. I understand that, but they're my favorite client, and the time delay makes a lot of my copy irrelevant, so now I have to rewrite and reedit vast chunks of the articles, so the fact that I'm less than familiar with copy I wrote is a little more excusible.

shaye and whitelight1 and many others have really beautiful journal designs. Can anyone give me tips on how to spruce mine up, taking into consideration my technology blind spots - like I have yet to make a completely successful post to either Leviathan or the Leviathan mailing list without something being wonky, and that trying to install Yahoo! Messenger made me weepy with frustration- and my lack of Photoshop access. I could ask the design department to help me, but then I'd have to explain why.

Comments

[electricland.livejournal.com]

howto has some spiffy tutorials, and there's always the FAQ.

If you want to play around with your colours to start off with, there's a nice table of 'em here: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/color_codes/

The problem is that every LJ layout uses the colour settings a bit differently. But good luck.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'll look at the FAQ and howto's again. Mostly I look, my brain turns to mush, and I run away screaming, but I shall give it another valiant effort:) I love webmonkey, btw. That's how I learned the rudimentary HTML that I know.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Oh I know. Mine turned to mush quite early on in the customization process (which is why mine is, well, not very exciting). I did the colours and that was it, thankyouverymuch.

This HowTo post seems like it should be a fairly straightforward cut-n-paste job. Of course you still need an image... somewhere out there is an image customization community but try as I may I can't seem to find it again. Rats.

...oh look, a little poking around and whaddya know:

journaltrinkets
bitchin_layouts

have fun!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! *mwheh* Throwing kisses your way. I will have prettiness, even if it makes my eyes bleed:)

[elishavah.livejournal.com]

Livejournal has it's own special code, just like Blogger does and other blog/journal applications, but basically it's web design, and at the heart of all web design is a dirty little secret: outright plagiarism.

Go to sites you like, Shaye's, WhiteLight's, heck, National Geographic, and (if you're on IE) go to "View/Source." That will pop up the code for that page. Look at the code for a couple of sites, notice the patterns, copy chunks and play with it.

I'm a big fan of using Notepad and simply saving the text document as a .html file. Makes it easy to edit and then just click and test. But others have special apps they like, and I've got no idea what LJ uses.

That may be more than you wanted to know...

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Lots 'n' lots of CSS! *eek*

Yes, very good point. And the stuff you want will all be at the top of the page, which makes it easier.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Oooh, top of the page is helpful. I'm gonna tackle this tomorrow.

Thanks!!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And seeing as you have a beautiful blog, I will take the advice to heart.

It's not more than I wanted to know, it's exactly the kind of thing i wanted to know, but you do realize this is all like a foreign language to me:) I see words I understand mixed up among the other phrases, and then the blurring begins.

I'm the queen of shortcuts, so playing with other people's work shouldn't bother me too much. And I take heart in the fact that I did learn a little html, even if it still looks like I'm a kid scribbling with virtual crayons sometimes.

[elishavah.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. I was playing with more, but I felt like simple when it came down to it at that point. I'm messing with another one for when the season changes. I'm a big fan of fall (it's the growing up in New England thing, I think).

You'll notice on sites like Shaye's, mine, buggs', that it's really not that complex. The thing that makes it unique and more than just a layout is the picture that people use. Buggs' is a lot more complex, it's blending and fading and really knowing what you're doing with Photoshop. But Shaye's looks like it's a photo with some really, really good application of Photoshop brushes. Mine, right now, is just a cutout. My next one is a bit more adventurous.

But the trick is simply finding a royalty-free photo that you like (this is a favorite site) and thinking of what you'd like to do to it. An example... I took this picture and turned it, with some Photoshop fun, into this icon.

If you find a photo you like and want to kick it over to me, I'm willing to play with it a bit for you.

[spoonishly.livejournal.com]

Well, thanks for the kind words on my layout.

Believe me, I am not technological at all.

I used the FAQ and the How To Journal, whose address is given in the FAQ(I can't remember) and then went by trial and error.

All my layout stuff is typed in the override section in the Modify Journal page.

I know LJ just implemented a new Style 2 journal style that seems to give more freedom to LJ users as well.

If you need any help, feel free to toss me an email.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thanks!! I'm gonna give this a shot, either this week or this weekend and see if I can't spiff things up just a little. Believe me, I'm totally willing to ask (beg) for help. I need to produce at least one technological nightmare for myself within any project:)

[fourteenlines.livejournal.com]

Stock.xchng rules. (This is the first site Elishavah referenced above.) That's where the picture on my LJ currently comes from. Photoshop is really outstanding - I got my copy on eBay for $50 and use it all the time. But if you don't have access, you can still do some pretty good stuff - themoonbar, for example, doesn't have Photoshop but still does some kickass icons and manips. You'd have to ask her what program she uses.

The LJ code is freakin' crazy, man. I ended up creating a test style based on the "Refried Paper" style and changing the colors and fonts. But you have to have a leeeeeettle bit of an idea what's going on with the CSS on Refried Paper if you wanna change most of that.

Probably the easiest one to change would be "Punquin Elegant" - figure out what colors you want, mess around with it, maybe create a background pattern to use, and then make a banner to stick up at the top.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thanks Shaye. That's pretty concrete advice and gives me a place to start ( considering I don't even know what CSS is). I just hate how my text looks in my journal (even though I do understand how to change the fonts) and the layout feels bulky to me.