Following Donncha’s suggestions for the photoblog theme I’m building I started to look at including thumbnails in the sidebar.
It’s actually far simpler than I initially thought it would be. When one uploads the photo to the blog you just need to put a thumbnail version (automatically created by wp!) into the field that says “optional excerpt”. You can then call that in the sidebar by using the_excerpt. Works beautifully for a vertical sidebar. I’m going to have a small problem when trying to do the thumbnails horizontally under the main post as “the_excerpt” automatically inserts “p” tags around the entry. I have a fix for it but I am going to look at that for a different version of the theme. As you can see from the thumbnail on the left (click for a larger version) it displays the thumbnails absolutely spot on. I have used a “special” piece of code to exclude a particular category. In this case it’s category 1 (words) which will be displayed elsewhere.
Looks fantastic in Firefox and Opera. As per usual, IE sucks. Click the image for a larger version and you’ll see that:
1. The Previous Post link doesn’t line up within the horizontal borders like it does with FF.
2. The sidebar drops to below the main content.
I know these are fixable but it means using “hacks”. Something I absolutely hate having to do. Please, if you’re using Internet Explorer 6 or below and are able, upgrade to a decent browser. Of course, I could just ignore IE and code for FF. Then I would get the complaint that I am excluding those readers at work on IE. I have an answer to that: Close the browser and do some work! Thanks for visiting though ;)
If it ever comes up to scratch I will release the theme. If you want to watch the development have a peek at http://devblog.cornellfinch.com. Bear in mind that at any point during the development the blog might not function as you expect it to, or at all for that matter!
#1 by goat on December 6th, 2006
“Close the browser and do some work!”
Yeah, whatever… :o)
#2 by Collin on December 6th, 2006
That was aimed at people who have work to do! ;)
#3 by Michael Bailey on December 6th, 2006
Which would be 70%+ of the targeted browser market – sure, go ahead and exclude them.
For 10+ years I’ve had to code for cross browser, I’m glad that the tables are turning now! :-)
#4 by Collin on December 6th, 2006
Hi Michael, thanks for the comment. You’re absolutely right – it would exclude far too many people which is why I will fix it so it works properly. As much as anything this was just a rant!
I haven’t downloaded IE7 and tried it yet, but I’m told it’s much better than 6. Makes a change for Microsoft!
#5 by Adcuz on December 7th, 2006
Hey collin, great design. Well done!
#6 by Collin on December 7th, 2006
Thanks Ad! :)
#7 by Eric on December 14th, 2006
I’ve always made blog’s design on FF and never (rarely) check it on IE. i also hate the IE hacks. but never really had any real problems so far. i guess the simplier your design is, the less problem you will have on IE, even without hacks.
#8 by cece on January 15th, 2008
The only reason I hate having the internet because I’m worried that my relationship will go bad and if my boyfriend is looking for another girlfriend.I hardly go onto the internet because I’m accused of foolin around.Which I wouldnt dare trust the internet on looking for a new boyfriend.