Independent/prototype Style Browser

[foxfirefey]

Take a look at this Dreamwidth Style Browser, especially the theme list (click on the Filter heading to see what filters you can use).

This little independent project was inspired by ninetydegrees' getting started styles post, where she started to make a list of what layouts and themes had what features.

It's certainly not perfect--the layout and theme properties need better guides and explanations, the color categories need tweaking, and I think I need to define more areas as feature colors as opposed to accents, along with other tweaks and improvements. But, I think it's implemented enough to start showing to a wider audience!

Comments

[vanessagalore]

That's *really* great. Is the availability of one or more free text areas something that should be added to the filter options? I noticed when doing a new Transmogrified layout recently (after doing a Smooth Sailing layout for a friend on lj) that the Transmogrified free text area was pretty limited compared to Smooth Sailing. I figured out a workaround, but most people wouldn't want to bother...on Smooth Sailing, we threw in a whole bunch of gifs and quotes on the sidebars as a really easy process. The free text thing seems to be really important to some users. (Does "module support" includes free text areas?) Sorry if I'm asking a dumb question...but you might consider me a good guinea pig, because I'm not an expert at layouts, but I can modify them and do a lot once I have something to base them on (i.e. I'm a medium-skilled user).

[foxfirefey]

You are not asking dumb questions and also I love guinea pigs.



Module support *does* include free text areas, but it sounds like you had trouble using it in Transmogrified, so we should look and see if we can fix the root of that problem. Describe it a bit more maybe?

[vanessagalore]

Well, I wanted more than one text area. I needed to give more people credit on the layout than is provided in the defaults. Then I wanted the sidebar to extend down further, since I want about 10 entries per page; I like having some images on the sidebar and wanted to add them... And then the layout that I was bastardizing customizing had cool drop cap lettering, had to look up how to do that with span styling. As you can see, I like playing with this stuff even though I don't really know what I'm doing. In working with CSS I've been known to replace all the color codes with #FF0000 to see what each one is actually doing...anywho, this is what I came up with in the "Custom Text" module.

<font color="#DCDD97">Base style: Yvonne Theme: <user name="branchandroot"> Resources: <a href="http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/164203/meow">meow</a> Layout: <user name="arobynsung"> Header: <user name="turlough"> Screencaps: <a href="http://www.vm-caps.com/caps/index.php">VM-Caps</a> <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Momentary Thing</span> <hr color="#8EB365" /> <img src="http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh302/VanessaGalore/momentarythingsidebar.jpg" /> <span style="font-variant:small-caps">The Edge of the Ocean</span> <hr color="#8EB365" /> <img src="http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh302/VanessaGalore/edgeofoceansidebar1.jpg" /> <span style="font-variant:small-caps">I Turn My Camera On</span> <hr color="#8EB365" /> <img src="http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh302/VanessaGalore/turnmycamerasidebar2.jpg" /> <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Sway</span> <hr color="#8EB365" /> <img src="http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh302/VanessaGalore/swaysidebar.jpg" /> <span style="font-variant:small-caps">We Used to Be Friends</span> <hr color="#8EB365" /> <img src="http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh302/VanessaGalore/used2bfriendssidebar.jpg" /> <span style="font-variant:small-caps">La Femme d'Argent</span> <hr color="#8EB365" /> <img src="http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh302/VanessaGalore/femmesidebar.jpg" />

and voila I got the sidebar I wanted. Not actually *hard* to implement, but I don't think someone who's not as OCD as me would have bothered. I like the challenge of trying to do this stuff and figure out the answer for myself--I just don't think other people would do it, and might give up and say that "DW layouts don't have the features I want".