August 14, 2007
Okay I’ve made some decisions. Here’s the plan for moving forward.
For those themes that have color variations, I’ll first create one color and perfect that version. Then I’ll send it into test mode and have real users of that theme test it. When we’ve isolated and fixed all problems in the theme, I will duplicate it and create the remaining color variations. It’s highly important that we find and fix any issues because once I create those color variations, fixing problems isn’t a case of fixing it in just one theme, now I have to fix it in several themes. If the problem isn’t huge, I may opt not to fix it at all. Therefore, if you test the theme, BEAT THE HECK OUT OF IT!! :) I say that with love of course heh.
The first themes we’ll test are Aerolite Aqua and Zones Orange. Since Aerolite is fairly stable, I may create Silver as well as that’s the most popular Aerolite color. Orange is by far the most popular Zones color - the competition wasn’t even close.
If you purchased the Aerolite Collection or the Zones Collection, you will have access to these 2.0 versions for testing if you would like to help the cause. Those who purchased Aerolite Aqua, Aerolite Silver or ZonesDark Orange will also have access to the pre-release test versions. If your site was built in a different color variation, say red, don’t worry. Go ahead and rebuild your site using the test themes anyway, ignore the link colors, becuase once your color is released into production, all you have to do is swap it using the Theme swapping feature and just like that, everything will update to your original color.
Just an FYI about that… be aware that if you change the color of the text from the default theme color, that color will follow through to any new theme you choose (swap). I changed some heading text in ZonesDark to the color white and when I swapped the page to the Aerolite theme, the heading text did NOT turn black as the Aerolite theme dictates.
Apple did this for a reason. It’s a double-edged sword in a way. If you create a site using Theme A and you change this and that and color the text just so, and then you swap to Theme B and Theme C just to see what it looks like, Apple figured you’d be really flaming mad if you swapped back to your original Theme A and found that all your changes were set back to the theme default. SO… those changes, at least the text colors are “sticky” meaning they stick no matter which theme you choose. That’s not always a good thing, but again, Apple thought you’d be MOST mad if your text colors were lost.
One thing that does revert back to the theme default is the position of the objects on the page. This is logical to be because otherwise, swapping to a new theme could make the theme look very strange otherwise. The problem however, if you use the example from above, is that when you swap back to Theme A, if you had moved anything around on the page, it’s now back in its original position.
Theme swapping is not the perfect solution unless you do nothing with your pages other than change the text. Moving things, colorizing them in ways outside of the theme… when you swap themes, stuff is going to change and get undone.
iWeb is NOT a pure HTML and CSS solution. The output eventually becomes that, but to enable the kind of operating environment iWeb has (drag, drop, put stuff anywhere and stylize it) the theme architecture can’t work the way a pure HTML and CSS theme architecture does. It’s just impossible. Therefore you have to live with these concessions I describe above.
Okay, back to work.
You should see the test files show up in your accounts later today. Remember that you need to log in to your STORE accounts, not the blog account (although most should be synchronized) to get to the download areas: http://mystuff.11mystics.com
About This Entry
Today’s Progress
Aerolite for iWeb 2.0 Now Available As BETA
Glad to see you’ve made some progress on the color issues. I was going to ask if there was a way to handle color through a script of some type that could search for a particular string (I’m thinking that the color is stored in hex somewhere in the HTML) and replace it so that the user could globally change colors as desired, but I know so little about HTML that I’m sure it’s much more complicated than that!
Hopefully, I’ll see my way clear of a few other issues I’ve got going on right now so that I can upgrade in the not-too-distant future.
Many thanks for all your hard work.
-Ron
HI Suzanne,
Glad to hear of your progress with the templates. Good job!
On Aerolite, will they still look pretty much like the previous ones? I have been wanting to get the template as I really like the banner bars (if thats what they are called), and I like the layout of the pages, welcome page, store/products page, podcast, etc.
Will they look pretty much the same and feature all the great looking pages you had before?
Thanks,
Todd
Hi Todd - they’ll look the same as far as the page look and feel, but it’s not possible to recreate the layouts. I don’t have a layout generator like I did for the previous version. People are working to see if one can be built, but that’s going to take a while.
The best I can do is duplicate an Apple theme and then update the styles to fit Aerolite’s look and feel, but I can’t add things to the pages like I could before.
Read more of the comments from the previous entries. I talk a lot about what we can and can’t do within the comments.
I should clarify… you can still create those layouts on your pages… you can even copy and paste them from your old site to the new one. I just can’t create them in the template itself.
Hi Suzanne, yes, I have read the other entries, just wanted some clarity … thank you!
I know you mentioned offering an extra package, will it be things like adding header column bars, icons, etc. How will we be able to recreate some elements you had in the previous version. I don’t have the previous version, been waiting for the iWeb update.
Thanks, Todd
Yeah something like that. I have not yet decided what to do there and I likely won’t until I’ve converted all the themes first. For the special section heading imagery, I will likely include that in the download files so you can recreate them in the new version. The section heading images in Aerolite were created with iWeb shapes that had a tiled image fill. I will likely provide that tiny little image so you can do this yourself.
We’ll figure it out, but bear with me cuz this is a lot to juggle at the moment. The most important thing I need right now (in order to move forward quickly) is feedback from anyone testing the new 2.0 versions. The sooner I determine we’re good to go, the sooner I can duplicate the themes and move on to the others.
Sure Suzanne, Thanks, we are here rooting for you!!!