You might remember that a month or so ago, I released VistaBlog, in Standard Edition, and Limited Edition.

Well, I am now happy to present VistaBlog Second Edition!

After getting all the bugs together, and thinking through some things, I decided to correct all the problems I found with VistaBlog, as well as make sure that all bugs found by various people were fixed. However, due to the lack of demand, I am no longer doing a Limited Edition.

Read more on the VistaBlog Second Edition page (and see working demos) at: http://www.bluealiendesigns.net/vistablogse

Let me know what you think.

Hehe. Vista Blog SP2

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
Hehe. Vista Blog SP2

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Are you the one who did this ???

www.sonicsam.louhabs.com/blog

its my blog lou got it for me. Cuz if it is its the Limited Edition and i need the Second Edition

Yea, that's a Limited Edition one.

Just note that there isn't an easy way to upgrade from v1.0 Standard and Limited Editions to Second Edition. The graphics may look the same, but there are a few layout changes within the backend, that ruined the graphic layout when I tried.

WOW!
Really impressive, I like it, maybe I'll use it on my next blog template change
* Luigi adds to favorites.

The downloads are currently broken...

The site software seems to think the download link is a URL alias...

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Originally posted by Fourjays
Just note that there isn't an easy way to upgrade from v1.0 Standard and Limited Editions to Second Edition. The graphics may look the same, but there are a few layout changes within the backend, that ruined the graphic layout when I tried

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Originally posted by SonicSam

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Originally posted by Fourjays
Just note that there isn't an easy way to upgrade from v1.0 Standard and Limited Editions to Second Edition. The graphics may look the same, but there are a few layout changes within the backend, that ruined the graphic layout when I tried

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Well since i only have a few posts cant i completely remove it and start again?

And is there a SE Limited??

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ok as u also said where is the Theme Switcher plugin and how do i add because louhabs added for me. is there a simple way u can tell. I know hwo to FTP and stuff but dont know how to add new one. And i also see there are multime skins so the theme switcher changes em? Ok i think i already asked where to download it and add it.

Theme Switcher can be found here: http://boren.nu/archives/2004/10/13/theme-switcher-plugin/

Simply place the php file in wp-content/plugins/, then activate it via the admin.

Just something you could try (but you would need to edit the style.css to change the template name recognised by Wordpress), is to simply take one of the SE packages, and overwrite all the image files with  the ones from your LE edition. Should work, as I don't think I change any of the image dimensions in the php code. See if that works.

All i did was replace the images and it looks different now.

www.sonicsam.louhabs.com/blog

Is that all the update??? just new pics?

And also is there a plugin where i can add all the image fiels from each one one ur site and u can pic what it is like Theme Switcher

No, the main files are updated. Improved code and better browser compatibility, amongst other things.

I was saying that if u wanted to keep the appearance from your LE one, you could copy the images from the LE template, and put them in the images folder of a second edition template. Should work.

ok im dumb. Will leave this to lou_habs. He installed for me.

the demos are kewl

http://random.thedt.net/bugs/whitespaceiscool.png

kinda looks bad on bigger resolutions.

I love white space. Didnt know that could happen.

i put it in my bookmarks if i ever make a blog

I hope it has all the solutions to the bugs that i fixed
I also found a few more bugs and solved them so talk to me some time
I wont download the new one cause i <3 my LE 1 So can you tell me the new updates that you added on msn

I designed it for 1024 x 768, as that seems to be the most common resolution at the moment. As it is sliced images, there is no way to make it fill any resolution.

Its actually quite a hard design to make do what you want it to do, because the design is limited by what HTML, and the Wordpress template system allow... There are now quite a few other Vista styled templates out there, but they are all fairly rough representation (saw one that is basically a stripey background, with a rounded glass look in front - doesn't really look like Vista at all, so idky they called it that...).

I think all the major bugs are sorted now... Only one I know of, but a fix is difficult without making something look stupid...

How does lj's version work then ?? Does he have the same problem ??

Anyways .... what you could do is put the whole window with text thing in the center of the screen, then take the bg image and take the transperancy thingy part of the walls of the "vista window" (the semi transparent part) and put it there. Then just call the entire image as the background.

For higher res compatibility, have a bg that has a uniform colour of the outside and then use the style.css to put the entire bg colour as the same colour so that there wont be any whitespace (but still the window and the pix will be on the left corner and that problem cant be solved by my idea )

That just confused me.

Lee's worked with transparent pngs, over a background...

Problem is it won't work in IE6 for obvious reasons...

There are ways to do transparency in both browsers with CSS. Maybe I'll work on a completely different VistaBlog, or maybe just a template that is transparent with support for any background.

Idk.

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Originally posted by John Anderton
How does lj's version work then ?? Does he have the same problem ??

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The transperancy doesnt work in IE so cant you just have a browser detect function.
If its IE then use cut pix only in those positions and if its FF then use the transperancy function ??
Different css's ....

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Originally posted by Fourjays
That just confused me.

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Ill have a play later, and see what I can come up with.

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Originally posted by Fourjays
Ill have a play later, and see what I can come up with.

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I think I might just make a version that has true transparency support. Need to do some research first though.

Well so far there are a few ways to do it...

1) The way John Anderton suggested - could get a bit messy though.

2) Add a transparency into the CSS for the images. This works to an extent in IE and Firefox. Doesn't work in Opera though.

3) Use javascript to force IE to render the PNG properly. (Lee's suggestion).

I think 3 is probably the best, for ultimate browser compatibility at the same time. Of cource, I have to remember that IE 7 is supposed to have PNG support as well as better standards compliancy.

I could say "shove it" to IE and do it with PNGs, but IE's market is still probably too big to ignore...

What do you think?

it is a very appealing look, i have to agree.
but, i think the space on the sides is totally not well used and takes ages to load, for just a background picture.

True .... IE is too big to say shove it unfortunately .... i agree with option 3

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Originally posted by Millenium_edition
it is a very appealing look, i have to agree.
but, i think the space on the sides is totally not well used and takes ages to load, for just a background picture.

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LOL true, have you thought about using less images or is it not possible?

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Originally posted by Fourjays

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Originally posted by Millenium_edition
it is a very appealing look, i have to agree.
but, i think the space on the sides is totally not well used and takes ages to load, for just a background picture.

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There wouldn't be much point in doing the glass look, if there wasn't any space left for you to see the background...

I might scrap any further work on VistaBlog. People like it, but then there are those who just seem to be picking holes in it, forgetting how hard it is to make something look as close as possible, while maintaining as high as possible compatibility levels. Your limited by HTMLs limitations, while trying to make it fit onto any resolution and browser...

I should be spending my time on doing payware templates really...

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I made VistaBlog because the only ones I could find were really basic glass effect designs that barely looked like Vista (ie: there is one that ahs a stripey background, with a glass front, that looks nothing like a Vista Window).

I wanted this to actually look like Vista. I can't find work arounds for what it ideally needs to do though.

Each method has a con. I probably need to really simplify it, so it is LESS like Vista, but still MORE like Vista than other "Vista" templates.

One idea is to do it like other Vista screenshots. Have a basic content area with PNG images for the "glass" effect. Then do the black sidebar to the right.

One idea (although I have no idea how and/or if possible), would be to have the minimise button work, so it "minimises" to the "taskbar" in the template, allowing you to see the background in its full glory. That would probably require a hack in Wordpress...

Maybe I SHOULD cease VistaBlog, and start on something that has glass like VistaBlog, but is more open to change...

Let me know your suggestions on what you would like to see...

Unfortunately, making a proper, transparent VistaBlog isn't going to work. After spending many hours playing in Photoshop and other things, I got nowhere.

I tried:

- Javascript to force IE to show PNGs. Worked, but when I set images to stretch, it made some peculiar mess...

- Filter for opacity on the images, in a seperate IE CSS. This stretched the images height-wise, for no reason really. It also made the complete image transparent, so any shadows or w/e failed to work.

- Various other experiments, all of which failed.

I think I'll work on making a new, super cool template for Wordpress (and other software). After all, people will get bored of Vista when its released. lol.

Nice

I got the first edition myself but the second looks a little better, especially the fire one..

Nice job

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Originally posted by lp15
Nice

I got the first edition myself but the second looks a little better, especially the fire one..

Nice job

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