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September 29, 2009

Are You on the List?

If you haven't seen the list of sites that have converted to the templates lately, you should take a look. I added 20(!) sites today.

Some folks have been real good about letting me know when they make the switch, but I've had to hunt down a lot of you. Please send an e-mail to webdepot@umn.edu when your site launches with the new templates so we can share your work with the world!

Take a look at some of these site transformations (and get some ideas about what you could do with the templates): http://www.webdepot.umn.edu/list.php

September 9, 2009

Make stuff scanable, skimable, usable

Writing for the Web is a different beast. Those of us who live, breathe, eat, and sleep electronic communications must respect the differences and help others who are not as familiar with the online world.

For some great ideas on how to tame the beast and provide sharp, attention-grabbing content, check out "20 tips for writing for the web."

~Jennie

P.S I'd love to know if you think Web should be capped. Is it Web or web? Thoughts?

August 31, 2009

Web Templates: Version 4

Two major changes have been made in version 4 of the Web templates.

Search field: The search field alignment has been mostly fixed, thanks to some great coding from Kim Doberstein in ASR. The search button now stays lined up with the search field in all browsers at the default size. Zooming in or out can slightly disrupt the alignment, depending on your browser, but it's minimal compared with the older version of the code.

Lists: Bulleted and numbered lists no longer need the "default_list" style added to the <ul> or <ol> in order to make a bullet or number appear on your pages.

These fixes involved major changes in the code. If you plan to update an older version of the template code to take advantage of these fixes, please follow these instructions.

August 13, 2009

New Blog Templates

A few months ago, the UThink blogs were upgraded to Moveable Type 4.25. This upgrade meant some significant code changes, and that meant a reconfiguration of the U's templates for the blogs.

All three grid versions--matching the Web templates--are now available for download from the Blog Template page. Before you take the new templates and run, be sure to read the instructions under "Using the templates in the blogs." There are a few key things that you must change to make sure the blogs work for you.

Good luck and happy blogging! As always, let us know if you run into any problems or find something that needs fixing!

June 5, 2009

See the new sites

University units are busy updating their Web sites, blogs, and HTML e-mail to incorporate the new Web templates and e-mail graphics. A handful of examples showing some creative and engaging uses of the templates can be found on the Who's Using the Web, Blog, and E-mail Templates? page.

University Relations has met with a number of units regarding their redesigns, so we expect to see more links added to the list soon. If you have a Web site, blog, or HTML e-mail that you'd like to add, please let us know!

May 1, 2009

Header sizes and a bad example

Back during the winter when UR was meeting with groups regarding the new web templates, one of the issues that came up was the header size. Based on this feedback, we went back and tried to shorten the U header. We were successful in that we were able to shrink the header down further. In addition to shrinking it down, we compared our headers to other sites to see where we landed and we actually have a smaller header than most of the sites we compared.

Now, whenever someone mentions that they have a new website, I take a quick look to see how they did the design of their site. Some are good and some are bad, but I think I found the worst yet. Check out http://www.weberjohnsonpa.com/home.html, the header is about 620 pixels high, and all the content is below the fold. This makes the U header seem small in comparison. Whether you think the U header is just fine or too tall, I think this site gets the gold for header height.

April 8, 2009

Blog template screen shots

By request, I've taken a few screen shots of the templates that have been coded for the blogs. These screen shots don't show as much variation as you're likely to want in the column background color and the right column boxes, but they give you the general idea. You'll need to tweak the blog template code to change the background and box colors to what you'd like for your site.

The following links open new windows:

2.6.4 column home page

2.6.4 column secondary page

2.7.3 column secondary page

3.5.4 column secondary page

April 3, 2009

Horizontal navigation: A few important template updates

There have been a couple of template glitches that we've been alerted to in the past few weeks. We have some easy but important fixes that should be made by anyone using the horizontal navigation with the templates.

First Update—It was brought to our attention that the dropdowns in the optional horizontal navigation menu don't always work. We narrowed the problem down to site structure. Any pages below the top level were not showing the dropdown menus. This glitch was due to the .htc file that helps IE display the dropdowns.

Here's the issue: when using a relative path to link to the .htc file from a url in an external CSS stylesheet, IE calculates the location of that file based on the page you have loaded, not the stylesheet where this declaration is included. So, what might work on a top-level page won't for second-level and deeper directories.

The fix? Once the absolute path to the .htc file is determined, use that URL with behavior:url() in the optional.css style sheet.

For example: {behavior:url(http://www.mysite.umn.edu/lib/htc/csshover2.htc);}

Second Update—A new problem made for a busy Friday afternoon today. Earlier testing didn't pick up a strange behavior in, you guessed it, IE6. When adjusting the window size of a template that uses the horizontal navigation, such as the index_2.6.4.html template, the links didn't move along with the window. So, for example, as you make the window more narrow, the links just begin to fall off the page rather than moving in as they should.

Again, it's another easy fix, thankfully. In the text.css file, add position: relative; to the body element. That's it!

As always, if you'd rather not make these changes yourself, simply download a new template file from http://www.webdepot.umn.edu/downloads.php.

And be sure to check the Template Change Log to see all the changes that have been made since the templates launched.

March 12, 2009

Web Templates for UThink Blogs

The U's Web templates for the UThink blogs are now available for download on the eCommunication Standards site. The same three template options that are coded for the Web templates have been modified to help you create a seamless transition between your Web site and your blog site.

Get started by visiting the Blog Templates page. There you'll find instructions for using the templates to replace the default blog coding.

The download contains the basic pages needed for a simple blog. Please let us know if there are any advanced blog template options that you'd like to see.

March 5, 2009

Web Templates

Ongoing updates about the Web templates, changes, new options, and more.