You may have noticed that the layout of this blog has changed and a few new features have appeared. I have implemented a couple of things I have had on my to-do list for a while now.
Three Column layout
I have been finding that a two column layout does not have sufficient space for all the widgets I would like to have, without having to resort to a really long second column. So after a bit of thinking and some research I converted my current theme into a three column layout.
I found the following two posts very helpful when converting my theme into a three column layout: Adding Extra Sidebar to your Wordpress Theme and How to Create Multiple Dynamic Sidebars for Wordpress Widgets. I also found the CSS Edit application by MacRabbit to be an essential tool for easy CSS tweaking, its so good I actually bought a licence.
Most Popular Posts Widget
It is important to be able to point visitors to the most popular content to keep them interested. The ‘Most discussed posts’ widget provides a customisable list of the most commented on posts on your blog. There are other widgets that can list the most popular posts by visits (page views) but they require extra database activity to record the visits which I’d rather not have to use on my hosting plan.
Google Reader Widget
This widget interacts with Google’s Reader service to provide a list of your recently shared items in Google Reader. This is a great widget for sharing the posts or articles you have found most interesting with your readers, you can even add comments to each item. This won’t completely replace my Friday linkage posts as there are sites I find without going through an RSS feed but it is something I have wanted on my blog from its conception.
Twitter for Wordpress Widget
I have been using this Widget to display my latest tweets for a while now. However due to not having enough space in the second column I’ve never been able to have more than my last tweet visible. Now I am using a three column layout I can now have my last few tweets displayed which I think makes them a bit more coherent.
RSS Icon Widget
An RSS feed link and icon is something I have been wanting to add to my template for a while, this handy little widget lets me do just that without any template voodoo. Although it would be nice if it could also give and icon and link for the comments feed too.
The main thing I have left to deal with is some further minor tweaking of the theme and to replace the current banner with something a less geometric and a bit more fluid and interesting. For the new image I had been thinking of something to do with ink in water but so far I’ve not found the sort of horizontal image I’d like.
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