So I've added a couple of elements to the new template, including a longer "About Me" section and a "Search this blog" tab (which is awesome, by the way. The results are much more comprehensive than in the earlier Blogger Search tab - I even discovered some old posts I had forgotten all about. It's a bit like past-life regression, only more disturbing because I find that I now disagree with everything I wrote six years ago).
Against the advice of a few well-wishers, I've gone and expanded the sidebar list of selected book-related and film-related posts to what it was in the old template. I know it makes the sidebar very long and unwieldy but I like having it there - will figure out a way to condense it soon, or to create separate pages for those posts. Have also created a "City notes" section since I realised I had many old posts about aspects of living in Delhi: Metro construction, flyovers, the changes in Saket over the years. And of course there's The Domestic Life, Spleen, Ekta Kapoor's Mahabharata and so on. More categorisations to follow.
Need to tweak a few other things, experiment with fonts and colours, and add a couple of Widgets, but this is more or less what the site will look like for the rest of my life or the end of the Internet, whichever comes first.
Loving it Jai. I have a new found obsession with books and am reading the book reviews you have listed.
ReplyDeleteI always loved your blog, Jai and so cant resist asking, why now or what prompted this? (if you dont mind)
ReplyDeleteExtended sidebar is looking good.Earlier it was too clumsy.I am regular reader of your blog and change in template would hardly be a deterrence as content is what matters.Keep more blogs post coming in.
ReplyDeleteAnu: I've explained to an extent in the earlier post and the comments - I need a more pliable site now since I'll have to add a few small elements now and again (when the books come out, for example), and the old one just didn't serve the purpose. Plus, as I mentioned, the text area in the old template was too cramped - there was no need for a left sidebar that was absolutely blank.
ReplyDeleteMost of all, I was growing tired of the look of the old template myself. I've spent six years telling myself that I was concerned only with the writing and nothing else - but that attitude was starting to wear thin.
Well I think it all looks very nice and soothing. I only just noticed that the snippet from the poem in the header has changed.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the sidebar, is it possible to implement each section like Books as a dropdown? Then the page needn't become so long.
Jai: As a long time lurker and constant admirer of your excellent blog I am a tad disappointed by the new look. I rather liked the old one.
ReplyDeleteThe green is a bit harsh on the eye and tends to distract while reading. Also the font colour on the sidebar makes for difficult reading.
However since this is my first comment on your blog, I shall not be too harsh on thee. With this kind of amazing content you deserve your own domain name.
Jeeban Ram: thanks, will try and get my own domain. Btw, on all the browsers I've checked the site on (Firefox, two versions of IE and Google Chrome), this green is less harsh on the eye than the earlier one was, and that's what most others are saying too. What browser do you use?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I will be trying out other colours soon.
It's nice and all , but really all of us would be more happy if you write a post instead of dabbling with the format.
ReplyDeleteYup, this template is way better than the old one, IMHO. The old one was very Web 1.0. ;)
ReplyDeleteIf you want to make the sidebar less unwieldy, you could put the entire list in a separate blog post and link to it on the sidebar. But that might lead to less people actually clicking through to the posts.
I'm curious -- why did you choose *this* particular template?
ReplyDeleteShrabonti: simple enough: of the "upgraded design" templates I checked out, this one was the closest to the original colour - a more soothing version, as some other commenters have pointed out - and I wasn't ready yet to make wholesale changes. The grass and the flower-like thingies at the top are completely irrelevant as far as I'm concerned (though they sort of go well with the new Jabberwocky quote) - as long as the template's background image isn't too intrusive, it's okay.
ReplyDeleteThing is, now that I've made the Big Move - shifting to an upgraded version, figuring out how to transfer the old stuff etc - the background/colours can be very easily changed whenever I need to do it.
But you sound disapproving, so I won't ask you what I think of the template!
No, no it's definitely an improvement over your original template. It's nice and all but very generic. Get your own domain, and although you've made it clear you're not big on the design aspect of the blog, you might have fun playing around with images etc.
ReplyDeleteI think Search is a really good feature to have. And I know wordpress allows one to have multiple pages which are typically used for listing of category-grouped blog posts - am not sure if Blogger allows for the same though. Your blog is definitely looking better!
ReplyDeletei very much preferred the previous template
ReplyDelete