Hi Everyone, just a quick note to let you all know that I have been hard at work with a few updates for part15.us and we will be rolling them out over the next few days.
The first of which is a new look and new logo! (see screenshot below to get an idea – I hope you like it!) It will take a couple days after rolling it out for things to settle down (it will take some tweaking).
I am letting everyone know ahead of time, because some of the things you use everyday here may move.
- login / logout will likely end up at the top right of the screen
- navigation may end up on the right hand side of the screen
I say ‘may’ because I won’t know for certain until it rolls out and see how easily the changes integrate.
The other thing you will notice with the update is that the site should be fully responsive and have excellent view characteristics from any browser or device. Now – keep in mind that just like the infrastructure update, their may be some gotchas, but I am hoping that they will be negligible this time!
Oh, one more thing, we should not run into the system outages anymore that have cropped up over the last week or two. I now know that they were innocent outages and caused by regular old server resource limits which has been rectified.
Cheers! Jon Paul
Theme switchover….
Hi All, the theme switchover is done, a few tweaks to do – let me know if you come across any problems (post them here) and I will fix them.
I must say the changes look
I must say the changes look great, very pleasing on the eye.
Font Color
Not sure my browser is displaying it correctly, but all the text in threads is coming through in a washed out gray color on a white background. This is fatiguing to read. Pure black on white would be easier to read.
What Browser and operating system do you use?
Hi PhilB,
What browser and operating system are you on so I can compare – It shows well on my setup, but that doesn’t mean we can’t tune up the font colour a little.
Browser and operating system
Explorer9
Version: 9.0.8112.16421 64-bit Edition
Update Versions: 9.0.13
Windows 7 Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Automatic updates enabled.
Monitor: ViewSonic LCD 1920×1080 24″
I tried adjusting contrast and brightness. The gray text didn’t change much, so I returned the settings to normal.
Other forums typically use black font on various backgrounds. My thoughts are that black font would be easier to read due to better contrast ratio relative to the background. The Part15 background is OK with me.
Try it now…
I turned up the black on the font a fair bit so you should definitely see a difference now. Black on white is a bit harsh so not sure we will go that far but this is not too far off now. Let me know
Cheers!
Jon Paul
Ah.. Much better
I think you’ve got it now. I’m happy. I don’t know how black it is, but it’s black enough! As an aside, I think this will make things better for the visually impaired members.
Editing Trouble
Hello Admin. I just tried to ad a reply to the thread on DIY Ground Radials, and had two problems.
On board for the ride.
Editing – possible solution?
Hi Carl,
I hope all is well – sorry you are having trouble editing! What is happening is that when the edit window is dragged overtop the right hand column, and then you put your mouse in the editor in that area, the website thinks you want the right hand column and not the edit window.
One solution that we can try out is that I added an Editor to the post window so you can format a little bit when you right. I still recommend using as little formatting as possible (makes for cleaner posts) BUT the big advantage for you is that there is a ‘full screen’ option (see screenshot below) that will make the editor take up the whole browser window so you can write to your hearts content 🙂 NOTE: when you are done writing you click the ‘full screen’ icon a second time and then you will be able to save/preview etc.
Try it out and let me know if this will work or if it just complicates things (you can turn off the ‘rich text’ editor by clicking the link under the edit window that says “Disable rich-text”
Almost forgot – you can reach the blogs by clicking the ‘part15 member blogs’ link in the Navigation menu or by the just added ‘Blogs’ button in the header!
Cheers!
Jon Paul
Response Was Fast
I spotted the newly added “Blog” choice right away, and I’m now in Wide Screen Mode for this message….
My font seems to be very very tiny.
I clicked back to normal window size, and the font is still tiny.
Also, the font is gray on white, sort of an eye strainer.
Your fussy customer of the day.
“how about now”
Hi Carl,
Try it out now! Should be much better.
Cheers!
Jon Paul
Glad to hear it 🙂
Hi PhilB
Glad to hear it is better, I love the community here – you were spot on with your analysis and shared; richpowers sent me a screenshot so I could see just how light the colour was and then bang, we were able to improve things quickly !
thanks again
Jon Paul
Fresh New Look
I really like the new look.
Late Responder
Whoa, Jon Paul, I just saw your post from two days ago.
All right, the font size is good now, and nice black on white.
Now I need a really long sentence to see if I can edit it after it gets way over to the far right side of the page and I’m just now wrapped around to the next line and here goes……..
Fine! I was able to edit the words throughout the space, so you have fixed it for sure.
One less world problem.
Glad to hear it!
Glad you like it! Feature stuff may fluctuate a little over the next few weeks (stuff in sidebars etc) but overall, I am pleased (and I hope everyone else is as well) with the new look. I will continue to work on organizing the content as well so it is easier to find and use what is already here.
Cheers!
Jon Paul