layout posts

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Windows, Productivity

Divine Project converts Photoshop docs to Wordpress layouts

by Jay Hathaway Aug 9th 2009

If you've got an eye for design, but lack the proficiency in HTML and CSS to convert your ideas into functional websites, Divine might be for you. It's currently in the beta stage, but it aims to transform Photoshop documents into working Wordpress layouts. There's no coding involved, just selecting the appropriate sections of your PSD layout and assigning them the appropriate parts of the layout.

There are professional services that charge substantial rates to do similar conversions by hand, so a free, automated solution - even a flaky one - would be a big money-saver for non-coding designers who want to play with Wordpress. Divine doesn't seem flaky, though. It claims to produce results that are both SEO-optimized and standards compliant. It's also blessedly free of tables. Certainly, there's no substitute for doing it yourself, but Divine seems to be a reasonable (and free!) way to get started.

Tags: cms, design, layout, photoshop, psd, wordpress

Filed under: Design, Social Software, web 2.0

Twitter's follower and following pages get a big redesign

by Jay Hathaway Jul 1st 2009

If you've been on Twitter over the past day or so, you may have noticed some big changes to the way the site shows users' lists of followers and followees. Instead of just showing names and icon, these pages now display more detailed information, including location and most recent tweet. All of the actions you have available for each user are collected into a compact drop-down menu, so you can mention, direct message, block, follow or unfollow the user quickly.

Several users have correctly pointed out that the new design makes Twitter look a lot more like an iPhone-optimized site. It's definitely an improvement in many ways, but there's one small quirk I have to take issue with: in the old layout, the appearance of the "direct message" link next to a username gave a quick visual indication of whether that user was following you. You can still figure this out by clicking the drop-down menu, but it's definitely not as efficient as before. On the other hand, the new design does a great job of showing who you're following when you browse another user's list.

Tags: design, followers, following, layout, twitter

Filed under: Design, E-mail

Shrink your Gmail layout with Gmail Compactor

by Jay Hathaway Apr 30th 2009

It seems like Gmail users are always hungry for new ways to tweak Gmail's appearance. One trick that will save some space in your sidebar is the Gmail Compactor script. If you have Greasemonkey or a similar userscript engine installed, just download Gmail Compactor to turn the text links in your sidebar into space-saving icons.

The icons aren't the only space-saving feature of Gmail compactor, though. It alos shrinks Gmail's built-in search bar down into the sidebar, and eliminates the Gmail logo. It's up to you whether you think this look feels less cluttered. It does offer the same functions in a smaller space, but the icons also feel a bit a crowded to me compared to the text links, and they take some getting used to.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: email, gmail, gmail-compactor, greasemonkey, layout, userscript

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Troubleshooting

Three ways to hide the Facebook sidebar with userscripts

by Jay Hathaway Mar 30th 2009

If you don't like the new Facebook "Highlights" sidebar, and you've been dying to get rid of "People You May Know," then you should definitely consider installing a userscript that will hide those elements for you. The appropriately-named "Hide Facebook Sidebar" script does the trick quite nicely, while leaving your events and friends' birthdays alone.

There's also "Hide Highlights Sidebar," which hides highlights, but doesn't get rid of the "People You May Know" box. I personally find that particular recommendation feature useless, as it always suggests people I'm intentionally not friends with on Facebook, and there's no way to filter them out. If you like it, though, then you should pick this script instead of Hide Facebook Sidebar.

If you'd rather get rid of both the left and the right sidebars, and expand the main feed to fill the space, you want "New Facebook - Remove Highlights and left filters." It's called New Facebook, but it actually makes the layout look a lot more like the old Facebook. All three of these scripts can be loaded into Greasemonkey (or your browser's equivalent) or Stylish, which is a Greasemonkey-like extension just for reskinning and making cosmetic fixes to websites.

Tags: facebook, highlights, layout, remove facebook sidebar, RemoveFacebookSidebar, userscripts

Filed under: Design, Social Software, web 2.0

Facebook answers users' layout concerns with new features

by Jay Hathaway Mar 25th 2009

In our reader poll, most of you thought Facebook should pay attention to the user backlash against its new design. Well, it turns out that they've done just that, with an in-depth blog post that acknowledges some of the main concerns people have expressed, and announces several new features due to roll out soon. One thing that's happening right away is an update to the new "highlights" sidebar that should make it more like the old Live Feed that people seem to be missing.

The upcoming features are centered around giving you more control over what you see in your activity stream. For example, autoupdating is coming back (as an optional feature) and the ability to filter out noisy apps is being introduced. Facebook is also considering decreasing the amount of one-to-one messages -- like people's wall posts to one another -- that show up in your stream, in favor of things that are more generally relevant. My personal favorite feature on Facebook's to-do list is adding tagged photos of your friends to the stream.

Since we got so much great feedback last time, let's open this up to the readers. Take this poll and let us know which of Facebook's announced improvements is your favorite, or whether they're all just hopeless.

Tags: facebook, layout, poll, redesign

Filed under: Design, Text, Productivity

Lorem2: for the discerning lorem ipsum aficionado

by Jay Hathaway Nov 18th 2008

Designers know the words "lorem ipsum" all too well. If you've mocked up a layout for anything with chunks of text in it, you've probably run across the infamous Latin paragraphs that commonly show up as filler. Where do you get your lorem ipsum, though, and how do you make sure it's the right fit for your design? Lorem2 is one great way to do it.

Lorem2 is a nicely laid-out collection of lorem ipsum paragraphs and bullet points, both short and long. If you're the kind of person who keeps a text file full of this stuff, you might be better off filling it up with the whole contents of Lorem2. You'll never have to give a second thought to avoiding repeated text that detracts from your layouts, because the solution will be close at hand.

Tags: design, layout, lorem-ipsum, lorem2, text, type, typography

Filed under: Design, Fun

See the web without words

by Jay Hathaway Oct 20th 2008

Some web designers have an uncanny ability to look past all the text and advertising on a webpage, directly at the structure of its design. Now one of them is letting you do it for yourself. Paul Armstrong's project "Web Without Words" started as a bare-bones blueprint of CNN, but is now an ongoing experiment. You can even submit your own site to be considered for the Web Without Words treatment.

Replacing all the words and images with plain blocks is interesting all by itself, but Armstrong's analysis make the site fun to read, too. He refers to Yahoo.com as "a Starbucks-drinking, Gap-or-Talbot's shopping, trend watching fellow," and calls CNN.com "the know-it-all of news sites." Whether you agree or not, it's at least thought-provoking, and at best could inspire you to take a hard look at your own site design.

Tags: layout, web design, web without words, WebDesign, WebWithoutWords

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Productivity

PlanningWiz: plan and share room layouts

by Todd Ritter Jun 25th 2008

If you're moving to a new place or just want to reorganize furniture in your current living space, PlanningWiz may be helpful by letting you plan and lay out objects in your rooms. Set your room dimensions (you can choose Imperial or Metric system, but for some reason you can't choose Imperial on the first step) and start selecting furniture pieces to begin experimenting.

You can choose furniture from categories like "child's bedroom," "bathroom," and "kitchen," and you can drag-to-resize the furniture objects to match the dimensions of your existing (or future) objects. PlanningWiz also lets you customize the design with color, text, and dimension guides.

The plan can have a custom scale from 1":1' down to 3/32":1'. Plans can be saved to your free account space, printed, or shared via e-mail.

Tags: blueprint, layout, room planner, RoomPlanner

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Icon Restore: Save and restore your Windows desktop layout

by Brad Linder Dec 17th 2007

Ever change your Windows desktop resolution, only to find that all of your program shortcuts, image thumbnails, and other desktop icons have shifted? Changing back to your original resolution doesn't help either. But Icon Restore might.

This handy little freeware application lets you create a snapshot of your desktop layout. Once it's installed, you'll find two new options in your right-click menu for My Computer. One lets you save your desktop icon layout, while the other lets you restore your layout to your most recently saved settings.

There is currently no way to uninstall Icon Restore using Windows' Add/Remove dialog. Instead, you have to download a standalone uninstaller application from the developer's site.

[via gHacks]

Tags: desktop, icon, icon-restore, layout

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Yahoo!, P2P, Beta

Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Preview is live

by Chris Gilmer Dec 6th 2007

We broke the news the beginning of this year that Yahoo! was busy preparing a complete rebuild of Messenger made exclusively for Windows Vista users. The ground up rebuild has taken quite a long time (11 months), but it's finally here.

Yahoo! Messenger for Vista is officially available as a preview download starting today. There are some important features that are missing in this build, but the significant additions might make up for the lack of features. The changes in Yahoo! Messenger include a complete change of layout, skin chooser, filter-as-you-type for easy searching, spell checker and a convenient tabbed conversation window that controls your desktop clutter. The rebuild also incorporates sidebar graphics that have the ability to show favorite contacts separated from conversation windows. Graphical elements in the new IM take Microsoft's graphic subsystem into play for vector based interfaces and enhanced emoticons. IM's can now be conveniently sent to both Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts, complete with up to 2GB worth of files.

There are a few features that have been left out of this build that are scheduled for a later date. They are big ones that people do expect to have, be it a beta build or any release and include voice, webcam, chat rooms, text messaging to mobile devices, photo sharing and conferencing. To grab a copy of the new Yahoo! Messenger for Vista preview release, visit http://messenger.yahoo.com/windowsvista.php We will have more on this application as we put it through the DLS wringer.

Check out some screenshots of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Preview in the gallery.

Gallery: Yahoo! Messenger for Vista

Tags: im, layout, messenger, microsoft, msn, skin, tabs, vista, windows

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

MC Hammer customizes his MySpace with Snap Layout

by Chris Gilmer Oct 11th 2007

Tired of poorly designed MySpace pages? Spread the word about SnapLayout.

This handy MySpace layout editor allows users -- even MC Hammer -- who have no idea what HTML is the chance to create something special with their MySpace accounts. This is just the beginning of a long and arduous journey to rid the web of bad layouts, but SnapLayout is definitely on the right track.

With the online tool, users can easily change colors and layouts using a drag and drop style interface. Color palette's can be chosen so that proper color theory is adhered to, text styles can be implemented and page layouts with backgrounds can be set. Widgets like YouTube, Google Video, Pictures and other embedded codes can easily be inserted by dragging and dropping into their desired areas on the page. Sections in user's layouts can also be dragged and dropped to new areas within the design as well.

When your design is complete, click publish and voila, one less bad MySpace layout. Sweet!

Tags: design, html, layout, myspace, snaplayout

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Utilities, Blogging, E-mail, Web services, Social Software

Desktoptwo web desktop

by Chris Gilmer Aug 8th 2006

Having access from your computer desktop anywhere there is a connection and a computer is a dream for some, and a reality for some early beta testers of Desktoptwo.

Created by Sapotek, Desktoptwo is a free web based service that allows complete access of your desktop wherever you are. It has a web instant messenger using the Jabber platform, email, search, MP3 player, address book, WYSIWYG web editor, blog publishing platform, rss feed, layout templates, and 1 GB of free storage.

Subscribers of the tool will find out that Desktoptwo could be very valuable and useful if you're moving from computer to computer. If anyone has experience in using this tool, please let us know how it worked out for you.

[Via TechCrunch]

Tags: address book, AddressBook, blog, computer, desktop, desktoptwo, email, free storage, free web tool, FreeStorage, FreeWebTool, jabber, layout, messenger, mp3, online application, OnlineApplication, rss, sapotek, search, templates, wysiwyg

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Web services, Google

Google Accessible Search

by David Chartier Jul 22nd 2006

Google has released a new Labs experiment called Google Accessible Search. Billed as a tool that prioritizes the typical Google search results by their usability, Accessible Search sorts results based on the simplicity of their page layouts and how gracefully the page degrades (such has removing ads and turning off images).

This tool isn't just for those who are tired of blinking Flash ads, or minimal, one-column design enthusiasts. T.V. Raman, who posted this on the Google Blog, can't see, and is a research scientist who is working on this project at Google. While Accessible Search is still in its early experimental stages, it definitely looks like Google is making good progress on an important tool for allowing even more people benefit from the World Wide Web.

Tags: accessible, algorithm, blind, google, layout, prioritize, search, sight, sort

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Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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