mu.nu - Fighting attention deficit disorder wherever it - ooh, shiny!

May 14, 2005

Grumbling in Three Columns

Wooohoooo, I finally got three columns using just a style sheet. No tables, frames, etc. on this blog, thank you very much. Stop by and check out the new look. If enough folks ask, I'll even write up a HowTo on implementing this for any site.

Eric

"Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden." Manuel Garcia O'Kelly Davis, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

Posted by: EricC at 10:58 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 If enough folks ask, I'll even write up a HowTo on implementing this for any site.

Please do. MuNuby here, setting up my template, and I'd love for it to have three columns. Thanks.

Posted by: Army NCO Guy @ at May 15, 2005 02:46 AM

2 I'll start working on it, but expect it to take me a couple of days. This is going to be a fairly extensive post. And before I can write it I'm going to have to make my templates generic and put a bunch of commenting in to help make what I'm doing clearer.

Posted by: Eric @ at May 15, 2005 03:51 AM

3 Hey, I appreciate it.

Posted by: Army NCO Guy @ at May 15, 2005 04:38 AM

4 Very nice! The 3-column is an elusive beast.

Posted by: Jim @ at May 15, 2005 03:34 PM

5 Thanks Jim.

Okay folks, the first installment in how to make three columns work is up. There's two ways to make this work. The first is, you could simply copy my templates and style sheets, add the left and right column content, as appropriate, and make some other minor changes (banner source, for example). Alternatively, since I put some comments in the templates, you could use them as a source of inspiration to roll your own. In a couple more days I expect to have the full HowTo ready.

Eric's Three Column Templates

Posted by: Eric @ at May 15, 2005 06:56 PM

6 Awesome, thanks.

Posted by: Army NCO Guy @ at May 15, 2005 08:02 PM

7 Looks good Eric! The only problem is loading, one of the last objects on the lefthand column takes an enormous time to load, so it delays loading the rest of the blog.

Posted by: Oorgo @ at May 16, 2005 08:59 PM

8 Hey Oorgo, there's two "slow loading" problems. One is fixed by the expedient of being removed from my site. Helmets to Hardhats was loading slow AND, for a variety of reasons, had ticked me off anyhow. So, gone. The other is TTLB, and they are always slow. I fixed that by putting them last on the page, or nearly last.

Last, but not least, John Lanius over at TexasBestGrok showed me a trick or two in his stylesheets that helped out as well.

Now I'd say the load is improved yet again.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Posted by: Eric @ at May 17, 2005 07:53 AM

9 I haven't had a chance to check out what Eric has borrowed or adapted from my code, but my site loads the middle column immediately after the banner, so none of the TTLB or other scripty things delay the display of my content.

If enough people are interested, I would be happy to scrub my stylesheet and main template for generic use. In the meantime, if you would like a copy of either (unadapted), please send me an email and I'll send you a copy.

Posted by: JohnL @ at May 18, 2005 05:16 PM

10 What I borrowed was, essentially, the arrangement of the columns.

Posted by: Eric @ at May 18, 2005 05:32 PM

11 Okay, a HowTo is done, with sample code and all. Here it is.

Posted by: Eric @ at May 20, 2005 07:15 AM

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