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August 5, 2004
Moved to DGC to MT 3.01
So with the family out of town, I finally get a couple hours for delayed SysAdmin stuff. Two hours and fifteen minutes later and I have my Deep Green Crystals and all 624 entries and 204 comments ported over to MT 3.01. I hope this addresses my comment spam issues. I waited for 3.01 because the import function of 3.0D did not import entries from 2.64 correctly (lost comments and other things). The process was mostly copy and paste of code in templates then an export/import, but there were a few gotchas to watch out for...
- Had to use Netscape to export entries. IE didn't work even with the tips suggested. And make sure you use Save As a .txt file. I tried to copy and paste the entries into WordPad and created a .RTF file. MT 3.01 didn't understand it (MS probably put some random bits in it).
- The new Style Sheet CSS in Mt 3.0 changed some of the formatting codes and names of sections (for the better). It requied a little hunting and poking to get the right tags around my new text. Would have been nice if the divisions were named the same though.
- Same problem adding three column format as I had with 2.64. Come on guys, provide a standard 3 column layout! I still have some resizing issues because I am using Absolute positioning on my left and right columns, but I will fix that tomorrow. Here are the three key bits of code to change/add to your .CSS file if you want a three column look:
1. Make the container larger:
#container {
line-height: 140%;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
text-align: left;
padding: 0px;
width: 900px;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
border: 1px solid #FFFFFF;
}
2. Give the Center div a left and right margin
#center {
margin-right:170px;
margin-left:205px;
margin-bottom:20px;
border:1px solid #FFF;
overflow: hidden;
}
3. Create a left links division
#leftlinks {
position: absolute;
left: 62px;
top: 85px;
border:1px solid #FFF;
width:200px;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
overflow: hidden;
}
4. Create a right links division.
#rightlinks {
position: absolute;
right: 62px;
top: 85px;
border:1px solid #FFF;
width:170px;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
overflow: hidden;
}
Then put what you want in your Main Index template for the leftlinks and rightlinks section.
One trick: Leave your 2.64 files on the server, especially the archive files. They will render with the 3.0 templates. Won't look great, but you won't break so many links in Google. With the new file names and formatting I am waiting to find the broken links, but I trolled Google a little and most are working because they go to the old Archive files that are still there.
Off to bed!
Posted by Martin at August 5, 2004 12:16 AM
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Comments
New look is very nice, but the CSS doesn't play well in browsers less than full width in 1024x768. The outer columns overlap the edges of the center section, making for some confusing reading. I'll leave the question of why someone would still be browsing at less than 1024x768 as an exercise for the reader.
Posted by: Steve at August 5, 2004 9:36 AM
Steve, thanks for the comment. I noticed that before but didn't have time to fix. I have fixed it now. Hope it works.
m
Posted by: Martin Tobias at August 9, 2004 10:42 PM
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