I have so many updates to report that it threatens to become the length of a full journal entry; so, I'm publishing it as a separate new entry here to beat the punch. Those who haven't done so yet can click here to read the 2,000-word essay that accompanied the initial public announcement of this new blog page; it will explain all the nerdy details of how the pages were originally designed, and lay the groundwork for understanding all these updates below.

Yesterday morning at the internet cafe I made a number of cosmetic changes to the mobile template, and got rid of some of the bottom-page options that were there before. I'm experimenting with access keys, which I sort of got right at the page that's live right now, but sort of messed up; I've fixed it here at home, and will build the fix the next time I'm at the internet cafe. (I'm broke again, unfortunately; I don't suppose any kind soul in Chicago would want to let me come over for like four hours one day and do all this stuff on their home computer? It'd be greatly appreciated - I have a CTA pass, so can get to wherever you are. Drop me a line if you want at ilikejason at hotmail dot com. Web development geeks unite!) Basically, with access keys you let people on mobile devices use their actual telephone keypad to surf to different sections of the site - you can assign a number to jump to a particular place on a page, or to automatically load a second page altogether. I wrote out the instructions and posted them to my other blog, [metafeed] - here's the link.

This is the same command that's been around forever for letting desktop users type on their keyboards to do the same stuff - Windows users type "Alt" and the number, Mac users "Command." So, I've set up an access key on the main desktop template as well, just a "1," which takes you to the top of the sidebar area no matter where on the page you are. It's really the only time on a desktop you would need to quickly skip to a certain place on the template page, which is why I only put one access key - no need cluttering up the page with all these number shortcuts everywhere, when most of them aren't going to be used. (Access keys make things much easier for mobile-device owners, though, which is why I utilize six of them in that template.) This will also be live the next time I'm on a desktop computer and get a chance to rebuild the templates.

Also yesterday morning I made some cosmetic changes to the main desktop template. The coolest in a geeky way is the surprise that Firefox users now get when viewing it - the sidebar "boxes" of color now have a series of rounded edges, giving them much more of an appearance of supplemental "tabs." The few of you on the brand-new Netscape 8 will see this as well; it's because both browsers are based on the Mozilla open-source protocol, and the rounded edges are the result of a Mozilla-proprietary attribute people can use in their CSS specifications ( { -moz-border-margin: 20pt; }, or whatever size you want to make it ) that only works right now in Mozilla browsers. The cool thing is that it doesn't affect any other browser negatively; everyone else still gets the colored box, just with straight corners. I've posted screenshots of what it looks like, for people not on a Mozilla-based browser, and more instructions on how to use the attribution, at my other blog [metafeed] - here's the link.

Also yesterday morning the print template went live. It kicks ass! Well, except that there's too much white space on the left where the actual entry body is printed; I fixed that at home yesterday, and it will go live the next chance I have to get on a desktop with internet access. Other than that slight fix, though, that template is perfect and is very close to being "frozen." Have I explained how this whole process works? I design a series of templates for MovableType (MT), and it plugs in the information you're looking for automatically. I'm one of those wacko usability nutjobs, though, so I like having a million options for people to get around my site -- one for desktops and laptops (with a lot of bells and whistles), one for mobile devices (with a lot of bells and whistles for people on Palms, PocketPCs and Blackberries, but still loadable in all cellphones with web access), a version that can be sent to a laserprinter, one for RSS readers, one that can be emailed to you, even a reminder that can be sent to your phone by instant message.

So that means I need a jazillion templates for all these versions, each automated in their own way to optimize the experience for a host of different devices. And then I need supplementary pages; like one for desktop users to join and quit the email/SMS notification service, and then another page just like it but for people on mobile devices. (The pages themselves are live, but the mailing list is not; I haven't configured the right files yet.) So there's at least 15 different templates I've already made by my last count, and upwards of...30 or 40 by the time the whole thing's done? Let's just say 30 at this point to be optimistic. So once all 30 templates are tested on a variety of browsers and devices, and everything is perfect on all of them, the new journal will move out of "beta" and into "official" release, meaning that I move the entire thing over to where it will be permanently located (right at the root of my website, jasonpettus.com; this page you're slowly seeing coming together is eventually going to be the main index page for the entire website, definitely by the end of the summer if not sooner).

So some of the templates have already achieved this perfection, like my RSS ones - one just for 25-word summaries and one with the entire 2,000-word entries. (To use, hover your mouse over the one you want and right-click [Command-click on a Mac], choosing "Copy Shortcut." Then in your RSS reader choose "Add New Feed," click in the input box, and paste [Command-V]. Your RSS reader will automate the rest of the process for you.) So now (as of today) I have five templates that are perfect and declared "frozen," which means their final form is at the website and I no longer screw around on them at home. And very soon the print templates will be frozen as well, which is good news, because there are still so many templates left that still need major work on them before this whole thing can be officially released.

Oops, but I just discovered a major liability with my Treo as well - even with the special "CutPaste5" third-party program out there, still the maximum amount of text I can enter into any field in any program is about 1,200 words, or a little over half of my normal journal entry. I have a possible runaround in mind for "fixing" this (or at least how to display it on-screen so it looks like it's fixed); but I guess that will have to wait for the next update. Fix hopefully coming soon, so you can actually read about all the other changes I've made.