What happened!?  Why does this place look different?

Much to my chagrin, I learned this past weekend that my carefully designed website was old-fashioned, ugly, and dysfunctional.  While I could probably live with the first two (“old-fashioned” not being pejorative in my view and “ugly” being a subjective matter except for extreme cases like Henry Waxman and Michael Moore), I could not accept being dysfunctional.

So the website is currently getting a makeover and this is the new look.

It’s been a tough week, starting Sunday with a crash course in stylesheets, continuing Monday with curses and hair-pulling as I navigated CSS syntax rules, putt-putting forward on Monday with teeth-gnashing and despair as columns and pictures refused to assume their desired positions, stuttering and nearly stopping Tuesday as I performed the first ever JPAttitude resolution tests, reaching maximum frustration level on Wednesday as pesky details pack-attacked my patience, and finally achieving a useable look today, Thursday.

Whew.

For those of you who don’t know HTML, poorly designed websites have a disturbing tendency to look good on the author’s computer but look like crap on somebody else’s.  Turns out that’s what this website was doing.  My screen resolution is a wider-than-normal 1440 x 900, funkified to something less for web browsing because I have the Internet Explorer magnification at 125%.  What was I thinking?  How many other people have that specific resolution?  One or two in Egypt maybe?

So last week I happened to get a look at my beautiful (so I thought) website on a friend’s computer and, holy crap, it wasn’t beautiful at all.  Stuff was spilling out of designated areas, other stuff looked too small for designated areas, and some stuff wasn’t showing up in designated areas at all.  JPAttitude.com, so beautiful on my computer, looked like a car designed by government committee: reVolting.  (Get it?)

Now, after this makeover, I’m reasonably confident (cross my fingers) the place will look okay on other people’s computers.  Please let me know what you think, especially if you see a format or presentation problem.

Meanwhile, page by page the site will be updated to the new look.  New columns and issue-oriented links should resume this weekend, starting with “The healthcare issue, Part 2” which I know people desperately await.


From Reno, Nevada, USA

J.P. replies: It’s tough compromising between proper English and Tennessee hillbilly talk, Star, but I’ll try.

J.P. replies: Thanks!  I’m still doing the code manually like a Neanderthal which makes for a lot of work but if a pro like you likes it... nah, it still isn’t worth it.  I’m committed now, though, so it’ll get done.

J.P. replies: If I knew anything about promoting a website, do you think I’d be... wait a minute.  On second thought, Carla, the best way to promote your website is to feature, in giant bold letters, a link to my website.  Trust me on this.  Meanwhile, what do you think of the new layout?