masterwordsmith-unplugged

It has been a very exhausting journey to change to this template. I had been itching to switch to a more condensed layout for some time because I know that with the availability of many attractive and well-maintained sites, readers are hard-pressed for time to select what they want to read from each site and then to move on to another site without having to plough through the text.



That is the main reason why I switched to this template which offers at one glance, the blog title and the opening gambit for each post. Previously, each page could only load five posts at a time whereas now, I have extended it to eight posts. As you know, I put up a few posts everyday and this will help you to select which posts appeal to you.

I have also moved up the news links with a drop down menu for the convenience of readers who want to move quickly to a news site. My blogroll appears after the news link - also with a drop down menu for your convenience.

Whilst the twitter button is missing from the top menu, I've added it as a side widget for twitterers to connect with me easily.

Another advantage is that with this new template, the loading time for my page is 3.1 seconds compared to 4.8 seconds with the old template :-). Time is precious, isn't it? :-)

I have also used 'cloud' for the labels in my posts which now appear in a condensed manner. The blog archive is now limited to a drop down menu for space saving and as a time-saving measure for the page to load as soon as possible.

As for subscriptions to the feeds for posts and comments, you can do so either at the top menu or at the bottom right hand corner of the page. There are a couple of other new features and I will leave it to you to discover these :-) as you take a look at the page.

It has been very exhausting to tweak the template as I am not IT savvy at all and learnt all this on my own through trial and error. Just to put the share buttons in the right position took me two hours because I spent such a long time ploughing through the extended html template to look for the exact spot to insert the script for the share buttons and when I found it, it did not fit the reaction widget so I had to figure out how to get to it and bingo, after much perseverance, I did it. Phew! For sure, I will be dreaming of html scripts tonight!

There are a few setbacks in this new template though. I have yet to finish tweaking the top menu. Secondly, the time of the post is not published even though I have selected that option in the menu. Thirdly, the space below the blog posts is wasted so I will be doing something about that and seek your patience, understanding and input. Honestly, I hope you will, in time, be accustomed to this new look :-) and hopefully, like it too :-).

For those of you who would like to compare the old template with this one, please CLICK HERE. I am very sentimental and have backed up that template it that site.

Thanks for reading my blog and my apologies for no posts till now cos I have been working on this template since this morning. I will be putting up a sopo post later. Take care and have a pleasant evening. Do swing by again later. Please leave a comment to share your views. Thanks!