Do not adjust your set - trying out TS 2.0
FINAL UPDATE - I’ve returned to the regular theme.
I had to road-test the new theme and learned a few valuable lessons from loading it up. Unfortunately, it’s not quite ready for regular use due to the way it organises material on the front page (by category rather than by date).
I’ve just written to a WP theming professional and should hopefully have that one problem fixed in the near future.
I hope you all enjoyed the quick test drive. I think it looks great and will function really well in the very near future.
Here’s a screenshot for those who missed it.
There’s a precis of the features and issues after the jump.
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UPDATE - Yes, We’ve got issues. I’ve done extensive work on this but that work didn’t include testing on a site with lots and lots of content. I just did 10 test entries and that was that. Upon uploading the template here I’ve come to understand that the whole front page is organised by category rather than by date, hence the silly looking “1 - Sunday” and “2 - Monday” categories on display. I’ve had to put those in place just so there’d be some sort of order that would make sense.
I’ve got to get this sorted out. But I hope you enjoy this trial of the new template anyway.
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If you’re reading this for the first time and the website looks exactly like it did yesterday, then you probably need to empty your cache and refresh the page. TS 2.0 is in town and it’s a whole lot of different!
Let’s take a walk through and have a look at some of the new bits, shall we?
Feature Section
The first thing you should notice is the ‘feature’ section at the top of the page. That entry will most likely stay at the top of the page for around a week, giving the topic some time to percolate and attract some discussion. We have some very insightful minds amongst the patrons here at TS, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how this section works.
New Menus
Go hover your mouse over some of the menu items at the top. You should see some drop-down menus appear with subsections. They should be pretty self explanatory. There’s going to be a lot more to TS than jus tthe blog, though that will remain the core of the site. It’s in these menus that you’ll find the rest.
The Carousel
I’m still a little undecided as to how I’ll use the carousel section of this site. What is the carousel, I hear you ask? Go back to the front page, and below the listed entries you should see a band across the page with a number of photos and links. There’ll be an arrow to the right (and maybe the left) giving you a chance to scroll left or right for more options. This is the carousel.
I’ll be using it to highlight various stories or categories of content, and I think it’ll come in handy if we have another photo competition, too.
New comment formatting!
The fun part for you is that you new get groovy buttons to help you format the way your comments look, and you also have a link button to put your links in properly (yes!)
Remember, though, that any comments with more than one link in them will be held in the moderation queue as an antispam measure. This new feature doesn’t mean you can insert heaps of links into comments, it just means that you can make the few that you do insert look all professional-like.
Where’s the old sidebar links?
The old sidebar links for car clubs and enthusiast sites are now listed in the links section of the navigation bar, above. There’s still a few general motoring website links, as well as sponsor’s links, too.
Where’s the search facility?
Scroll right down to the bottom of every page and you’ll see the site footer. The search bar is in that footer. It’s a custom search function that provides results from TS as well as a handful of other reputable Saab sites.
Sidebar video
A new video widget means that there’ll always be a video of some sort in the sidebar. It won’t always be a Saab one, either!
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I hope you like the new layout. I know that some won’t be happy with it initially, but I think it’s been an important exercise and this new layout has been chosen and (re)designed quite specifically. The new front page should lend itself to a slower pace, which is something I need as an author. It will also allow for better, richer conversations in comments.
The site will build up its library of reference content in the future, with the addition of various historical pages as time permits (if you’d like to help out with that, then please let me know).
I know there may be a few bugs at first, too. If you spot something then please let me know and I’ll get to it as quickly as possible.
Welcome to TS 2.0. It’s a mid-cycle enhancement in the Saab tradition - i.e. it’s not a total overhaul and hopefully you’re getting the same quality product underneath. It’s just a new suit and a facelift.
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oooo very nice. love the different cars on the titles.
Looks nice so far Swade! Keep up the good work!
WOW, how do i use the Bold and italic tools? there is no instructions on how to link either….
Slick!!
Much better !!
Well done, Swade
Awesome!!
trollhattansaab.net is back, - with a vengeance
Looks great!
Thanks for the update. Keep up the good work
Look’s great on an iPod Touch.
Cool.
I like the looks, but in the old format one could read the items directly. Now the title of the item gets more importance. The title has to be catching, because you only see the title.
i like the new format. It looks more like an online newspaper or magazine now. Good colours and layout. I wonder whether the search function could appear at the top? It may encourage more people to use it.
Looks OK
I don’t like how its split into days and only the first item in each day category has some short description. First as mentioned by Albert above, the titles have to be choosen correctly to catch attention and to be descriptive (to avoid repetitive clicking).
But I’d still suggest to put some small item description for all the items on the main page while leaving the count as its now. Its better to have more items with 5 lines of description and not to browse 5-6 big items per page as before.
Also it would be good to have the description on first page a dedicated text not just first few lines of the item itself. For example for snippets items like current Sunday Night Snippets it could display on first page something like this “New Entry on Famosity blog : A Saab Story, part III: Recapturing Our Lost Youth **** Which SAAB is locked in freezer ?
**** Meet Kaylan and Turbo X on GM Next Video” …. uh, I just hoe the wordpress can do some item abstract for title page, some other CMSs can 
Hmm, how do I page the main screen ?
Albert, You’re correct. We’re going to have to learn to write headlines, etc, in a more eye-catching and descriptive way. I also need to come up with a new category structure as I didn’t realise that this template was so category-dependent until I implemented here at the real site.
I probably need to come up with 7 or 8 main categories for the front page. I’ll work on that.
Papluh, ou’ve mentioned another thing I’m going to have to implement - proper summaries or excerpts. The default is to use the first 55 characters of the post, or you can write you own summary manually, which is what I did for the feature post. I’ll have to remember to do it for snippets posts from now on, as you suggest.
Caught a glimps of the new look this morning but after I came back for shopping with Missus WooDz you had reverted back..
In general I liked the layout as for colour scheme you could also try a mix of Bio-Power Green. It could work too.
As in previous emails just let me know where I can help.
As a blackberry user, the current site setup along with RSS is great. Based on the 2.0 preview, I noticed that the topic and related posts are not tied together. After I read the post, I ended up scrolling back up to the start of the topic and select the Comments hyperlink. Just an observation.
Looks great, Swade!
Ugh. Those $#@% turbine wheels. Yuck.
Dang it! I missed it! I like the turbine wheels! I hope my future 9-1 has them on it! (MESSAGE!!! GM)
I missed your trial run, but the screenshot looked good. At 3 weeks in, I’m still learning the ropes with WordPress, but I like where its taking me & the direction I’m going with RacingReady.com.
Let us know your continued progress.
Where did you source that blog template you were using?
Thanks!
Dan, I purchased the design, then customised it to the color scheme and final layout I wanted. I still have some work for the code monkeys to get it presenting how I’d like, though.
I like it!