Those of you arriving on the Twelve Mile Circle probably noticed a new look today. It\u2019s the first redesign since I started the blog in November 2007. A “theme” governs the visible aspects of a blog in the parlance of WordPress, the underlying application, and I\u2019ve simply swapped one theme for another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I liked the old theme and I\u2019m sorry to see it go even though I\u2019ve known for awhile that it had become threadbare and obsolete. It frustrated me that I couldn\u2019t take advantage of numerous features added to WordPress in its most recent incarnations. The theme wasn\u2019t broken; it simply fell behind the times. Three years is ancient history on these Intertubes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of this will be apparent unless you use an RSS reader exclusively and then it will seem as if nothing has changed. For the rest of you, the different color scheme and font will probably be the most visible artifacts. Maybe you will also notice the increased width of the text block, the support of avatars, the nested comments and things of that nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most changes will be invisible to you. These allow me to administer the site more effectively behind-the-scenes and will result in a better reading and commenting experience for you. As an example I can now drag-and-drop various predefined “Widgets” onto admin screens rather than hard code functionality into template files. I can also take advantage of various search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to help the vastly dispersed geo-oddity universe participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other aspects remain the same. I\u2019ve retained a portion of Johnson’s 1862 map of Georgetown and the City of Washington as the header image. It\u2019s become an easily recognizable marker, more like an old friend than a logo. I\u2019ve also retained the exact text, images and maps for every article ever posted. Content hasn\u2019t changed, only it\u2019s formatting and presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve tried the new theme on a variety of platforms including MAC OS X (Safari, Firefox, Camino) and Windows (Internet Explorer, Firefox), and it seems to work. I could use a little help test-driving it though, particularly for the more esoteric combinations. Please let me know if you uncover anything. I\u2019m still not done tweaking it. I suppose I can always go back to the old format if this thing fails miserably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still haven\u2019t brought myself to delete those old files. Is it possible to feel nostalgic for a template?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Those of you arriving on the Twelve Mile Circle probably noticed a new look today. It\u2019s the first redesign since I started the blog in November 2007. A “theme” governs the visible aspects of a blog in the parlance of WordPress, the underlying application, and I\u2019ve simply swapped one theme for another. I liked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2350,203],"tags":[1299,854,2351,846],"class_list":["post-4794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","category-tools","tag-intertubes","tag-seo","tag-theme","tag-wordpress"],"yoast_head":"\n