Like Dr Who regenerating for the umpteenth time, the Daily Grail has once again undergone a facelift (and also has had some serious tinkering behind the scenes). Hopefully this is our Tom Baker incarnation (jelly baby?). Don’t panic too much, things aren’t really that different. A short guide:
- Yes, we have a new logo. Original gangsters can feel free to take it out on a voodoo doll of myself. The logo will periodically cycle with different Grail-related background images to keep things fresh. Thanks are due to Ross Andrews for the oh-so-cool looking DG “icon” at the center of the logo, and the “fractal spiral” logo design is courtesy of Larry Jackson (original work “Spiral of the Sea“). Thanks also to all the others who sent in designs and ideas, your generosity is most appreciated. Huge thanks as always to our friend Mark James Foster for his designs and suggestions.
- We now will be hosting embedded video content on Grail topics – however, to stop the news page from being clogged up, I have created a separate page listing them, as well as the TDG video box on the right side of the front page only to showcase the latest video (with a handy ‘more’ link at the bottom linking to the full page). If you are on dial-up and don’t wish to see this box at all, you can remove it via your account settings (providing you are a member).
- I would like to do more features on TDG as well, and as such I have also created a ‘Features’ box which highlights them a little better than the old site. Again, the more link takes you to a full list.
- For those on 800 x 600 monitors, yes the new layout is a bit wide. Buy a new monitor, it’s 2007 for crying out loud. Okay, seriously – if that’s not an option, you can switch to the ‘newgrail_800’ theme via your account settings (again for members). Those who don’t like change can also…errr…change to the old ‘TDG’ theme which looks almost the same as the old site. And for those that despise the black background, we also threw in a whitish theme called ‘Garland’. Hopefully we’ll get time to come up with a few more designs in future.
- The left hand column of the old TDG is now to the right of the main content – I think this helps with readability, and intuitive navigation. The far right column is designed for feeds – from blogs here on TDG (slight redesign on how they are presented too), to RSS from other sites. Again, members can pick and choose which blocks they want to see via their account settings.
- Creating new blogs, or adding comments should be much the same process as you are used to, the interfaces haven’t been changed (apart from colour tweaks).
- Update: There is now also a widescreen theme available (1200 pixel width) – in your account settings, select newgrail_wide.
If you have a question, comment or suggestions, feel free to leave a message here on this story, or email me via ‘userhelp’ here at dailygrail.com (if the spambots can figure it out, you can). Hope you enjoy the new look TDG!
