I’ve been less-than-pleased with WP2.5 so far, but this weekend I’ve found solutions to some of the worst problems.
In the previous versions, comment editing was easy; there was an edit link right there on the comment moderation page. Until I saw the subject line of this post (which is probably the only reason I’m keeping the news section on my dashboard now), I had not found a way to do the same in the new version, which was very frustrating. I’ve also found a plugin that’s supposed to help.
The dashboard editing plugin is helpful, though it feels a bit rudimentary to me so far. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I’ve had more time to play with it and get used to the elements of it. Maybe it’s my non-Widget mindset. I’ve yet to see a good explanation as to why Widgets are better than plain plugins or straight-up code. Clearly, I don’t get it; I just don’t know why. Is it because they’re training wheels, or what?
This plugin is nice, too, because I really hated what they did with the menus in 2.5, and this makes it easier to deal with. I also think it made no sense to split off the settings/users/plugins as if that menu selection were unrelated to the others. This plugin lets you combine it with the others, though it has a weird .! at the end of the menu bar, right before the logout/help/forums links (which really might just as well be included, too, don’t you think?) in my browser. I’ve seen complaints about it for Safari and IE, but I don’t feel like checking that right now.
Unfortunately, that one doesn’t seem to get along with this one, which has some very pretty color options for the admin section, and an option to choose colors, if you don’t like their pre-arranged blends. Wish they worked together, because while I find the menus vital, I’d really rather have it in lavender/purple, and I haven’t had time to rifle through the source code to find all the labels for the CSS yet.
I did find one for moods, but I don’t like the smileys, and I haven’t had time to create my own images. I’d like to get Niaha’s Kittens (from LJ), but while I believe they’re freely distributed with the LJ source code, I’m not sure about that, and they probably don’t mean for people to use them with WordPress instead of LJ. I also don’t like how it displays, which means I’m going to have to take the time to get into the code and figure out how to make it do what I want instead. I’ll have to see what I can come up with.
Also added comment subscription. It’s annoying to try to remember which entries you’ve commented on and not know if there’ve been any new comments; this’ll email you replies if you want them. Not that there’s a lot of comment chatter on my blog yet, but maybe this’ll help.
I’m also thinking about rearranging my websites, combining things differently. This shouldn’t affect anyone but me, as long as everything goes smoothly, but if the changes get squirrely, you may see some weirdness the next few weeks. Sorry in advance.
Hey, hi. I am the author of lighter menus… quite glad that you are liking the plugin
I was worried about the ‘!’ you mentioned on the menu. I went to fix the problem but after looking into it I don’t think it is caused by my plugin…. at least in the latest version 2.6.1 there is no stray ‘!’ in the code!
could it possibly be the “no howdy” plugin or something similar that caused it? Shouldn’t be your user name next to the ‘!’?
About the compatibility with any color scheme, I am aware of the limitation of my plugin… it will be fixed with the next version, in a few days.
I don’t have a No Howdy plugin, I’m afraid. The “howdy” doesn’t bug me enough to bother
I played with it some tonight, and I think I’ve figured it out. The Lighter Menu overlays the original bar across the top, and since I’m at 1024×768, the Lighter Menu covers up the “Howdy, Chrystalline!” except for the exclamation point. (I hate to think what 800×600 monitors look like) If I make my window smaller, it covers up the logout/help/forums links, so it looks like it’s a sizing issue.
Still, Lighter Menus is a HUGE help. I use a lot of plugins now, and without LM, the menus get so long they wrap around, which is a pain.
…on second thought, I don’t think I will be able to make Lighter Menus compatible with the amber plugin after all! I tried but it messes too much with the CSS code. It is a restyling and not just a color scheme… It could be possible to make the plugin compatible with a color scheme that only changes the colors and touches nothing else… and maybe I’ll just do that
Anyway, I understand the thing about the two menus overlapping, I’ll fix that somehow for sure.
Hi, Chrystalline. This is Kaspars, author of Amber Themes plugin.
I looked at the Lighter Menus plugin and it turns out that it doesn’t add any additional CSS identifiers to the main navigation bar in order to notify that it has taken over that particular menu bar. It means that there is only a very complex way for other plugin authors to know that it is being used.
I suggest you take a look at the Admin Drop-down Menus plugin (with similar functionality), which I got working by adding only four lines of CSS in the latest version of Amber Themes (so be sure to update).
I’m not sure why, but that didn’t work very well for me. WP wasn’t telling me there were any updates (I’d updated the other day, I think) so I even tried re-downloading and reinstalling. For kicks and giggles, I screencapped a combination of things:
Baltic Amber by itself
Baltic Amber with Admin Drop Down Menus
Baltic Amber with Lighter Menus
Admin Drop Down Menus by itself
Lighter Menus by itself
Do you have a recommendation for a color scheme that does work with Lighter Menus? I’ll give it a whirl, even if it’s not a color I like, just to see how it works.
Updates are not being shown just because the guys at WordPress Extend haven’t approved my plugin application yet. As soon as they do, I’ll be able to upload the plugin there, and you will receive further update notifications.
Thanks for the screenshots! Which version of Baltic Amber Themes are you using?
The plugin listing background colour bug is most probably caused by the browser, while the reason for main menu (Write, Manage, etc.) pushing the sidemenu downwards is the number of main menu items — added there by the plugins you have installed, and also the fact that the width of your monitor is 1024 pixels, which in this case is too narrow for the number of menu items you have there. That is also the reason why Admin Drop Down Menus don’t fit in.
I designed the themes to save the vertical content space by putting the main menu right next to the blog’s title. Due to the fact that you have so many menu items and a 1024px monitor, I suggest you use one of the “compact menus” plugins instead of my themes, because there is almost nothing I could do to correct the issues with either of plugins or my theme without loosing the purpose of each — to make menus more compact and to make maximum use of horizontal space.
If you want to set only your admin colour scheme (leaving the original design and layout), you may select ‘My Colour Scheme’ or ‘Random Colour Scheme’ in User Options and try using one of the compact menu plugins.
For the admin menus, try this:
Header: EAF3FA — for the header (same background as for the admin menus)
Highlight: 913AC5 — on the frontpage, colour of your blog’s header
Mixture: can be the same as previous one, as it is not being used anywhere, yet.
Baltic Amber says it’s version 1.1, updated 4/20/08
Unfortunately, while the My Color option works by itself, it still doesn’t seem to work with the menu plugins. Both menu plugins revert to their original colors as soon as I activate them. The links at the bottom of the page (Wordpress, Documentation, Feedback) and the frames around the boxes on the Write page do change, but the rest of it is as it was in the screenshots from before. Guess I’ll just have to settle for the blue for now; function is more important than color, in the grand scheme of things
Thanks for trying, though! I do appreciate the help.
Hey Kaspar… I cooked a Lighter Menus version that with a lot of jQuery stuff manages to (almost) adapt to your restyling. I am keeping it from the public because I am worried it is not that “Lighter” anymore now (also because I took too much code from Ozh and I feel sorry about it
) (Christalline: email me and I will pass it to you if you want, although it is not very much tested.)
The most difficult thing I had to deal with is that you (I mean Kaspar) make null the #wphead border-top where the menu usually stays. (You also give a top border to #wpcontent that creates problem to the top menu. ) The background color of the original dashmenu where my plugin goes is based on #wphead border color: the colors of the menu are based on #user-info colors. If you let both these values compatible one with the other (they cannot both be dark) and visible, I can stick my menu where it belongs.
Aside of that the things can go together… And you’re right, I should add those identifiers to the CSS.
(Is all. Christalline, thanks for the hospitality!)
Not a problem; I like having discussions
I’d be glad to try your new version of Lighter Menus. Not sure what you mean that you’re worried it’s not “lighter” anymore; if it gets all the menu stuff up out of the way, that’s what I want. WP 2.5 seems to be all about taking up as much space as possible, and it bugs me. I can’t go higher res because I’m too nearsighted, and I hate the jumbled mess the other menu forms make. Wonder if the other plugin creators could be convinced to categorize their plugins so they are sub-menu options rather than top-level menu options – it would be more reasonable, I think, in addition to solving the screen-width problem.
Have you considered talking to Ozh about collaboration? Granted, I haven’t tried your revision yet, but it might be worth bringing it up.
Hi, Chrystalline, just wanted to let you know that I have updated the Amber Themes plugin to include support for Ozh’s drop-down menu plugin and it should work fine even on your 1024px screen. Download the latest (1.1) version of Amber Themes from WP Extend or simply update in your plugins area, if you still have it installed. Let me know if it works.