DNN skinning and WEB design blog

After having spent ages reworking the layout code and customising the blog module to fit into the new design of the rhoek.com layout, along comes another improved version of the module.

Released on the 8th of January this upgrade boasts many fixes and layout changes that are sure to please all of us using this module as opposed to the mainstream solutions such as movable type and wordpress, bringing the dotnetnuke solution closer to their likes in terms of functionality and layout.

Get up-to-date with the changes to the module, in the DNN blog release notes.

Download the blog module from dotnetnuke.

I'll be upgrading to the new version of the blog module within the coming weeks, because reckon I'll need to make some changes to the layout to keep it in-line with my new design, so I'll probably need a full day to work on it. I'll post after the change for two reasons:

1. to see how it performs, and; 
2. to let you know how it went during the upgrade.

As you'll notice if you've visited this site before, I've just swapped skins to a new css based, Search Engine Optimised, sleek design.

I'll be making some amendments to the content, and further customising the blog module so it's laid out more like I want. However in the mean time I'd be really interested to find out what you guys think of the new design, so please leave a comment.

I'll be adding another post after I've finished all the customisation, outlining the advantages of the new design, and letting you in on a few future ideas.

I recently added a rollover effect to my site logo (if you rollover the rhoek.blog logo at the top you should see what I mean), and here's how it's done.

Overview.
The effect is created by using a transparent image for the physical logo uploaded to DNN and then using CSS to add a background of the logo image. This background contains both states of the rollover, the normal view and the rollover effect, which is then re-positioned using the a:hover pseudo-class, to create a rollover.

Step 1. Create the logo background graphic.

Using photoshop, or whichever graphics package you use for creating artwork, design and layout 2 versions of your logo,1 for each of the 2 states. The key to remember here is that only half of the image will show at any one time, so make sure that the image is twice the height of the logo you use on your site, also make sure that each state is centered within its half so they line up when the effect is complete.

Image Sizes:
For the example shown my physical logo size is 225px x 78px and the backgr ...

Recently I had an enquiry into one of my container packs not centering content properly.

The Glossy Titles Version 4 containers are almost completely css based with only one table being used for the content pane. It turns out that the table was not 100% wide, and therefore when the content was aligned to the center using the settings in the module options, which adds a css class style of text-align:center, there was no effect because the containing element (the table cell) was collapsed. So having fixed the issue of the table not being 100% wide, I tested the containers on other browsers, to discover that the alignment doesn't work for firefox, opera, navigator, or safari.

The reason for this is that these browsers don't use the text-align css styles to align box elements like divs, tables and forms. To achieve centering for these items, which will work for many o ...

If you're looking for an email design service focused towards the DNN bulk email facility, this is a great place to start. The designers here will take your project from initial brief, through design proposals and refinements, to a finished HTML email which you can send through your dnn bulk email facility (also known as the newsletters facility).

We designed their skin and they designed our first newsletter.

Visit their site for DNN email design.