
If you read my quick article on what to expect from this four part (three parts of actually doing something) series on a better blog, you probably just couldn’t wait for the next part. Well, wait no more because it’s here. In this tutorial you’ll learn just how to create an amazing looking fixed width, two column blog complete with gradients, all CSS, and how to optimize it for both your users and search engines.
Blogs have, in the past few years, become a standard of internet marketing, reputation building, or a place to get thoughts out. Whatever your goal of having a blog, (or weblog or online journal) is, one thing it needs is a stylish layout. That’s exactly what this tutorial serves to teach: how to create a stylish blog layout. This tutorial doesn’t serve to teach new concepts, just to show how to go about creating a very simplistic, very nice looking blog layout and some new tricks to put in your XHMTL/CSS grab bag.
The first Web 2.0 Layout designed by me was primitive at best. With no gradients, annoying colors, and boring design, it left a lot to be desired. That’s where this layout steps in. It brings more to the table in the terms of design and the usability. Overall, when you are done reading the tutorial, you will have yet another easy and good looking layout under your belt.
Web 2.0 is probably a term you’ve heard before many times. With it comes ideas of AJAX, rounded corners and badges. And whitespace. Lots of that. It usually favors the minimalist approach, so we’re going to try to capture this essence in a tutorial here. (Note: No AJAX, No Gradients, or badges. I’m working on that. But does include gigantic footer.)
Taking apart the two column blue layout of the Shadow Fox Network. Learn how to build a full two column layout with rounded corners.
A response to the amount of 3 column css fluid width layout tutorials. This will make a 3 column layout with a fluid center and two fixed width sidebars. Uses only 3 divs for the columns and shows how to accurately use the float technique.
A very basic tutorial on how to center layouts in CSS. A very useful technique for many layouts.
This article discusses the very basics of Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, which are used to style your webpages.