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106
General Software Discussion / Re: Outlining software recommendations?
« on: February 02, 2011, 11:32 PM »
^ I think that you might have misunderstood what it is.  It doesn't create outlines in Word documents; it organizes Word documents.  When you're working on a large project, in a lot of cases, you're working with more than one document.  This allows you to organize them, rather than have to manually keep up with several word documents.
-wraith808 (February 02, 2011, 11:10 PM)

Yes, Writing Outliner for MS Word is, on one level, a similar product to the excellent free utility Chapter by Chapter, which is a useful tool for organising Word documents.

107
Living Room / Re: Unable to compete with the Kindle, Apple wants a cut of ebook sales
« on: February 02, 2011, 06:48 PM »
They're going to keep saying that the e-ink displays are better on the eyes vs the tablet screens, but that's a bunch of bullshit.
-superboyac (February 02, 2011, 11:07 AM)

Slightly off-topic, I guess, but that's quite something to state as a bald fact. Many would disagree. I can't read anything on an LCD screen for more than two or three pages without my eyes burning (and I've always bought very good screens). I send any long article I want to read to my Kindle, which is one of my best ever purchases.

I hate DRM as much as the next guy, but in the time I've owned a Kindle I've never bought a single ebook. I bought the Kindle just to use as a device to read long articles copied from the web. I use Calibre to send free newspapers/magazines to my Kindle every day, and I use Instapaper to collect everything I want to read on the web (and Instapaper will email that stuff to my Kindle automatically). All for the cost of a Kindle, which is a decent bit of hardware. The built-in browser is surprisingly usable, and with the 3G Kindle version you get free worldwide 3G. Sounds like an ad, I know, but just adding a bit of balance to the ebook debate. Big companies can do good things.

108
Living Room / Re: On websites: why do sans-serif fonts sometimes look great, sometimes not?
« on: February 01, 2011, 02:57 PM »

What if it's just a little fun to change things around?  That's why I'm doing it now, it's like stress relief for me.  I like to practice making my websites look like other ones that I find nice.
-superboyac (February 01, 2011, 02:53 PM)

Absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course, particularly if you enjoy it. I was just talking about people I've seen wasting huge chunks of time on re-designs, thinking it would get them more readers, when what they really needed was better content.

109
Living Room / Re: On websites: why do sans-serif fonts sometimes look great, sometimes not?
« on: February 01, 2011, 02:47 PM »
A footnote from the Johnk rule book of life. Rule #3458: Re-designs are a waste of time.

I did quite a few newspaper "re-designs" in my time (always at someone else's request). I have seen countless re-designs of newspapers and web sites.

Very, very rarely have I ever felt that a re-design was a good use of time. Unless a design is really, very badly broken (in terms of readability, legibility, signposting etc), then time spent improving content is always a better use of time than time spent on design.

Just my 2p.

110
Living Room / Re: On websites: why do sans-serif fonts sometimes look great, sometimes not?
« on: February 01, 2011, 02:25 PM »
Some fonts are optimised for print (the vast majority), other are optimised for screen display (e.g. Verdana, Georgia). Some work reasonably well for both. Not many though (Calibri springs to mind).

There's no amount of tweaking you can do to make a font look good on screen if it's only intended for print use.

I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to web design. Unless your site is an artistic statement in itself, where pixel-perfect placement is essential, I always think it's best to keep it as simple as possible. If you specify fonts, make it tried and trusted, universally available fonts.

I have a hunch that what you really like about the AListApart site is the design, including the line leading for body text and the use of white space around the text. I don't think it's the fonts. Look at their CSS file:

#content .ishinfo, #content .title, #content .byline {text-align: center;}
#content .item, #content #ishintro, #ishoutro {border-top: 1px dashed #999;
  padding: 1.5em 1em 0.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;}
#content #ishintro, #content #ishoutro {padding: 1em 1em 1px; font: italic 1.05em Georgia, serif;}
#content .title {font-size: 1.8em; text-align: center;}
#content .byline {padding: 0 0 1em; margin: 0 0 1.25em; text-align: center;
  background: url(/pix/byline-separator.gif) 50% 100% no-repeat;}
#content .byline a {font: bold 0.85em Verdana, sans-serif;
  text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 2px;
   margin-left: 0.25em;}

#banners {margin: 0 20px 20px;}
#banners li {margin: 0 0 10px;}
#banners li a {background: #CCC; display: block; width: 173px; margin: 0 auto;}
#banners li img {background: #CCC; display: block; margin: 0 auto;}
#banners li a:hover, #banners li a:hover img {background: #666; border: none;}

#choice {border-top: 1px solid #D9D9D9;
  padding: 1.5em 20px;}
#choice h3 {color: #333; font: 0.9em Verdana, sans-serif;
  text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.33em;}
#choice .title {text-align: left; font: 1.5em Georgia, Times, serif;}
#choice .byline {display: block; border: none; text-align: left; margin-top: 0.5em;}
#choice .byline a {font-size: 0.8em;}
#choice .info {font-style: italic; font-size: 0.9em;
  color: #666;}

#sidebar {width: 140px; padding-left: 15px;}


Nothing unusual there. Verdana, Georgia, Times....

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