More Javascript Magic
Again, I must say that people are amazing! Thanks to Jesse Atkinson I have been able to introduce a new site feature. We now have Arrow Key Navigation![1] The introduction of this feature is part of my ongoing project to make everyone’s reading experience of this site even more pleasent.
This idea came to me the other day when I was at a meet-up with Merlin Mann.[2] He was extolling (as he does) the awesomeness of keyboard navigation in gmail. I thought that this would be a great feature to incorporate here at The Eighth Way.
This is what Keyboard Navigation does:
- Arrow Up/Down: Using these keys on any page on my site it will auto-scroll from one article to another.[3]
- Arrow Right/Left: Using these keys you will be able to navigate forward and back through pages of older to newer posts.[4]
Because this makes navigation a lot easier I will be increasing the number of posts that are visible on each page.
Try it out. It’s like magic!
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Javascript really is the duct tape of the Interwebs. ↩
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Merlin is a font of super great ideas. He has keen instincts for what is helpful and what is extraneous. ↩
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What’s cool is that the script recognizes where you are on the page so it’s smart enough to scroll up or down from your current position on the page. ↩
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In other words, you don’t need to click the Older or Newer link at the bottom of the page. You can just use the right/left arrow keys. ↩
New Habit for Posting
I've been working on a new workflow to help facilitate a more frequent posting schedule. Now that I have a good way to format linkposts you will be seeing at least one per day. I also plan on posting at least one long form post per week. I'll be happy to share this new workflow with you in a future post. All I can say is that it's so much more efficient and significantly diminishes my anxiety to make the most of this this blog. I want to thank everyone for their patience and support.
Link Posts: Update and Thank You
Twitter is an amazing thing. Maybe it's not Twitter that's amazing. Maybe it's the people who I know through Twitter that are awesome. Either way, after spending some time with SquareSpace support I couldn't find a simple solution to adding custom formatting to linkposts with this new template. Because of the way SquareSpace works I don't have direct access to the HTML or CSS. However, you can "inject" code to the Header or Footer of the site and add custom CSS.
I appealed on Twitter for some help because I'm very much a novice with HTML and CSS. However, I'm graced to know a number of developers and designers who are not only skilled but also generous. I want to publicly thank everyone who responded to my appeal:
You guys are great!
In the end, I opted to solve the problem with Joe's solution because it was super easy to implement and it worked well with my current needs and limitations.
From now on you will see an icon of a box with an arrow jumping out of it following the title of any linkpost. Hopefully that will clearly indicate to readers that if you click on the post's title it will take you to the external article I'm commenting on in my post.
bigfoot.js
I’ve sucessfully implimented bigfoot.js footnotes on the site. They make it alot easier for you, the reader, to read footnotes.[1] I don’t like the triple dot format but I’ve seen some examples where this has been modified to a standard number system that looks much cleaner. However, the default settings will work for now. I expect that I’ll tweek it over time.
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Like this nifty example here. ↩
Update: I've modified the CSS so that the bigfoot.js footnote markers are something that work with my site a little better. I've exchanged that three dot oval I dislike with an 8-pointed star. I felt this was a fitting image since the 8-pointed star is associated with my holy father St. Dominic.
I hope this is a better solution for readability. All you need to do is whenever you see a ✵ click it and watch the javascript magic.
Link Posts
The previous post from earlier today The Family That Prays is a link post. For those of you unfamiliar with this sort of post the idea is that clicking on the title of the article will take you to the original article. However, I've noticed that this new template doesn't treat the titles of link posts differently than regular posts. That makes it a little difficlt for everyone. I will see what I can do to help make this easier. In the mean time I will make sure to diligently mark these sort of posts appropriately with the tag: "Link Post."
Update: After trying to find a complext soultion to this problem it was suggested to me that I just append something to the end of each linkpost.
I think it's the correct solution for my audience. Sometimes it's great to have someone else look at a problem. I would have wasted may hours solving a problem that I didn't really need to solve.
Update 2: Going forward I will be using the same 8-pointed star that I've assigned to footnotes to indicate any posts that are linkposts. I hope this will help sufficiently distinguish them from standard posts.
Remember that a link post is a short comment on a external article that is linked to by the title. All you need to do to read the linked article is click on the article title.
Redesign: In Fact
I recently lamented certain aspects of the design of this site. Well, the rolling stone gathers no moss. I've begun the process of redesigning it and I'm happy with the progress so far. My hope is that the design will continue to fit the primary purpose of The Eighth Way, namely, the communication, in long form, of those things that I've been contemplating. I'm hoping that the new design will fit this mission a little better than its predecessor. I've tried to join together the aesthetic aspects into a more coherent unity and keep in mind the functional need for readability. I'm throughly grateful for the original designer of the template I've chosen as the underlying design and Squarespace for providing this marvelous hosting platform. I'm also grateful to Benjamin Alexander for funding The Eighth Way this year. I'm also eminently grateful for all those who choose to visit this site. God has been wondrously generous. It's my ardent hope that this little work will serve to foster a greater love and devotion to Him by critically confronting the difficult things we all experience in this life.
Come and see the new design.
Menu Items
I'm making a concession today. I've never liked drop-down menus. My distaste for them is precisely why I've avoided them like the plague. But today I was viewing the site on an iPad oriented in portrait mode and I realized that the menu items were being wrapped in a way that I found aesthetically displeasing. So, alas, considering the screen size of the iPad (and the iPad Mini) I've decided to start incorporating some drop-down menus. They will only be one level deep so to not be too much of a burden. Also, I'm not 100% satisfied with their implementation on the iPad with this template so it might be time to consider a different one for the whole site. Who knows?
I don't have an iPad Mini so I can't test the appeance of my site with those dimensions. If someone out there, however, has an iPad Mini and would be so kind as to send me a screenshot of the homepage I'd be greatly appreciative.
Look forward to some changes and additions to the site, more regular posting (now that I'm a little more free to write) as this year progresses. And please, keep me in your prayers.
RSS Redirect
I've just added the service uri.lv to help track RSS subscription information (among other things). If you subscribe via RSS and you are having problems receiving the feed please let me know.
I may be tweeking things working in the background of the site little by little in preparation for a new project. So, please be patient if I accidentially break things.
Update: Turns out, uri.lv doesn't currently play nice with Squarespace. I've restored my original configuration. I hope that this changes in the future. I'm hesitent to use Feedburner because I'm pretty sure that it's not long for this world.
Site Update: Video
Today I added a new section to my site that I'm sure you will love. Now when you visit the The Eighth Way you will see a new item in the Navigation Bar titled Video. Currently I have embeded the awesome videos that Br. Brad Elliott, O.P. has created in conjunction with us Student Brothers of the Western Dominican Province. I love these videos. You will too.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. They work perfectly and look beautiful on a mobile device.
Site Updates
I thought it would be important to let you all know that I've made a few revisions to the site. They are minor but I hope they'll be helpful. First, I've removed the Archives Page.
Bam! Gone!
In its place you will find an new section in the navigation bar titled FIND and I'm sure you'll love it. Why? Well, I've fixed the Calendar so that it is now center justified making the page more pleasing to view. But, under the calendar there is now a search bar. I can't believe I neglected this until now! But, it's really cool. I tried it the other day and loved it. The search interface is beautiful and clean. It's a please to use. Try it out.
Also, by the end of the day I'll be adding an Events Page. I'll always announce events I'm involved with on the home page as a blog post. But now I'll also have a dedicated page for event information. I haven't designed the style rules for it yet but I promise to make it clean, straightforward, and easy to read. So, it should make it a lot easier to stalk me ... er ... yeah.
Also, just a plug for the Order. If you want to help participate in the mission of my Province you can navigate to the Donate page. I've put a beautiful link to the main electronic donation page for my Province (not as beautiful). Please consider a donation. It's a great and easy way to participate in the charism of the Dominican Order. Just click the graphic. I will also be adding links to other ministries of our Province that are seeking benefaction. I hope to give you as many good options to make possible the important work that we do in the Province.
Speaking of donations. I've had a number of people contact me wanting to help fund the cost of running this site and the future projects that will be coming very soon. I've been given permission to receive your financial assistance. This work is now formally my ministry as a Student. So, I will now be able to dedicate real time to make this site a better resouce for the New Evangelization. If you're interested in supporting my work here please contact me using the Contact Form. With your help I will be able to offer you all something really cool that will also involve many other memebers and friends of the Province.
I'm really looking forward to some of the projects that are in the works. A few more things need to come together to make them a reality. But, by God's grace all things will happen in His time. I hope you are too.
If you like what you have seen so far don't keep it to yourself.
Pass it on!
