Geek warning

Those of you who do not tweak your blog templates can safely ignore this posting.
Some folks have expressed concern about the new version of Blogger that is being tested -- specifically, "What about my existing template?" and "What's this XHTML stuff?" So I tried it for myself.

First, my current template works fine on Dano. But this is a good opportunity for folks to re-examine their templates. Most (including mine) use tables to determine the layout. I think it's important to move away from tables to pure CSS layout because tables create accessibility issues. So I'm going to start with the Jellyfish template and see if I can massage it into something that resembles the old template.

Now my existing template is not in XHTML -- so again, you don't need to learn it, but it's a good opportunity, no? If you know HTML, it's not hard; XHTML is really just better-behaved HTML. The W3C document that describes XHTML includes a section entitled "Differences with HTML4".

Comments

[andrew jones]

tall skinny kiwi
thanks jon - much appreciated - you really ARE a geek!

[jared williams]

of searching for geek leaders (also: what the blog?!?)
ditto master jon. although until i find a geek to translate your answer into ENGLISH, i will resort to waiting for Dano to be implemented and then copying your source page.

xo
=)

[Dave]

I am using Jellyfish
I started a new blog with the Jellyfish theme, then modified the external links and added a page counter. Funny thing is that now you can't select or click on my posts. I didn't touch that part even. I must have messed with xhtml and not even known it. If you want to see the problem or tell me what the problem is: http://www.b2blog.com/40days

[Jon]

XHTML
If you start editing the Jellyfish template thinking you can simply stick in plain old HTML the way you always have, you'll break the template. If you're in XHTML-land, you have to play by XHTML rules. It's not hard, and there are tools to verify your work. One free tutorial to get you acquainted is http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp

That said, I repeat: You do not have to learn XHTML to use Blog Dano. It will happily use your old HTML-based templates.