Stardate 20020625.2042

(Captain's log): In case anyone's interested, this is the latest incarnation of the graphics redesign. (It's a JPG file, not a true HTML layout yet.) I think I'm getting really close to what I want. The reason there are two sidebars is that the top one would be for internal links inside my site, and the other would be for links to other people's pages.

There are a number of goals to this change. By far the most important is that I want the main text box to not have the sidebar floating inside it, so that the log entries are always a constant width. With the sidebar the way it is now, it forces me to format my log entries so that they look acceptable at two widths, and it also limits the size of pictures I can use because they have to fit within the narrow section beside the sidebar. If a log entry will always display at the same known width, I can do more creative things.

Given that a lot of people are still using 800*600 displays, I need to make sure that the site isn't inconvenient to view at that resolution. The critical goal is to make sure that the entire main text box can be seen on such a display without having to scroll horizontally.

I know that this new layout won't be as convenient overall as the existing one for 800*600 users, but I'm trying to find a tradeoff between your convenience and my need to get rid of the embedded floating sidebar. (Life's a bitch.)

Update: No, actually, this is the latest. (I made the whole thing a bit narrower.)