Opal Resources

[julzroguenine]

Here are a few helpful resources for coding using Opal. These are based on frequently asked questions in opal_help and my previous Opal layouts. I didn't write most of these tutorials or bits of code, but they are scattered around in different entries, communities, and comments, so I thought it would be helpful to provide links to them in a single entry.

Comments

[mormallor]

Thank you so much for posting all your resources. It has been so helpful, that I nearly finished my first layout without having to ask one single question. Though it was sometimes a hard job to figure my own faults, but in the end that´s the best way to learn it

[julzroguenine]

Glad I could be helpful. =)

Thanks for pointing out that flaw in my code. It probably happened when I cut and pasted somewhere. It's fixed now! =D

Since I have know way of testing what any layout looks like in IE6 or less, so I don't doubt that it's not compatible. I'll add that as a disclaimer. :)

[mormallor]

In the meantime I finished the layout and it´s working fine for the community it was meant for. At least I think so :P I´m only tweaking now some fancy things on it. Testing... when I told my friend I need someone with a Mac and Safari, we ended up in an Apple-store.

I made a cap for you of winterized. Decide yourself, but that´s the way it´s displaying for me. I´m really thinking about switching to Firefox. There had been an issue with the background of the comments on my layout, in the original Tranquility one, they were darkgrey, IE6 was ignoring that. Maybe addressing with the parent division is helping? Sorry, don´t know how to express that more clear.

Here you go: winterized in IE6

I have no problem with helping out with caps of IE6. As I said you spared so much time for me with resources and your help over at opal help, it would be nice to be helpful, too. I have the email notification on, so whenever you might need it feel free to call me.

[julzroguenine]

I'm really thinking about switching to Firefox.
I highly recommend Firefox. It's an amazing browser and all the add-ons you can download make it even better.

From your screen cap, it looks like you're not actually using IE. It's the AOL browser (AOL 9.0 VR). And I don't know any hacks for that because I've never used it. I use hacks in my CSS mainly to force IE to display sort-of-kind-of correctly, it never looks as good as it does in Firefox. *sigh* But I don't know any hacks for the AOL browser...

The major problem with Winterized looks like it could be fixed by adding align: center; to #bodycontent. Not sure if that'll completely fix it, but the main table in Opal is the thing that's not centered. Except all the negative margins I used to position the Journal Title and Nav Bar look like they're messed up too... But adding hacks to accommodate every browser's flaws would take forever. So I'm just going to add a disclaimer to every layout I post stating that it'll look halfway decent in the browsers I tested it in, but I can't

[myth_moondancer]

I hate to comment & bother you here but you really do seem to know what you're doing with Opal codes & I seem to have looked everywhere (opal_help) etc & I though I've tried all the suggestions, I just can't get the calendar out of my current theme layer :(

Ideally, in the sidebar I'd like my free text at the top, the calendar gone, tags displayed in a list, followed by my page summary. I'm using autumn_mist's cleaned C.S.S

I'm REALLY new to this coding/layer business, so please don't shout at me if I'm posting this incorrectly!! I'm attempting to post a section of the code I think relates to the calendar below : -

#sidecolumn TD { color: #636363

[julzroguenine]

You can't do it with CSS, but since you have a paid account you can rearrange the sidebar and nuke the calendar.

First, if you don't already have one, you need to create a theme layer:
1. Go here
2. Scroll down till you see "Create Layout-Specific Layer" and fill it in as so:

[antipathist]

For some reason, whenever I click "Expand" on any of the comments, the link never expands the comment. I tried the opal layout that you have provided awhile back and the link for some reason just never worked whenever I used the Opal Unleashed theme.

I tried looking for a way to fix it. Do you have any idea how to fix it? If you don't mind me asking?

[julzroguenine]

I don't think they've turned that feature 'on' for Opal yet. But I could be wrong. When they first inserted the code for "Expand" it never worked in certain layouts because their base codes needed adjusting and Opal was one of those layouts. Not sure if they actually adjusted it or not. I haven't messed with it in a while.

I'll look into it when I get home from work, though. =)

[antipathist]

I think by now the "Expand" link should work on Opal. I know that grrliz's Opal layout's Expand link works. Let me know if you find out how to fix the code.

Thanks for all the help, I love your resources page! :-)

[julzroguenine]

Ok, I kind of got it working on my lunch hour but it needs a lot of tweeking before it displays everything correctly in Opal Unleashed.

I'd work on it more tonight except I managed to get a massive migraine and the computer is making it worse. Hopefully I'll feel better this weekend and mess with it more. =)

[antipathist]

It works! Thank you so much! You are BRILLIANT!

[julzroguenine]

You're welcome! =D

Now I suppose I should probably update my code so it'll work with this layout, huh? =P