(no subject)

[baratron]

I have not been reading LJ for the past two weeks. The reason for this is that my S1 lj style was broken so I couldn't actually read anything. Also, I was suffering from a complete lack of arsedness to write my S2 style.

Anyway. Here is a horribly kludged S2 style which still doesn't do everything I considered essential, let alone a lot of the niceties - but is at least readable. Hrm. If anyone who knows anything about S2 knows how to fix any of those essential issues, please let me know (I'll email you a copy of the code to play with...).

In other news, I have Yet Another cold that's bad enough for me to have had to cancel work because I wasn't physically well enough to leave the house, let alone speak for an hour. I think I'll have to arrange for a flu jab, and hope it doesn't make me hideously ill the way vaccinations usually seem to :/

Comments

[inquis.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, purple and shiny :D No idea about code though. Just like the colour scheme :D

[nmc.livejournal.com]

Well, I have no help for the link thing. But I figured I'd ask you a question, since you seem to be the expert on my friends list.

The docs and navigation stuff regarding customizing a style -- to the point of hacking the code -- is pathetic. Really pathetic, in the standard livejournal.com "what's this useability thing of which you speak?" way. So, I just played around with a default style, getting it roughly how I wanted it, but it's got a couple things I'd like to fix. How do I do this?

I'd like to just download the layout code -- which is where I think the problem is -- edit it, reupload it and be done. But I can't figure out how to do any of these steps. Have you any pointers?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I worry, if I am the expert :/

To edit a public layer (assuming you have a paid account, which I think you do):
0. Switch to S2 on the main Customise journal page (http://www.livejournal.com/customize/), if you haven't already.
1. Go to Advanced Customization (http://www.livejournal.com/customize/advanced/).
2. Click on Public Layers (http://www.livejournal.com/customize/advanced/layerbrowse.bml).
3. Click on the name of the public layer you want to edit, and a new page with information about that layer will load.
4. Click on the link near the top of the new page which says "Download". Save the layer source with a sensible name.
5. Edit the layer in your text editor of choice.
6. OK. Then go back to the main Advanced Customization page. Now click on Your Layers (http://www.livejournal.com/customize/advanced/layers.bml).
7. Create a new top-level layer, of type "Layout".
8. The new top-level layer should now appear in the Your Layers part of that page. If it doesn't, reload the page.
9. Now click the Edit... button by the side of the layer you've just created.
10. Paste in the entire code that you downloaded & edited earlier.
11. Hit Compile, and hope it works.
12. If it fails to compile, look at the error highlighted and use the search facility in your text editor of choice to find that line in the code. Do NOT attempt to search in the lj window, because it won't work.
13. Check your lj is doing what it should be. If not, go back to step 5.

This long-winded process is the ONLY way to edit a style if you want to do anything more complicated than what can be done in the Change Individual Settings/Edit Customizations pages (which simply create a layout-specific layer of type "user" which runs on top of the default style preferences). Yes, it's appalling.

Let me know how you get on ;)