It has been a while since I have written a new post. My excuses for that, but I have a great story to tell you about this month and then I’m sure you’ll understand why there were no new posts during last month…

First of all, I created a new design for Gnoted. That was the most time consuming part of the whole scenario. A couple of months ago, I started to learn CSS and web design in general, and practiced a bit every day. Now this was meant to be my final test, to see if I can do it all on my own – Make a new WordPress theme.

I designed and wrote code for it, from scratch. I have literally started with empty paper and an idea… Many hours and long nights went into it, and I really did my best to take care of every single, tiny detail to make everything as perfect as I possibly can. And now finally, everything is finished. That means I can start writing posts again.

But first, let me take you through some of the aspects of the new design:

New logo

I’m sure, the first thing you noticed when you came here, was the big bold logo at the top. If I’m right, then I did my job well. I wanted it to be that way.

I intended it to be simple, catchy, bold (obviously) and without any graphics. Just letters organized in an appealing way. Among other things that I learned about design, was typography, so I wanted to implement that on my “final exam”.

Attention to detail

One of the most important things that makes design different, is attention to details.

Notice the subtle shadow on the menu above. It is not obtrusive, but fits beautifully into the whole design and creates a great feel overall.

You can see this implemented on the images above, too. Even better, go ahead and hover over the image above and notice the shadow around it.

All of these details were created using the latest CSS 3 web design standard. That’s why some of you, who use Internet Explorer, are not able to see many great details and effects. Internet Explorer doesn’t support CSS 3 and thus it’s very limited.

Here’s another opportunity for me to recommend you download a browser (Firefox or Google Chrome) that will help you experience the web to its maximum. Once again, stop using Internet Explorer, it’s old, slow, limited and it simply sucks.

Short descriptions of posts on home page

Are you tired of long introductions on some posts, when all that you want is to just see what the post is all about?

I was guilty of this one too. I used to write long intros instead of just getting straight to the point. In most cases, visitors just scan the page and leave if they don’t find something interesting fast.

That’s why I decided to write a short description of each blog post that is displayed on home page, and explain how can that blog post be of value to you. If it gets your attention, you read on, if not, you keep scanning the page. No need for frustration and wasting your valuable time.

Cool search results

I won’t post image to show you this one. I will let you experience it yourself. For example, if you would search for “Windows” by clicking the Search button on the navigation above, the results page would look like this. See? It’s easy to scan and it’s organized pretty well.

How old design looked like

For those of you who are new to this blog, you might want to know how this blog looked like and what’s the difference.

Ok, that would be enough about the design. If you want to see more, then just look around.

Now, maybe you wonder what that second part of the blog post title means.

My new name

As many of you know, my name was Gennice. And I’m not female! :) My name would exactly be “Gènnice” which is a male name in France. But here in the US, people get confused sometimes.

So i decided I can’t take it anymore… :) I went through the whole process of changing IDs and all other documents into my new name - Dennis! I wanted to be similar when it’s pronounced like my other name, so I went for Dennis, and I really like it.

So, everybody who once knew me as Gennice, can now call me Dennis. Although you can call me however you like as long as you know that I’m a male. That was the main reason I changed my name.

That’s it! Now let’s enjoy the new start with new design and new name (no, I’m not crazy, and yes, I love it)!