It comes to my attention that a lot of people don't know how to save images to their computers, upload them to an image host, and then change the links in their style sheets to point towards their new images.

This tutorial is done using Photobucket as an image host example. It is also done using a Mac, but I will note the PC equivalents where possible. Image heavy.

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Hopefully by now you've noticed that my Photobucket account is back up; as I'd said multiple times in the previous entry, the issue isn't an inability to pay for a pro account, it's that I'd like to be able to choose not to. In each post I encourage everyone to upload the images to their own image hosts. This helps two fold: one, that you're not held hostage if my account exceeds its bandwidth limits, and two, that it reduces the strain on my own account. I've currently purchased three months of pro status, expiring on October 4, 2009. Save your images while you still can!

There are some changes afoot here at The Fulcrum. The most major is that over the next few months, I'll be archiving everything over to my personal website in order to make it easier for people to use search functions to find what they're looking for as well as so that I can have more control over how information is archived. It will also (hopefully) give me the opportunity to provide live previews in a more expanded way. I was doing them for a while but gave up because of the hassle; if things go as planned, each and every layout will have live previews for not just the main journal view, but all the other page views as well.

Anyone who follows my regular journal knows that my creative exploits have veered quite far from computer-related endeavours in the last few months and that's not likely to change in the near future because, well, I'm having too much fun. The frequency with which new layouts are added to this community might decrease, but I'm trying to compensate by making it more user friendly.

[Comments are not being emailed to me for this entry, so I'll check back periodically.]

Yes, I am aware that my Photobucket went over its bandwidth. Apparently it's supposed to be reset at some point today.

ETA July 2, 2009: This will continue to happen at the end of every monthly cycle (which is coincidentally at the start of every month). I appreciate the offers to host the images but will not be needing to take anyone up on the offer. I have my own hosting that I choose not to use because the hassle of uploading hundreds of images to my own webspace is more inconvenient than having the images be down for a couple of days.

It apparently resets itself on the 6th day of every month.

A) The reason I asked you for your Top Five Favourite Layouts from this community is that I am going to (attempt to) port those layouts over to the Dreamwidth version of this community. It's obviously too much work to replicate everything here for DW, but I thought doing the Top Five would suffice. They may not look identical, but hopefully they'll maintain the spirit of the original designs. The Top Five at the moment are:

1. #15. The Wind Cries Mary — 376 votes
   
2. #38. Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man — 237 votes
   
3. #57. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City — 193 votes
   
4. #27. Slapping Someone With Silence — 183 votes
   
5. #9. Long Time Running — 170 votes

B) I am altering one of the FAQ questions to reflect my future interest in designing for Dreamwidth. Previously I've said it's fine to build on, adapt, and post my layouts for other people to use at other sites so long as various criteria are met (see FAQ) but I am adding a caveat that Dreamwidth cannot be one of those sites.

It occurs to me that I've gone almost two months without posting a new layout, which probably disappoints me more than it disappoints you. I've got a bunch of other side projects going on, online and off, and they've kind of been sapping me of my creative energy. That said, one of those projects could always use your input — although I feel like I'm asking a lot of you guys recently without coughing up a new layout to compensate! Anyway.

My question is: what are the top five things you look for in a layout?

I'm hoping the answers will mostly stick to stuff that can be controlled by style sheets (e.g. aesthetics) rather than that whiich is controlled by theme layers or the customization area (e.g. specific sidebar modules you like to use).

Again, in the near future, my curiosity will be explained. I am being ~*~mysterious~*~. Thank you in advance for your help!

I'm not sure how many of you are aware that my blog design history stretches back about seven years or so to my days on Diaryland (yes, Diaryland!), but way back when I used to have a layout site hosted on Geocities that functioned pretty much the same way this one does (i.e. I post, you use). I got the tragic news today that Geocities is closing its doors, so I headed over to see what I could salvage before the site completely shuts down and OH. MY. GOD.

The following designs:

• were made before June 2003


• had their graphics created in Microsoft Picture It because I didn't have Photoshop — the quality of the images below is the ACTUAL QUALITY of what I was posting for people to use


• were often the result of me scanning random crap I stumbled across because I had a scanner and I loved it.


• actually still look decent in Firefox 3 on Mac?!

The twenty two designs below are only a sample of the things I made; the site actually went over it's minuscule bandwidth limit while I was trying to make screenshots. Also, please note that Diaryland worked on a one entry, one page approach.

GHOSTS OF EARLY DESIGN. Which I will now share with you. :D

( cut for scariness and image heaviness )

Thank you for coming with me in the wayback machine. :)

[I apologize if you caught this the first time when the poll was screwed up. Blah.]

Fulcrumites, I need your help! I've been given the task of picking my Top Five layouts that I've designed for this community and thought polling the community might be an egalitarian way of choosing five (unless there's one that you all love that I hate, in which case I will exercise my veto power).

From the list of screenshots below, please pick up to five of your favourite layouts from this community. The ticky box will always appear at the bottom left of the screenshot for each poll option, in case that's unclear. You can spread your picks out across each block of screenshots or you can use them all in one block, it doesn't matter.

( cut for image-heavy poll )

Thank you! My reason for doing this will all be revealed in time. :)

1) I have started a community on Dreamwidth called dreamwidthlayouts.

It will shock you to learn, no doubt, that this is meant to be a community for Dreamwidth designers to share layouts with other Dreamwidth users (in a similar vein to freelayouts, mintyapple, and related communities). This community is for Dreamwidth-specific layouts only, hopefully ones that take full advantage of the new functionality offered by Core 2.

It's a new community and there's nothing there yet, obviously, but if you have designer friends who are planning on designing for Dreamwidth, please pass the word along. I maintain that one of the reasons that all these other clone sites die is because of all the bad design on them, so having DW-specific layouts could go a long way towards it's longevity.

2) thefulcrum can also be found at Dreamwidth: thefulcrum. If I ever end up making Dreamwidth-specific layouts, they will be posted over there since there's no point in me posting them on LJ if you can't use them here.

I will stop posting about this and start posting layouts again soon, I promise.

ETA May 3, 2009: Evidently theme layers are now available for paid accounts only, so the following tutorial will not work for free accounts.

Dreamwidth is a new journaling service that a lot of people have been anticipating for a while. I'm not here to answer questions about the service, but you can find more info at their site as well as in synecdochic's posts on the subject.

---

jennem, being the industrious person she is, quickly figured out how to port Mixit themes to Dreamwidth and we have teamed up to present you with a quick tutorial on how you too can have a more customized layout at Dreamwidth.

WE CAN ONLY TELL YOU HOW TO INSTALL A BASIC LAYOUT; WE CANNOT ASSIST YOU IN MAKING MODIFICATIONS BEYOND WHAT IS IN THIS TUTORIAL.

( cut for tutorial and lots of images )

ETA: THIS IS NOT A PLACE TO ASK FOR DREAMWIDTH INVITES.

Results are in for our Non-Competitive Layout Challenge!

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Thanks to everyone who participated!

Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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ETA: See entries here!

Because there was decent interest in a non-competitive layout challenge, I've decided to go ahead with it! ( cut for brief reiteration of why we're doing this )

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If you have any questions, leave them in the comments. Comments are screened by default but anything that needs answering will be unscreened, obviously.

Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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I did this about a year ago and thought I'd give it another go:

The "Ask This Layout Maker A Question" Meme

Simply leave a question pertaining to my layout making / graphic design habits, inspirations, or techniques and I'll try to answer it the best I can. If you've ever had a question about how I work, now's the time to ask!

Please note that this isn't a "help" post, so I won't be answering questions like "How do I change X, do Y, make my layout look like Z?"

Please read the directions in this entry as well as the Community FAQ and Template FAQ before asking questions.

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