The New Site Theme

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As you will have noticed, Fifteensquared has had a make-over (and not before time, some of you might say!).

Apart from the new appearance, with larger font sizes to make reading easier when ones eyesight starts to deteriorate,  the site is now responsive, that is to say the full content will appear on all devices. On smaller display screens the two sidebars, previously missing when in mobile view, now appear at the bottom of each page.

An additional benefit, which I’m sure will be appreciated, is that comment numbers are now visible on mobile devices.

Whilst I have tested the new theme as thoroughly as I can, I’m obviously unable to check every device and browser combination that may be used to view the site, so there may be some teething problems. If you do come across anything untoward please let me know via a comment below or an email to admin{at}fifteensquared{dot}net.

I would also welcome any feedback, positive or negative. How does the new theme seem to you? Is it OK, or could  something be improved? I cannot guarantee to make the site perfect but I will do my best to get it as close as possible.

Finally I would like to thank PeeDee for his invaluable help whilst I’ve been customising this theme. Some of the alterations wouldn’t have been possible without his coding expertise.

87 comments on “The New Site Theme”

  1. Hi Gaufrid
    I didn’t notice your post earlier today having gone straight into Everyman and Indy. I just refreshed the site in my phone and thought “Gosh, that looks crisp” and spotted your message.
    My first experience on the phone is excellent. Very clear, easy to read, very useful post numbers.
    Now to have a look at the laptop.
    One thing, does the makeover also address the (WordPress???) problems you/we were having which necessitated moving into plain text or whatever it’s called? Or is there still an issue to be resolved?
    Many thanks, as ever, for your care and hard work, Gaufrid, and to PeeDee for his input too.

  2. PostMark @1
    “One thing, does the makeover also address the (WordPress???) problems you/we were having which necessitated moving into plain text or whatever it’s called? Or is there still an issue to be resolved?”

    This update would have been applied several weeks ago if we hadn’t been searching for a resolution to the comment editor issue, which I would have liked to have included in the make-over. Unfortunately, the plugin that provided the rich text editor, and which broke when the latest version of WordPress was installed, is no longer being supported and I haven’t been able to find a suitable alternative.

  3. This is me on the laptop. I needed to refresh Home to see both your message and the new format but now I’ve scrolled through the Everyman page and it’s crisp and clear on here too. I’m (ashamedly) grateful for the bigger font and, whilst I wondered if I’d miss the boxes around the comments, I think the clarity makes up for it. So all seems good on both fronts, Gaufrid, as far as this particular poster is concerned.

  5. On my mobile, relatively small, the d of fifteensquared has detached itself and appears centrally beneath fifteensquare. It resolves if I turn the screen through 90%.

  8. James @5
    Thanks for the feedback. I have reduced the padding in the header to allow more space for the site title. Please let me know if this has resolved the issue. If it hasn’t then I will reduce the size of the font that is used for the title when viewed on a mobile.

  10. Looks good to me, thanks Gaufrid. The only issue I’ve noticed is that the bloggers’ fetching photos have disappeared (not to mention the dragon, strange-coloured fruit and barn owl!)

  12. essexboy @10
    I did look into the issue of author avatars, which were a custom addition to the previous theme. They are not included as standard in the new theme and to add them would have meant adding a lot of extra code at a time when there were other priorities, such as the comment editor. Avatars are on my list of issues to be pursued at a later date.

  15. Youngsters may feel the font sizes are too large, but for me at my age (entering into 78th year on this very day) with weakening eyesight, they are comfortable. Also, the typeface is well-rounded. I am able to read easily without having to go nearer the screen. I like the calendar at top right but it took me a while to realise that the double digit figures appear not side by side but one below the other.
    Thanks Gaufrid. Your work is much appreciated.

  19. essexboy @16 & Rishi @17
    There is no issue/digital mess-up with the calendar, it is behaving responsively (ie correctly). As display sizes get smaller the sidebar shrinks and there comes a time when double figures in the calendar go one above the other rather than side-by-side. When the screen width is below a certain value, the sidebars move to the bottom of the page and the calendar returns to normal.

  21. Thanks essexboy and Gaufrid. I didn’t realise my computer screen was on zoom. After I reduced it to 100 p.c., the calendar is OK.
    Happy birthday, PM!

  23. Thanks Gaufrid,
    Although I rarely comment these days the site is still much appreciated.
    Addition of comment numbering on my Samsung S7 is a big plus in the new version.

  25. Thanks Gaufrid and PeeDee – it looks great. My slightly dodgy eyesight appreciates the font size change. (PM @3, no need to be ashamed, it happens to all of us sooner or later!)

  26. Thanks Gaufrid. Looks fine on an iPad in landscape mode, except ‘Announcement
    s’ gets wrapped in the left hand column

  27. Looks great BUT!! one massive problem is those of us doing recycled e.g. independent puzzles in the I can no longer search by clue. This means you cannot find the puzzle.
    Now I understand the interactive immediacy of sharing live puzzles in a daily forum but those of us catching up, who used to value the full parsing round up of a puzzle are now squeezed out.

  28. Gonzo @26
    I can increase the width of the LH sidebar which would eliminate this. However, the current width of 15% can only be increased in 5% steps and an increase to 20% creates a lot of unused white space. Are you using a magnified view? If so then reducing the magnification should remove this issue. Otherwise I could just change the heading to Announcement and hope that we seldom get more than one at a time.

  29. Came to the site earlier to find something and got a shock – thought it had gone haywire. But I like it.

  30. John @27
    First off, when you post a comment please add something to your username so that you are not mistaken for a member of our blogging team who has used that name for very many years (I can see your email address so can determine the difference but others can’t).

    Now, as for your problem, could you please be more specific because nothing I have changed today should affect any searches. I have closed older posts to new comments in order to reduce the volume of spam the site receives each day but the posts are still there.

    How are you searching, Site Search box, Google or what? I have just copied an Indy clue from four years ago (without the clue number or enumeration) into the Site Search box and it brought up the relevant post. However, trying the same thing using Google did not result in a 15² hit. This is something that I will have to look into in the morning.

  32. Agh. Dyslexic fingers again. Ignore the above post. Looks great Gaufrid and I do this work on an iPad. Much easier on ageing eyes and looks fresh. A marvellous sight to go with my breakfast coffee.

  33. Hi Gaufrid, just noticed something else. When you come to post there are asterisks against Name and Email, but I can’t see anything that the asterisks refer to. I think there used to be something about one’s email address not being published?

    I seem to remember there was also a box labelled ‘Website’, although I never used it.

  35. essexboy @33
    The asterisks are standard convention to indicate a required field. Email addresses are not revealed other than to me and the post author. The ‘Website’ box has been removed because it encourages spambots and I am trying to keep the amount of spam the site receives to a minimum.

  36. John Morris @34
    No need for apologies. I was glad of the heads-up that 15² didn’t appear in the results of a Google search using an old, or more recent, Indy clue. I’m not sure why this should be. In the past the site was always at the top of, or very near the top of, the Google search results. As I said, I will pursue this further in the morning.

  37. Looks fine to me, on both tablet and laptop. I only use the tablet to read blogs and comments, preferring to use a real keyboard for adding comments or anything else such as searching.
    Interested to read comment 36 about Google, as it was through googling what seemed the only possible answer to a clue but I didn’t think was a word that I first discovered 15^2 as it came top of the list.

  38. Thanks Gaufrid
    Got a pleasant surprise when I went to add comment to Friday’s puzzle this morning. Good work, it looks and works great as far as I can see.

  39. Gaufrid@28: Try overriding the font size just for that h2 tag by adding
    style=”font-size:115%;”
    Works offline.

  42. Thanks for this, Gaufrid. Looks great on both my Dell laptop and my android Huawei. Lovely and clear. What a boon having the comment numbers on mobile now.

    One thing I don’t like is that button that takes you to the top of the page. It’s too easy to press it by mistake when scrolling on a mobile. I know this from experience on another blog I frequent which uses it. It’s absolutely infuriating to be halfway through reading an interesting comment and to go to scroll up a little to reveal more, only to see everything whizz past and end up at the top of the page, from whence you have to search through all the comments to find the place you were at. It’s so easy to go to the top of the page with a few deft flicks of the finger if and when that becomes necessary or desirable (which isn’t all that often anyway), that as a labour-saving device it’s just not worth the trouble it causes. It’s fine on the pc as it’s not likely one will click on it by mistake.

  43. I forgot to say, I’m using Firefox on both devices, if that’s any help.

    Btw, on a pc, to scroll quickly to the top of the page, all you have to do, of course, is position the cursor near the top of the vertical slider bar and hold down a left click. It will seldom take more than a second to get to the top like this so the special ‘top-of-the-page’ button is really the solution to a non-existent problem, whatever device you’re using. It’s only actually a menace, however, when controlling one’s view by touch on a small screen.

  44. Gaufrid,
    I think the new look is very clean. Congrats.
    I saw some discussion above about Search. I had been seeing an intermittent problem with the local search where the results came back in non-chronological order, but I cannot recreate it, so let’s assume it was a glitch that’s gone. However, in the search I just did for “&lit” (without the quotes), the most recent result was from 2010, which is clearly wrong.
    Thanks

  45. Thank you. When I came to the site this morning I felt like I had been transported to the future, and a good future at that.

  47. Overall, I like the new layout, but the “Search” function seems to be missing or well hidden. For people learning by completing archived crosswords this is quite important.

  48. Rickwg @47
    The Site Search facility is still there. If you are viewing on a desktop or similar it is under the Calendar at the top of the right-hand sidebar. On a mobile device, with a smaller screen, the sidebars are moved to the bottom of the page so if you scroll down far enough you will come to the Calendar followed by Site Search.

  50. I have say that it looks GORG and (may I respectfully say) much more up-to-date. Knowing what an utter pain WordPress sites are to keep current, I think congrats are in order to Gaufrid and all that sail with him with the reminder that should you ever need any assistance you know where to find me!

    Looking very, very nice on the iPhone as well which means more ability to engage in the pun-offs when PostMark and Penfold are in the mood.

    Thank you all for your hard work – 225 has been and remains an utter deity-send.

  55. I only access this site on my desktop, with very large screen (!) It does look awfully, well, er, white. I do understand that it is probably better for users of mobile phones and that they may well be in the majority. I am just grateful that the site exists.
    In the General Discussion section, is it possible to have the new comments at the top? I seem to have to scroll down an awfully long way to see new comments. And can you reply to someone without having to start a new ‘box’. (Sorry, my computer vocabulary just isn’t up to the job)

  56. Do names still link to personal web-sites if the poster has registerd one? I notice that’s no longer an option whwn posting.

  57. Anna @55
    There was even more white space before I started to customise the theme. I can set the site so that the newest comment is at the top but this is a global setting and I don’t think newest first is right for the blog posts. I would have addressed the long scroll issue in General Discussion a few weeks ago but was busy trying to finalise the new theme. It is on my list of things to do when a couple of other priorities have been completed.

  58. muffin @56
    For comments added to posts prior to 1430 yesterday the answer is yes. The website/URL box has been removed for several reasons: it attracts spambots, it confuses visitors who then enter all sorts of non-valid text and very few people have actually used it as intended.

  59. Gaufrid @ 57
    Thanks for replying Gaufrid – and thank you for organising all this. I just don’t know how you do it.
    I didn’t really understand what you meant by ‘customise the theme’.
    Anyway, please don’t feel the need to explain. I’m sure you’re very busy.
    Thanks again just for running such an excellent website.

  60. Where do you get your energy from Gaufrid? Lost in admiration. And PeeDee too. Bit nostalgic for the old format per quam I have experienced so much entertainment.

  62. The new layout is fantastic! Crisp, clear, easy to read. Classy font, too.
    With the added benefit of my being able to see the numbering of comments when I come to this site on my iPhone.
    Many thanks Gaufrid, both for this and for all your hard work on FS. It’s enormously appreciated.

  64. Please may we have the Search feature back at the top of the Home page again? I found a way to search for a specific crossword eventually, but it should be at the top, not after all these comments! Thanks very much for providing this excellent site.

  65. The Search is back! My husband and I both looked and it wasn’t there on our phones before! Problem solved, thank you.

  66. Sue Akhurst @ 64 &65
    An earlier comment regarding having to scroll down to the bottom of the page, when viewing on a mobile, to get to the ‘Search’ facility caused me to activate a ‘Search’ option in the ‘Menu’ bar a few hours ago. I’m glad this has solved your problem.

  67. Thanks, Gaufrid, for this wonderful change to the site. Such a surprise to open it today and everything is so easy to read and instinctive to use. I especially love the clarity of the open page and the comment numbers on the mobile version. A great site now even better. Congratulations.

  68. This format could have been specifically designed for the iPad mini which is what I use for everything except blogging.
    Clear as a bell and a definable improvement.
    Thanks, team.

  69. Looks great on my desktop PC. Thanks a lot, Gaufrid and PeeDee. As administrator for several WordPress sites, I know how much work an update like this takes.

  72. I didn’t see this post until today but have visited pages of the site yesterday and, of course, saw the change. It’s a big improvement, crisp and clear on my laptop, desktop and ipad mini.

  74. Thanks Gaufrid and Peedee, I am mostly reading on a decent sized screen but i) this certainly does make the site clearer and easier to use on a mobile so I may well take advantage of this and ii) my eyesight is only going one way so I should benefit increasingly from the larger type and clearer layout. And a broader thank-you for all your time and effort on this site which has helped me enormously in developing my interest, enjoyment and dare I say proficiency in this excellent hobby.

  75. Thanks Gaufrid and PeeDee. I am using an iPad and the numbers in the calendar are on top of each other. I saw someone say something about reducing the % size – how do I do that please ?

  76. I thought I’d use the site for a couple of days before commenting. A great improvement. Font and formatting much more clear. Comment numbering on mobile is a great help. Most welcome by far is the change to the comment description. On the old version of the site I would “leave a comment” and it was subsequently described as a “response”. Now I “leave a comment ” and 225 turns it into a “thought”. This demonstrates a laudable generosity of spirit towards me and the many other users who comment without thinking. Thank you Gaufrid and PeeDee.

  77. I already posted this in Site feedback (but it doesn’t appear in this list???)
    Just to say I really like the new layout (viewed mainly on a laptop).

  79. Sugarbutties @75
    I was hoping that someone would have answered your query regarding the iPad because I am unable to since I don’t have one (or anything similar). This page in the iPad User Guide may help.

  82. Looks like comments on individual crosswords are being closed a bit too soon. We Kiwis get Everyman crosswords about a month after they are in the Guardian, e.g. today’s is 8639 I think which uk had in December. Now we can’t comment on it : (

  84. Barrie @82
    My apologies. When I checked previous blogs for comments from NZ it appeared that you were 5 weeks behind so I set the ‘close comments’ time to 6 weeks. I have now extended it to 8 weeks so 3869 is open again.

  85. Just to note that the site has stopped working correctly with Firefox on my Android tablet. Everything looks fine, but I can’t force the front page to reload with new content, even after clearing cookies and cache and restarting the browser. This started yesterday (26/01), in fact I thought the blog simply hadn’t been updated until I checked again with my desktop browser (also Firefox).

  86. poc @85
    I doubt that this is site/theme related because there have been no changes to the software since I updated the site ten days ago, so if all was working well last week it should still be doing so. Also, I’ve had no other reports of a similar problem and there must be some other visitors to the site who use an Android tablet.

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