Getting a Grip on Grids

Originally posted 5/18/2025.
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This is going to be a direct response to my first blog post that I had written when I first launched this site. I have since re-coded the entire site from scratch as well as integrating an RSS feed so I can make blog posts more properly.

As I had stated in that post, I realized pretty quickly after some cursory searches for layout help that making a layout using tables and floats was a thing of the past, and that using grids is a much better way to have greater control of your layouts. Still, I don't regret relying on the premade layout I had used at all; especially since it got me to learn the ropes of flexboxes, which are another valuable asset when it comes to responsive layouts.

Still, I felt the need to redo my CSS before my website grew any further.

The grids were much easier to make consistent when it came to spacing and alignment compared to using flexbox and floats. I also had a much easier time making the website as responsive and mobile-friendly as possible (which, as of writing this, I still haven't quite tested yet, but I intend to the moment my site has been updated).

Some other general changes for my layouts: I am using the <style> tag much more often, giving me more flexibility in making my site responsive. My new layouts now have far less in-line style tags as well (though, still probably more than there should be).

Since I had already learned the ropes, so to speak, I also took the liberty of messing with more of the aesthetic aspects of CSS: inclduing making buttons and specific boxes for headers. I also added slight shadows to the edges of my text boxes.

Don't have a good place to mention this, but I also added a clock that displays my local time in the ticker, as well as moving my Status Cafe status to the top ticker as well. I really didn't want the ticker to just be marquee text, and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Wrapping this blog post up to say that starting new HTML and CSS projects from scratch is good for you. I plan to make more layouts from scratch, either for my own websites, or just for fun. I think it would be cool to make really bare-bones layouts for people to learn different ways of laying things out- though I'd like to get a little bit better at coding myself before I attempt such a thing, I wouldn't want to lead someone astray with bad advice since I'm still a noob.

Presumably, my next blog post will be about RSS feeds, since I have yet to see if the one I've implemented even works yet. 'til next time.