Yes, it’s that time again! An opportunity to refresh the look and feel of my personal website – StevePalmer.com. With ‘you-know-what‘ giving many of us plenty of time on our hands at the moment, it’s been the perfect opportunity to pick up some new knowledge and skills!

In truth, I could have left it as it is, but the original authoring program – Serif’s WebsiteX8 that I’ve been using for almost 10 years has ceased development and is no longer supported. So, a double challenge in that not only did I have to rebuild my site, I had to learn another software design package too!

Still, it gave my ‘little grey cells’ a thorough workout – so that’s no bad thing! More than I knew! In 2021, the choice of packages that allow you to design from scratch is not that great, as the trend is to offer pre-defined layouts where the user just adds the content. That’s too inflexible for me! In fact, it probably took me longer to find the ideal replacement software than it did to learn to use it!

I first tried using Xara’s Web Designer Premium, but although it is a very (very!) capable package, I didn’t find it particularly intuitive to use. After much head-scratching, I settled for Incomedia’s Website X5. All-in-all, I’d say it’s only taken me a couple of months (on and off) to learn how to use it and during the few occasions I needed some help, the Incomedia Support Team (based in Italy) have always been responsive, knowledgeable and friendly.

This will be the fifth re-design since my site was first launched back in 1991 (June 2010, May 2012, January 2014 and April 2015 were the other re-design milestones). I began work on it back in October, and I was surprised how much needed changing. These days, the priority is how a site will look and feel on portable devices (‘mobile friendly’, to use the techy term) and that’s taken a fair bit of time and experimentation.

Thankfully, this latest software makes the whole process much easier than it used to be!

So, today, I put the finishing touches to my site and uploaded the files. Click on the link below to see it all in its shining glory! Have a look around and enjoy the content – your feedback is always welcome!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Website Makeover (2021) appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Just finished adding a few enhancements to the Website for Active Development Ltd – take a look!

It’s ‘mobile-friendly’ too, so give it a go on your smartphone.

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Website: Active Development Ltd appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Desktop View

With Google announcing that websites that are NOT ‘mobile-friendly’ will be penalised in search engine rankings later this April, I thought it was about time I got around to ensuring my personal website – StevePalmer.com – is compliant.

Above is the standard ‘desktop’ homepage, whilst below is the vertical-scrollable version you’ll see, if you go to StevePalmer.com on your mobile.

Mobile View

If anyone notices any glitches, drop me a line, and I’ll take a look.

With the Homepage sorted, now all I need to do is ‘convert’ the rest of the website’s pages!
  

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Website Makeover appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Yes, quite possibly!

Today, we began to get into ‘Christmas-mode’. First task of the day was to review our Christmas card address list. This is always worthwhile, but always takes far longer than I think it’s going to. Every year, I think ‘Oh, there won’t be many address changes’, and every year, I discover there has been more than I thought. Is it me, or do people move house more often these days?

Additionally, this year, with the business now closed (nostalgees go HERE), I’ve filtered out the purely business addressees. It’s all part of a small cost-cutting exercise now one of us is on a pension (is that the sound of violins or just the screeches of relief from the marketplace?). However, as many of my clients became good friends over the years, the filtering process only reduced the card-count by around 75, leaving, by my calculations, about 220+ cards to write. Although writing them is still very pleasurable (certainly more fun than gardening!), it’s a big task, and one that definitely benefits from the eating elephants philosophy!

Whilst we’re on the subject of filtering, I don’t know about you, but excluding those who didn’t send us a card last year, always generates a vigorous debate in this house – ultimately, we always send far more than we receive, but I guess that’s the reality of the Christmas-card-sending-routine. We were tempted this year to fall into line with a lot of our friends and go down the ‘donate-to-a-charity-instead-of-sending-a-card’, but for 2013 at least, we can’t quite make that seismic shift to something equally generous, but a lot simpler – maybe next year!

Oh the pressure of it all! You can tell I’m retired, when I pen 250 words about Christmas Cards!!!!!!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Too Early to Mention ‘Christmas’? appeared first on Steve's Blog.