Ok well it is becoming common knowledge these days that using tables in your layout are a bad idea. Generally I agree but I’ve had a markup bug that wouldn’t smooth out where tables fitted the bill perfectly and no repercussions apart from having to write a little more code (and I mean a tiny amount).

I had two div’s side by side, the second had content that would dynamically change and therefore change the height of the column. I wanted them to be the same height constantly. My problem was that I had an image that I needed to be aligned to the bottom of the first, so I set it as the background with the approriate alignments (background:#ffffff url(image.png) bottom left no-repeat;). I tired various methods including the faux column, messing with different display attributes in the CSS.

Just to add on a brief but valid point, messing with displays is a good way of confusing yourself and wasting time. If changing displays doesn’t work when you’ve added them simply don’t over complicate them, changing them for every different element! I know this seems a little simplistic, but I’ve found what works for me is to keep the html and css simple, its more cross browser friendly and it will keep those grey hairs at bay for at least 50% longer!

I was figuratively pulling my hair out until I simply switched the div’s to a table and volia! Instant success and not the cheap kind. I tested it (throughouly) and so far works like a charm. Why is there then, so much drama then when the words tables and layout are put together? Generally yes I use a tableless design but for this instance it works and does what I need it to.

I will not be excluding tables from my plans in the future if they seem to work! huzzah!

Theme Description Blue 3 Column Adsense/Widget Ready Theme

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Theme Description Blue 2 Column Adsense/Widget Ready Theme

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- DOWNLOAD THEME -

Theme Description Brown 2 Column Adsense/Widget Ready Theme

- LIVE DEMO -

- DOWNLOAD THEME -

OK, so I’ve listed the 2-column blog themes which show my tagline (I really want to keep that tagline, because I like it!

Suitable 2-column themes are:

Black-LetterHead

ChaoticSoul

Connections

Contempt

Day Dream

Emire

Fauna

Freshy

Hemingway

Iceburgg

Jentri

K2-lite

Kubrick

Light

MistyLook

Monotone

Ocadia

Ocean Mist

Quentin

Regulus

Rounded

Sandbox

Sandbox-10

Sapphire

Simpla

Sunburn

Sweet Blossoms

Tarski

Treba

Vermilion Christmas

White as Milk

While sorting through my hard drive I found this ancient skin I’d tried to get to work with Classic when custom CSS was first introduced. It didn’t work then but it does now, thanks to the magic of

So, yeah, the base template is WordPress Classic rather than Sandbox. And in their infinite wisdom wordpress.com have decided to break file uploading so you’re going to have to copy/paste your code from here:

/* Theme Name: Castor
Theme URI: http://ntuat.wordpress.com
Template: classic
Description: Ancient Gemini stylesheet converted for use with the custom CSS upgrade on wp.com
Version: 2.0
Author: not (that) ugly
*/

body {
	color:#333;
	font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;
	font-size:0.7em;
	letter-spacing:0.1em;
	text-align:center;
	background:url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castortitlebk.gif') #fff no-repeat;
	margin:10px;
	padding:0;
}

#rap {
	width:725px;
	background:url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castor.png') top 

right no-repeat;
	text-align:left;
	margin:0 auto;
}

#masthead {
	height:130px;
	margin:0;
}

#header {
	margin-right:200px;
	margin-bottom:10px;
}

#content {
	float:right;
	width:525px;
}

#menu {
	float:left;
	width:200px;
}

a {
	color:#f33;
	text-decoration:none;
}

a img {
	border:none;
}

a:visited {
	color:#f60;
}

a:hover {
	color:#39c;
}

acronym,abbr {
	border-bottom:1px dashed #ccc;
}

acronym,abbr,span.caps {
	cursor:help;
}

blockquote {
	background:#fff url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castorquotebk.gif') no-repeat;
	border:1px solid #ccc;
	padding:5px;
}

cite {
	font-style:italic;
	color:#39c;
}

#content ul {
list-style-image:url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castordot.gif');
}

h1 {
	font:48px 'times new roman', serif;
	line-height:1em;
	font-weight:normal;
	margin:0;
}

h1 a {
	color:#39c;
	text-decoration:none;
}

h1 a:hover {
	color:#999;
}

h2 {
	color:#999;
	font:2em 'times new roman', serif;
	font-weight:normal;
	font-style:italic;
	margin:0 0 0 8px;
}

h3 {
	font-weight:normal;
	font-size:1.4em;
	letter-spacing:0;
	margin:0;
}

h3 a {
	color:#39c;
	text-decoration:none;
}

h3 a:hover {
	color:#999;
}

/* posts */

ul.post-meta {
	list-style:none;
}

ul.post-meta span.post-meta-key {
	font-weight:bold;
}

.meta li,ul.post-meta li {
	display:inline;
}

.meta ul {
	display:inline;
	list-style:none;
	margin:0;
	padding:0;
}

.meta {
	color:#999;
	font-weight:normal;
	letter-spacing:0;
}

.meta a {
	color:#f33;
}

.meta a:hover {
	color:#39c;
}

.post {
	margin-top:5px;
	margin-right:10px;
	margin-left:10px;
}

.feedback {
	color:#999;
	text-align:right;
	clear:both;
}

/* comments */
#commentform #name,#commentform #email,#commentform 

#url,#commentform textarea,input,textarea,select {
	background:#fff;
	color:#666;
	border:1px solid #ccc;
	font:1em tahoma, sans-serif;
}

#commentform #comment {
	width:450px;
	border:1px solid #ccc;

background:url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castorquotebk.gif') 

#fff no-repeat;
	margin:0;
}

#commentlist li {
	background:#fff 

url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castorquotebk.gif') no-repeat;
	border:1px solid #ccc;
	margin-bottom:10px;
	padding:5px;
}

#commentlist li ul {
list-style-image:url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castordot.gif');
}

#commentlist img.avatar {
	float:left;
	margin-right:5px;
}

#commentlist cite {
	clear:left;
}

/* sidebar */
.textwidget {color:#999;
font-size:0.75em;
padding:5px}

#menu form {
	margin:5px;
}

#menu input,textarea {
	width:80%;
	font-size:0.7em;
}

#menu ul {
	list-style-type:none;
	margin:0;
	padding:0;
}

#menu ul li,#menu h2  {
	text-transform:lowercase;
	letter-spacing:0;
	font-size:1.4em;
	color:#39c;
	border:1px #ccc solid;
	padding-left:5px;
	padding-top:5px;
	margin:0 0 10px;
}

#menu h2 {
	border:0;
	font:1em normal normal tahoma, sans-serif;
}

#menu ul li ul {
	margin-top:10px;
	margin-bottom:10px;
}

#menu ul li ul li {
	border:0;
	font:0.75em tahoma, sans-serif;
	font-weight:normal;
	margin:3px 5px;
	padding:0;
}

#menu ul li ul li ul li {
	font-size:1em;
	margin-top:-5px;
}

#menu table {
	font:0.75em tahoma, sans-serif;
}

#wp-calendar {
	font-size:0.8em;
	width:90%;
	text-align:center;
	margin:auto;
}

#wp-calendar #next a {
	padding-right:10px;
	text-align:right;
}

#wp-calendar #prev a {
	padding-left:10px;
	text-align:left;
}

#wp-calendar caption {
	text-align:left;
	font-size:14px;
	padding-left:10px;
}

#wp-calendar a {
	display:block;
	font-weight:bold;
	text-decoration:none;
}

#wp-calendar a:hover {
	color:#f33;
}

#wp-calendar td {
	border:1px solid #fff;
	padding:2px 0;
}

#wp-calendar td.pad {
	border:0;
}

#wp-calendar td:hover,#wp-calendar #today {
	border:1px solid #ccc;
}

#wp-calendar th {
	color:#999;
}

#menu,#content {
	overflow:hidden;
}

/* footer */
p.credit {clear:both;
text-align:center;
padding-top:20px;
padding-bottom:15px;
background:url('http://ntuat.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/castortitlebk.gif') top right no-repeat}

/* wp.com stuff */
#wpstats {
	height:1px;
	width:1px;
}

.possibly-related strong {color:#999;
font-weight:normal;
letter-spacing:0;
padding-left:20px;
padding-bottom:5px;
background:url(http://www.sphere.com/images/sphereicon.gif) top left no-repeat}

/* Captions & alignment */
.aligncenter,
div.aligncenter {
	display: block;
	margin-left: auto;
	margin-right: auto;
}

.alignleft {
	float: left;
}

.alignright {
	float: right;
}

.wp-caption {
	border: 1px #ccc solid;
	text-align: center;
	background-color: #f3f3f3;
	padding-top: 4px;
	margin: 10px;
	-moz-border-radius: 3px;
	-khtml-border-radius: 3px;
	-webkit-border-radius: 3px;
	border-radius: 3px;
}

.wp-caption img {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	border: 0 none;
}

.wp-caption p.wp-caption-text {
	font-size: 11px;
	line-height: 17px;
	padding: 0 4px 5px;
	margin: 0;
}
/* End captions & alignment */

Let me know if you like this better or worse than the previous system.

You can see a full-size preview at the test blog; it’s not an exact replica of a wp.com blog but it’s close enough.

http://www.aesma.ru/wp-files/Pro-en.zip

Simple professional looking theme made with butterfly. Free for use(CC 3.0 license). Enjoy it!

- LIVE DEMO -

- DOWNLOAD THEME -

For some projects, specially multilingual localization projects, Lexcelera works with DV X; a very powerful CAT tool that allows the creation of exports that can be translated on other CAT tools or no tool at all.

These exports come in two formats, both of them RTF, that can be opened in Microsoft Office Word.

Two-Column external view

If you don’t use any CAT tools this is the file that you need to use. The file will usually have the _2col.rtf extension and once opened it will look like shown below:

DV X"

In the first column you will find the codes needed for reimportation into DV X. These should not be replaced, modified or deleted under any circumstance since by doing so reimportation becomes impossible.

In the second column you will find the source - the text to be translated. This column should not be modified either. The translation needs to be inserted into the third column. You might already find in this column some translated text. This text is to be edited since it can range from fuzzy to exact matches extracted from the memory.

In the fourth column you will have the possibility of adding any commentary that you consider relevant for the Editor, Project Manager or client. Please tells us that you have added comments when you deliver the files so that we check them.

When translating please pay special attention to tags (See this post)

Trados RTF external view

For those translators that work on MemoQ, Wordfast, Trados or other there is the possibility of using your own CAT tool on the file sent. You will receive a Trados segmented RTF file that can be translated on any of these tools.

Note: if you are working on Trados please do not use TagEditor, nor send TTX files.

The file will usually have the _trados.rtf extension and once opened it will look like shown below:

DV X"

The files that you will deliver need to follow exactly the same formatting as the one sent to you. No changes, modifications, deletions anywhere are permitted, this includes cleaning the file.

Adding extra spaces anywhere in the code will also damage the file. Only modify the target section of the segment. The file that we need for importation needs to be in RTF format, unclean and without changes in the font style or code.

When translating please pay special attention to tags (See this post)

Contact the CAT department if you have any issues.

Template Number : 19247
Author: Delta
Sources Available:
.PSD;
.PHP;

SOFTWARE REQUIRED:
Adobe Photoshop CS+;
Adobe Dreamweaver (or any php-editor);
Drupal 6.x;

For uncompressing a template ZIP package:
WinZip 9+ (Windows);
Stuffit Expander 10+ (Mac);

Price $45
Unique Price $450
Demo
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Template number : 18982
Author: Di
Sources Available: .PSD; .PHP;
SOFTWARE REQUIRED: Adobe Photoshop CS+; Adobe Dreamweaver (or any php-editor); Drupal 6.x;
For uncompressing a template ZIP package: WinZip 9+ (Windows); Stuffit Expander 10+ (Mac);
Price: $45
Unique Price: $450
Click to Purchase

Widget Ready Styleicious is a free WordPress theme which was recently released. It is fully compatible with wordpress 2.3.2 and has tagging and tag cloud enabled.

* 2 columns ,Right sidebar
* Blue & white
* Adsense ready
* Valid XHTML and CSS Tested on:
* The following browsers: IE6, IE7, FireFox 2, Opera and Safari

Theme Demo ||wordpress Download
Author Iwebnet
Design WordPress Themes

Widget Ready Styleicious is a free WordPress theme which was recently released. It is fully compatible with wordpress 2.3.2 and has tagging and tag cloud enabled.

*2 columns ,Right sidebar
* Black
* Adsense ready
* Valid XHTML and CSS Tested on:
* The following browsers: IE6, IE7, FireFox 2, Opera and Safari

Theme Demo ||wordpress Download
Author Iwebnet
Design WordPress Themes

 
Great 2 columns and with 4 different variations and a lots of customization the Sky High Theme designed.

Released News | Demo | Download

2 columns ,Right sidebar
Green & Black Colour
Right sidebar,Adsense ready,
Valid XHTML and CSS Tested on:

The following browsers: IE6, IE7, FireFox 2, Opera and Safari

Theme Demo ||wordpress Theme :Download

Author Iwebnet
Design WordPress Themes

2 columns ,Left sidebar
Red & Black Colour
Left sidebar,Adsense ready,
Valid XHTML and CSS Tested on:

 The following browsers: IE6, IE7, FireFox 2, Opera and Safari

Theme Demo ||wordpress Download

Author Iwebnet
Design WordPress Themes