2010-11-10

More changes: gadget skin bug workaround and normal/small-caps styles

A problem with the way Blogger transfers its skin (the main colors and font face of your blog) to gadgets was uncovered yesterday by sparkleandspinstudio. I was able to identify and fix the problem, but now that the gadget is receiving the correct font face, Last Comments looks very different on some blogs than it did before. For instance, blogs where the page text is set to italic and/or bold will now show Last Comments in italic and/or bold. In some ways, this is an improvement, but it might not be what you want since it can look drastically different. So I have added a styling feature that will clear bold, italic, underline, and small-caps font faces. In addition, I added a styling option for small-caps.

The two new styling options are n for normal style and c for small-caps. Styling options are entered before the letter denoting an Element (A, C, P, D, T, and L), but they must come after the minus sign ( - ) which denotes Elements that will be on the same line as the previous Element, and styling options must come after the letters denoting the mode (V, F, or X) (X is only available for Last Comments 1.2) if the Separator (S) is not being used. The complete table of styling options is as follows:

AbbreviationMeaning
b-bold
c-small-caps
e-Element only (by default, styles are applied to the Element and its Custom Text)
i-italicize
l-larger font size
n-normal
s-smaller font size
u-underline
w-whole Element entry is linked (by default, only the Element is linked, not its Custom Text)

Using styling option n will clear the styles on the Element only if styling option e is used, or it will clear the styles on the Element and its Custom Text if styling option e is not used. Bold and italic style options can then be used to restyle the Element and Custom Text as desired (that is, styling option n is applied before all other options).


Last Comments users who like the default display style but do not want the gadget to adopt the "skin" of their blog can enter the following text into the custom Display List entry field in the gadget configuration window (go to your Design|Page Elements page and click on "Edit" in the gadget's rectangle to bring up the gadget configuration window):

S lnwAa*_wrote: nCc lnwPpon_*