More Blocks Goodness

Blocks is just about to get better. We're not talking earth shattering features that will make you oh and ah, but this is going to be a good release nonetheless. Before I get into all the cool new stuff, I should also mention that there's just about a week left until the discount from ScreenCastsOnline runs out. So jump over there and watch screencast #38 and get a 15% discount before time runs out.

As well as a couple small interface updates I'm going to add some big-time compatibility enhancements. What does that mean? Glad you asked:

Upgrade #1: The IE overflow problem.
If the Content Width of your blocks page is set too high to actually fit inside the content area of the theme that you're using then Windows Internet Explorer 6.0 freaks out. It starts rendering your page all over the place putting stuff here and there and everywhere. It's crazy.
Now of course you can always just go turn your content width down and that fixes the problem -- but lots of people don't -- and despite big warnings on the website and in the manual it looks like I'll get about 2 questions a day via email and one forum post per week asking why IE 6.0 is freaking out.
The fix is actually really simple. It's not necessarily guaranteed -- and the page may still generate some warnings if you really break the rules, but by and large it will render the page correctly and produce nice output no matter how crazy you get with the Content Width.

Upgrade #2: Block is to small problem.
We all know that the user is going to view your page on the platform/browser that is least like the one that you designed the page with. It's Murphy's Law. So it's no surprise that they can also turn the font size up in the browser to billboard proportions so that they can avoid their reading glasses. What this means to your web page, though is that all those carefully planned blocks will soon be too small for the monster sized text within them. What's a designer to do?
Javascript to the rescue! With Javascript we can measure the size of the block and the size of the text contained inside, then tell the browser to resize the fonts down a bit until they fit into the block -- all before the user even notices.
To tell the truth, I'm having real problems with this one. It works fine all browsers except... wait for it... Internet Explorer on the PC! Oh man, that browser is the biggest pile of crap ever produced. 1.2 may ship without Upgrade #2 working for IE 6 PC -- PC users might have to wait until 1.2.1 for pleasant looking Blocks pages. Kinda serves 'em right for using Windows. ;-)

Upgrade #3: The machine that goes PNG!
As we all know, if you try to use PNG images to show off transparency -- and really, that's the best reason for using PNG images in the first place -- then (who else) IE 6.0 PC users either can't see your creations at all or they see something that looks pretty bad. But web monkeys and CSS Zen monks know that there are ways around this limitation. You see, when IE came out they knew they were shipping without PNG support and like any self respecting MS software engineer decided that the best way to fix this glaring functional hole was to let any old web site call random DLLs on your Windows machine and display them in IE. I know, I know, it sounds like a HUGE security nightmare to let any old web page call Active X remotely -- and trust me, it is -- but being MS they had another trick up their sleeves: a totally obtuse API. Yes they made it so difficult to use that almost no one would. Until now!
Now with the simplicity of Blocks and RapidWeaver you'll be able to do what only the 1337 hackers and Nigerian bankers have been able to do, use PNG transparency in IE 6.

All these features and more will be yours in Blocks 1.2. It's a free upgrade to registered users and it's coming soon.