You can tell the the folks at Microsoft have totally lost it. It looks like they're planning to ship out IE 7 to all users via software update. Now keep in mind, my Mac loving friends, that in Microsoft-land when the big MS hands down an update your computer complies -- resistance is futile. Well unless you're behind a big giant firewall, but even then it's iffy.

This means that the large majority of Web users will wake up one morning and be using a totally different browser. Wow. That's going to be a fun IT day.

Don't get me wrong, I think IE 7 is a big step forward for our slow-learning friends from Redmond. I think some of the features will bring it up to pace with the rest of us who have been happily viewing PNGs and don't really know how to surf without tabs anymore.

But the devil is in the details. And the details of all the browsers are different. Which is why tons and tons of web sites have browser specific CSS/HTML/Javascript, etc. And my guess is that some of that code, somewhere, might just misbehave a tad. Now replicate that effect a few million times and... hilarity ensues.

Blocks beta 6 is here and the number and severity of the bugs is definitely thinning out a lot. Unless a whole host of horrible bugs crop up in the next few days you can expect a final version of Blocks to come not too long after and look a whole lot like this Beta. But for that reason I need all you beta testers to be extra diligent and help me find even the little stuff.

If you've been waiting around for a nice stable version to check out, this is probably a good time to try it. Jump in, the water's fine.

Read the ReadMe Page and check for the bug that you see, if it's not there send me an email.

Go get your download!

There's more cool stuff brewing over there at Elixir. They've produced two new Accordion Extras packs. They're about as cool as cool gets and in tons of colors. Go check it out!

I've uploaded another screencast. This one shows you how to build a very simple page with content that's really quite complex. You add an Accordion FAQ and then a download area built from a File Sharing page. All wrapped up in a super simple package that's easy to use and most importantly for this type of content -- easy to maintain. This one is over TEN MINUTES LONG! But I'm not moving too slowly. You man need to use your pause button a bit as you follow along.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Beta update: I'm getting tons of downloads, but only a few bug reports are trickling in. That means that we're probably closer to a final release than I thought. Yeah!

I'm releasing Blocks 2.0 Public Beta 5 today to everyone. It has a whole slew of bug fixes, new features, and is starting to look pretty darn stable, too. If you'd like to see the beta, please read the Beta ReadMe page. The download link is there.

Go get your download!

I'll have a new podcast available tomorrow so make sure to come back soon, or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed.

I've updated the Blocks 2.0 screencast, added some explanations, simplified, and done a much better job at the compression and capture so that you can actually see what's going on instead of just watching MPEG noise. And amazingly, even though I added a ton of new titles, made the transitions smoother, and improved the quality by about 100%, I managed to compress it to about one third the original size. I love H.264, it's so cool.

Have a look.

We're still beta testing. See the post below to get in on the action. It's quick and easy

It's finally here, no more hinting, posting, or screencasting. It's time to download. But...

In order to limit the number of folks who participate in the early buggy beta tests we're making it semi-public, but don't worry, getting in on the action is pretty easy. Here's what you have to do:

1. Make a post about YourHead in your blog.
2. Include a link back to: http://www.yourhead.com
3. Send me an email about your post with the title: "I Build with Blocks!"

Hint: You can use (or link) the image from my Web Badges page.

I'll send you a link to the download and you can be part of the test.

FAQ:
1. But I don't have a blog!
Just post somewhere like digg.com or del.ico.us or whatever. Be creative. Get the word out. Tell the world how cool this stuff is!

2. But I really need to use this for a really important project!
Please don't do that. It would be a really really bad idea to use the first public beta for an important project.

3. Can I post bug reports to the forum?
No. I will ignore them. Bug reports must be sent to my support email address.

4. Can I post about my experiences (good and bad) on the forum?
Yes. Please do. Good or bad, everyone wants to know about your experiences.

5. When will there be a REALLY public beta?
Soon. It depends on how well thing go in this expanded, semi-public release go.

6. What kind of new car did you just get.
It's a Mini Convertible. I gave up my Spyder to get four seats for the kiddos. A Mini convertible is my version of settling down. ;-)

I guess I must have run out of features... so that's it then... time to release Blocks 2.0 public beta.

Look for a post tomorrow.

Just like the Accordion beta I'll be asking you to post about YourHead on your blog (or digg or whatever) before you can join in on the beta fun. I'll post more details tomorrow.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #9
As promised, I'm going to explain that image I posted yesterday. Here's the big fact: In Blocks 2.0 there will be a Page Block. A page block allows you to absorb other page from your site into your Blocks layout. This allows you to use the full power of other page types while maintaining the simple layout of Blocks.

Screencast
It's always tough to explain these sorts of features so I thought I'd let you have a look at a complete page build using some of the new features.
Edit: This screencast has been removed because Blocks 2.0 has moved forward. Checkout my screencast area for new Blocks 2.0 demos.

Myth #9
Although it's probably not a big surprise, not every page type can be embedded into a Page Block. Obviously you can't use the "offset page" which just forwards your browser to another page, it's just not really useful. And HTML pages -- because they are actually a bit different internally are also not included -- but there are already HTML blocks, so it's probably no big deal. And of course you cannot put a Blocks page into a Page Block -- mostly because it just makes my head hurt.

Beta Testers
We have more than enough beta testers now. But get your blogs warmed up, the public beta may be coming soon. Just like the Accordion release, I may require a little bit of Blogging as the entrance fee for the download link.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #7
Seven means that I've been at it a week. I can't go much longer, I guess I'll have to release something soon.
The first major feature I told everyone about was, of course, Guides. The other two major additions to Blocks will be additions to the Blocks toolbar. I hinted at these in the RapidWeaver forum. So for those paying close attention: Fact #7 == Hint #10.
In Blocks 2.0 you'll have a new block type: Image Text.
Image Text blocks are a lot like regular Text blocks... until they're published. When they're published all their content is rendered to an image and published to your page. Why is this useful? Well, if you need to use some interesting fonts, want to insure the exact positioning of a title, or want to let PC users experience how nicely a Mac can render text, then an Image Block is exactly what you need.
You can see an example of an image block right on my homepage. The text that says "Say Hello to Accordion" is an Image Text block. Notice the fonts? You can't get fonts like those without some rendering. My screenshot here is right from the Blocks 2.0 edit mode. It's pretty darn close to WYSIWYG.
As a bonus the rendered images can also be 24-bit transparent background PNG -- and of course Blocks adds the Internet Explorer behaviors to your PNG images so that Windows users get to experience your cool design without any degradation.

Myth #7
Although Image Text blocks are very cool, they do have some limitations. Namely, you can't have links. "But why?!" I hear you shout. It's because I have yet to design any sort of image map feature -- which is what you would need to put a small link inside an image. I think that feature will have to wait for Blocks 2.5.

Beta Testers
We have more than enough beta testers now. But get your blogs warmed up, the public beta may be coming soon. Just like the Accordion release, I may require a little bit of Blogging as the entrance fee for the download link.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #6
As some of you know, software is not actually my full time job. I'm really actually a chip designer and that's what pays the bills. So when work calls I have to answer. Tonight I worked late at the real job so todays fact has to be cut a bit short, but I think you'll appreciate it: In Blocks 2.0 the Edit menu will finally behave like a Mac app -- Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear, and Select All will work as they should -- even between pages -- even between documents.

Myth #6
Although you'll be able to cut and paste between blocks there still won't be a way to save a block on it's own or as part of a template. Believe it or not, I did almost a complete version where this was a the main feature -- but in the end it had many interface issues and seemed like a lot more trouble than it was worth. I may continue to work on this sort of thing, but most likely I think I'll leave templates, page copying, and the like up to the main app -- it kind of seems better suited to the issue.

Beta Testers
We have more than enough beta testers now. But get your blogs warmed up, the public beta may be coming soon. Just like the Accordion release, I may require a little bit of Blogging as the entrance fee for the download link. And it had better be soon, I'm running out of new features.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #5
After doing a screencast and giving away one of the big new features, today's fact will be a little less exciting. Instead I'll delve into some of the decisions that go into designing the interface.
Todays fact is: The Margin settings will be more flexible and more accurate. I know, I know, that's probably pretty obvious. Let me demonstrate a little, though, because I think it's actually quite a worthwhile update.
In Blocks 2.0 the margin, border, and size of blocks will much more accurately match their HTML output. This is actually quite a significant shift from Blocks 1.x and some of the other applications that also do Web layout. In most programs, including Blocks 1.x, changing the borders and margins changes the area of the content. So, for example, if you added a 100px image to Blocks 1.2, then added a 10px border, the resulting image would be smaller by 20 pixels.
That's interface is fine -- for everything except the Web. Why? Because in CSS, that is not the case. In Cascading Style Sheets increasing the borders and margins does not change the size of the content -- instead it grows the total size of the block.
In Blocks 1.x, like many layout-esqe Web programs I tried to mimic layout tools and then adjust for the differences "behind the curtain" of the software -- eventually outputting something very close to what you what you saw in edit mode. I'm sure that with enough time, this could yield some pretty descent results, but their is one casualty of the process. It's just not very transparent. Although a A-OK. People were VERY surprised to see that the code did not precisely follow their settings.
So in Blocks 2.0 I'm following the "CSS Box Model" -- well at least mostly. I am keeping one change. Changing the "Margin" setting will actually adjust the CSS property called "padding." I think it's just more friendly to novice users. But everything else is about as precise as it can get. If you put a 10px border with 10px margin around an image, then those are exactly the numbers you'll find in the CSS.
The image I've included here shows the begining image, then with a 10px border, and finally with a 10 pixel margin that lest the background color show through. As you can see, the image stays exactly the same size, but the CSS properties "border" and "padding" are adjusted.

Myth #5
I have not created a magic spell that will make all web browsers display fonts the same. Text in Blocks 2.0 will continue to look quite disimilar just about everywhere you view it. It will look different in edit mode than in preview (mostly because Themes are not displayed in edit mode); it will look different in Preview than in Firefox; Firefox will not look like Safari; Opera will be different still; and one thing is definitely certain -- Internet Explorer on a PC will still make the whole web look ugly. That's just the way it is.
I swear by the simple truth: Unexpected behavior = Bug. I don't like the doublespeak of calling things "issues" or "behaviors." If it doesn't do what you think it should, then well, it should -- so fix it already, it's a bug.
But as with all things, even computers, the world is not quite so binary as bug/no-bug. In the case of heterogeneous browsers, there is another expectation that overrides the expectation of uniformity. The expectation that the web should be usable, no matter what kind of device/OS/browser you're viewing it with. It should work on your cell phone, your TV, your Intel or PPC, everything. Homogeneity would require that we set a lowest common denominator for the web and that everybody saw the web through that filter. We all know how that would end -- we'd all have to use Web TV -- because that is surely the worst browser on the planet.
So what does all this web-philosophy mean? It means that we have to prioritize our expectations and especially as web designers, be flexible to the heterogeneous nature of the web.
1. Design your pages with some extra white space, it will help when someone with poorer eyes increases the font size.
2. Don't expect perfection in every browser when elegant degradation to lesser browsers will suffice.
3. Test your pages on a few browsers, get to know BrowserShots.

Beta Testers
I think I have enough beta testers for the private portion now. Thanks.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #4
Blocks 2.0 will have a lot of minor bug fixes, some great little enhancements, some cool new little features, but that's not why you're reading this blog, is it? Let's get right to the heart of the story, there will be three major new features to Blocks 2.0. Today I'll tell you about one of those new features: Guides. Guides are not life changing (like one of the features will be), and they will not add something slick (like the other major feature will), instead they're more of a, "What the heck took you so long!?" kind of a feature. The answer to that question is, "Because I wanted to do it right." Guides in Blocks work like you expect they should. They appear only when dragging, and dynamically appear and disappear depending on the other item that you're close to. Blocks "snap" to the guides when they get close and if you have a group of blocks selected the guides align to the selection as a whole. And of course you can turn them off, too.

Screencast
I did a quick and dirty screencast showing how easy it is to build a perfectly aligned group of blocks. This screencast is just slapped together. No audio, no titles, no nothin. Zen and the art of the screencast!
Anyway, things to look out for (other than the cool blue guides).
1. Check out how I edit the size of multiple blocks all at once.
2. You can't see my keyboard, but I'm "nudging" with the arrow keys to get that 1px gap just right.
3. Notice the snap-to effect.
4. Opt-Drag to duplicate blocks.
5. Check out how close edit mode vs. preview is. 1px gap is still just 1px.

Here's the screencast.
Edit: This screencast has been removed because Blocks 2.0 has moved forward. Checkout my screencast area for new Blocks 2.0 demos.


Myth #4
Although the guides are nice it would have been nice to have a "distribute" command that would evenly distribute blocks. Not yet. That will be the, "What the heck took you so long!?" feature of Blocks 2.5.

Beta Testers
I think I have enough beta testers for the private portion now. Thanks.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #3
Today's post has to be something simple. We lost power this evening (the ghost of Key Lay is haunting California) so I didn't get a chance to make the cool movie that I had hoped to -- I'll shoot for tomorrow.
So fact #3 is something pretty simple. In Blocks 2.0 you'll be able to specify a specific filename and alt tag for all the image blocks on your page. It's a simple addition but one that's necessary to get the XHTML strict tag. Something I seem to be eternally shooting for.

Myth #3
Blocks will still not have a fluid height. I think I spent maybe two whole weeks researching ways to have absolutely positioned elements (a.k.a blocks) and make the bottom of the page move down by the necessary amount. Unfortunately, just about every method for avoiding this obvious failing of CSS 2.0 boils down to about two tricks: The first is knowing the length of some piece of content (the lowest content on your page) and positioning that content relative or floating. Unfortunately since I don't know what blocks you might place, that trick really doesn't help me. The second is a javascript that adjusts things on the fly. This one has promise, but I just haven't found anything that's nearly bulletproof enough to be plugin-worthy. So if anyone knows a way...

Beta Testers
Before the public beta is released I'll be needing a few private beta testers. Now before you warm up your fingers and fire off an email salvo I'd like put a few criteria on the beta program:
1) You have to have a publicly accessible Blocks page for me to see. This shows that you've used Blocks before and have a website for feeding back any bugs you find.
2) You're using RW3.5 on OS 10.4. For the short term I'd like to keep the testing targeted at the primary audience.
3) You have some sort of chat and aren't afraid to use it. Sometimes it just helps to talk in real time. That's what chat is good for.
So if you're still with me... drop me a line or ping me on iChat.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #2
Yesterday's fact was probably a bit of a letdown. Not much meat there. Today I wanted to show you something that I worked really hard on. But... it's not a new feature. It's really more of a bug fix.
Here it is: In Blocks 2.0 the positioning of new blocks will be much more exact in every way that it can be.
Blocks 1.x wasn't too bad, but there are a few gotchas. For example, changing the margin can change the size of the content -- this can be a little disturbing if you want to keep your images pristine and in their original size. So although it "worked" before, it behaved in unexpected ways.

In my book Unexpected = Bug no matter what.

What You See is What You Get
As you can see from the images (scaled to 75% for your viewing pleasure), even various kinds of blocks positioned with only a 1 pixel gap look exactly the same in both Edit and Preview. This works no matter what the borders/margins/backgrounds are set to and works exactly the same on all block types.


Edit Mode = Content = Code
Although fonts can change from one browser to the next and will look different on different platforms, the same should not be the case for Images and Divs. So my goal was to make sure that if you set some width/height in Edit mode then you should expect that the content will end up exactly that size in the browser and you should find those exact numbers in the HTML code as well. This is trickier than it sounds. It means that I can't use any hidden OS features, it means that I'm not allowed to make things look almost the same, they have to be the same. From the same example above notice that the green download arrow is a scaled image. It started out as image 64x64. I scaled it up to 100x100 to match the other blocks which are also set to exactly 100x100 pixels. You can see from the screenshots: the values from the Block Info window, the CSS from the Code window, and the dimensions of the generated image -- all the same.



Myth #2
Text will not be able to flow from one block to another. Although it's been asked for quite a bit, I'm still unsure that I'll ever work on this feature. I think it would be very difficult to implement and would always be, at best, very strange. The problem is that browsers just don't support flowing text from one column block to another, so the best we could do would be to fake it. Given all the work I've done above to make sure that I'm NOT faking it, it's pretty easy to see how distasteful that is to me. So for now (and probably for a long time) there will be no flowing.

Beta Testers
Before the public beta is released I'll be needing a few private beta testers. Now before you warm up your fingers and fire off an email salvo I'd like put a few criteria on the beta program:
1) You have to have a publicly accessible Blocks page for me to see. This shows that you've used Blocks before and have a website for feeding back any bugs you find.
2) You're using RW3.5 on OS 10.4. For the short term I'd like to keep the testing targeted at the primary audience.
3) You have some sort of chat and aren't afraid to use it. Sometimes it just helps to talk in real time. That's what chat is good for.
So if you're still with me... drop me a line or ping me on iChat.

Each day until I release a beta I'll release a little more info about Blocks 2.0. In each post I'll let you in on one new feature and dispel one myth. When I run out of new features to tell you about, I'll release a beta. This way I'll either have to release something soon or add a lot of new features -- either way you win.

Fact #1
We'll start with a simple feature, but one that I'm sure you'll find useful. In Blocks 2.0 the Stroke (that's the fancy-shmancy term for a border) will be adjustable on all sides. I know, I know, this isn't exactly a huge new feature, but it's a solid 2.0 refinement and one that I know will make the cut. So on day one, I'm afraid, that's all you get.

Myth #1
Earlier today I posted on the RapidWeaver forums that blocks would not be rotatable. That should have also hinted at this myth. I won't be supporting the Media Inspector with Blocks 2.0. Don't get me wrong, I think it's the right thing to do, but there are a lot of challenges to supporting the Media Inspector in Blocks and it would have taken a huge amount of time. In order to get some of the bigger features in, this one had to come out. Sometimes you have to prioritize. Perhaps Media Inspector support will make the cut for 2.5, who knows.

Beta Testers
Before the public beta is released I'll be needing a few private beta testers. Now before you warm up your fingers and fire off an email salvo I'd like put a few criteria on the beta program:
1) You have to have a publicly accessible Blocks page for me to see. This shows that you've used Blocks before and have a website for feeding back any bugs you find.
2) You're using RW3.5 on OS 10.4. For the short term I'd like to keep the testing targeted at the primary audience.
3) You have some sort of chat and aren't afraid to use it. Sometimes it just helps to talk in real time. That's what chat is good for.
So if you're still with me... drop me a line or ping me on iChat.

Matthew Graves sent in a nice example Accordion. Get yourself over to the Accordion Examples section and bask in it's simplicity. Then go check out Matt's page and send him some nice thoughts.