User blog:SlyCooperFan1/Acepedia Update: Fluid Layout

Aces, Project Darwin has arrived! This has been something in the works by Wikia for a long time, and it's finally happened. Yes, indeed, you are looking at the new Fluid Layout of the Wikia skin!

Wait, what?
Okay, okay. You know how the Monobook theme made use of the entire page? But the Wikia skin had all of this space on the left and right for a background. This means that all of the content in the middle had to be squished. It was one of the reasons that many wikis left Wikia for other software providers.

That has all changed. Now, no matter what screen resolution you're on, and even if you're using a tablet, Acepedia (and all other wikis on Wikipedia) will adjust according to your screen!

It's a kind of odd change. It doesn't happen often on many websites, because most websites these days are built this way anyway. Wikia has required this kind of update in a long time.

So what's really changed?

 * The content area (the section you're reading right now) is wider on most screens and smaller on some older monitors.
 * Tablets are now fully supported.
 * The right sidebar is now a little smaller. It's not much of a change, but it's still noticable.
 * Protostealth did point something out that I suspected but didn't fully confirm until now. The font of the wiki has also changed. I don't know what it used to be, but I like it how it is now.
 * When you edit a page and you preview your changes, you can select from a dropdown at the top to view the page in minimum width, maximum width, and current width, so you know what the page will look like and if it needs any changes to make it look just right on all widths.

How will this affect Acepedia?
The Main Page is still well under construction, and I'm still working on ways to improve it. The release of Fluid Layout will definitely ask of me to fill out the content area as much as possible.

Wiki articles are now going to be a little different. Remember how we wouldn't dare put a picture on the left and a picture on the right on the same line? It would squish the text way too much. Now that's not as much of a problem! I'm hoping to add more pictures to more articles and have them presented on both the left and right, so keep an open mind on the positioning of pictures! Not everything belongs on the right anymore. :)

Templates are definitely changing now. Up until now, we've had templates at very low widths (275px or below) because of fear that it would fill up too much of the content area. This is changing now. Starting now, templates are going to be percentage-based. However, there is a natural problem with this... what size do we put for images in templates? Well, this will be a work in progress, and will require trial and error. I'm working with the video game infobox template as well as the Infinity page to test the effects and see what will work best.

Griswall?
Yeah, I decided to update the background of Acepedia during this as well. You can see Griswall decorated for the holiday season, with the Gaiuss Tower on the left and a large Christmas tree on the right. The image is courtesy of Ace Combat X. :)