Wait, is this 'Create Entries' page going to replace the normal 'Post an Entry' page? (It's the first I had heard of it...)
I'm using a basic non-JavaScript-enabled browser, and I'm afraid the new design is a massive backwards step in terms of accessibility, the major issue being that the actual text entry area(?) is tiny compared to the old one. It's only three lines high, which makes composing an entry something like trying to view your text through a letterbox (just like the comments box I'm trying to type into right now...) I'm assuming that the single-line text icon above that is supposed to be the Subject box but there is no visible label. On the other hand, somehow the tags icon is now a big box with a large-size font that is literally the *same size* as the text entry area, instead of being a small single-line text icon underneath it.
The headings in the sidebar are now collapsed and presumably rely on JavaScript to open them, which means that without JS I can no longer access any of those links. (I can click on them to open a new window and then select the sub-entry from that, but without being able to view the expanded list I can't actually tell *which* collapsed heading enables me to display recent comments, for example -- I never memorised the list organization!)
I managed to restore the ability to amend the date and time (and the Don't Show on Reading Pages option for backdated entries) using the new and obtrusively large Settings link, but like everything else it's huge; all the text has got larger in what feels like a smaller space, which means lots of scrolling. I think this design is probably designed for use on a mobile phone display.
I can't 'move around the individual panels' by dragging them in the settings window, but I wouldn't expect that to work without all the browser bells and whistles. Likewise 'Use minimal animations' makes no difference on a browser that isn't using *any* animations that I'm aware of when displaying Dreamwidth pages!
Selecting 'Column alongside entry text' in the entry form options didn't appear to change anything, although I wanted the entry text space to get relatively larger rather than smaller so wasn't very optimistic about that one anyway. (In my desktop it's not normal for the browser window to take over the entire screen; standard practice is to run several portrait-shaped windows for different programs rather than single-tasking in a single landscape sized window. But I tried resizing the window to fill the entire 1600 x 900 display, and it didn't change anything, other than creating a lot of extra white space next to the comment settings and Age restriction panels).
Meanwhile the helpful composition links to site-specific markup tags and supported HTML that used to sit alongside the small date/icon selection icons have vanished. Yes, I do still have to look up the syntax every time I want to link to a specific DW user, or to an external account...
The Preview icon doesn't seem to do anything when I click on it, but I didn't have one before and can live happily without it.
On testing I did manage to create a short post, and was subsequently able to edit and delete it, so the new version won't keep me from being able to use the site altogether. It will be a considerably more arduous experience and a rather less pleasant user interface, but the real killer is the enormously shrunken text entry area; the new one is, at an estimate, approximately one-fifth the size of the old one. (In fact, on testing, the old one turns out to display seventeen full lines of text as versus the three on the new-style display.)
no subject
I'm using a basic non-JavaScript-enabled browser, and I'm afraid the new design is a massive backwards step in terms of accessibility, the major issue being that the actual text entry area(?) is tiny compared to the old one. It's only three lines high, which makes composing an entry something like trying to view your text through a letterbox (just like the comments box I'm trying to type into right now...) I'm assuming that the single-line text icon above that is supposed to be the Subject box but there is no visible label. On the other hand, somehow the tags icon is now a big box with a large-size font that is literally the *same size* as the text entry area, instead of being a small single-line text icon underneath it.
The headings in the sidebar are now collapsed and presumably rely on JavaScript to open them, which means that without JS I can no longer access any of those links. (I can click on them to open a new window and then select the sub-entry from that, but without being able to view the expanded list I can't actually tell *which* collapsed heading enables me to display recent comments, for example -- I never memorised the list organization!)
I managed to restore the ability to amend the date and time (and the Don't Show on Reading Pages option for backdated entries) using the new and obtrusively large Settings link, but like everything else it's huge; all the text has got larger in what feels like a smaller space, which means lots of scrolling. I think this design is probably designed for use on a mobile phone display.
I can't 'move around the individual panels' by dragging them in the settings window, but I wouldn't expect that to work without all the browser bells and whistles. Likewise 'Use minimal animations' makes no difference on a browser that isn't using *any* animations that I'm aware of when displaying Dreamwidth pages!
Selecting 'Column alongside entry text' in the entry form options didn't appear to change anything, although I wanted the entry text space to get relatively larger rather than smaller so wasn't very optimistic about that one anyway. (In my desktop it's not normal for the browser window to take over the entire screen; standard practice is to run several portrait-shaped windows for different programs rather than single-tasking in a single landscape sized window. But I tried resizing the window to fill the entire 1600 x 900 display, and it didn't change anything, other than creating a lot of extra white space next to the comment settings and Age restriction panels).
Meanwhile the helpful composition links to site-specific markup tags and supported HTML that used to sit alongside the small date/icon selection icons have vanished. Yes, I do still have to look up the syntax every time I want to link to a specific DW user, or to an external account...
The Preview icon doesn't seem to do anything when I click on it, but I didn't have one before and can live happily without it.
On testing I did manage to create a short post, and was subsequently able to edit and delete it, so the new version won't keep me from being able to use the site altogether. It will be a considerably more arduous experience and a rather less pleasant user interface, but the real killer is the enormously shrunken text entry area; the new one is, at an estimate, approximately one-fifth the size of the old one. (In fact, on testing, the old one turns out to display seventeen full lines of text as versus the three on the new-style display.)