andreasviklund.com

Hey, sorry for the days of silence! I'll skip the long and boring explaination and jump to the more interesting part, the "what happens now" part.

I have just uploaded a new version of my old andreas01 template, called v2.0. It has several improvements that I have been planning to add for a long time, and I recommend you to check it out! Some of the news:

• - Completely reviewed and refreshed code. Still not perfect, but a bit better.
• - The menu now supports sub-pages through nested lists.
• - The bug that made long menu links break is fixed.
• - A 2-column layout is included. This was the #1 most common feature request.

Click the screenshot to download andreas01 v2.0!

As requested, the template validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS2 with no errors or warnings. It passes the regular accessibility tests (it is Section 508 OK), but it has no "skip to:" menu and no accesskey support yet. I may possibly add that in the next update, along with a commented tutorial version of the template for those of you who want to learn from my way of building templates. What I know for sure is that I will upload new versions of all templates during the next couple of hours. But in most cases it is just a matter of bugfixes and minor changes so I won't write about the other updates here. If you want to see what is new in your favorite template, just download it and look around. Remember that feedback is always very welcome and very appreciated.

I have already ported andreas01 v2.0 into a theme for WordPress, complete with Widget support and some useful features. As soon as I have uploaded all updated templates, I'll release the theme. If anyone want to make a final test of it before the release, just send me an e-mail and I'll send you the theme back. Ports for other blogs and content management systems are very welcome. I recommend send me an e-mail before you start working on a port or conversion, just in case someone else has already started working on the same thing.

And finally: Dandyna, are you completely focused on the championship finals on Sunday or would you still want that template to play with?

Edit: Remember my post about blog value? Take a look at the current number! My offer is still on: I'll sell this site for a third of the estimated value at anytime. Two months ago that meant a price of $700.000. Today it is $1.600.000! Imagine what a great investment it would have been to buy it two months ago!

Not that the numbers have nothing to do with reality, but it is still fun!

Luka Cvrk, the brilliant designer and coder of Solucija.com (creators of the sNews CMS) has released a new free website template in his well-known "Internet" series! The new template is called "Internet Music", and the filler content was really a happy surprise! Just like me, Luka is also a music producer making electronic dance music. If you look closely on the links in the template you can download one of his songs called "Last night" which is really good in my opinion.

If you like "Internet Music" I strongly recommend you to visit the CSS templates section of Luka's site to see the entire "Internet" series and some classic designs like "Modern World" and "Happy Blog". But I'm still hoping to see a MP3 archive section on your site, Luka!

Aran and Pat has done it again! A new open source website template called Nautica05 has been released on the Studio7Designs website, and it is both pretty and professionally coded. As an added bonus, the template includes several layout variations - including form styling. Nice work, as always! It will be interesting to see what comes up next…

A new version of the brilliant CSS editor Style Master has been released! The new version (v4.5) adds more fresh features that makes it very useful for anyone who work with stylesheets. I use it every day since I consider Style Master to be the best CSS editor of them all, and that makes it a true pleasure to announce that the new version of Style Master includes all my free templates - including a previously unreleased template that was originally made for my employer, Jokkmokk.biz (which I am redesigning over the next couple of days).

The full version of Style Master costs from $59.99, but there is of course a free demo version that you can try out for 30 days. Give it a try! Chances are big that you'll fall in love with it, like I did. If you don't, then you haven't lost anything - and you have still got a few templates to play with. If you try the demo, please let me know what you think of the new Jokkmokk template. I will make it available here too, but I will wait for the initial feedback and fix any errors that are found.

Time for a quick overview of numbers. I know that the internet is big and that numbers can go wild. I also know that statistics are mostly not interesting to read about, but you'll have to forgive me this time. These numbers are such an inspiration to me that I need to have them written down somewhere.

Yesterday I reached 100.000 template downloads on OSWD.org. I am probably not the first designer to reach that number, but it is still amazing. The total number of downloads from the three primary download locations (my site, OSWD.org and OpenWebDesign) is now over 500.000. And the first template I released, andreas01, is one of the most downloaded website templates in the world with more than 200.000 downloads since the release nine months ago.

The fact that 191.000 of the websites that are using my templates (or CMS/blog themes based on my templates) have been kind enough to leave the little link back to my site (confirmed by Silktide SiteScore) gives a hint that the actual download number may be even higher.

But I do have a point too. These numbers are still not my main source of inspiration. Numbers doesn't make the templates better, there are still many things that could be improved. And just like nine months ago when I decided to release my first template, my main source of inspiration for learning more is the open source template scene and all the amazing designers who give away absolutely fantastic designs for free. I still have a lot to learn, but the open source template scene offers many great designers to learn from. And, of course, full freedom to use the templates in any way you want to. For free.

Want to find out more? Then you should visit the two major template sites, OpenWebDesign.org and OSWD.org, to see what it is all about.

Edit: Pushed this back a day to keep the Reboot post on top. The order will be restored in a few days.