Update Information: 1.0-2.9

2.9 (3.0 Beta)

February 14th 2016

Beta changelog:

Beta 1:

  • Sidebar changed to white.

  • Site background changed.

  • Taskbar removed.

Beta 2:

  • Entirely new design.

  • Bondi blue color scheme with white accents.

  • Pages are now wider than before.

  • Home button on taskbar.

  • Updated logo.

  • Taskbar is back, with a new background.

  • Refined shades of blue.

Beta 3:

  • New sidebar icons, arranged in a list rather than a grid.

  • Dates and validation buttons removed from pages.

  • Pages updated to match new visual style.

  • New logo and taskbar buttons to match.

  • New icons.

  • Home page grid adjusted.

  • Directory, gallery, and mobile site removed.

2.8.1

February 14th 2016

Changes:

Bug fixes:

  • Back buttons on gallery pages are fixed. For real this time.

OpenBooks XP Service Pack 3 (2.8)

February 13th 2016

Changes:

Home page update

  • News ticker removed.

  • 2 column layout.

  • Featured site added.

  • Recently and News section added, providing links to recent content on OpenBooks or in the Network Neighborhood.

  • Links to other Marin Exley sites added.

Visual Style Update 2.1.1

  • Taskbar background changed to Zune Style.

  • Home page logo changed colors updated to Zune Style.

  • All text now has a shadow to improve readability on light backgrounds.

  • Shadows opacity reduced overall.

  • New home page background.

  • Guestbook theme has been updated.

Bug fixes

  • Taskbar no longer scrolls.

  • Scrollbars in Webring buttons removed.

  • Back button on gallery pages fixed.

  • Search link on home page fixed.

Other changes

  • Guestbook buttton changed to link.

  • Refined shades of blue.

Release changes

This is the last version of OpenBooks XP. OpenBooks 2.9 Beta is now available for testing, but development has only recently started and so much of it is broken. A link has been added to the homepage to test it. All releases until 2.9 will be labeled as 2.8.X releases. 2.9 is the beta version of 3.0, which is planned to be launched in April, 6 months from 2.0's release. This is why OpenBooks XP SP3 (2.8) is called the 'Final Edition'. This is not the last version of OpenBooks, it's just the last release of the 2.X series.

OpenBooks XP Service Pack 2 (2.7)

February 7th 2016

Changes:

Visual Style Update 2.1

  • Taskbar background changed to Media Center Style.

  • Webring buttons relocated to taskbar.

  • Sidebar icons changed to XP style.

  • Sidebar font now matches the rest of the site.

  • Sidebar logo is now antialiased.

  • Articles page is now XP style.

  • Refined shades of blue.

  • Minor visual tweaks.

Main Page Updates

  • Background image has been changed.

  • Section header have been added.

  • Content has been reorganized.

OpenBooks XP Service Pack 1 (2.6)

February 5th 2016

Continues with the visual tweaks from 2.5.

Changes:

  • The search page is now completely deprecated.

  • The Midis page is now known as Music.

  • The sidebar has been tweaked, and some icons have been removed.

  • Minor visual tweaks and gradients.

  • Home page icons have been reordered.

  • Start page added.

OpenBooks XP (2.5)

January 7th 2016

OpenBooks XP improves upon the existing open source OpenBooks 2.4 base.

Changes:

Visual Style Update 2.0

  • The homepage logo and sidebar logo have been updated.

  • The sidebar background now features a gradient image.

  • The main toolbar now features Windows XP style buttons and gradients.

  • A favicon has been added.

  • Backgrounds no longer scroll with the page content.

  • Shadows have been added to various elements.

  • Page backgrounds are now darker in the content area.

  • The homepage background has been updated.

  • The midis page now features a new color scheme.

  • Category titles on the downloads page are now centered.

  • Refined shades of blue.

  • Site now uses cursors from Windows XP.

  • The main font has been changed to Tahoma.

  • Updates page background has been updated.

  • About page background has been updated.

  • Minor visual tweaks.

Main

  • A new links section has been added below the navigation area.

OpenBooks Mobile

  • OpenBooks Mobile Alpha is now accessible from the home page.

Gallery

  • New gallery folders have been added for desktop wallpapers.

  • Back buttons have been added to gallery folders.

  • The gallery now contains default desktop wallpapers from Windows and Mac OS.

About

  • The about page has been rewritten.

Other Changes

  • The blogs page has been updated with a new featured blog and new blog post.

  • VHSearch integration has been discontinued.

  • Tweaks to underlying code.

  • Time machine to site 1.8 has been removed.

2.4

November 26th 2015

OpenBooks 2.4 introduces a number of changes.

Changes:

  • We've gone open source on GitHub.

  • Logos have been updated to reflect new branding.

  • iOS web app icons now have a solid white background.

  • A new Welcome section has been added to the home page.

Downloads

  • Downloads are now hosted on Dropbox.

  • Inaccurate file sizes have been corrected.

  • Folder icons have been added. Also added to Midis page.

Directory

  • External links are now properly indicated.

2.3.1

November 12th 2015

Updated blogs page.

2.3

November 11th 2015

OpenBooks 2.3 adds many features that were planned for earlier releases.

Changes:

  • Network Neighborhood webring navigation buttons have been added to the home page.

  • A new email button has been added to the home page.

  • The not found page has been redesigned. Hopefully you'll never see it.

  • A link has been added to the bottom of the home page which leads to the new My Computers page.

  • A My Computers page has been added, which lists the hardware I use and the vintage comptuer in my collection.

  • The Midis page has been redesigned with category-based browsing.

  • The Downloads page now includes category-based browsing.

  • Minor tweaks have been made to the site's CSS.

Minor bugs were also fixed in this update.

OpenBooks 2.3 also starts a temporary rolling release schedule in order to lay the groundwork for changes down the road, in which some changes may be made in between updates and will not be documented on this page until the next major update.

2.2

November 8th 2015

OpenBooks 2.2 - The Validation Update

Changes:

  • All of OpenBooks has been validated as XHTML 1.0 and CSS3.

  • The blink and marquee elements have been removed from the home page.

  • VHSearch Integration has been updated to version 0.2 to comply with valid XHTML.

  • Valid XHTML buttons have been added to each page.

2.1

November 5th 2015

OpenBooks 2.1 builds on top of 2.0.

Changes:

OpenBooks 2.1 includes Visual Update Pack 1.0

  • The space background returns from version 1.8.

  • The updates bar now displays a scrolling marquee. In addition, a new logo animation is being tested.

  • The under construction pages have been updated with a bouncing construction sign.

  • The Downloads page now displays a different background image.

  • The Blogs page now displays a different background image.

New Features:

  • Articles Beta is now ready. The first article has been published.

2.0.1

October 9th 2015

Bug fixes

  • Colors now render properly in Internet Explorer.

2.0

October 9th 2015

OpenBooks has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. Previously, Adobe Dreamweaver was used to develop ChromeBooks, but the site has been rewritten by hand using Visual Studio Code, an free cross platform text editor from Microsoft, based on Atom.

Here is the complete list of changes:

Core Site Updates

  • OpenBooks Logo has been updated, and now features brighter colors and gradients.

  • The navigation sidebar has been redesigned to include links and icons for the site's main functions.

  • The homepage contains a new logo, a VHSearch search box, and links to the site's main functions with descriptions.

  • A new toolbar has been added to the top of the site, and the navigation buttons have been relocated there.

  • All pages utilize a consistent design motif with similar backgrounds and page layouts.

  • Page contented is now centered, so using a monitor larger than 800x600 feels lesss awkward now.

Search

  • The search features an integrated VHSearch web module.

  • Includes complete functionality found on vhs.neocities.org.

Directory

  • Currently, the directory page is still being developed.

  • The directory features curated links to the best places on Neocities and the web.

  • Links are organized in categories based on the type of content you'll find there.

Blogs

  • Contains the official OpenBooks blog.

  • Featured Blogs section links to other blogs on Neocities and the web.

Articles

  • Editorials, reviews, and other articles will be featured here.

  • Articles can also be submitted via email.

Midis

  • The midis section has an updated design.

  • The information section has been relocated to the top of the page.

Gallery

  • As of today, this page is somewhat empty.

Downloads

  • The downloads page has been updated to reflect the new design of the site.

About

  • The about section now features information on OpenBooks.

  • History section added.

  • Information on Marin Exley, the creator of OpenBooks, has been added.

Misc. Changes

  • All pages include display a "Last Updated" date at the bottom of the page.

  • External links now display a small indicator icon, as well as a mail icon for mailto links.

Pre-2.0 Updates

September 27th 2015 - Site down for maintenance, OpenBooks 2.0 enters development.

June 25th 2015 - I'm not dead! Life has been... busy. It's been a long time, but I'm glad to be back. I've changed some things around a bit on the site, had a bit of an aesthetic overhaul. It's more Windows NT now than Windows 98.

September 19th 2014 - 2000 hits reached! Thank you!

September 14th 2014 - reworked midis page. changed sidebar buttons. added html tutorial link. download page added. gifs page added. New news ticker has been added. Site updates have moved to a separate page.

September 13th 2014 - added a background to the blog page. new home button. new logo. i think it's pretty nice. added some new midis! edited about page with new backgrouns image and contact info.

September 12th 2014 - this is a website now. visit it. send it to your friends. it's cool. i promise. would i lie to you? maybe. update: added guestbook.