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Some Tips and Links to Personalize your Blog Template

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 10 months ago


 

 

Before you begin

 

  • Create a practice blog to experiment
  • Before making any changes, copy and paste your template on a text file (use your word processor or any text editor) and save it (just in case!). Even if you make a mess of it, you will be able to restore your template back to the previous state.

 

Understanding the code

(not essential but advisable)

 

 

  • Study the code. You may want to print it. Identify the two main parts of it. The first half is the "style sheet". It is what makes the blog look as it does. It has to do with colours, shapes, fonts, etc. Scroll down through the code. You will spot the <body>tag. Here begins the area where you can paste HTML code to add logos, slideshows, clocks, and whatever add-ons you like.
  • Make sure you identify the main areas in the body area: HEADER, MAIN (post and comments), SIDEBAR (profile container, links, archives) and FOOTER.

 

Changing the sidebar

 

  • Locate the Sidebar area. This is where the Links are.
  • If you wish to add a widget or image to the sidebar, be careful to check its width. If the object is wider than the sidebar, the latter will be pushed down to the bottom of the blog. You can change length and width (ex.: WIDTH="200"HEIGHT="112") to make your add-on fit into the available space.

 

 

Saving the changes

 

  • Always preview the edits you make. Take into account though, that previews may differ slightly from the way the blog will look like.
  • If the preview image is OK, hit "Save template changes." If it is not, click on "Clear edits." This will erase all the code you have introduced.
  • After republishing your blog, you will want to see the new look of your blog. To view the changes, remember to refresh the page.

 

Ready-made templates

(Check if they are available for the New Blogger or the blog provider you use)

 

 

 

Reading

The new version of Blogger (http://buzz.blogger.com/2006/12/new-version-of-blogger.html#links)

 

What is a widget?  by Mary Hillis

There are plugins for blogs and examples are like translators, RSS Aggregators, securtiy/anti-spamming, etc. (I guess because these new systems connect to the existing system)

 

Here is a definition for widget that I thought was really clear. "Widgets are fun, useful mini-applications that help you do everyday tasks." The article goes on to say that some widgets "are linked with their full-featured applications ... and let you quickly access essential information. With other widgets (such as Weather), you have information at your fingertips without having to open a web browser or other application."

 

That makes sense because some blog widgets, like MyBlogLog widget just gives you the essential info of the latest visitors to your blog, and you can connect to the MyBlogLog site (full-featured app) if you want to. Then, other widgets like clocks, chat widget, weather widget, etc. allow you to do something right there in the blog, without opening another application. (Mary Hillis)

Source: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh2185.html

 

Where can you get widgets and how can you add them?  by Karim

All those cool features that you see on the left bar of 'mydearstudents'are very easy to add. In fact, the way I learned to do that is by observing other people's educational blogs, and click on any interesting feature, and it would link me to the site that provides those widgets which can be freely embedded (attached) to your blog. For instance, the site that provides the slide show of my students' photos is www.slide.com . If you click on any of the slide shows, it will take you to the site where you can create you albums, copy the html code and paste it to your blog.

The question now is how to paste the code and whether you are allowed to modify it or not so as to change the size for example.

When you sign in to your blog which is what you have to do in order to post your messages, you go to the "dashboard". Here you can manage 3 things:

 

1. Posts 2. Settings 3. Layout

 

Click on “layout” and you'll be taken to the place where you can edit your page elements, Fonts and colors or even change the template (change how your blog looks)

 

You are under page elements and that's where you edit and add new things.

For example you copied the code for you slide show or for the hangman which will look like this:

 

 

 

<!--Hangman by TheFreeDictionary.com-->http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/hangman.aspx?#xCCCCFF,x000066,x000000,12pt,'Times New Roman'"></iframe>

<div style="width:200px;position:relative;background-color:#CCCCFF;padding:4px">

<div style="font:bold 14pt 'Times New Roman';color:#330099">Hangman</div>

<style>

#Hangman {border:1px #DDB7BA solid;background-color:#CCCCFF;height:240px}

</style>

<iframe id="Hangman" scrolling="no" width="100%" frameborder="0" src="

<div style="font:normal 10pt 'Times New Roman';color:#000066"></div></div>

 

 

 

Copy this code and paste it.

Where?

Good question.

Click on "add a page element"A new window opens: "add a new page element"Go to "HTML/JavaScript" and click on "add to Blog"

 

 

 

A new window opens

Under "title" write "Hangman" for example and under “content", paste the html code

 

This procedure can be repeated each time you obtain an html code from a provider of a widget or a feature that you want to add to your blog.

 

 

 

 

Widgets for your blog

 

 

 

What add-ons are available for Blogger?

There are all sorts of things you can add to your blog to make it more entertaining, more useful, or just more added-on-to. You can add a guestbook, or a tagboard, or a hit counter, or any number of other things, even ones we haven't thought of. Read more 

 

 

Badges

 

Bookmarks

 

 

 

Clocks

 

 

Chats

 

 

Counters

 

 

Dictionaries

 

 

Forums

Cocomment (http://www.cocomment.com/Learn more 

 

 

Graphics

 

 

Guestmaps

 

 

Music

 

 

Notes

 

Polls

 

 

Quotes

 

 

Slideshows

 

 

Text-to-Speech Tools

 

 

Translators

 

 

Voice Notes

 

 

Weather 

 

 

Widget Galleries

 

 

Word Games

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