David Has Left The Stage …

David
McMahonhas left the stage. David has abandoned blogland (authorblog) to concentrate on his writing. The last I heard from him he had submitted his second novel to the publishers and was quite a way through the second novel!

No, you didn’t read that wrong. Nor did I mistype it.

His second novel was to be 'The Jadhu Master', but it looks like his publishers managed to convince him that he should complete his THIRD novel, 'Muskoka Maharani' ahead of schedule, which he obligingly did.

And we all know how obliging he can be!

This post is to update regular visitors to his site that one of his featured articles, "The Sunday Roast" will not now succumb to his departure.

The good news is that fellow blogger, Eddie Bluelights of Clouds and Silvery Linings will be picking up where David left off (at David's request I might add), and will continue this feature starting mid-October.

I have bookmarked Eddie's site so that I can follow the feature. Why don't you do the same?

 

Catch you later …

 

 

Backlinks ...

From: Lee
To: Terry Fletcher; David McMahon
Subject: Backlinks ...

Hi Terry

I came over here at David's suggestion. He wrote a post asking for responses on our own blogs and also asking for backlinks. I responded but when I read the description of how to do a backlink on New Blogger it made absolutely no sense. I do have them enabled. We were wondering if you could explain how they happen and work.

Things I don't understand are which end to start from and how to make it happen in the post, if that is even possible.

Thanks & Peace!

Lee

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I've never used the "Backlinks" feature in NEW-Blogger, but I couldn't see what the problem could be. So I decided to find a post and link to it. This has got to be an easy one, yeah?

Hmmmm... Bummer!

Tried it FROM; tried it TO; tried it OLD; tried it NEW (hey, that rhymes!). No way, Jose. All I got was a 'New Post' on my Blog, and that wasn't what I, or Lee, or David, wanted. Time to start hunting for a solution from the Guru's on the web. Much good stuff out there, but it all seemed to fall into the usual 'techy-trap' of assuming that everybody knew the basics. They also seemed to concentrate on the "NEW-Blogger Beta", which I assume is when the feature first surfaced. Nada, nada, nada about the current NEW-Blogger that we are all using.

Other, real-life matters intruded, and since time was obviously of the essence I emailed Lee and David and grudgingly admitted defeat. But I promised to continue investigating. As I said in a previous post, "You win some; you lose some!", but it shouldn't be that way. Help should be easily available and just as easily understood.

There is a happy ending, though. More information in the next post ...

 

Change Your Header - NEW Blogger

NEW Blogger instructions, probably for the majority of users, and probably the one that will interest most of the visitors to this site looking for simple instructions on how to change a 'Header' or 'Banner'.

Have you got your image ready? Is the image width set to the width of your current template? Please remember I am dealing specifically with 'Rounders-3' and 'Rounders-4', and in those the width of the image is the same as the width of the template - 740 pixels. The height of the image is what you choose to make it, but I suggest 150 pixels for a balanced display.

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1. Backup your old template. Either by using the built-in backup feature in Blogger, or by copy/pasting it to a text editor of your choice, and saving it in a location you can find easily and with a name that makes sense to you!

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2. Clicking on 'Customise' on your main page, or 'Layout' on your Dashboard will bring you to the "Add and Arrange Page Elements" of the 'Template' tab. This is the new feature of NEW-Blogger in which you can literally 'drag-and-drop' modules wherever you wish. The one we are interested in is the 'Header' panel at the top:

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3. When you click on 'Edit' (see pic on top) it takes you to a new window in which you are asked to make a few choices. I have annotated the choices you should make so I won't reiterate them here:

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4. Nearly done - but not quite! Those pesky codes in the /* Blog Header still need to be changed so that the image will sit exactly where you want it, centred at the top of the page. It is exactly the same criteria that was edited in OLD-Blogger, so take a look at the graphic below and do the editing . . .

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That's it. You wanted more?

The examples for this sort of editing are all around you. The banner header on this site was inserted using exactly the same editing techniques. The banner header on David McMahon's blog (using the Rounders-3 template), and the banner header on Cecilia Mercado's blog, Dance with the Sun (using the Rounders-4 template), were also edited using the same instructions I've posted above.

If things don't work out first time, just restore the site to the way it was by using the saved template you copied before you started. Then e-mail me directly and I will visit your site and see what I can do for you. Don't forget to add as much information about what went wrong.

Over to you . . .

 

Change Your Header - OLD Blogger

OLD Blogger instructions. Here we go. Please bear in mind that this will come in two parts - OLD and NEW-Blogger. Why? Because I hacked away at both, and it would be a waste if I didn't at least mention OLD-Blogger for some 'peeps' who are still using it.

So, before we get down and dirty with the template changes, have you got your image ready? You probably have or you wouldn't be interested in attempting to change it. Make sure that the image is the width of your current template. In 'Rounders-3' and 'Rounders-4' the width of the image is the same as the width of the template - 740 pixels. The height is whatever you want it to be, but I suggest 150 pixels for a balanced display.

The following is the picture I settled on after much editing in Photoshop. You will see a screen-caliper I use as an aid when 'measuring' stuff for the web and it clearly shows that the width of the picture is 740 pixels. Measuring things using the 'artists thumb' method isn't much good for web design. It has to be precise or your display will look shoddy!

OK, we have the replacement ready so let's go see what we need to attack. Once again, please let me remind you that this is OLD-Blogger that we are working on. If you want the information for NEW-Blogger, read the post that follows this one.

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1. Backup your old template. Either by using the built-in backup feature in Blogger, or by copy/pasting it to a text editor of your choice, and saving it in a location you can find easily and with a name that makes sense to you!

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2. Upload your image so that it gets to lodge itself on Blogger's servers, because you're going to have to call it up during the editing process. You can do this in a new draft post that you won't be publishing:

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3. The highlighted bit is what you need when replacing the template's own image. The rest is superfluous:

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4. Now choose the 'Template' tab and choose to 'Edit HTML' (if you're still reading this and you are a NEW-Blogger user, please note the differences in the options offered to you). Follow the instructions in the graphic below:

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5. And here are the changes:

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6. Still in the 'Edit HTML' window, find <!-- Blog Header --> and delete the bits that I've highlighted. This is so that the 'Blog Title' and 'Blog Description' don't show up over (or through) your carefully constructed graphic!

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7. That should have been all you needed to do, but when I made the changes to David's blog, one of his visitors commented that the 'link' that the original header provided back to the home page of the blog was now broken, and that she found it disconcerting that clicking on the new banner didn't take her anywhere! That's the strength of 'feedback', that a simple oversight made a visitor's browsing experience less than satisfactory. So I went back in and did another small change that the next couple of graphics describe. I would recommend that you do it as well. This graphic shows what needs to be edited . . .

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8. And this graphic shows it after it has been edited . . .

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That's all folks. If you haven't already done so, take a wander across to David McMahon's blog. What you see is precisely what was achieved editing his banner while he was still using OLD-Blogger.

He is, of course, now using NEW-Blogger. Which means I can use his site as an example for the 'tute' on changing things in NEW-Blogger as well. Watch out for the next post . . .

 

Own It . . . !!

There are millions of bloggers, using various blogger engines, which means there are millions of templates in use. And your template of choice is going to end up being similar to many thousands of others.

So what's so terrible about that? Absolutely nothing!

The templates have been crafted with love and care and enthusiasm, and have been made available to all blog users - FREE of charge. But you can make it your own - "Own It!" - by changing only a few parameters. The colour combination for one thing; the banner header for another.

Any change you undertake will make your template UNIQUE. The base template will remain the same as the thousands of other, similar templates, but it will have your personal touch stamped all over it. Which will tell your visitors that you care. Not just about the content, but how you wish to serve up the dish!

What you have to say on your Blog, the most important part, is still your own unique footprint on the web. Don't ignore the fact that the container in which you display it is also within your remit for change.

David McMahon posted a series of three pictures of the sunset on his shortest day of the year on his authorblog a few days ago. Apart from the phenomenom that Oz was experiencing their shortest day whilst the rest of us in the northern hemisphere were 'clebrating' the longest day, the pictures were of the usual high quality one expects from the man. I marvelled at the images he had captured and then a blindingly obvious thought struck me. Those pictures, untouched, matched the overall colour scheme of his 'Rounders 3' template. I wondered how one of those might look if it could be used as a banner for his site.

Long story, short. I fiddled around in Photoshop and came up with something I thought might appeal to him. I was still hesitant, but after a bit of encouragement from my 'better-half', Maria, I forwarded the idea to David. In true McMahon fashion (and I won't repeat the Aussie expletives from his email) he was delighted and enthusiastic and said he'd incorporate the idea as soon as he could find the time (Wendy in hospital, Blogger awards, deadlines to meet at work . . . and the rest!).

So I offered to do it, and he accepted. Don't misunderstand. This doesn't happen all the time, and to repeat a quaint Aussie expression that David uses frequently, ". . . neither of us paints the other guy's fence!" It is just something one bloke does for the other without any expectation of a reciprocal act. Mind you, I am ahead of the game, considering the amount of original stuff he pushes my way for publication on my main website Anglo-Indian Portal.

The change to David's banner header seems to have been generally accepted as a good move. And now I have a comment from YesBut encouraging me to "bring it on!"

How can I refuse?

Standby for the next post . . .

 

'Recent Posts' - Where did they go?

From: David McMahon
To: Terry Fletcher
Subject: Request from Jenera Healey

Jenera says, "I'm trying some new things with my template and I'd like to add a Recent Posts section in and I know you have one. How did you get that in your template? I'm having a heck of a time trying to get it in there!"

What's the answer El-Tel? I seem to remember we worked on this one when I first switched to the new template.

David

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Must admit that this one caused a bit of consternation because, as David mentions in his email, we DID work together on his template when he did the switch.

The BAD news is that it isn't possible to incorporate the feature into Jenera's template. Simple reason:

• Jenera is using NEW-Blogger.
• David is still using OLD-Blogger!

There is no doubt that NEW-Blogger is much more user-friendly and that it has introduced a 'drag-and-drop' feature, but at the same time the designers have integrated certain features. The 'Recent Posts' feature is one of them, and has been integrated into the 'Archives' feature which, in turn, has been expanded to allow different displays of the archived posts.

Win some! Lose some! But I will continue to investigate if it is possible to split the two.

 

Leap of Faith, too . . . Implementing Thickbox

I am about to use one of David McMahon's original high-res photographs that he sent me some time ago, but which he hasn't actually posted on his blog one that he published on authorblog titled Jose, Can You See . . .. This should demonstrate how a 'medium-sized' picture on a Blogger page (as displayed on David's blog and reproduced in a similar size here) can be viewed at its best by using the 'Thickbox' technique. I like the effect very much; you have to decide whether it is something you'd like to use, too!

OK, let us make a start!

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1. Choose to make a new post (I don't think I need to add screencaps for the obvious steps - but correct me if I am wrong).

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2. Choose your method, 'Compose' or 'Edit HTML'. I prefer the latter because I have more control, but your mileage will vary. Be warned, you will HAVE to use 'Edit HTML' at a later stage.

I also compose my posts in a text editor outside the post window, and when I am satisfied that everything is as I want it, I copy/paste into the editing window and save it (but, of course, Blogger has introduced an 'Auto-save' feature which is an excellent idea!). You can see from the 'screencap' that I have already started to format my paragaraphs and, where required, to italicise or bold the text.

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3. Before I upload the image I need to take a look at its size in 'high-res' format. This one happens to be 3008-pixels-wide and 2000-pixels-high (size: 827,906 Bytes).

• Far too large to display as a standalone image in a new window; the viewer would be forced to use scroll bars to view the whole image.
• Far too large to save many images of this size to your (limited) Blogger disk space allocation.
• Far too large for a user with a dial-up connection (DUN) who would have to wait an interminable age for the picture to download and appear on his or her screen.

'Thickbox' will automatically adjust it to a viewable size that will display centred in the available space in the viewing window, whatever the screen resolution the viewer is using, but the other two factors mentioned above are still important, because Thickbox will NOT resize your raw picture for you.

I will now upload the image after having reduced it to 800px by 532px (size: 22,382 Bytes). I simply used Irfanview (discussed elsewhere) to reduce the width to 800 pixels and it did the rest for me:

The first thing to notice is how Blogger 'codes' the HTML for the image. In the 'screencap' I have deliberately NOT posted any text so that you get an idea of what sort of thing you need to look for when you start to fiddle with the HTML. In any event Blogger ALWAYS places the uploaded image at the beginning of your post, regardless of where you last placed your cursor. This is an annoying quirk but, we can use it to our advantage if we know that the last image uploaded will always be the first bit of text you come across when you're editing in HTML.

I have highlighted and arrowed the characters "-h" that appear immediately after "s1600". REMOVE THEM. Do it the first time you see your code so that you don't forget later when you're adding other bits as explained in step 4 below!

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4. Here is the same code again, but note the highlighted additions (errmmm... the deletion is obvious by no longer appearing there!).

1. Added the code for centering the paragraph and 'closed' the tag.
2. Added the 'class' telling the script to call up Thickbox.
3. Added the 'title' text.
4. Added the 'alt' text.

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Whew! That was a toughie - FOR ME. I began to get confused as to whether I was adding screen captures or the actual picture. Had to delete and re-upload a couple of times. But, if you've come this far, then here is the original David McMahon photograph (slaps head! - must remember to add the copyright):

 

Photograph: © David McMahon

 

That's ALL, folks

 

Cracked it . . .

This is just here to tell you that I've managed to crack the prickly problem of making 'Thickbox' work with Blogger-uploaded pictures.

More will be added to this post . . . standby!

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Update: - (later in the day)

We will have to tackle this in two parts.

• The first is the 'edit' you need to apply to your template.
• The second will be what you need to do to get your picture(s) to display in the sexy Thickbox format.

The next couple of posts will deal with each scenario and, just to show that everything actually works as it should, I will display the larger graphics as a Thickbox image!

Edit: change of plan - I will display the pictures as full-sized images so that you can READ the text the image displays!

If you are still not clear about what a 'Thickbox' display looks like, you can scroll down the page to a couple of earlier posts, or if you prefer, click on the following links: Test Post and Picture displays - 101b.

All this is in response to something started by David McMahon, who emailed me with a 'suggestion' that I respond to some questions on his blog, and then subsequent questions and comments by papoosue, phaseoutgirl and B.T.Bear (esq.) (who does a mean tutorial, too)!

Gather round, and the first to claim success will get an 'honourable mention' on David McMahon's authorblog.

 

Let's take another tilt at this windmill . . .

I started the 'Sandbox' on the 29th April in response to questions on David McMahon's authorblog, about how to achieve simple picture displays.

In my haste I completely overlooked the fact that I was hosting my blog on my own server, and that editing it to achieve the results I was after was a bit 'geeky' and that it concentrated on editing HTML code. Not something everybody is familiar or comfortable with!

A comment on the Sandbox by 'papoosue', who has a blog called Random Blethers, gently reminded me that not everything I assumed was a simple task, was actually that 'simple'. I gulped, and decided that, to meet the needs of the visitors to David's superb blog, who come to him with many questions and varying degrees of ability, that any explanation needed to concentrate on how things are done using Blogger's excellent built-in system of 'editing'.

The ability to edit most of your display, especially by manipulating the template you've chosen, already exists within the Dashboard elements of Blogger, so why not give your site that 'unique' look?

You could even register another blog, not publish it, but use that as the 'testbed' for any changes you wish to introduce. That way you won't break your original, and when you're satisfied that you have achieved the design of your choice, then copy it across!

So, what are you waiting for?