TIP - Alternative Displays

This is an alternative display, using "Thickbox", for a series of small thumbnails that, when clicked, will take the viewer to a 'Gallery' display without actually leaving the page.

If the "Thickbox" script works as it should, you will be served up a larger image, superimposed on this page, and you will see 'navigation' links from one picture to another. What more can you ask for?

The following series of pictures are of some very attractive young ladies that 'T3 Magazine' uses to advertise their electronic goods. You have to look closely to actually see the electronic items in question (for instance, the fashionable pelmet that girl #8 is wearing detracts somewhat!), but that's OK, because I'm not really advertising for them.

So, here goes!

  

  

  

I have to strongly emphasise that the series of pics above are not 'sexist' in any way; they were used because they were a convenient 'series' available on my hard drive. Oh, okay, and for a bit of entertainment for the lecherous old men that might visit this page. (see the comment by Anonymous)

That's the end of the demo. You should now have a clearer idea about what you can accomplish on your Blog. Whether it is an 'iBlogger', 'Wordpress' (Wordpress has it built in as a plugin!), or any other.

In line with David McMahon's philosophy of trying to help as many interested bloggers as possible, I am more than willing to help, either here or one-on-one, anybody that asks. If I find that several 'peeps' ask the same question I may resort to using this medium to provide a full explanation so that bloggers can drop by and pick the ideas they wish to use.

Happy Blogging!

TIP - Post Formatting

You compose your 'post'. That's the hard part. You post your 'post'. That's the easy part. You sit back and wait for somebody to visit, read and comment. That's the satisfactory part.

In between you get on with your life. As we all do. But isn't it amazing that when the Blogging-bug has struck that we all appear to schedule our everyday tasks around our (sacrosanct) blogging time?

So, why not make it easy on yourself? Why not pre-plan how you compose and publish your blog posts so that when you hit the "PUBLISH POST" button you can be assured that they will appear exactly how you envisaged they would?

1. Select 'Dashboard' or 'Customise' (depending where you are on your Blog) and you will be taken to your 'Template' page. Select 'Settings', then 'Formatting' and you will be faced with the page you can see in the pic below. Take note of the two areas I mention. These are the main changes you may need to make, but check the rest of the boxes in case you've overlooked something. Don't forget to "Save Settings" after you've made your changes. These changes aren't critical, unlike changes you make to the template; they can always get changed back if you aren't satisfied with what you've done!

 

 

2. In the pic below you will see that I have already inserted a few 'justified' paragraph 'starts' and 'ends', because that is how I compose my posts. Your mileage will vary. I also have the whole code for the 'Up Arrow' that I use at the end of each post. This makes life easy for me as I don't have to remember the exact code, and since it appears in exactly the same place in each post (repetitive coding) I decided to insert it into the formatting template for all future posts.

 

 

I also have a series of 'hyphens' (dashes) included as a standard divider between 'sections' of a post. It was something I started in my earlier posts and something I decided I would continue to do for subsequent ones. I could find a post with a dashed line and copy/paste it into the new post, but this way is so much easier, don't you think?

You may wish to use a horizontal rule instead and you can achieve that by using the 'Compose' feature and selecting it from the menu, or if you are using the HTML feature just type the following ...

<hr width="50%" align="center">

... to give you a horizontal rule that is 50% of the width of the display area, and which is centred in the middle of the page.

More tips to come ... !

 

Ahem ... !

I blithely motored on describing how to implement the new banner headers that you are all impatient to try out, and managed to gloss over a hint or two about the images you are preparing to replace your current banner header.

This isn't a show-stopper, more in the way of a 'tip'. If you have a template that uses rounded corners then you should attempt to imitate the same display so that the new banner header integrates seamlessly. I have to assume that you are perfectly adept with your imaging software and that it can handle 'layers' - or this tip won't work.

You can slave over your imaging software and build your rounded corners laboriously. Or you can cheat!

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1. Navigate your way to the HTML code of your template (I shouldn't have to explain how!) and find Blog Header, and you should see a couple of URLs that are clearly pointing to graphics lodged on the Blogger servers:

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2. Typing in those URLs will get you a page with the graphic, but I will make it easy for you if you are using the Rounders-3 template: just click on the following URLs to take you there - in a new window! Each template uses different backgrounds and it is important that you 'lift' the graphics for the specific template you are using.

http://www.blogblog.com/rounders3/corners_cap_top.gif
http://www.blogblog.com/rounders3/corners_cap_bot.gif

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Both sets of corner images are GIFs on a transparent background. You need to copy them (right-click, 'save image as') and then all you need to do is to 'import' them to the banner image you are constructing, align them top and bottom overlaying the original image, and you now have an image with neatly rounded corners!

Easy, huh?

 

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 . . .

 

What a Vista . . . !

A gentle comment left by papoosue reminded me that I've been putting off publishing the 'Banner/Header' tutes, using the switch to the new computer and the new OS as an excuse.

Well, a week has rolled by since I switched off the trusty 'old' computer and I haven't been tempted to turn it back on again. Looks like I managed to snatch all the files I needed, so it appears that the time for excuses is over!

My dual monitor display of a Vista desktop.
Photograph: © Terry Fletcher

 

I've put up that pic just to prove that life has moved on and that I have truly changed things. I should be able to get my head down now and become productive.

Give me a day or two, OK?

 

Update . . .

New computer. New OS (Windows Vista). Same old problem. And NO, it isn't connected to paraskavedekatriaphobia, or what is commonly known as the "The Fear of Friday the 13th"!

Can't build a local network because M$, in their wisdom, have changed just about everything as far as Administering your account is concerned. They claim that it 'hardens up' your computer against vile on-line attacks. Sure! What they don't say is that they've changed things so much that, you can barely access the internet. Which makes your computer pretty safe!

It is now a game of 'trial-and-error' to build a local network, and until I've managed to do that then all my old files are sitting on the old computer and thumbing their collective nose at me.

Figuratively speaking, of course!

Bear with me, folks! I will be good to go in a few days . . .

 

Update . . .

This is a quick note for anybody that is waiting for the tute(s) to be posted.

I am experiencing some MAJOR computer problems. Mostly I get around to fixing them, but I think it is time for a new computer, which also means a move to Vista, something I have been putting off for a while.

Please bear with me . . .

 

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.