Owner: Sueblimely Practicing - The New Blogger URL:http://sueblimely2.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 01 May 2007 19:40:46 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Blogging - tools, resources, gadgets, help, SEO, tutorials and examples Site statistics:Click here
Displaying Latest Comments As A Feed 2007-04-26 01:35:00 The New Blogger has a simple way of adding snippets of your latest comments to your sidebar - it does by utilizing your comments feed.To implement this go to your blogs 'Layout' which is accessible from your dashboard. Click on the Template Tab and then the 'Add New Page Element' tab. In the window that pops up choose to add add a new 'Feed' When prompted for the url enter the following address, changing the 'your-blog' part to the address of your blog :http://your-blog/feeds/comments/fullWhen you are adding the page element you can choose how many comments you wish to display.As an example, the address to add the latest comments snippets for this blog is:http://sueblimely2.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/fullHere is what this would look like on my blog:However, when I was browsing the Beautiful Beta blog, I discovered yet another way they have found of improving the inbuilt method. As you can see from the image below, more detail is provided: post title, snippet of the comment Read more:Comments
Add Social Bookmarking To Posts 2007-04-26 00:02:00 A good offering from Hans at Beautiful Beta - a clear way of adding social bookmarks to your post footer.Take a look at my example at the bottom of this post. Hover over the bookmark image and the name of its site is revealed in the row above.The coding and full instructions are given on the Beautiful Beta blog; a site I highly regard. Remember to consider the following when installing this code:Please do take heed of the warning to back up your template first - it is very easy to make mistakes when editing the template coding.You need to add two pieces of code:step one - to the head section (between the <head> and </head> tags in your template.step two - you will need to click on 'expand widgets' above the template edit window to find the code you have to replace.Always take care with the overall look and performance of your blog when adding extra coding and images. Too many multi colored images on a page can detract from the look of a blog and distract attention away Read more:Bookmarking
, Social
Blogger Smilies! 2007-04-23 20:11:00 If you wish to use smilies in your blogs The Last Word has a script and a good explanation on implementing it at:BloggerSmilies
!
Add Digg button to Blogger or Blogspot 2007-04-22 22:23:00 I won't describe how to include this in your posts because the article on the "Tips for New Beginners" Blog gives an excellent step by step explanation.There are various different Digg
images you can use for this which can be found at on the Digg site here.You can find the tutorial here: button
.htm">Add Digg button
to Blogger
or Blogspot If you like the idea, click on the Digg button at the bottom of the tutorial, to show your appreciation.You will find instructions on inserting the button in various positions in your post so choose the one that you prefer.As I did not want the digg button myself at this stage - I did not want to have no diggs showing for all my posts - I did not use the coding here. What you see in this post is just an image link.
Show a post preview into home page with Google Blogger 2007-04-10 23:55:00 Some clever coding from the Ajaxcold blog, which allows you to show only an introduction to your post; a read more link reveals the full post. As you can see I have used the coding in this post.As you add some simple coding to posts you wish to display this way, it does not have to apply to all of your posts.Clear instructions for adding the code to your template and post can be found here:Show a post preview into home page with GoogleBlogger
Sueblimely Discovering - Blogging & Tagging: Creating Image Links 2007-04-08 07:13:00 CreatingImage
Links:Creating Image LinksSunday, April 08, 2007How to add an image link to your blog template:You can see an example of what I mean by an image link on the right of this page -'the Sunshine on Fragile X Doris Buffet Challenge Image'.An image link is an image that when clicked takes you to a web site - just like text links do. You place and the tags on each side of the image rather than text.Below is the HTML code used to make an image called 'autism_awareness.jpg linkable to the site www.autism-society.org: Read More ...Filed in: tutorials sueblimely Read more:Blogging
, Tagging
Adding Page Elements 2007-04-02 03:11:00 New elements are added to your layout via the Template/Page Elements tab. Code can be either added manually or you can find many pre-made codes to just copy and paste.As you can see from my sidebar, it is possible to add multiple instances of each type of page element to your blog. I have laid out the sidebar to show this by grouping the elements by type under each dark blue heading. For example there are eight html/javascript elements in the sidebar at the time of writing this.As well as adding the elements to your side bar you can place them in the same column as your posts. For example, the top horizontal menu of this page is an html/javascript element.Elements can be moved around in the Template/Page Elements section simply by dragging and dropping.Blogger's layout help can be found hereCopy and paste widget sites:Widgetbox - BlogosphereyourminisPlease let me know if you have any other favorite widget or pre-made code sites that I can add.
Google Search Tools 2007-03-28 15:52:00 I published this on my main blog, Sueblimely Discovering, Blogging and Tagging, but thought these tools so clever that I would repeat it here.Google
has recently introduced some clever search tools that you can use on your blogs. Just add the code that is generated on the Search
.htm">Google Search
wizard sites (links below) and add them as side bar elements:Google Blog Bar (Vertical) - lets you embed a dynamic Google Blog bar in your web pages. ExampleGoogle Book Bar - books are shown with their images based on the search criteria you chose. ExampleGoogle Map Search - a small Google Map image is portrayed zoomed into the place of your choice. The map is navigable, with scrolling functions. ExampleGoogle Video Bar - displays a horizontal or vertical bar of images of the category you chose when setting up the coding via the wizard. ExampleGoogle Video Search Control - add a video search form and a block of videos to your pages. ExampleBlog Tools
,Google API,sueblimely
Getting Labeled with Ajax/Prototype 2007-03-24 02:19:00 So far adding copied code or pre-made widgets to the 'Add Page Element' feature of Blogger has been simple. If you are not familiar with web-coding at all, a little trial and error is probably all that is needed for most additions.I came across a wonderful script on Blogger Hacked today which I thought would be perfect to add to a page element. The article in question AJAX Labels Reloaded is well written and easy to follow - and I had to follow the instructions to a T being unfamiliar with such coding.The resulting code is now proudly displayed on this page (feelings of self-worth have soared). The effect is hiding initially. Click on any of the Label tags in the left menu and, instead of being taken to another page, a snippet of the postings for that tag are delivered to the top of the posts in the current page. The current postings are temporarily dispatched south until you either click on the 'click to close' or return to the home page after reading posts of interest. Read more:Prototype
Labeling Old Blogger Posts 2007-03-23 19:46:00 Creating categories/labels in the old blogger was a matter of using one hack or other. The new Blogger
has an inbuilt labeling feature which is a much simpler and quicker method. Your old posts will not be automatically labeled using this feature of course; you will have to add them manually. Thankfully you do not have to go into each post and label them one by one.In the 'edit post' window you will see a checkbox beside each post, above which is a drop down 'label action' box. Click the checkbox next to each post that you want to add a particular label to. Choose an existing label or new label from the drop down box.Still a little labor intensive if you have a lot of posts and labels but far quicker than opening each post and adding tags individually.Tags: sueblimely, tutorials, blogger, sueblimely
Fonts and Colors 2007-02-13 01:38:00 It is simple to change fonts and colors with no coding knowledge - just go to Template/Fonts
and Colors
. Elements that can be changed:Backgrounds: main , page , header, sidebar header and page header corners.Font Colors: post and sidebar , header, sidebar title, links, date header.Font style: page header and the rest of the page.Page border colorThere is no facility for changing post title color so I will have to do that by altering the CSS.I have altered the fonts and colors of this page. Patriotically (or is that parochially) I chose colors that to me now represent my home town Melbourne, Australia - those of the Melbourne Commonwealth games. They are as close as I could get with the 'web friendly colors' that 'Fonts and Colors' allow. You can see them in action at the Experience Melbourne site. Thought I would get a quick plug in for the wonderful city I live in - as wonderful as any city could be that is.
Add 'hidden' email address using 'Add new element' and Javascript 2007-02-12 21:33:00 Here are the instructions for creating the 'Email Me' link at the top of the right sidebar of this page. The email address
is hidden from unwanted 'visitors' to your site (e.g. spambots) by javascript.InstructionsChange the 'text', 'email' and 'emailHost' variables below to suit the email address you want to hide.<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"><!--var text = "Email Me"var email = "myname"var emailHost = "gmail.com"document.write("<a href="http://sueblimely2.blogspot.com//+"mail" + "to:" + email + "@" + emailHost+ ">" + text + "</a>" + ".")//--></script>If you dont want to use this script of find it hard to do then this tool from htmlfixit will create a script for you. This one will show your actual email address rather than just the 'email me' link though.
Practising templates 2005-12-11 20:34:00 The title of this blog probably explains all. Not only am I trying out the features of the new blogger, I am intending to explain them as I go along. I will be explaining the template, adding available elements and checking out and including new widgets.Well I have all good intentions of doing so at least!!!
Add to Favorites/Digg This Hack 2007-05-03 08:25:00 Ramani at Hackosphere suggests a hack for adding links to del.icio.us and Digg
It to the bottom of your posts.I have altered this slightly to float a 'DiggIt' link to the right, separating it from the post labels which are left aligned. You can see this in place at the bottom of this post. You could add any link you like, replacing the digg url "http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=" with one of your choice as well as replacing the "DiggIt!" text with an image.The text in normal font is the original blogger code, the text in bold is the Hackosphere code and the text in red is my additional code.<span style='float:left;'><b:if cond='data:post.labels'><data:postLabelsLabel/><b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'><a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if></b:loop></b:if></span><span><a expr:href='"http://digg.com/submi
New Blogger features added 2007-05-23 16:45:00 As you can see I have added new page elements to this site.Video Bar - where you can display clips from YouTube and Google Video for your readers to watch without leaving the page. I have placed the element above the posts but it can be put in the sidebar and below all of your posts too.Newsreel - Automatically add current headlines from Google News to your blog. The content of both of these elements can be customized by entering search terms. AdSense - earn revenue by displaying relevant ads on your blog. You can chose from various layouts for the display and customize the style to fit in with the look of your blog. You can learn about and sign up for AdSense here and read the AdSense blog to find out more. Read more:Blogger
, features
Blogger now automatically saves your drafts 2007-05-29 19:47:00 If you are composing a new post, Blogger
now automatically saves it for you once a minute. This goes on in the background so does not interrupt what you are doing.This autosave feature does not take place when you are editing posts that have previously been published to your blog. Read more:drafts
Viewing Blogger XML Coding for Editing 2007-05-29 19:09:00 Blogger XML
template files cannot be viewed directly in a browser which can make it harder for styling. However, there are ways you can see the effects of altering your template prior to saving the template in Blogger:Firefox and other Gecko based browser extensions:The View Source With Firefox extension - opens the generated html of the page in either the default viewer or a program you specify - eg Dreamweaver, NVU (the latter is a comprehensive open source web page editing program).View Selection Source in Firefox - highlight the area you want to look at and right click on 'View Selection Source'. This is good for checking on layout and quick editing jobs.The Web Developer Toolbar browser extension for Firefox, Flock, Mozilla and Seamonkey has so many useful features - I use it a great deal in my web design work.For Blogger Beta in particular the following features are handy. Load your blog into your browser, and from the Web Developer Toolbar you can: Edit HTML and Edit CSS- bo Read more:Blogger
, Coding
, Viewing
Blogger XML Template Sites 2007-05-29 14:33:00 Templates for the new Blogger
are available at the following sites. You can also access them from my 'Blogger XML
Templates' links menuTake care that you download the correct files as some of these sites also provide classic Blogger themes.I will add to this list as I find more sites. If you know of any Blogger xml template sites, please let me know.Blog Crowds only 3 column dateBlogger Templates 2 and 3 columnBlogger Templates 2 and 3 columnThe Blogger WorkshopBy Thur - 2 and 3 columnFree Blogger Skins 2 and 3 columnBlogFlux 2 and 3 column Read more:Sites
Beautiful Beta: BlogToC Widget Released 2007-05-30 22:16:00 Another fine offering from Hans at Beautiful
Beta BlogToC Widget. Display a table of contents of your blog posts inline.You can see the code in action on my blog. Just click on the 'Show Table of Contents' link in the left sidebar. The TOC will be displayed at the top of the page, above the first post. Full instructions can be found on the Beautiful Beta blog at BlogToC Widget. There are 3 stages involved in implementing this code. The first is to change the line in the template that starts with <b:section to:<b:sectionmaxwidgets='2' showaddelement='yes'>This allows you to add extra elements to the area of your blog above your posts. PLEASE NOTE - if you have altered this already to accomodate 2 elements in this position already, you will need to increase the maxwidgets figure. As I had my top navigation menu and the Google Blog Bar in this position, I had to enter maxwidgets='3'.The other two changes to be made are the addition of two page elements, one in the sideb
A New Commenting Tool - Click Comments 2007-06-08 17:03:00 If you look below this post you will find a new widget that I thought quite interesting. Not only does it allow your visitors to vote on what they like about your post but your posts are listed on the PostReach ClickComments
Showcase site. On creating the widget you are asked which category you wish your posts to be show in although all posts are shown on the front page too. One advantage is that it is quick and easy for readers to respond to your posts especially as no email address or registration is needed. You may get feedback from those that would not normally comment. A disadvantage could be that those who do comment may just opt for clicking a button instead. To create your own widget visit PostReach Click Comments - it will automatically add the code to your Blogger site. (Wordpress is supported too). To find out more visit the PostReach Blog.Give it a try here on my blog (a dastardly plan to gain voters), please. Tags: Read more:Commenting
Archive Calendar - New Blogger 2007-06-26 14:39:00 I have been playing with my template, yet again, and have transformed the archive list in the sidebar into a 'calendar'.Thanks to Phydeaux for creating this feature, which I think is an excellent way of displaying archives. His instructions can be found on his site at:Blog ArchiveCalendar
Themes for the calendar with their instructions and copy and paste styling can be found on Phydeaux's Blogger
Archive Calendar Styles page.
Polls for Blogger 2007-07-08 10:14:00 Blogger is trialling a poll element, as you can see by the poll in the left sidebar which will be in place until the poll closing day on 31st July.Please give it a try and I will report back on how it works. It will also give me valuable feedback as to what you would like to learn. Read more:Blogger
, Polls
Comments Form 2007-07-31 08:44:00 Thanks to Ramani from Hackosphere for pointing me in the direction of the Comments
Form feature on Blogger. Text typed in the Comments Form, which can be found in your blogs Settings/Comments section, is displayed just below the 'Leave your Comments' heading in the write comments window.I have used my form to add a message about informing readers that I have removed 'nofollow' and requesting input as to new blogger features or add-ins. If you want to learn more about 'nofollow' please see my guest post on BlogBlond's site at: NoFollow, NoGood for BloggersYou can use this for other purposes too. For example Digital Inspiration is using it for displaying a Comments Policy. Their article about it can be seen at New! Add Visitor Comments Policy to Your Blogger Blog.I would be pleased to hear about how other blogs are using the feature.
Essential Wordpress Plugins 2007-11-10 23:25:05 Table of contents for Wordpress
SetupWordpress on my Own DomainMove to Wordpress tutorialsCustomizing WordpressPlanning this Wordpress BlogEssential
Wordpress Plugins
I am listing the plugins I have implemented for Wordpress in the order of my view of how I rate their importance/necessity. In some cases there are alternatives based on personal preference. I will detail these in a separate post.
Important Plugins
Akismet a tool designed stop comment and trackback spam is built into Wordpress. To add to this protection I installed Bad Behaviour - which is designed to complement other link spam solutions. It’s aim is top prevent spammers from even delivering their unwanted offerings, and in many cases, from ever reading your site in the first place. Bad Behaviour is available for other PHP based sites too.
All-in-one-SEO-Pack - a powerful plugin that takes the hard work out of optimizing your blog for search engines. I will describe this one more soon as some customizing is nee
Planning this Wordpress Blog 2007-11-10 23:20:40 Table of contents for Wordpress
SetupWordpress on my Own DomainMove to Wordpress tutorialsCustomizing WordpressPlanning this Wordpress BlogEssential Wordpress Plugins One of the reasons it took me such a long time to make this move to Wordpress from Blogger was that I wanted to share with you what I was doing, how I did it and why. I could not write about this, presuming to teach others, without doing some thorough planning and research and trying things out first.
Instead of, for example, posting lists of plugins I wanted to find out which were the most needed and the most useful.
I first installed Wordpress and started experimenting with it in 2005 just because it was there. I have installed and designed Wordpress sites for clients and friends. Over the last couple of months I have been studying in more depth to make sure I was fully up to date.
I am creating a series of posts listing the plugin, widgets and features that I add and the styling changes I make. These lists will be ad
Recommend Site To A Friend
