Theming Blogger

1204px Updated to XML Format

2007-11-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

If you've been watching this site for changes, or just wondering when I'll come back to it, I'm happy to say that I have released the Blogger XML version of Andreas Viklund's 1024px template.

Changing the sidebar in 1024px from left to right is easy. Simply edit the HTML of the template, and replace <div id='content'> with <div id='contentalt'>

Changing blogger template links

2006-04-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

I've been looking around at other Blogger template sites, and of course checking my emails, and I'm noticing the number one question coming through from Blogger users is 'how do I change the links?'

Generally a link looks like this;
<a href="go.to.this.url">my link</a>
This is standard html and getting comfortable with it is a must for any successful blogger. Every html tag must be written within less-than (<) and greater-than (>) signs, just like many of the Blogger tags you find inside your template.

HTML links must always begin with <a href="go.to.this.url"> and must always end with </a>, and whatever is written between these two tags will be your link text. The actual address of the link is always written in the spot where I've written 'go.to.this.url'. If you want, you can also add an extra phrase (target="_blank") that will always open a link in a new browser window so that your blog visitors won't need to leave your blog to follow a link if you think they would prefer to keep reading your posts. Read changing the link list over at Blogger help.

Blue highlight box in 1024px template

2006-04-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

The 1024px template includes a style that can be attached to paragraphs that make a blue box with white text, and for users who want to use this box to highlight snippets of text in their blogs here's how.

After you've typed your post, but before you save it, simply click the html button, then at the beginning of the text you want to highlight simply place this code, <p class="box"> and at the end of the text you want to highlight place a </p>.

When you preview you post you should now see the blue highlight, and I'm sure you blog visitors will notice whatever important information you place in it.

1024px Theme for Blogger

2006-04-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is the 1024px template from Andreas Viklund, one of the biggest names in Open Source template design. This is also my first Blogger powered template, and hopefully only the first of many. If you wish to use 1024px in your own blog, feel free, but first you need to download the zipfile. The rest of the instructions are relatively easy to follow.

First, unzip the file you've just downloaded. Next, create a new post in your blog, click the 'Add Image' icon and upload 'background.gif'. Now write down the url of the image you've just uploaded, which will look something like [http://photos1.blogger.com/...], then save your post as a draft entry.

Second, open 1024px_template.txt in your favorite text editor and find the text 'your.image.url', and replace this with the actual URL your wrote down before. Now highlight the entire contents of this file and paste it into the template edit box. A word of caution though, if you've made any change to your previous theme, please make a backup.

Congratulations, you should now see Andreas' 1024px template on your site. Please feel free to post comments below. You can also visit my regular blog.

Note: This template is not intended to be advanced or cool in any way. It was based on feedback and requests that Andreas got from people who use his other templates. Accessibility, good code quality, search engine friendliness and low file size are important features.

Blogger Controls

2006-04-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

There is little point creating templates for blogger if they aren't going to work for users who don't know html, so this is bold, this is italic, this is a link.

As simple as it gets...

2006-04-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is what an image would look like. You may find that your images don't show the border and padding in your version of the theme. This is because the Blogger post editor seems to automatically insert a style for images that has no border. Simply delete that part of the link to the image and your images will now display correctly.