New Template: Rounders

Hi people!

Long time no visit here. Well, now I've just changed the template of this blog, from Minyx to Rounders.

Minyx was a nice template, untill its author became inactive in PhotoBucket and they suspended his images.

I actually didn't plan to change the template and just wait until the author goes back to PhotoBucket and the template will be normal again. However, Google Analytics informs me that many people still access my posts here everyday and this blog is almost unreadable thanks to the image of "Account Inactive" from PhotoBucket all over the blog.

So today I changed the template to Rounders, one of my favorite Blogger default templates. It doesn't look as good as Minyx but at least people can read it comfortably and get the information they are coming here for. And with the images in my posts, I think it's not that bad looking.

By the way, I also simplify the sidebar and remove everything but some widgets that I consider very important.

I hope you like it. Cheers!

Disable Click-to-Enlarge on Blogger Images

Hi there! As you might already know, by default Blogger make your images inside your posts as "click-to-enlarge" links. I usually put small images on my posts so I don't need such click-to-enlarge function. If you want your image to serve only as an image and not as a link, here is a simple step by step guide to do it:

1. Login to Blogger.
2. Go to Dashboard >> write new post (or edit posts).
3. Add the image using the default tool of Blogger.
4. Click "Edit HTML", near "Compose".
5. Find these codes, delete the bold part

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://somewhere-in-blogger/your-image.jpg">

<img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 75px; height: 75px;" src="http://somewhere-in-blogger/your-image.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_some-number-here" border="0">

</a>

6. Publish post, and done.

Your images will not be click-able any longer and won't serve as click-to-enlarge links. Feel free to use comment box if you have any question or comment :D

How to Change Blogger Template

A template defines how your Blogger powered blog will look like, including colors, borders, sidebars, fonts, headers, footer, headlines, etc. By default Blogger already provide you with some templates to choose from. If you want to change your current template with one of the official templates, here are the steps:

1. Login to blogger.com, visit Dashboard >> Layout >> Pick New Template.
2. Choose the template you like by marking the name.
3. Click Save Template and done.

If you want to use custom template (not provided by Blogger), here are the steps:

1. Download a template (in form of xml file) to your hardisk. If you want to start looking for a new template, I suggest Deluxe Templates for its handsome support in case you run into problems.
2. Login to blogger.com, visit Dashboard >> Layout >> Edit HTML.
3. Use the browse button to find the xml template you have downloaded.
4. Click upload.
5. Confirm sidebar reset if asked.
6. Save and done.

Tips: changing template resets your sidebar widgets, back up them into text files first if you feel necessary.

Enjoy your new template :D

How to Sign Up to Blogger

A friend of mine asked about how to start using blogger as a free blogging platform yesterday. It is actually a nervous time if you haven't sign up to any blogging platform at all. Blogger is perfect for those who have never in blogging activity before. And it is all free. Here is what you need to sign up to Blogger:

1. Visit Blogger.com, click 'Create a Blog'
2. Create your Google Account, which requires:

• Valid email address
• Password
• Accepting terms of service
• Visual verification / captcha

3. Choose the name of your blog and its web address. Your blog will be located on a free subdomain of Blogspot, like yourname.blogspot.com .
4. Choose a template (appearance).

And done! Now you can start your blog and write your first post from your dashboard. Happy blogging :-)

Related Post Widget for Blogger

Hello! A few days ago, a friend of mine asked about how to add a related post widget to Blogger powered blogs. This idea of related posts are very familiar in WordPress platform, but on the contrary in Blogger. But I'm not saying that it is impossible, just quite complicated perhaps. Well, it solely depends on what kind of trick you are going to use use, because there are a few techniques to accomplish that.

One of the related posts best hack I have ever known is posted by BloggingTips. If you are interested in related post for Blogger, I suggest check the article here.

The post explains that there are five methods to create a related post widget s for Blogger:

Related posts by Categories – List in Sidebar
Related Posts by Categories – List Beneath Post
Related Posts Widget – Beneath Posts
Related Posts Plugin for Blogger – Beneath Article
Related Posts With No External JavaScript

Feel free to try them folks :D

Popular Posts Widget for Blogger

Hello!

This morning, a friend asked me about popular posts widget for Blogger platform. In the past I have tested some tools to create such widgets but unfortunately none worked well. Even up to now, I can't find a good method to easily create a popular posts widget.

What I have in my sidebar (Top 10 Popular Articles) is actually not a popular posts widget, but just a widget-like. I created it manually using HTML/JavaScript gadget and I used Google Analytics to know which of my contents are popular. If you are interested in creating such popular posts widget-like, you can try this method.

First, you need to sign up to Google Analytics or other website monitoring service, which can show your popular contents. I suggest that free service from Google because it is free yet offering advanced statistics. There, you can get the top contents using this path: visit Google Analytics >> Accass Analytics >> View Report (on your blog) >> View Report (on Content Overview) >> View full report (on Top Contents).

Afterward, Login to blogger. Access Dashboard >> Layout >> Page Elements, then click Add a Gadget. If you are not experienced in coding HTML / Javascript, you can use Link gadget to manually add your popular posts. I personally prefer using HTML/JavaScript gadget because I can have more control on the appearance of the widget.

You know folks, there is a time when you can't rely much on automatic widgets and you have to do something yourself manually to get it right. Let me know if you need further assistance :)