How to add a basic dropdown menu to your blogger powered blog

In this tutorial i will show you how to add a basic dropdown navigation menu to your blogger powered blog so i recommend you create a test blog or download a backup copy of your template before doing anything as i cannot be held responsible if you mess your blog layout up.

for this tutorial i'm going to use the minima template however it should work with most blogger templates once you have your template go to layout > Edit html and paste the following code just before the <div id='content-wrapper'>
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How to create a fully widgetized tabbed content box on blogger

In this tutorial you will learn how to add a tabbed content box on your blogger blog using CSS, XHTML and Javascript in 4 simple steps it will also be fully widgetized so you can easy change colours and rearrange the widgets within your dashboard here's a simple screenshot of what we are going to create in this tutorial.

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Note this will not work for those who have Javascript disabled in their web browser but most people have it enabled by default if you are not sure if yours is disabled or not check the demo you should see a working tabbed box.
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How to create static pages on blogger

Update Static pages now available in Blogger

In this simple tutorial i will show you how to create static pages within your blog on blogger so you can easy link to them from navigation links within your blog these could be any page you like such as "about me" and "contact me" pages.

so the first thing would be to either use a test blog or download a backup copy of your template before doing this to your blog as i cannot be held responsible if you mess up your blog.

Once you are ready go to your blog and create a new post using whatever title you want for this tutorial i gave mine the title of "About" now add your post content when you have finished click the "Post Options" link found at the bottom of the post editor see screenshot below


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How to display total post and comment count on blogger

In this tutorial i will show you how we can print out the total post and comment count of your blog using our blogs feed so first we need to add these two lines of javascript code which asks blogger to return our feed in JSON format which is a set of javascript objects. Don't forget to replace the red code with the URL of your blog

<script src="http://www.lawnydesigns.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=numposts"></script>
<script src="http://www.lawnydesigns.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=numcomments"></script>

in the code above we have asked blogger to return our JSON feed to two javascript functions named numcomments and numposts so now we will create those two functions to print out the total post and comments count
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How to adjust the size of images on blogger

Today I'm going to show you how to adjust the size of images posted on your blog since most of my friends are having problems with changing the size of images

first switch to "edit html" mode on your post editor and find the image you would like to adjust here's my sample image code

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXegrEZRUvQdwO82W3OC-Fq_YnR5gs110o43dsV2zvT1K_tuMhniTFE8FS2FW_GRky7shJ2Vir_0GJIdPZs7lYWCSzdCoeymNbmcdGo9RBXO-GOWNoeS-tFLECTFtNbMC5PgpwfGjtd4Y/s400/step-01.jpg"><img style="width:304px;height:400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXegrEZRUvQdwO82W3OC-Fq_YnR5gs110o43dsV2zvT1K_tuMhniTFE8FS2FW_GRky7shJ2Vir_0GJIdPZs7lYWCSzdCoeymNbmcdGo9RBXO-GOWNoeS-tFLECTFtNbMC5PgpwfGjtd4Y/s400/step-01.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303081243051517074" /></a>


yours may look a bit different from mine but don't worry we are only interested in the code highlighted in red this controls the width and height of your image.
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How to embed adsense in blogger posts

In this post i will show you how to embed AdSense ads in your blogger posts you can either have them at the top or bottom of your posts or both but remember you are only allowed a certain amount of ads on your blog so first I recommend that you download a backup copy of your template as i will not be held responsible if you mess your layout up

now if you check the box on the post widget you will see that it is a simple way to add AdSense to your blog posts



by default they are displayed at the bottom of your posts but what if we want them at the top below the post title ? or both well lets take a look at the code which is used to add the AdSense ads to the posts
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How to adjust margins and paddings of widgets in blogger templates

In this post i will show you how to adjust the margins and padding's of the sidebar widgets and the posts so I'm going to use the minima template



always download a backup copy of your template before doing anything or use a test blog as i can not be held responsible if you mess your blog up.

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How to remove the quick edit and wrench icons on blogger

I'm writing this post because i get asked by a lot of my friends how they can get rid of those quick edit icons so if you have seen those quick edit icons under your posts and the little wrench spanner icons in the sidebar on your blog you maybe thinking how do i get rid of them or why are they there ?



in fact they are useful if you need to quickly edit your blog post's or a widget in the sidebar you can just click them to instantly edit your post or widget they are only shown to the admin of the blog if you log out you shouldn't see them but i prefer to hide or remove them since i can just login to my dashboard to edit my post or widgets
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How to customize your blogger templates fonts and colours

Today i will show you how to customize the fonts and colours of your template and I'm going to use the template from my previous tutorial but it will work for most templates you just need to find the id or the class name of the element you are trying to style.

Now if you are trying to change the font or colour of the sidebar titles through your blog dashboard it will also change the font and colour of the post date which is not what some of us want so to change that we can either hard code them in the CSS code or define variables for the font and colours i will show you both ways

by default all <h2></h2> tags inherit from this CSS code

h2 {
margin:1.5em 0 .75em;
font:$headerfont;
line-height: 1.4em;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.2em;
color:$sidebarcolor;
}

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Create a 3 column blogger template with 2 right columns

In this tutorial i will teach you how to create a 3 column blogger template with two narrow columns on the right and a section above the two columns here's a simple screenshot of the layout I'm planning to teach you to build



now you have an idea what we are going to build lets get started. I recommend you use a test blog for this tutorial using the minima template i always use this template because its an easy starting point once you have your template go to layout > Edit HTML scroll down and delete the width from within the CSS #header-wrapper
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How to highlight authors comments on blogger

This post shows how you can highlight authors comments on your blogger blog using CSS and if/else tags im going to use the minima template so like i always say backup your template or use a test blog now go to edit html and make sure you have expand widget templates check box checked look for the comments-block like i have in the following screenshot



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How to display widgets on certain pages in blogger

Today I'm going to show you how we can get widgets to display on certain pages within your blogger blog using if conditional tags

so first i recommend you download a backup copy of your template or use a test blog.

Now for this tutorial I'm going to add a simple HTML/JavaScript widget (it could be any kind of widget) in the title field of the widget i named mine "My Widget"

the reason i did this is so that we can easy identify it when we switch to the edit html tab make sure you have the expand widget templates checkbox checked and find the code for your widget here's a screenshot of mine

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How to split your blogs header into two widgets

This post shows how you can split your blogs header into two widgets like the following screenshot



so i recommend you backup your template or use a test blog for this example I'm going to use the Minima Template so if you are using a different template the code would be different. The default width of the template header-wrapper code is 660px
(if you don't know what I'm talking about see screenshot below)
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How to fix your blogs header

Today im going to show you how you can fix your blogs header as lots of blogspot users have been having problems with their header image so i recommend you download a backup copy of your template or use a test blog now you will need to expand the widget templates and find the following code highlighted in the screenshot



it should be within the #header-wrapper when you have found it replace it with the following code
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How to stop widgets been deleted when uploading templates

So if you have ever downloaded a free template and wanted to install it without having to reinstall all those sidebar widgets again read on im going to use a 3 column i created for this tutorial you can download it for free here
i recommend you use a test blog for this tutorial by default when you create a new blog it will already have 2 sidebar widgets installed so you should add another two for this tutorial. Continue reading »

How to add social bookmark links to blogger

Today im going to show you how to add social bookmark text links below your blog post so people can bookmark it or whatever. So first save a backup copy of your template before editing now you will need to expand widget templates and look for the following code in the screenshot below



next copy the following code
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How to create expandable post summaries on blogger

Today im going to show you how to create expandable post summaries on new blogger this is a great trick for those who have lots of long articles on their blog and would like to show a certain amount of text/images from the beginning of that post on the main page with a read more link at the bottom. So lets get started first i recommend you download a backup copy of your template so if anything goes wrong you can always restore from that. Next we need to make sure we have post pages enabled so go to Settings > Archiving and change Enable Post Pages to yes like mine in the following screenshot below Continue reading »

How to make a 4 column blogger template

In this tutorial we will be making a 4 column blogger template based on a two column originally designed by Douglas Bowman so i recommend you create a new blog for this tutorial using the following template



Now we have our template we need to find the header-wrapper CSS code and change the width from 660px to 100% or 990px like ive done below
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How to add a navigation bar

Today i will show you how to add navigation links just below your blogs header like mine above and it depends what template you are using but it will fit most so always use a test blog before you apply it to your current blog as I'm not responsible if you mess your template up and there is lots of different styles you could have but I'm going to show you how to add a simple set of navigation links so first we need to copy the following CSS code



/* navigation links css code
----------------------------------------------- */
#topnav {
height:40px;
}
#topnav ul {
float:left;
width:100%;
padding:0;
margin:0;
list-style-type:none;
}
#topnav a {
padding:3px 7px 3px 7px;
float:left;
text-decoration:none;
color:#000;
margin:9px 10px 0 0;
}
#topnav a:hover {
color:#666;
}
#topnav li {
display:inline
}


Now paste it like i have done just below the closing skin tag



Now you need to copy the following XHTML code changing the red parts to where ever you are pointing your links to. The first part with the / points to your blogs homepage



<div id='topnav'>
<ul>
<li><a href='/'>Home</a></li>
<li><a href='#'>Contact</a></li>
<li><a href='#'>Link 3</a></li>
<li><a href='#'>Link 4</a></li>
</ul>
</div>


and paste it just below the header closing div tag like I've done below

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add an image to blogs header

Today another friend of mine at blogcatalog asked me how to add an image to the blogs header so I'm going to show you how to add an image to the blogs header just like mine now there is two ways you can do it the first you may already know so for those who don't know go to your page element tab and look for the following edit link highlighted in red



now click that and you will see the following image browse for the image you would like to add as the blogs header it can be on your computer or hosted on another server



Now if you would like to add it the other way go to the edit html tab and find the following CSS code it depends what template you have this is based on the one from my previous tutorial which can be found HERE.



and add the code Ive highlighted below of course change the URL to where ever you have the image hosted also you may need to change the height and width depends what size your image is and you may need to optimize it for the web so your site loads faster



so now you know how to add an image to the blogs header

UPDATE: i have notice lots of people's blogs header has shrunk i have managed to come up with a fix which works for some depends what template you have first make sure you download a copy of your template next add the following CSS code you may need to alter the height and width to whatever you need



#Header1_headerimg {
width:100%;
height:95px;
text-align:center;
}


if this helped dont forget to leave your comment and let me know

Update: i have wrote a new fix here