Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Thing #8 Tutorials

How To Change Your Blogger Theme


Update:  Blogger has finally removed their old interface. This means that the Minima template that I have been recommending for my backgrounds is no longer available. Don't worry, though. I'll walk you through how to add my backgrounds with the other templates. 

1. If you already have the Minima template, that is great! Don't change your template.

2. If you don't have the Minima template, follow steps 2-3. Login to your blog and click on Template from either the drop-down menu or the menu on the left. (You will have to choose a template other than Minima since it is no longer available.)

3. Scroll down to see all of your template options. I recommend any of the following:
    Simple -  either the Black (3rd from left), Red (4th), Books (5th) or White (7th)
    Picture Window - any of these will work. 
    Awesome Inc - any of these will work.
   Watermark - all but the Grass template (3rd from left) will work 
   Ethereal - only the first one will work.
   Travel - any of these will work.

Click on any of these templates to Preview it before actually adding it to your blog. You may have to "Customize" these templates in the "Template Designer" to remove unwanted backgrounds and colors as well as adjust the width of the body of your blog. Once you decide on a template, click "Apply to Blog".

Remove any unwanted backgrounds by clicking Customize (an orange button).

  • In the Template Designer, first click "Background" from the far left list of choices. If there is a background there, click "remove background". 
  • To remove other unwanted features, click "Advanced". In the menu next to "Advanced", click on any feature you would like to customize. For example, on some templates, "Background" will allow you to change the background color. If you want a specific background color to be gone, click the arrow or drop-down menu and then click "Transparent" to the right and below all of the color options.
  • To get out of the Template Designer, click Apply to Blog to save your changes and then click Back to Blogger.
  
4. In a new tab or window, google blog designs or blog templates, then explore them to find one that is “YOU”.
 
5. Copy the html listed below the background.

6. Go back to your blog and click Layout

7. Now, click Add a Gadget.

8. Select the gadget called HTML/JavaScript.

9. A window will pop-up. Paste the html into this window

10. You can save it at this point but there may be one small glitch. When I wrote the code, I made it so that a link to my blog shows up in the top left corner. However, on these new templates (not Minima) my link shows up in weird spots. If you don't care, click Save and be done.

However, if you would like to remove this small tag, find the part in the code that says this:

%3Cdiv%20id%3D%22tag%22%20style%3D%22position ... 

and ends with this:

png%22/%3E%20%3C/a%3E%3C/div%3E

and delete all of the code in between.


11. Finally, click Save.

You did it! Now click on View Blog and see your beautiful new blog!

***If you already have a background from another site and you followed the same instructions to add their background, you need to remove that background first.

To remove your old background:

1. Go back to the Layout.

2. Click on the HTML/JavaScript gadget that the old background html is pasted into.

3. Either click Remove and follow the instructions above or delete all the old html and paste in the new html.

4. Click Save and you are done!

One more thing...
 If you need to adjust the width of your blog (the main text and sidebars) to fit the background image, go to the Template Designer again by clicking Customize and then "Adjust Widths." Move the sliding bar until the design looks good on your background. Then click Apply to Blog and View Blog.


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