New Blogger Tips

Removing dynamic templates from your blog

by Unknown / Wednesday, September 28, 2011 / Posted in Article, Dynamic templates, Template editing

Dynamic templates can be removed from your blog - but be careful if you want to keep any gadets etc that were on your blog before it went dynamic.

Overview:

Previously, I've described the initial version of dynamic templates for blogger, and the second release.

This 2nd version is a lot better integrated with the rest of Blogger, but it has some consequences for many other parts of the system.

In particular, if you want to go back to using a design or layout template there is a real risk of losing all your previous gadgets if you aren't careful how your remove the dynamic template.

Dynamic view template = no Design option in the dashboard drop down

One effect of choosing a Dynamic template for your blog is that the Design option is not on the main-menu drop down in the dashboard in the new, the post-Sept-11 Blogger interface.

Instead, there is just Template, which takes you straight to the Template designer: this happens because, unlike layout or designer templates, you have no control over the layout of a blog with dynamic template, and cannot edit the HTML behind it.

If you want to have this level of control, including being responsible for the consequences of editing your template, then you need to remove the dynamic template, and switch back to a regular one.

How to remove a dynamic template from your blog:

When you have chosen a dynamic template, there is an option in the Design screen to " Revert to previous template".

If you click this link, your blog template goes back to how it was before you applied the designer template, including all gadgets and layout customisations.

BUT

If you choose "revert to previous template", and then pick a different designer or layout template before saving, then you will lose all gadgets and customisations that are not on the "standard" version of the new template.

The moral of the story: always back up before making major changes to your blog. (And even then I'm not 100% convinced you will be able to restore your gadgets to exactly how they were.)

NB Any posts you have made in the meantime are kept - it is simply the template that is changed here, not the blog contents.

Disabling dynamic views for your blog:

In new-interface-Blogger, I cannot see any way to turn Dynamic views off.

In pre-Sept-11-Blogger, there is still an option to turn Dynamic views off, under Settings > Formatting.

This is still relevant, because people can see your blog using dynamic views, even if you haven't chosen a dynamic template, by using www.YourURL.blogspot.com/view (although this may not work for blogs with custom URLs)

Dynamic templates: turning them on in your blog

by Unknown / / Posted in Article, Dynamic templates, Template editing

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This article is about the 2nd version of dynamic templates that Blogger have released: what they are, how to add them to your blog, and what restrictions they have.

Announcing Dynamic Templates, part II

In March 2011, Blogger announced Dynamic Views, and I posted describing them, and telling you how to give your readers the ability to see your blog in dynamic views.

Today, they've announced them again (without acknowledging the previous announcement!). This time with a few differences:

There are seven templates (instead of five)
Some templates allow for blogs that don't have great photos in every post
You can set your blog up so that visitors automatically see it using one of the dynamic-view templates: it's just another option in the template designer (see Setting up your Blog to use a Dynamic Template, below).
Most (all?) templates include some gadgets: search, RSS feed link, link to Blogger, and regular sized +1, Tweet and Like buttons (instead of the anorexic ones in regular designer templates at the moment)

There are still restrictions: blogs must be public, with RSS site feeds enabled.

And there are still lots of things missing: for example, blog-owners have no control over gadgets or layout, fonts or color scheme (even though the announcement says this is coming, I cannot find where to access it).

You cannot add gadgets to a blog with a dynamic template. So you cannot install Google Analytics, or AdSense or any other sort of advertising. That said, this help article does say that Blogger will continue to support AdSense for blogs that already have it, so the work around may be to use a regular designer template, put in some ads, and then switch to a dynamic template.

Setting up your Blog to use a Dynamic Template

To make a dynamic view the default option for your blog:

1) Check that it is public,

2) Check that the RSS site feeds is switched to full or jump-break

2) Choose Design > Template Designer (pre-Sept-11 interface), or Template from the dashboard drop-down (post-Sept-11 Blogger)

3) Choose Dynamic from the list of options (if it's not in the list, then post probably your blog doesn't meet one of the conditions above.

4) From the row underneath, choose which of the options (ie dynamic template types) you would like as a default.

Next:

Removing a dynamic template from your blog - be careful, don't lose your gadgets!

Blogger / Amazon integration is finished - what are our options now?

by Unknown / Friday, September 23, 2011 / Posted in Advertising, Amazon Associates, Article, Gadgets

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This article is an update about the interation between Blogger and Amazon, and what options Blogger users have instead.

Blogger and Amazon working together ...

Boats at Amazon River. Novo Airao, Amazonas, Brazil.
By José Luiz FilhoOwn work copyright left. Multi-license GFDL an
Creative Commons CC-BY-SA (2.5., 2.0 and 1.0)

In December 2009, Blogger announced integration with Amazon (which was actually only integration with Amazon.com).

At the time, there were hints that this was only the first of many new money-making options and programmes for Bloggers.

These features were added to Blogger to support the integration:

Ability to sign up for Amazon.com on the Monetize tab
Existing Amazon.com users link their Blogger and Amazon account on the Monetize tab
A tick-box on the Monetize tab that let "amazon-integrated" bloggers turn on the Amazon-product-preview without having to install the code
Amazon Product Finder (APF) - a gadget that bloggers could use in the the Post Editor, to make a link to a product from Amazon.com without leaving the Post Editor screen
A range of gadgets from Amazon were added to the list in Add a Gadget

... but not any more?

For months, there have been complaints in Blogger-help-forum that existing Amazon.com associates couldn't link their Blogger and Amazon.com Amazon.com accounts on the Monetize tab any more: the function just returned an error, or appeared to work, but didn't actually storing the connection.

Now, with the release of Blogger's new interface, the Monetize tab has been renamed Earnings. There's no mention of Amazon on it, and no sign of the Amazon Product Finder (APF) in the Post-editor. And there are reports in Blogger-help-forum that people who had APF turned on in "old blogger" find that it's gone in the new interface - and is broken even if they switch back to the old interface.

On the Amazon.com site their official Amazon-Associates blog is now made with TypePad. I know that I recently saw instructions about putting things (widgets?) into Blogger, that that these commented that blogger has a new look. However the instruction were still based on the old interface. And today, I can't find them at all.

There has been nothing said (that I've seen anyway) by either company. But I think it's safe to assume that the Blogger / Amazon integration has been abandoned.

Why Did This Happen:

My guess is that there are two big issues.

Firstly, Amazon.com is a lot more than just a bookseller: Google and Amazon are competitors in some areas (eg document storage), so there's bound to be some friction, even though they managed to agree a compromise in 2009. And possibly that compromise wasn't profitable enough for either of them.

Second, and possibly more importantly, there is an internationalisation issue.

Blogger is a multi-lingual, multi-country platform: different languages and cultures are catered for within the same platform and subject to the same terms and conditions. Blogger users all live with the same rules, that are based on American law (eg the 13-year age limit, which is most probably based on America Children's Online Privacy Protection Act).

Amazon, on the other hand, have different platforms for different countries (even amazon.ca for Canada, vs amazon.com for the USA+rest of the world). This is understandable, because countries have vastly different laws about on-line selling and taxes, so Amazon's rules need to be quite different in different places. Even in the European Union, we see regular updates to the terms and conditions that basically amount to the addition of new countries/languages - Amazon.es (for Spain) was the latest one - and these come with small rule-tweaks too. These big differences mean that integration with a multi-national product like Blogger is not easy: there would be lots of on-going issues with making the sites work well together.

My guess is that these two factors combined have killed off the integration.

What can bloggers do instead

You can still sign yourself up for Amazon.com (or Amazon.co.uk, or .ca or whatever-other country), and make the links to products and Amazon-widgets yourself. Personally, I think this better anyway, because it gives you control ove the look and feel (colours, backgrounds, tracking-IDs) used on the ads, and choices about where to install the HTML on your blog.

There is no alternative for the Amazon Product Finder gadget - except opening Amazon in a different tab, and making the links there as you need them. It's little bit more work - but only just.

There are still Amazon.com gadgets in the Add a Gadget list (from Layout in the new interface, Design > Page Elements in the old one) - you can find them under the features tab.

For now at least, it looks like Blogger's monetize tab is limited to AdSense , and it is a money-making option that you can sign up for from within Blogger. (Even though there are a few vital extra steps that you should take, even though Blogger hasn't told you about them, like blocking certain ad-categories, and stopping malicious use of your AdSense ID).

And there are, of course, many other advertisting programmes and affiliate programmes that you can consider if AdSense doesn't work for your blog.

Customizing the look and feel of your Amazon associate advertisements

by Unknown / Thursday, September 22, 2011 / Posted in Amazon Associates, Article

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If you are an Amazon Associates publisher, then you have a great deal of control over the color schemes used in your ads, and some control over the other elements. This article describes the options that are open to you: it's writen for Blogger users, but the info applies to all Amazon affiliates.

Easy links between Blogger and Amazon?

Between 2009-2011, Blogger and Amazon were integrated, and there were tools that made it very easy to put Amazon ads into blog posts. However the integration is gone from the most recent version of Blogger - and besides, many publishers would prefer to customize the colour and style of ads on their site.

Amazon gives some control over these features - you simply need to log into their site, and set up the options that you want.

Making Amazon product ads that match your colour scheme.

Log in to whichever Amazon you're using.

Remember, there are different Amazons to use for different readers.
For Amazon.com, log on at: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

From the row of tabs at the top of the screen, choose Links and Banners / Product links

Click the "Add Product Links Now" option

Search for the product you want to link to

From the list of products shown, click "Get link" - it's the button on the right side of the screen

In the window that opens, you can edit the link properties.

Choose the type of link that you want:

Image and text (show a small picture of the product, a description and perhaps the price)
Text only (shows whatever text you choose, only)
Image only (shows a picture of the product - clicking the picture takes your reader to Amazon)
Add to widget (these will be covered in another article)

The specific options that you can choose are different for each type of link - changing color is very popular for image-and-text links. You may just want to choose a values from Amazon's colour-picker: use the "ok" button at the bottom to apply your colour choice.

Or you may want to get the exacty value from your blog, by going into Blogger's colour selection tools, choosing the item whose colour you want to use and coping the hex code (without the #) .and pasting it into the Amazon colour picker wind.

For image and text links, you can also choose whether to open links in a new window, picture size (limited to larger or smaller), and whether to show the item price or not.

Once you have finished copy the HTML from the "Get HTML Code For This Product Link" box at the bottom of the screen.

Put the HTML into your blog the same way you would add any other 3rd party HTML.

Some examples of customized links:

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

How to cut, copy and paste in Blogger's post editor

by Unknown / Thursday, September 15, 2011 / Posted in Article, Getting Started, Post Editor

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Blogger's post editor doesn't have buttons for cut, copy and paste. Google Chrome doesn't have them in a top menu bar either. Fortunately there are still (at least) three ways to move text around.

To my regular readers:You may think I've gone crazy, doing such a "simple" post. But I just answered a question about just this in the Blogger-help-forum. When I tried googling the question no answers came up in the first page. And I'm in a mood to write something simple to help newbie-bloggers (we were all new, once). Humour me, I'll be back with a more complex topic soon. Mary

What can you do in the Post Editor

The Post Editor is the tool that you use in Blogger to edit your posts and pages.

It has buttons for many of the things you would do in a word-processor and many other programs, such as:

un-do/re-do,
choose the font, font size and highlighting (bold, italic, underline, strikethru)
choose the text and background colour
turn some text into a link
insert a picture or video
make the text left, centre or right aligned
numbered and bullet pointed lists
indenting a quote
check the spelling.

It also has a couple of Blogger (or perhaps Google)-specific functions:

adding a jump-break
removing all the formatting from a piece of text

But there is one set of very common functions that are missing: Cut, Copy and Paste. Fortunately there are a number of other ways to cut / copy / paste - you just need to know where to find them.

Option 1: Use the browser menu

To see the post editor, you must first be using a web-browser (eg Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc) to connect to Blogger.

Most of the these browsers have an edit menu in the top left corner where it "should" be, and this menu has CCP. So you can

Select the text you want to work with, or put the cursor into the place you want to copy to, and
Choose cut, copy or paste from the browser menu.

Exceptions: Google Chrome and IE9

In some newer browsers, instead of a menu bar, the toolbar has moved to the top right hand corner of the screen, just under the close-window button. It's shown with a wrench in Chrome and a gear wheel in Internet Explorer, like this.

If you left-click on the wrench, you are shown a menu that has many of the options that are in "normal" browser windows, includng the edit options of cut, copy and paste (in small buttons).

There are also useful option like to view the source code of the page - these are under the Tools item in the wrench-menu.

(There may be other exceptions too, I'm not familiar with browser software on Apple or Linux computers these days.)

Option 2: Right-click

Select the text you want to work with, or put the cursor into the place you want to copy to
Right-click on it using your mouse or keypad button.
Choose the function you want from the small menu that opens in the middle of the screen (called a context menu). (The options that are there will depend on your browser software - but even Chrome has cut, copy & paste)

Option 3: Keyboard shortcuts

Select the text you want to work with, or put the cursor into the place you want to copy to
Press the keyboard short-cut for the function you want.

Some of the most common keyboard shortcut, and ones that definitely work in Blogger are:

ctrl / x - cut
ctrl / c - copy
ctrl / v - paste

ctrl / a - select all
ctrl / z - unto
ctrl / y - re-do

ctrl / b - bold
ctrl / i - italic
ctrl / u - underline

To do these, hold down the control key (it's sometimes labelled "ctrl") and press the letter-key will you are still holding ctrl.
To me, these are the quickest way to work, even though they take some learning to start with.

Options in Blogger's post-editor: where to find them

by Unknown / Saturday, September 10, 2011 / Posted in Article, New interface basics, Post Editor

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This article explains where to find the options for each post or page, in both the updated and older Blogger.

Where to find Post Options / Options:

Each individual post in Blogger has options that can set for it, including

The date it was (or is to be) published,
How to handle HTML in the post
Whether to allow comments
Label(s) that are applied to it

These values for these are set in the Post Settings-Options / Post Options area:

In post-Sept-11 Blogger (the "new" interface)
The Post Settings bar is on the right hand side of the screen: Click on Post Settings (unless it's already open), and under that there are separate sections for

Options (it has a gear-wheel beside it),
Location,
Published on
Labels

This shows the current values.for the post: after you have changed them, you can press the Done button to hide that section again.

In pre-Sept-11 Blogger (the "old" interface)
Post Options is at the bottom of the post-editor screen, like this:.

Set all the links in your blog to open in a new window - except if you use AdSense!

by Unknown / Tuesday, September 6, 2011 / Posted in Adsense, Article, HTML, Post Editor

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You can set your blog up so that all clicked links open in a new page. But this is not a good idea if you are an AdSense publisher - this article explains why.

Making links open in a new tab

Sometimes, you need to refer to outside material in your blog: your ability to quote it is controlled by copyright laws, so you may need to link to an outside source, rather than quoting it in full.

Blogger's Post Editor has a tool for changing some text into a link - and it's been much easier to use since they added a check-box turns the "open on a new tab / window" option on/of. If you tick this option, then the post-editor automatically adds target="_blank" (the HTML code for this) to your link.

For example

< a href="www.blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com"> Blogger-HAT's Home Page </a>

becomes

< a href="www.blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com" target="_blank"> Blogger-HAT's Home Page </a>

Doing it automatically

Occasionally there are requests in the Blogger Help Forum like

"How can I make all the links in my blog open in a new window"

These often cone from people new to Blogger who, understandably, want to keep the traffic on their site.

There are ways to do this, provided you're willing to accept the disadvantages of editing your template - this explanation shows how to do it. Although this approach works, the advice in the help-forum usually includes a warning to think very carefully about whether you really want your visitors to see a new page whenever they look at your own "about" page or one of your older posts.

Another option is to set the blog up so that only external links (ones to pages outside your own URL) open in a new window - one way to do that is described here.

But there is one issue that's often not mentioned: the relationship between this command, and the terms and conditions of other tools that you may be using on your blog.

It's not a good idea for AdSense publishers

The last time I read AdSense's terms and conditions, it was very clear that when a user clicks on an AdSense ad in your site, the ad must open in the existing window: advertisers are paying for your viewers full attention, not to have them still thinking about YOUR website!

I'm no lawyer, but it seems clear to me that setting your links to automatically open in new pages would be a clear violation of this.

So based on this, I would recommend that

If you use AdSense,
Then don't install auto-new-page code into your template, and check that any 3rd party templates that you use don't have this feature either.

If this advice worries you, you may like to use an alternative advertising programme: it seems that Chitika, at least, does let you customise your ads in this way.

It's fine to open individual links on a new page - just don't do it for all of them.

Disclaimer: this advice is based on my interpretation of the Terms and Conditions. Caveat emptor. Always read the terms and conditions yourself, every publisher is responsible for making sure that their site complies.

Setting up AdSense on your blog

Alternative advertising programmes

Copyright, blogs and bloggers

Advantages and disadvantages of editing your template

Extra customization of Chitika ads

Other tools you may like to use on your blog

New Blogger interface VS existing help-articles

by Unknown / Thursday, September 1, 2011 / Posted in Help

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This article explains the approach I'm taking to converting the advice in this blog to the new Blogger interface which was released in August 2011.

And it asks for ideas about the best way to describe where to find things in the new tool.

A new user-interface for Blog-writers:

Earlier this year, Google announced that they were working on a new look for the tool that we use to write our blogs. Since then, we've been able to use this tool, in various forms in Blogger-in-Draft.

This week, they've announced that this new tool is available in "production" blogger. ("Production" anything is geek-ese for the real version of it.)

As with lots of Google's new interfaces, there is

A button on the old version to go to the new one, and
A button on the new version to go back to the old one, and

Based on what's happened in other Google tools that have had new interfaces, my guess is that we can expect these buttons to be around for quite a while. Most probably, the option to go back won't be removed, but it will become irrelevant as ever-newer features are introduced to the "new" version only.

New front-end, old help-articles:

As well as the Blogger-help-forum, there are many other blogs (including this one) about "how to do things in Blogger". I've described these before, and also made the Blogger-helpers-search tool which does a Google Custom Search of the best (IMHO) ones.

The new-look Blogger means that the advice in these blogs is (potentially) out-of-date, at least for people who are using the new interface. And very soon, there will be new Blogger-users who've never seen the old interface and are really confused when someone says "go to the dashboard, choose Design > Page Elements and ..." - because they won't even know that the main Blogger screen used to be called the Dashboard.

So we've all got a challenge of updating our advice to reflect how things are done in new-Blogger. Personally, I'm not so delighted about this: I've spent most of my Blogger-HAT time in the last three months re-writing every single article to apply consistent formatting (Blogger-HAT started out as a place to keep all my working notes for myself) and quality standards to each article. I will be updating my articles again, but in the meantime ...

Advice in Blogger-HAT is based on using the updated editor in pre-Sept-2011-Blogger, unless otherwise stated.

Which version of Blogger?

Today, it makes sense to talk about "new Blogger" and "old Blogger". But it won't be long before "new" isn't so new anymore. Personally I'm going to refer to:

Blogger	the current "production" version
Pre-Sept-2011-Blogger	The "old" version (which inludes the old and updated editor options under Settngs > Basics)
Draft Blogger	The experimental version where Google are trying out new things

Describing Blogger Commands

This week's changes mean we have another challenge in writing how-do instructions for Blogger.

Previously, the links to do things inside Blogger were labelled with text. We could say
"go to the Dashboard, choose Edit Profile, find Identify and ...", or even "Dashboard > Edit Profile > Identify". And people who couldn't see where the command was could just use their Browser's help tool to search for the right place.

But now, small pictures (ie icons) are used instead.

picture of new buttons in Blogger's post editor: the quick edit pencil (blue square, the options drop-down - red circle, and view - green triangle)

So we need to find a way to descibe the new features which is

Understandable - especially by people who are new to Google / Blogger, and who don't know that the small round thing with bumps is called a gear-wheel, and is where Google usually hides the "setting" and "tools" type of commands, and
Concise enough so that articles and help-forum answers look readable (eg needing to say "the small down-arrow to the right of the blog-name in the main blogger screen" every time I talk about that arrow).

Right now, I'm not sure how do this, and would love to hear any ideas you have about how I can describe the tools availabe from Blogger's screens - please use the comments below to let me know how you would like to see things described.

Rss:

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New Blogger Tips

Removing dynamic templates from your blog

Dynamic templates: turning them on in your blog

Blogger / Amazon integration is finished - what are our options now?

Customizing the look and feel of your Amazon associate advertisements

How to cut, copy and paste in Blogger's post editor

Options in Blogger's post-editor: where to find them

Set all the links in your blog to open in a new window - except if you use AdSense!

Making links open in a new tab

Doing it automatically

It's not a good idea for AdSense publishers

Related Articles:

New Blogger interface VS existing help-articles

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