When inserting codes into the Blogger template, page element, or blog post, you may have seen error messages that the code could not be parsed, was not well-formed, was broken, or that the elements were not closed properly. These errors can be corrected if you understand the rules that must be adhered to in XHTML documents. Blogger templates use the XHTML 1.0 Strict Document Type. In this
SEO Tools - Search Engine Optimization
What are search engine optimization tools, webmaster tools, Google page rank checker, SEO tools, and how can these internet tools help to bring more quality traffic to your Blog? There are many free online web tools that webmasters can use to find out more information about their sites. The tools can also alert the webmasters to possible problems search engines may have with the site's template
Author Comments - Different Styles
Bloggers generally welcome constructive comments and feedback on their posts. Among the ways to encourage comments are to remove the “nofollow” tag and to add a Recent Comments widget into the template. Comments highlight issues that readers might have faced, and the author's reply to these comments may be useful to other readers as well. If you have many comments posted in your blog, it would
Flash Music Player and Music Playlists
In our earlier article, Add Music to Blogspot Blog, we talked about how music can be played in the background of the blog or through a hyperlink or music console player. Readers had requested for an option to play more than one song via a playlist. We have been looking at cross-browser music players that allow us to display a music playlist of selected musical pieces for Blog readers to listen
Submit Blogger Sitemap to MSN and Ask.com
We had explained how to submit Blogger sitemaps to Google and Yahoo!. When the sitemap industry standard was first announced in 2006, Microsoft's MSN was one of the three major search providers which supported the protocol. Submitting your Blog's sitemap to these search engines will enable them to index the pages and contents of the site. Needless to say, having all the pages indexed will
Recent Comments Feed Widget
We wrote earlier about creating Recent Comments and Recent Posts Widgets using Blogger's “Feed” page element. It was a simple method that even non-techie Bloggers can understand and use. In the middle of last month, Blogger did a major change to the GData API and many bloggers suddenly saw broken entries in their feed widgets. Although Blogger has tweaked the Feed widget to make this work
Technorati Tags in Blogger Posts
Technorati, which indexes some 94 million weblogs, allows blog owners to assign tags to their posts. These tags are essentially words which describe the category that the posts, photos and videos fall under. Visitors can then search these tags to find the relevant blog posts. How can the Technorati tags be inserted into Blogger posts so that they can be indexed by Technorati? Is there a need to
Blogger FAQ and Help Guide
In case you are not already aware, we have been addressing some of our readers' queries through our Tricks for New Bloggers blog. It all started with readers asking questions which are unique to their situations. While we tried to modify our articles to include those situations as well, it was a tall order trying to cover every possible permutation. So as not to disappoint our readers, we set
Add or Remove Borders in CSS Templates
We have received a number of queries from people wanting to remove the image borders or add sidebar borders in the CSS layouts. In this article, we cover briefly what the border styles in CSS templates are and where you can find them. With this guide, you will be able to remove the borders around the images, sidebar or main posts, or change the style and color of the borders to match the Blog
Internet Security and Blogger Virus
The internet was abuzz with talk that Blogger.com site got hacked and was compromised. Blog owners suddenly found fake spam Posts in their Blogs which contained links to virus downloads and data mining sites. Some were faced with inexplicable web page load times and yet others noticed odd codes appearing in their templates. The natural reaction is to blame all these on the people responsible
Add Scrollbars to Blog Widgets
This tutorial shows you how to create widgets or boxes with scrollbars. When the contents in the widget exceed a certain specified height or width, there will be a vertical or horizontal scrollbar to enable users to read the contents that overflow or exceed the box area. This scrolling element is especially useful for our Link List or Labels widget which may be very lengthy. It reduces the total
Customize Video Upload in Blogger
We wrote an article some time back suggesting how you can Add Video to Blogs. We highlighted two popular video hosts – Google Video and YouTube. Just yesterday (Aug 24, 2007) Blogger released its new Video Upload feature from its Blogger in Draft. There is now an icon in your Post Editor allowing you to upload a video into your post, in the same manner as you would for photos. At the moment,
Images not shown in Internet Explorer
Sometimes, the photos, images, pictures or graphics do not show or display in a website in Internet Explorer (“IE”) browser or an email in MS Outlook Express. Instead, where the pictures ought to be, there is a Red X or a placeholder.Several factors could have caused this problem of images not being displayed in IE. In this Help guide, we'll look at these reasons and the solutions to show
Customize and Modify Poll Widget
In this article, we shall suggest some modifications to the CSS template to change the appearance of the Poll widget to something eye-catching and attention-grabbing. For example, we can add background colors or images to the Polls widget and change the font and border colors. These should draw the attention of your readers to the Poll and put some buzz into the Blog.In case you are not aware,
Sticky Posts in Blogger
In this article, we learn how to create sticky posts or have an article permanently displayed on your Home page and above the Blog Posts. This is useful if you want readers to see a particular post, message, announcement or text whenever they visit the site. It could be an earlier popular post. In all Blog platforms, new posts are always shown first and older posts are archived. With a simple
Make Blog Private and Unsearchable
Many people write blogs to share their thoughts with everybody and anybody. However, you may also use your Blog as an online diary, penning very personal and private thoughts. Like all diaries, you can either allow a select few persons to view the Blog or allow no one but yourself the right to view it. Also, you may not want it to be indexed by search engines, so that people searching for it
Manage Blogger Image Storage Space
We have uploaded a fair number of pictures and graphics onto our Blogs. However, this is nothing compared to some blogs which have hundreds and thousands of photos in their archives. As we know by now, any service, be it web host or email provider, that comes free will not allow you unlimited bandwidth or storage space. Google has a cap on its storage space too. In this article, we shall
Tables – HTML Basics and Tutorial
In this article, we shall learn how to create tables in our Blog posts or as a part of our web design layout. This guide covers the usual HTML attributes and styles that can be applied to tables. Tables add a different dimension to displaying your contents and whether you have a football match fixture, menu, and song, price or grocery lists, putting them in a table format is certainly neater.Most
AdSense Product Referrals in Blogger
If you have an AdSense account, this latest launch of Google AdSense Referrals 2.0 is something you must look at. In addition to the traditional Google products, there is now a very long and varied list of products that you can include in your Blogs and offer your readers. In contextual ad targeting, the AdSense ads that appear in your Blog may not always be relevant, especially if you do not
Alert Message and Dialog Box
You can display an alert message box to give a special announcement, provide information, or warn the readers before they view the full contents of your site. The pop up box will contain your message and have an “OK” button for viewers to proceed, or a prompt or cancel button to redirect readers to another site. We can further customize our Blog by asking for the reader's name and inserting