Friday, January 14, 2011

Blogging 101 ~ Lesson #5: Edit the Template & Design Your Blog's Look Part 2

Since we used up our 30 minutes in Lesson #4 before we finished working our way thru all of the Blogger Template Designer options we will finish that up in the first part of this lesson.  Once again, find the Template Designer on your dashboard or in the Navbar at the top of your blog by clicking on design and then the designer link below the
Design tab.  Now click on "Advanced" to work thru the options.

25 Minutes:  Finish the Changes to Your Template

As I mentioned in Lesson #5 depending on the template you chose you may have options that I do not have and I may have some you are not offered.  I will work thru mine and just make some suggestions on some of them.

After you work thru each section click apply to blog so you do not lose any of the changes you wish to keep and will be able to easily clear out and start again if you get confused or interrupted (I speak from experience).

Page Text:  You can set the font and color of your posts to default to whatever you choose here and apply to your template.  The reason I felt it best to have a post published was so you can see the look of the font and color on your blog in the template design and colors you chose.  Scroll the page so the text of the first post is easily visible while you experiment with different options.

Links:  Links are traditionally blue and so many people have come to associate blue text with a link which makes it a natural choice.  But it may not look nice on your color scheme.  Try some different options being sure the color is distinctly different from your text so it will not be missed.  Your post title as well as the posts in the blog archive list that should still be visible in your side bar will give you an idea of what they will look like.  If you do not have a link you have both a link and a visited link available you may have to go in and add a couple to your post so you can see the colors.

Blog Title:  It was suggested to me very early in my blogging days that the blog title or banner does not need to be very large. Visit a few of your favorite business sites, perhaps some stores, and notice the sizes they use.  Some are very small.  Keep this in mind and consider when a new reader visits your site you want as much information as possible about what your blog offers “above the fold” so they do not have to scroll around to see what is available.  So if your title/banner is large less will fit above the fold.

HTML Colors:  If you want to match some of the colors of your blog, such as matching the links to the background, you can go in and find the HTML color number and copy and paste it into another text box.  After pasting it, click outside the box and the new color will appear.  You can then tweak it by clicking on the down arrow beside the color box.

5 Minutes:  Choose a Navbar Color

Changing the color of the Navbar at the top of your blog page is quick and easy.  Go to your design page and click on Edit on the right hand side of the Navbar.  Choose which color you think you will like best and click save.  Now click view blog and see if that is how you want it. If not try another one, repeating until you find what you would like.

No comments: