Working with Tables

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi guys and gals! It's been a while since I had something new to teach you! But I just helped a gentleman with this last night so I thought I'd pass on the info.

What we're going to learn today is how to customize a table to work in Blogger, and all the cool things you can do with it.

This particular table that I'm going to show you how to make has three columns (that go across) and five rows (that go down) on the page.

Day	Food	Child
Monday	Hot Dogs	Mike
Tuesday	Chicken	Mary
Wednesday	Hamburger	Paul

That is what it will look like, and this is the code that you copy to create it!


<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table style="text-align: left; width: 460px;" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Day</td>
<td>Food</td>
<td>Child</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Monday</td>
<td>Hot Dogs</td>
<td>Mike</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tuesday</td>
<td>Chicken</td>
<td>Mary</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Wednesday</td>
<td>Hamburger</td>
<td>Paul</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>


Now! What you can do to add customization:

If you want more columns(across) across the table, add more table data units, like this. Note: You must add the same amount to each row!

<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td> .....notice extra td unit!
</tr>


If you want more rows (going down the page. Add more table rows (tr).

<tr>....this is the beginning of a tr unit
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>.....this is the end of a tr unit


If you want the table to be wider or narrower, change the pixel number in the width unit:
width: 460px

If you don't want a border, turn the border number to zero:
border="0"
Note: the higher the border number, the thicker the border.

And the cellspacing numbers tell you how many pixels between the cells of the table, while the cellpadding tells you how many pixels betweeh the sides of the cell and the writing that you put in it!
cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">

Have at it, and have fun!!

Decreasing Your Bounce Rate

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi folks! Another tip has been pulled to the forefront of my memory by an inquiring blogger...the necessity of using target="_blank".

LOL...don't look at me like that...I'm not talking dirty :-) Using target="_blank" in an outgoing link on your blog or website causes a new browser window to open when the link is clicked. It is desireable for two reasons.

First, the visitor is still on your website when they close that window after perusing, and they don't have to navigate back to your page.

And second, it helps to decrease your "bounce" rate.

LOL...I knew I'd get your eyes to roll up in your head at least once in this post :-)

Bounce Rate is defined as how many times a visitor "bounces" away from your site and comes back. If you are involved in increasing your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the bounce rate on an entry page can help to determine how effective it is at grabbing people's attention.

Now before you running screaming from the room yelling, "SEO, SEO!" I must add caviar...LOL...I mean...a caveat. Bounce rate is only an SEO factor is you have a site for commerce. If your site is about ordinary stuff like blogging, news or just plain information you really don't have to worry.

The neat and conclusive reason for adding target="_blank" is to keep people on your page!

Write your links like this:

<a href="URL of SITE" target="_blank">

Adding a New Header Image

by Bonnie Calhoun

Man, oh man! I'm just full of posts lately! *snort-giggle* I've been helping a lot of friends get their blogs redesigned.

Well here is a problem I've noticed on several of my friends blogs. When they re-install their templates, they can no longer get their header images to show. Well I've come up with a work-around....LOL...and yes...you have to go play with your HTML!

I'll turn ya'll into template gurus yet!

This problem is especially prevalent on the Scribe template. When you swtich templates the Header gadget should stay, but in the Scribe it doesn't...so go figure!

Here's how we're gonna fix it. We're going to delete the present Header element from the template and add a new one. LOL...I think the old one has a bad case of the ick! But first we have to allow the Header section to allow another gadget (You will notice that there is no "Add a Gadget" section on the Scribe Header.

Here's where we go play with HTML. Start at your Dashboard....go to the Layout tab...then click the Edit HTML link. We are going to scroll down to the highlighted section of code in the below image. If you can't read what it says, click on the image and it will open in a larger window.



What you are going to do is change the line where it says...showaddelement "no"...to "yes" This will allow the "add a Gadget to show up in the header section of your template. And you are going to remove the <b section that has your bad Header, so that that section looks like this when you are done.



Now you will click "Save Template". It will tell you that you are deleting a Widget, like in the below image. That's okay...click yes!



Now go to your Page Elements page...see the "Add a Gadget" in the Header section. Click it! Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and pick Page Header.

When it opens, click for the image to show "instead of the title and description" Then either find your image on the internet at your storage site, or use the top link and upload it from your computer. Then click save! Viola! You have your header back!

Adding Color To Your Browser Scrollbar

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi guys and gals! Yes it's me again...twice in one week! Well I'm helping some friends spiff up their blogs, and I've had to re-remember stuff I've done in the past. Okay...today we're going to add color to that pesky browser scroll bar.

Now before you use this code, I must make you aware that it will not work in Firefox...LOL...they don't like people messing with their colors, so you can only get this to work in Internet Explorer.

The last caveat that I add to it is that, if you're anal retentive like I am about making my web pages validate this one is going to throw you for a loop because according to W3C...it ain't valid! So you will get an error code for it, but it won't break your page or anything...LOL...unless you have like 5000 other errors!

Okay...here's what you use:


<!--[if IE]>
<style type="text/css">
html {
scrollbar-arrow-color:#6E0502;
scrollbar-track-color:#940400;
scrollbar-face-color:#6BE02;
scrollbar-highlight-color:#909400;
scrollbar-3dlight-color:#333333;
scrollbar-darkshadow-color:#473624;
scrollbar-shadow-color:#BFB186;
}
</style>
<![endif]-->



And you scroll down til you get to the end of the <head> section, and you put it right BEFORE the </head>

Viola! You've got a color coordinated brownser scrollbar!

Creating A Scroll Bar for Your Link List

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi all! It's been a while since I had something new to tell you, mainly because I've been busy with other projects.

One of my friends ask me to help her create a scroll bar for her rather long link list. So I thought I'd share the result with you.

It's rather easy to accomplish. As with everything I tell you, make sure you have saved a copy of your template in NotePad before you go farting around with it. And when you add code to your HTML, please....use the "Preview" button to see if that is what you want. If it is not, hit the "Discard Edits" button and you will be back where you started from.

Only hit SAVE...when you are sure you have the proper results!

Okay...now for the easy part...go to your LAYOUT tab. Click Edit HTML. Scroll down in the code until you see:


/* Sidebar Content
----------------------------------------------- */
/* Sidebar Content */


Right below that add:


#LinkList1 {
height:150px;
overflow:auto;
}















The number '150' in the height tells you how tall the box will be before it show the scrollbar, (illustrated to the left) you can change that number at will!

If you only have one link list in your sidebar, this will work as written. But if you add more than one scroll bar you will have to scroll down in your HTML is see what the list is called to create a scrollbar for it. Typically the default names will be LinkList1, LinkList2...and so on. Change the name in the piece of code that you add according to that name that the widget gives it.

And add the piece of code for each list that you want to have a scrollbar!

One other NOTE...your sidebar section in your HTML might not be names exactly the same as mine...it might just say:


*/Sidebar/*
or

/* Typography :: Sidebar
----------------------------------------------- */


Whatever it says, it's just a section name, and I want you to put it in the right section...LOL...only because I'm a neat-freak, and anal-retentive about how the code is organized! *snort-giggle* You could actually put it in any section...but you might forget where you put it...So keep it neat!

Happy blogging! Till next time!

Wrapping Adsense in Blog Post

by Bonnie Calhoun

This is the third in the series of Adsense posts. The other two are HERE, and HERE.

Today I'm going to teach you how to wrap Adsense code into a blog post. The first example isn't exactly rocket science so even the most novice of bloggers will be able to accomplish this with ease.

First the glaring question: Why would I want to give myself the heart palpitations that come with messing with the stupid HTMl in my template to put in an equally stupid ad?

LOL...the answer to that: Ads placed within blog posts have been tested and proved to give the maximum in CTR (click thru rate). LOL...this means that you make a lot more money than with other locations on your page.

Let's first look at the use of the Adsense Widget.

From your Dashboard, click Layout. It will open on the Page Elements page. Click the Edit link in the Post Box. There is a clickable link in that open Configure box that you can click to put Ads between any number of posts. Read this Blogger Article about Placing Ads between posts.

From here on, it's going to get a little tougher, so the first thing I would recommend is Backing Up Your Template if you already don't have a copy of it saved in a NotePad file on your own computer. When you open the Layout tab, and click Edit HTML it will give you the Backup link...Please USE IT!!!


Okay...you're all backed up...now on to putting Adsense in your posts. Check the Expand Widget Templates box above the Edit window. Search for the following lines:

<data:post.body/>
or
<p><data:post.body/></p>

You will need to Parse Your Adsense Code like I taught you to do in THIS POST. This is how the post section code will look after you add the Parsed Adsense Code and the line to direct the ad to sit left, or right. In this code I have it set for left. To move it to the other side of the post, change the float position to right.

<div class="post-body entry-content">
<div style="float: left;">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
google_ad_format = "468x60_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "";
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</div>
<p><data:post.body/></p>

Click the SAVE TEMPLATE button, and you're done

Creating Your Own Post Tagline

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hello blogging friends! I haven't been ignoring you *snort-giggle* I just didn't have anything worthy of a post to report. I'm happy to say that I've found something new that could be of service to to, especially to those with team blogs!

Recently it has been asked frequently how the members of a team blog could get their image and/or signature on their posts! Well until Blogger comes up with a post editor solution, each team member can accomplish it with just a minor adjustment.

Each team member will need to open a "New Post" box. Into that box you are going to enter your name...as a signature. You can see how I accomplished that in the image below. And you are also going to upload an image of yourself. I made the size on this one, 50px X 60px, but that size is up to the individual.

Click on the image to open it larger, and in it's own window so you can read what it says!



Now...to get the text to wrap around the image start typing the post right after the closing image mark. The example in the picture is of this specific post, so you can see how it comes out.

After each team member has done this in his/her own post, they could save a copy of the signature and image in a file on their own computer to reuse on subsequent posts, or they could save a draft copy of their tagline and label the post with their own name so that they know which one to open...or they could just open up their last post, and copy and paste that part into their next post!

Happy blogging!