Showing posts with label Customize Blogger Templates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Customize Blogger Templates. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

How to Add a Subtitle to Blogger Posts






This Blogger tutorial shows you how to easily and quickly add a subtitle to your Blogger posts (Blogspot posts) so that both search engines and readers will have more information about your post. I also discuss the benefits of adding subtitles to Blogger articles. This is an easy tweak to your Blogger blog that anyone can carry out in a couple of minutes.

blogger Blog with Subtitle Under Post for Emphasis and Search Engine Friendliness

Benefits of Using Subtitles in Posts
Adding a subtitle which appears below the title of your post can be both eye catching and informative. For instance a titling schema for this post could be:
Title: Add a Subtitle to a Blogger Blog

Subtitle: Make Your Posts More Search Engine Friendly and User Friendly

If you craft your titles and subtitles carefully you will encourage more targeted readers of your blog as they will be able to see at a glance what your post is about rather than reading the whole article. Your traffic therefore might be slightly less but they will be far more targeted to the content of your site resulting in a lower bounce rate. 

If the subtitle you choose for your Blogger post is keyword rich then you are also improving your chances of gaining a higher position in search engine result pages because search engines give added weight to headings and to text early on in an article. By adding a subtitle to a Blogger post you have a SEO tool which if used effectively could result in more visitors finding your site because of higher keyword density. 

You can of course add a subtitle manually to each post and format it everytime. The advantage of this method over doing it manually though is that all the formatting is in the stylesheet section of your template so you only have to change the colour scheme and font variables in one location and Blogger will look after the rest. Any change will be reflected in each and every post that has the subtitle <div> tags. 


How to Add a Subtitle to Blogger Posts 
This tutorial guides you through the steps to take to add a subtitle to your Blogger blog. The trick requires only takes a few short minutes and requires only a small snippet of code to be added to your template. Provided the instructions are followed anyone can do this including beginners and new bloggers. Interestingly it is not widely known or written about in technical blogs that a subtitle can be added to your Blogger Blogspot blog posts yet the advantages are considerable. 

1. Log in to Blogger and navigate to Design > Edit HTML

2. Find the </b:skin> tag in your template. If you are have difficulty finding it use CTRL + F to bring up the Blogger toolbar at the bottom of your blog and enter the tag </b:skin> into the search box on the toolbar

3. Copy and paste the code below into your template making sure that it appears before the </b:skin> closing tag
.subtitle{
font-family:Trebuchet MS',Verdana,Arial,Sans-serif;
font-size:15px;
color: #ca1717;
line-height:20px;
}

Add a Subtitle to a Blogger post - edit template and customise if desired
Update November 14, 2010. This code inserts a subtitle in red. You will need to change this color to match your template. See later in this post for information on how to add styling or change the color of the subtitle. If you wish to use a known variable as shown in the above image you can. color: $dateheadercolor; could be used for example provided this variable had already been declared in the variables section of the template.

4. Save Template

5. Go to the post you wish to add a subtitle to by clicking on thePosting tab and then the Edit Posts link.

6. Copy and paste the following code into your post ahead of any other text.
<div class="subtitle">Subtitle Text. Please Substitute for your own text</div>

Add a Subtitle to a Blogger Post

7. Substitute your own text between the <div> tags

8. Navigate to Settings > Formatting and under the last option Post Template enter the following into the box:
<div class="subtitle"></div>

This will mean that every time you create a post you will have the tags appear automatically. All you need do is place the text of your subtitle between the tags. If you don't want to use a subtitle for a particular post just delete the tags.

9. Save Changes to Post and click on View Blog to admire your new subtitle.

blogger Blog with Subtitle Under Post for Emphasis and Search Engine Friendliness

Customizing the CSS Styling of a Blogger Subtitle
It is easy to customize your subtitle for a different font type, color and size. Just change the code you added before the </b:skin> tag. If you want a specific color for instance you could change the color I have chosen for another color, increase the font size, and change the font face to Times Roman for instance. Thus your code would become something like this:

.subtitle{

font-family:Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
font-size:16px;
color:#ff6600;
line-height:20px;


This Blogger tutorial has shown you how to add a subtitle to your Blogger posts (Blogspot posts) quickly and easily. I have discussed the benefits of inserting a subtitle feature on a Blogger blog including how this might assist search engines to correctly index your blog articles. I have also shown you how to customize your subtitle to your own individual requirements using CSS styling


Related Posts
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs




Add Missing Embedded Comments Form to Blogger









Today I will show you how to fix your Blogger template if the embedded comments feature is missing or not working. I decided to write this article because I have noticed that the embed a comment below the post feature is often not working in many Blogger custom templates available for download. This is usually because many of these templates were released prior to Blogger enabling embedded comments.

If you have downloaded a custom template that has embed a comment missing then read on as I will show you how to insert the code for embed a comment form into your template. Inserting code into a blog template can be challenging for some but if you follow these instructions it is not beyond even virtual beginners.

1. Login to Blogger if you are not already logged in

2. Navigate to Settings > Comments. Under Comment Form Placement make sure the Embedded below Post radio button is set. Save any changes you make.

In Blogger Settings Comments Set Comments to Embedded

3. Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML

4. I strongly recommend you back up your template by downloading it to your computer before proceeding

4. Check Expand Widget Templates

5. Use CTRL + F to bring up the Blogger Toolbar

6. Look for the following code block by entering <span class='paging-control-container'> into the find box on the toolbar. Note if you don't have this code look at the alternative option below #7 in this post
<b:if cond='data:post.commentPagingRequired'>
<span class='paging-control-container'>
<a expr:class='data:post.oldLinkClass' expr:href='data:post.oldestLinkUrl'>
<data:post.oldestLinkText/>
</a>
<a expr:class='data:post.oldLinkClass' expr:href='data:post.olderLinkUrl'>
<data:post.olderLinkText/>
</a>

<data:post.commentRangeText/>

<a expr:class='data:post.newLinkClass' expr:href='data:post.newerLinkUrl'>
<data:post.newerLinkText/>
</a>
<a expr:class='data:post.newLinkClass' expr:href='data:post.newestLinkUrl'>
<data:post.newestLinkText/>
</a>
</span>
</b:if>


7. Paste the following code into your template immediately after the code block above and before this line of code <div id='backlinks-container'>
<p class='comment-footer'>
<b:if cond='data:post.embedCommentForm'>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowNewComments'>
<b:include data='post' name='comment-form'/>
<b:else/>
<data:post.noNewCommentsText/>
</b:if>
<b:else/>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><data:postCommentMsg/></a>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</p>
</b:if>

Enter the Embed Comments Form into Blogger Template
Alternative Option
If you don't have the code as mentioned in #6 you will likely have the following:
<p class='comment-footer'>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><data:postCommentMsg/></a> </p>
</b:if>

In which case replace with this code:

<p class='comment-footer'>
<b:if cond='data:post.embedCommentForm'>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowNewComments'>
<b:include data='post' name='comment-form'/>
<b:else/>
<data:post.noNewCommentsText/>
</b:if>
<b:else/>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><data:postCommentMsg/></a>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</p>
</b:if>

8. Click on the Save Template button to save your template changes

9. Click on the View Blog link and test your embed comment feature by clicking on the number of comments link found at the bottom of each post. Notice that the post will now be displayed along with the embed a comment form below the post



Troubleshooting
As there are many variations amongst templates neither of these options may work in which case try this solution from Blogger Buster:
Find: <b:include data='post' name='comments' />

Immediately below this line add the following line:
<b:include data='post' name='comment-form'/>


In this tutorial I have shown you how to add the embed comments form into your custom Blogger template if it is missing so that visitors can comment easily.

Related Articles
Embed a Comment Form in Your Blogger Posts

Show Date Above Blogger Post Title






Sometimes you may download a Blogger Blogspot template which does not display the date header above the post title. I recently struck a free Blogger template like this and it took some time to find the right part of the template to fix the date. Plus the answer was not as far as I could tell listed in Blogger help. So to help anyone desperately struggling to find the solution to this problem I have decided to share this information in this article.


To Display the Date Header Above Post Title

1. Log in to Blogger

2. Go to Layout > Edit HTML

3. Back up your template before attempting any changes

4. Type the following into the search box (CTRL + F) to find the block of code beginning with this line:
<data:adStart/>

5. Paste the following lines of code 
<b:if cond='data:post.dateHeader'>
<h2 class='date-header'><data:post.dateHeader/></h2>
</b:if>

into the code block as shown here:
<data:adStart/>
<b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>
<b:if cond='data:post.dateHeader'>
<h2 class='date-header'><data:post.dateHeader/></h2>
</b:if>

<b:include data='post' name='post'/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<b:include data='post' name='comments'/>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:post.includeAd'>
<data:adEnd/>
<data:adCode/>
<data:adStart/>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:post.trackLatency'>
<data:post.latencyJs/>
</b:if>
</b:loop>
<data:adEnd/>
</div>

7. Click the Save Template button

8. View Blog to see the date above the header


Today's Blogger Blogspot tip has shown you how to add the date above the post title on a Blogger Blogspot blog. The date above the post is often missing among slightly older Blogger templates but thankfully the fix is fairly easy.


Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs


Add 3 Column or 4 Column Footer to Blogger








In this Blogspot tutorial you will learn how to convert your existing Blogger footer (Blogspot footer) into a 3 column footer or a 4 column footer. With more columns in your Blogger footer you will be have the extra room to accommodate more widgets such as Flickr photos and Twitter updates. Also you will be able to put less frequently used widgets such as recents comments, archives, followers, About Me etc at the bottom of your template so that only the most important widgets are loaded first.

This tweak involves adding code to the footer section of your existing Blogger template to change it to 3 columns or 4 columns. The tutorial is not beyond the capabilities of Blogger newbies and webmasters with intermediate skills but care needs to be taken when modifying your Blogger template so back up before you start. For best results a Blogger template with a width of around 900px is best.

Convert your Blogger footer to a 3 column footer

How to Add a 3 Column Footer to Blogger
  1. Log in to Blogger if not already logged in
  2. Navigate to Layout > Page Elements
  3. Move any existing widgets out of the footer section and place them in the sidebar temporarily and save changes
  4. Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML
  5. Back up your template as a precaution by downloading it to your computer
  6. Find the following section in your Blogger template
    <div id='footer-wrapper'>
    <b:section class='footer' id='footer'/>
    </div>

    If you are having difficulty finding this section trying searching for footer-wrap or something similar as sometimes this section is called something else in some templates.
  7. To Add a 3 Column Footer to Blogger
    Replace all the code located in Step 6 with the following
    <div id='footer-columns'>
    <div id='footer1' style='width: 30%; float: left; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col1' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'/>
    </div>
    <div id='footer2' style='width: 40%; float: left; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col2' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'/>
    </div>
    <div id='footer3' style='width: 30%; float: right; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col3' preferred='yes' style='float:right;'/>
    </div>
    <div style='clear:both;'/>
    </div>

    To Add a 3 Column Footer to Blogger with a Lower Footer Section
    Replace all the code located in Step 6 with the following
    <div id='footer-columns'>
    <div id='footer1' style='width: 30%; float: left; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col1' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'/>
    </div>
    <div id='footer2' style='width: 40%; float: left; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col2' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'/>
    </div>
    <div id='footer3' style='width: 30%; float: right; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col3' preferred='yes' style='float:right;'/>
    </div>
    <div style='clear:both;'/>
    <p/>
    <div id='footer-bottom' style='text-align: center; padding: 10px;'>
    <b:section class='footer' id='col-bottom' preferred='yes'>
    </b:section>
    </div>
    <div style='clear:both;'/>
    </div>

    Add 3 column footer to Blogger with a lower section
    To Add a 4 Column Footer to Blogger 
    Replace all the code located in Step 6 with the following
    <div id='footer-columns'>
    <div id='footer1' style='width: 25%; float: left; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col1' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'/>
    </div>
    <div id='footer2' style='width: 25%; float: left; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col2' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'/>
    </div>
    <div id='footer3' style='width: 25%; float: left; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col3' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'/>
    </div>
    <div id='footer4' style='width: 25%; float: right; margin:0; text-align: left;'>
    <b:section class='footer-column' id='col4' preferred='yes' style='float:right;'/>
    </div>
    <div style='clear:both;'/>
    </div>

    Convert Blogger Footer to a 4 Column Footer
  8. Save changes to your Blogger template.
  9. Navigate to Layout > Page Elements. You will now see a 3 column footer, 3 column footer with a lower section or a 4 column footer depending on what option you chose.
  10. Move the desired gadgets to the new Blogger footer columns. Create new widgets to fill up the footer columns if necessary. Save your changes.
  11. Click View Blog to admire your new footer section

Tips and Troubleshooting
  1. To Add Padding Between Footer Columns in Blogger
    To create some padding between the columns add the following code to the style section of your Blogger template - before </b:skin> tag.

    #footer-columns {
    clear:both;
    }

    .footer-column {
    padding: 10px;
    }
  2. To Add a Border to the 3 or 4 Column Blogger Footer
    • For Top Border Only of the 3 or 4 Column Footer
      Paste the following code before the </b:skin> tag

      #footer-columns{
      border-top:1px dotted $bordercolor;
      clear:both;
      margin:0 auto;
      }

      Replace $bordercolor with a hex color if default color is not displayed. Change this color to suit your template. For example


      #footer-columns{
      border-top:1px dotted #113355;
      clear:both;
      margin:0 auto;
      }
    • For a Box Border Around the 3 or 4 Column Footer

      #footer-columns{
      border:1px dotted $bordercolor;
      clear:both;
      margin:0 auto;
      }

      Replace $bordercolor with a hex color if default color is not displayed. Change this color to suit your template. For example

      #footer-columns{
      border-top:1px dotted #113355;
      clear:both;
      margin:0 auto;


In today's Blogger tutorial you have learned how to add a 3 column footer or a 4 column footer to your Blogger template (Blogspot template). You have also learned how to add some styling such as a border above the footer and around the footer. As always I am available to answer questions if you need assistance. Good luck! 

Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
Customize Blogger Tips

How to Align and Justify Blogger Posts






This is the second article in a series about CSS styling tricks and tips for Blogger written with Blogger beginners and novices in mind but suitable for all bloggers who want to customize their existing Blogger template. While the first article dealt with how to add or remove image borders in Blogger today I show you how to align and justify Blogger posts.
Skill Level: BeginnerRating: EasyTime: 1 Minute

Many of the questions that my readers ask me are about how to customize various features of their Blogger template (Blogspot template). Over the coming weeks I will be focusing on some simple CSS styling tricks and tips to help you get more out of your Blogger template. Much can be achieved by learning a little about CSS. So before you rush off to download a custom Blogger template consider customizing your existing Blogger template. 

This tutorial is part of a series of articles that I will publishing over the coming weeks about customizing your Blogger template using CSS styling. I will be targeting beginner bloggers and newbies to Blogger as well as more seasoned bloggers so if you want to spice up your Blogger template please read along.

How to Justify Blogger Posts (Blogspot Posts) Using CSS
It is easy to change the text alignment of your Blogger posts with the addition of one extra line in the CSS styling section of your Blogger template (Blogspot template). By default the alignment is set to left align so that the text aligns to the left while the right edge is ragged. You can also have right alignment where the text aligns to the right and the left edge is ragged. 

Another not so common option is to justify the text so that both left and right edges are straight. Users of MS Word and other word processing programs will be familiar with justify as an alignment choice. Justify stretches out the text so that each line has an equal width similar to what you will find in newspapers and magazines. I have found justifying my Blogger posts to be a useful feature on several of my blogs and thought some of you might to. Below are instructions on how to justify your Blogger posts so that all your blog's articles are justified but first take a look at the difference in presentation of these 2 blog posts just by justifying the alignment of the text. Makes a big difference don't you think?

Blogger post text is left aligned
Blogger post text is justified
  1. Before you start check how text is currently aligned on your Blogger posts. If it is left aligned you will be able to follow this trick to justify it. If it is already justified no need to go any further.
  2. Login to Blogger if not already logged in
  3. From the Dashboard click the Layout link for your blog and then click on Edit HTML
  4. Back up your template by downloading it in full as a precaution
  5. Use CTRL + F to find the code block beginning with .post in the CSS styling section of your Blogger template. As templates will differ greatly there are no hard and fast rules about what styling will be in this block. Here is a typical code block taken from the default Minima Blogger template
    .post {
    margin:.5em 0 1.5em;
    border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;
    padding-bottom:1.5em;
    }

  6. Add the following line to the code block before the end brace (the end curly bracket)
    text-align:justify;

    so that your code now looks like:

    .post {
    margin:.5em 0 1.5em;
    border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;
    padding-bottom:1.5em;
    text-align:justify;
    }

  7. Click on Save Template
  8. Click View Blog to see the alignment of all your posts has now changed to justified

Tips and Troubleshooting
  1. If your Blogger template justifies posts and you would like to left align them find the code beginning with .post in your Blogger template and add the following line to the block:
    text-align:left;

    so that your code now looks like:

    .post {
    margin:.5em 0 1.5em;
    border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;
    padding-bottom:1.5em;
    text-align:left;
    }

  2. If you want the posts right aligned you would substitute the word right for left.

In this tutorial you have learned how to justify your Blogger posts to create a straight rather than ragged margin edge. By using this tip to add one line of code to your Blogger template you can enhance the look of your Blogger posts. This tweak only takes a minute but can markedly improve the presentation of your Blogger posts. Please keep reading along for more CSS tips and tweaks in the coming weeks.

Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
How to Add, Delete or Remove Blogger Image Borders







Add or Change Background Image of a Blogger Template









In today's Blogger tutorial (Blogspot tutorial) I will show you how to both add a background image to a Blogger template if you don't have one already or change the existing background of your Blogger template.

I have chosen to write this article not because there aren't any how to articles already on the net but because they assume quite a bit of knowledge. I have taken a different tack with this post in that I assume you are an absolute beginner with no knowledge of Blogger templates.

For this reason I have provided some sample backgrounds for you to play around with. By just cutting and pasting these images you can see first hand how dramatically adding a different background to your Blogger template can change it. You will see that replacing your background image with these images isn't that difficult and hopefully it will give the confidence to branch out further and change the background of your Blogger template to suit your own needs. All that is needed is to insert a small snippet of code into the CSS styling section of your Blogger template and hey presto your Blogger template will take on a whole new look.

How to Change the Color of a Blogger Background (Default Templates)
If you are using a default Blogger template then you already have the option to change the background color to your own taste by going toLayout > Fonts and Colors. Some third party custom Blogger templates have this option too but by no means all. For instructions on changing the background color of custom templates see tips and troubleshooting below.

How to Add a Background Image to a Blogger Template
  1. Log in to Blogger if not already logged in
  2. Go to Layout > Edit HTML
  3. Back up your Blogger template as a precaution by downloading the full template to your computer
  4. Find the following line in your Blogger template
    body {

  5. Add the following line directly after this line 
    background-image: url(URL address of your image);

    Your block of code will now look like this:
    body {
    background-image: url(URL address of your image);
    (existing code in this block)
    }

  6. Now replace the code in red for the URL address of your image. Choose an image from the selection below to practise with or use your own image. Note if using your own image make sure you read the tips and troubleshooting section below.


    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzorfWYcHWMQyC7yEF20t-glcD1Z6Ie5mzP6G5cgxmi4vOeKdzgXgstLc4rzJt0W0xgo-0Xyr_c0Py97zuPn-svyJHF3PgVUFbeOjT_KFGkFGEmkWsTteJEFsUxFHC4IWR-P78m3dDenU/s320/background_047.gif


    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTmPw88HV-k24ehCAxP5yjDoh3pJGH8DSceweLIIwZP87TSUZCGs0fLJs1xWxeZB03tHRdtp_AKHEZfvR-hDtquyxbpyrKkaA1gM1ns7gxDHfCjpm55O3fTZ4BTyMIomRapzMKWKT8Wpc/s320/background_104.gif


    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOEJmegJLKVzP1ADw-Y-Hnem4DCsyVRxRIKbLcp1EvnfrS0m5h4yCNstTdV_i6IfzhRyGfLpS-fRuezGNaEaJcedJifGJkuMlesdIHhYRiddiL_MoYwzOzK0NK_ZokBe3B7Eux_eyKlW4/s320/background_126.gif


    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo89-gOpKGGKn6jndi8Hl-S_lNPUT0MLlm06oIshM9ZL-FMGrAA1FOYn1hZLHd0mZxPGwRvaD4gAKBXP-0cmtZKl7wtFzTGuCxfHp0mCNy7papbmzHat_RUBhFGSTTrTlvmlug7AelhPQ/s320/background_073.gif


    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtT4c2wYIp-R2EsIbKMyWRfWjgHPSRpsukguKEB0-mfaBCOmDkQaUI7WdAhzzrOUQAlFobobPtf3cceYW_UIh_7rAzu_-lLQOfIlBZLrP9wF0y6vUAGliz-pS61fk110alUu0tDBs44DE/s320/background_083.gif

    Green Paws Background

    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HY9ojADKolUWh503KDM25-FZmi2uTbOe-7M-_0RlRffrQvd2m1PCnZbVnQgOTuSc0GJa-Pzw_23PfzGSVap04O5_HOLZUid2NWV2M3ZmqWVyrHMe_V1xN-CStdPnLInSA_c9LD7h9NM/s320/green-paws.gif

    Musical Notes Background

    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgni0ov3xL2NQO6WRx6Ycz30PcMdOc99o3dNWjU-hspyzr-SmjV1Xh0dmH4ALRCQzRlAlOyseKBDNJAkN5HorNFh79sRi4LtnOJlk6dDUkHFSjUF5QWRY0otwA5g-Ctr9KybCDAnXUskfg/s320/melody.gif
  7. Use the Preview button to see the effect of these different backgrounds on your template. It will help you get an idea of the kind of possibilities out there.
  8. You are welcome to use one of the above Blogger backgrounds as they are all free to use without any restriction. If you decide to use one of these simply click on Save Template and you are in business. Alternatively go ahead and find your own background image on the net and follow the instructions below to insert it into your Blogger template.

Tips and Troubleshooting
  • To Add Your Own Image to a Blogger Template
    There are huge number of backgrounds on the net that are suitable for Blogger. Search under free website backgrounds in your favorite search engine to find these.

    Simply download your preferred background and save to an image service like PhotobucketFlickr.

    Make sure the file format is either a .jpg, .gif or .png and that its size does not exceed 100kbs. As a rule of thumb an image size of around 30kb or less is about right if loading time speed is not to be compromised. Larger images can be resized quickly by using an online resizing service such as Shrink Pictures.

    Follow the instructions above to change the URL to that of your image.
  • To Change the Background Color of Your Custom Blogger Template
    If there is no option to change the background color of your Blogger template in Layout > Fonts and Colors you can still change the color manually.
    1. Follow steps 1 to 4 as above
    2. Find the line beginning with :
      background-color: #

    3. The hex color will be different for each template. We will change the color only
      background-color: #change hex color code to your chosen color;

    4. Replace the existing hex color code with the value of your chosen hex color. List of web safe hex colors. For example insert the following code to change the background color to:

      Denim Blue
      background-color: #336699;

      Black
      background-color: #000000;

      White
      background-color: #ffffff;

    5. Use the Preview button to see the effect of each color before you save it.
    6. Once you are satisfied go ahead and click on Save Template

Today's Blogger tutorial (Blogspot tutorial) aimed at Blogger beginners continues the series on CSS styling for Blogger. You have learned how to add the background image to your Blogger template or change the existing background image. To help you gain confidence in changing the background image I have provided some sample images for you to practise with. Also in this Blogger tutorial you have learned how to change the color of your Blogger background if you prefer a plain solid background color rather than a background image. As always if you strike any problems implementing the tips in this tutorial please let me know.

Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
How to Add, Delete or Remove Blogger Image Borders
How to Align and Justify Posts in Blogger
How to Add a Divider Between Blogger Posts


Add CSS Styling to Blockquotes in a Blogger Template








Today I continue the series of Blogger tutorials (Blogspot tutorials) by showing you how to apply CSS styling to blockquotes in a Blogger template. Other articles I have already published on the subject of CSS styling include:

How to Add, Delete or Remove Blogger Image Borders
How to Align and Justify Posts in Blogger
How to Add a Divider Between Blogger Posts
How to Add or Change a Background Image in a Blogger Template.

Today's tutorial on Blogger blockquotes will be useful if you are using a default Blogger template or a third party custom template. It will show you how to change your blockquote area in the following ways:
  • Add a background color to the blockquote
  • Add a border around the background of the blockquote
  • Add or change the color of the blockquote text
  • Add or change padding around the text
  • Add or change the margin
  • Add a background image

Blogger beginners you can relax as I have written this Blogger tutorial with you in mind. I will walk you through the steps of styling the blockquote section and you will see that it is not as daunting as it first appears. This Blogger tutorial assumes no knowledge of CSS styling. I have rated the difficulty level as easy to medium because it does involve making adjustments to your Blogger template.

How to Change the Blockquote Section of a Blogger Template

First of all let's take a look at the CSS Styling for the blockquote section of a default Minima Blogger template. 
.post-body blockquote {
line-height:1.3em;
}

.post blockquote {
margin:1em 20px;
}

.post blockquote p {
margin:.75em 0;
}

As you can see the blockquotes area of this Minima template has minimal styling. Apart from line height and margin indentation there has been no additional code added to improve the look of the template. 

Minima Blockquotes No Extra CSS Styling
Let's go ahead and give the blockquotes in your Blogger posts some styling. I will use the Minima template to show you but you can do the same for another default template or custom template. As always back up your Blogger template by downloading it to your computer before you begin to make any changes.
  1. CSS Styling to Add a Background Color to Blockquotes
    Adding a background color to the blockquote area can be achieved in 1 of 2 ways.
    1. One way is to enter the hex color directly into the styling as I have done below. This code will add a light grey background to the blockquote area.
      .post-body blockquote {
      line-height:1.3em;
      background-color: #cccccc;
      }

    2. Another way to add a background color using CSS styling for the blockquote area is to make use of the variable names already set up. The border color is light grey #cccccc by default in a Minima template. The advantage of this option is that if you decide to change the border color under Layout > Fonts and Colors the blockquote color will automatically change to the new color too.
      .post-body blockquote {
      line-height:1.3em;
      background-color: $bordercolor;
      }

      If you wanted the background color to be the same as the blog title color rather than the border color you would write this instead
      .post-body blockquote {
      line-height:1.3em;
      background-color: $titlecolor;
      }

  2. CSS Styling to Add a Border Around Blockquotes
    You have your background in place now let's add a narrow border around the background to add some more definition. The following will add a 1px solid border around the outside of your blockquote area in your Blogger posts.
    .post-body blockquote {
    line-height:1.3em;
    background-color: #cccccc;
    border: 1px solid #cc6600;
    }

    or if using variables
    .post-body blockquote {
    line-height:1.3em;
    background-color: $bordercolor;
    border: 1px solid $titlecolor;
    }

    Blockquotes With a Background and Background Border
  3. CSS Styling to Add Padding Around Blockquotes
    Now if we were to leave the styling at this point one of the problems would be that the text would butt up against the background which is not a good look. To create some space between the text and the background edge all the way around we use CSS styling to add some padding like this:
    .post-body blockquote {
    line-height:1.3em;
    background-color: #cccccc;
    border: 1px solid #cc6600;
    padding: 20 px;
    }

    or if using variables
    .post-body blockquote {
    line-height:1.3em;
    background-color: $bordercolor;
    border: 1px solid $titlecolor;
    padding: 20 px;
    }

    Blockquotes With a Background, Background Border and Padding
  4. CSS Styling to Add or Change the Text Color of Blockquotes
    If you want to accent your blockquote area in your posts one effective way to do this is to make the blockquote text color a different color from the text color of your pages. We do this by picking a color and adding the following line to the code:
    .post-body blockquote {
    line-height:1.3em;
    background-color: #cccccc;
    border: 1px solid #cc6600;
    padding: 20 px;
    color: #cc6600
    }

    or if using variables
    .post-body blockquote {
    line-height:1.3em;
    background-color: $bordercolor;
    border: 1px solid $titlecolor;
    padding: 20 px;
    color: $titlecolor;
    }

    Blockquotes With a Background, Background Border, Padding and Change of Text Color

Tips and Troubleshooting
If you want to add further modifications to the blockquotes area of your Blogger template here are several other possibilities.
  1. CSS Styling To Change the Margin of Blockquotes
    You can increase the margin from 1em to 1.5em by changing the margin line to
    margin: 1.5em 20px;

  2. CSS Styling to Add a Background Image to Blockquotes
    You can have your own image as a background in your blockquotes area of your posts by adding this line:
    background: url(http://URL of your image.jpg);

In today's Blogger tutorial (Blogspot tutorial) you have learned how to add CSS styling to the blockquotes area of your Blogger posts. I have shown you how to add a background, a background border, change the text color, add padding, change the margin and add a background image to the blockquotes code block. If you have a moment please let me know how you got on customizing your own Blogger template. Any questions please ask.


Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
How to Add, Delete or Remove Blogger Image Borders
How to Align and Justify Posts in Blogger
How to Add a Divider Between Blogger Posts
How to Add or Change a Background Image in a Blogger Template