Am grumbling... blogger templates... and my lack of sufficient expertise.
Amelia's beautiful Ink Stain blog theme from Deluxe Templates: ...
...motivated me to look for a template for my blog that would suit me better. I found one that looked perfect.
Unfortunately it wouldn't work for me. :-( Sigh
After uploading the new template file, I would have lost a bundle of widgets and so had the option to keep them. Unfortunately the choice was to keep them all, or none. And for some reason the old header and posts sections were considered widgets. I did keep all widgets but I cringed in wonder at what would result.
The posts in the main content didn't have my AddThis button or edit pencil or the date and each post's "Links to this post" appeared closer to the next post than the one it related to. But there was a second set of posts in the side bar where all those features were. The other widgets in the side bar were all mixed up - now they were easy to reorder but for some reason their spacing did not match the display template's spacing and I noticed that the template sourced a spacer gif from photobucket I think so I guess that blogger wasn't able to retrieve that gif for my blog.
I fiddled and fiddled for hours trying to sort it all out, but I clearly just do not know enough to fix it.
Now I must hie to bed, still so many things to organise for our trip.
Thanks for this. You're braver than me. I only 5 posts on my new blog, and already I am too scared to change the template just because my preferred photo won't fit in the template. Perhaps one day I shall branch out more : - )
ReplyDeleteI too was inspired by Amelia and went to Divine Templates, took some time and found the ideal template that would suit me. I went through the process and then got scared as it appeared on the preview to not be able to keep all my widgets and links... so I ran... with my tail between my legs, not being game enought to try and not wanting to lose the list of all my class mates and their blogs. However, I will attempt to use one of their beautiful designs next time I start a blog. Amelia is really on the ball with all this Web 2 stuff (she is young) but she has inspired me to try new things. Keep up the great work Amelia and thanks for your helpful comments Moonflowerdragon.
ReplyDeleteMoonflowerragon
ReplyDeleteWas wondering how I get the tag clouds to work. I've tried a couple of times and can't quite work out the correct steps. Be grateful if you can help me. Frustrated!
@Lisa
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that by "tag cloud" you mean the cloud of Labels here at my blog? That is Blogger's own Labels Gadget. (I ask because other services, like delicious also offer tag cloud widgets).
Do you remember how to add a gadget to your blog? From your dashboard, go into Design screen, Page Elements tab, and click (in the sidebar, not the header): "Add a gadget". The 16th basic gadget offered is Labels, and one of the options in that is to display as a cloud. Don't forget to save changes to the design.