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After a hardworking weekend, I found an awesome treat in my feed reader this morning! Blogger in Draft today published details of the enhancements to the post preview feature of our blogs which enables us to see how our posts will look to readers: Up until now, when we preview a post we are writing for our Blogger powered blogs, we have seen only a white, format-less version of our musings, with none of the formatting and visual style which is added by our template and CSS. With this new feature in place, we can see preview exactly what the post will look like when published, including any style attributes generated by our template code. How it works The updated post preview feature is available to those using Blogger in Draft to publish their posts, though as it seems to be working well for everyone so far I imagine it will become available to those using the regular editor soon enough. This enhancement works similarly to the preview system offered by the Edit H...

It's been a while since I've designed a Blogger template for free release. But after reading this excellent tutorial on Smashing Magazine , I was inspired to create something different: an ultra-customizable, HTML5 based template for Blogger. Nexus 5 is a one column template, with widgetized sections in the footer for any gadgets you may like to include. A wider, two column version will be available shortly for those who prefer gadgets in a sidebar section. This template uses many HTML 5 and CSS3 elements to create a more innovative design without the use of excessive background images. It does gracefully degrade in browsers which do not support CSS3 elements to ensure the greatest percentage of visitors will appreciate the full scope of the design. Here is a full screenshot of Nexus 5 as seen in Firefox 3.5 (my current preferred browser): Demo | Download Click the image for a full page preview, or simply visit the demonstration blog.. I've also tested i...

Displaying links to "related posts" beneath individual entries on our blogs is a tried and trusted method of providing useful and interesting reading material for our readers. I've written about several different methods which Blogger users can choose to display related posts - all of which perform their function well enough. But after seeing several of my favourite sites displaying links to related items with thumbnails using LinkWithin's free service, I was intrigued to discover how well this may be adapted for use with Blogger. About LinkWithin LinkWithin is a free service offered by a small team based in New York. This free service enables us to display related posts with thumbnails below our blog posts (the thumbnail is taken from an image within the post it links to). We retrieve and index all stories from your blog archive, not just recent stories, making them accessible to new or casual readers of your blog who would not otherwise encounter them. The pos...

If you use a third party template or customize the design of your blog, chances are you'll need to find hosting for images used in the design. Many Blogger designers use Photobucket, Flickr and other free image hosting solutions. It's also possible (albeit unnecessarily complicated) to upload images to Blogger or Google Sites. But my personal favoured image hosting service is Picasa Web Albums . This free Google powered service offers unlimited bandwidth and a generous 1gb of storage - perfect for serving up any images you need for template visualisation. If you already host a blog with Blogger, any images which you upload to your blog posts will already be hosted on Picasa Web Albums in folders according to your blog name, even if you haven't already activated your Picasa account. Simply go to the Picasa Web Albums home page and log in using your Google account. Once logged in, you'll see all of your Picasa hosted albums, including any which are utilized fo...

Over the past few weeks, I've been working with Bloggers improved API for Gadgets and have now completed work on several useful gadgets which can be installed with just a few clicks. I've found that the Gadget API offers a much better interface to the end-user than HTML/Javascript widgets (although it takes me far longer to create Gadgets than widgets!). While they are a little more difficult to create, I think the end-product is worth the effort: Gadgets can be added from within the Blogger dashboard (so we don't need to use search engines, or visit the owner's site to install). Gadgets are easily customized, and can be easily reconfigured after installation The new API includes the ability to include Blogger post and comment feeds for the blog in which they are installed. Developers can ensure gadgets blend with the theme in which they are installed using "Skins" parameters. How to install Gadgets in your Blogger blog Gadgets are as easy to install ...

Roy Tanck 's Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. Get this widget at roytanck.com If you enjoyed using Blogumus - the animated flash-based widget to display your blog labels - then I'm sure you'll love Roy Tanck 's latest widget creation: an animated, cloud style Flickr widget ! You can see an example of this in action on the left which uses my Flickr Photostream. Roy's widget is very easy to customize and add to your blog. Simply visit the Flickr Widget page and use the form to add your Flickr photostream feed URL, then choose the dimensions and background color for your widget. Once you're done, press the "Generate code snippet" button to be presented with a preview of your widget and the code. You can then paste this code into an HTML/JavaScript widget in your sidebar, or even directly into a blog post (as I have done here). Roy Tanck created the original WP-Cumulus widget upon which my Blogumus widget is based. He has done a f...

In addition to the numerous templates provided by Blogger, you can find hundreds (if not thousands!) of Blogger templates created by independent designers. From simple, customisable designs through to industry-specific layouts and obscure themes, there is something to suit every taste and circumstance. This post outlines the basics of finding and installing unofficial Blogger templates, both free and premium designs, so that you may enjoy changing the appearance of your Blogger site as often as you like! Finding Free Blogger Templates The majority of third-party Blogger templates are provided free of charge! Many talented designers choose to create and share their templates for self-promotion or as a taster of the quality of premium services they may provide. A quick search on Google will demonstrate the popularity of free Blogger templates! To save time, here is a selection of quality sites where you can find and download free templates and find the perfect design for yo...