Showing posts with label Blog tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog tips. Show all posts

Sunday, April 5, 2009

How to make a button or badge or whatever you want to call it!

How to make a Button for your Blog or Event!



I think I'm about ready to make a new button for my blog, I'm not really liking the green, but as you can see I do have a button, and I want to help any of you that are interested and that don't already know, learn to make one too.

Some things you will need before you begin are an account on Photobucket and some kind of graphics program. I wish I had photoshop but I don't and I couldn't afford it, so I downloaded a free program called Paint.net that has worked really well so far for all of my designing. If I deal with pictures that are very big, like my backgrounds, it is really slow for me but I think that has more to do with my computer than with the program.

Okay, so once you have those here is what you do:

1) Open up your graphics program. Open the picture or graphic that you want people to see as your button. If it is a larger picture (like your header) and you just want a portion of it, cut out that part and paste it as a new picture. You might want to add a border and words to your graphic here, or you can add them after you resize it. Since I don't know what program you will be using I can't help much more here with the exact details. But if you need help with this part please email me and I will help you. If you don't have a program and don't want to download one you can send me the picture you want to use and I'll resize it and doll it up for you.

2) Once you have the picture you want to use, resize the image. Mine is 160 x 160 pixels but is a little large so you may want to do 150 x 150 or 140 x 140. Make sure it looks how you want it to and then save it as a JPEG.

3) Go to your photobucket account and upload the image you have just saved. Select the reduce to 160 x 120 (small) option. Leave that page open.

4) Now it is time to create your button. What I am going to do is give you the code I use and you will plug in your information. A good place to start doing this is to open a new gadget and select HTML/Javascript. That way you can see what it looks like on your blog when you're done.




5) That is what my button code looks like. Now here is what you have to do to make it your button. Highlight this part:



then paste in that spot the URL of your blog. This is where you want people to end up when they click on your button.

6) After you have done that highlight this part:



then paste in the DIRECT LINK from photobucket. You will see under your image different codes. For this you want to use the Direct Link. All you have to do is clock on the code on photobucket and it copies it. Then come back to this highlighted portion and save.

7) Save it and then look at your blog and try clicking on the button to see if it worked. If it did, you now have a button!


Okay, now that you have your button you may want to share it with those that come to your blog by creating a scroll box where readers can come and get your button and paste it to their own blog like mine:

<a href="http://www.themomnerd.blogspot.com"><img
src = http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii246/mrsmusicmommy/momnerd-1.jpg></img
src></a>


Here is the code to create a scroll box. Once again you will want to paste in your own information. Otherwise, you'll end up posting my button!! ;) We don't want that, do we?



Now you may want yours to be a different size or a different color. To do that you just change the code. My border is 5px solid black, you can change the width by making the 5px bigger or smaller, and you can change solid black to another color. And you can change the height and width and background color. Once you have changed that here is how you make it yours:

Highlight this part:



In place of that,
paste in your button!! That is the code that we made earlier. Once again you'll want to paste all of this in as a gadget and then you can check if it's working.

I hope this makes sense! If you need any help let me know! Good luck and make sure you tell me if you make a button and I'll post it on my blog!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Numbering your comments in Blogger...the Mom Nerd way!

So I've had three comments now asking me how I managed to number my comments in blogger. I used the tutorial here but figured I'd post it here in "mom nerd" terms (aka, someone who is teaching herself all of this stuff without a clue) for all of you who would like to know.

Now many of you may be like me...you get into your html and it almost instantly starts to give you a headache. Most of what I've done with my blog (not that it's that wonderful) I've done from research and a lot of trial and error. By the way, if there is anything else you'd like to learn how to do and think it would be easier coming from me let me know in a comment!

Now remember, before you do anything save your template!

Okay, here goes:

1) Sign in to your blogger account and go to Layout and then Edit Html.

2) Look for the little box next to Expand Widget Templates and click on that little box. This will successfully make your html look even more confusing. ;)

3) Activate your find button. On most computers I think it is ctrl F, at least it is on mine, I really don't know. What this does on my computer is it brings up a little search box at the bottom left of my browser where I can search for words on that page. This is a great tool for checking to see if you have already commented on a giveaway with hundreds of comments.

4) In that find box type this:



this section should now be highlighted.

5) Directly underneath that part of the code, copy and paste this code:



6) Now go back down to your find box, clear it, and then copy and paste in this:



Once again that portion of code should be highlighted.

7) Directly under that portion of code copy and paste in this:




8) Then, make sure you click on preview before saving! You won't be able to see the numbers in this view but you will be able to find out if the code will even work. If you get an error message clear your edits and try again.

If this works for you let me know!

*** EDITED TO ADD: Hello everyone! I am shocked at how many people still read this! I wrote this quite some time ago and it is very possible that something has changed in blogger to make it not really work anymore. I don't really know how to help except to actually sign in myself and check out your code. So unless you want me to do that there isn't much I can do if it's not working. Sorry!*******


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