Spice Up Your Blog

New Blogger 'Keep Widgets' Setting When Changing Your Template

2010-01-20T06:35:00.005Z

Blogger has just added an exciting new option that makes it so much easier for people to change their template and use a custom template.Now instead of having to delete the widgets on your template when changing you have a "Keep Widgets" button.

One of the biggest turn offs for people who wanted to use a custom template on their blog was when they made the change they would lose most of the widgets and gadgets they had on their old template.There is ways to overcome this but for people with little Html knowledge it was a bridge too far.They often didn't make the change or allowed the widgets to be lost and had the frustrating job of having to find, edit and add them again.

But those dark days are Gone !

You now have the option to click the new "Keep Widgets" button and loose nothing.

Look at the screenshot below :

You are told

"Warning: Your template does not contain the following widgets:"
"Would you like to keep these widgets on your blog or delete them?
Deleting widgets cannot be undone."

Once you click "Keep Widgets" you new template will be uploaded and your Gadgets and Widgets will be kept.You can return to the layout section and move them around if required.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

I think this will lead to total overhaul of blogger and we will see more people who were maybe cautious of using custom templates making the change.

From some of the comments i get here and questions i answer in the Help Form this was a needed change by the Blogger team maybe next they will add an auto unzip option :D

You have no excuse now there are thousands of awesome templates out there go get creative, to get you started here are some of my favorites :

► The Top 10 Dark And Black Style Free Blogger Templates : Click Here

► My Top Ten Magazine Style Free Blogger Templates : Click Here

► My Top Ten Elegent Artistic Style Free Blogger Templates : Click Here

What do you think will this new option help you ?

The Top 10 Dark And Black Style Free Blogger Templates

2010-01-15T21:07:00.001Z

In this post i have 10 awesome Blogger Templates with dark and black themes.Once again picking just ten was almost imposable, i felt like a judge on a reality TV show having to choose a top ten.There was a time when outside of the default Blogger templates the options were limited, but the templates available for Blogger now are unbelievable as designers let their artistic side run wild.

All these templates are free and are tested to work on all major browsers.

Most of these templates have extra Gadgets and Widgets built in like :

►Social bookmark buttons ►Re-tweet buttons
►Email subscriptions ►Search bars
►Read more functions ►Featured content sliders
►Menu bars and more..

How to get the template.

When on the Demo page for a template below you will see the 'Click here to download' option in the first post , follow that link for details on adding the template to your blog and information on how to edit the Gadgets and widgets.

So i managed to pick a top 10 but i have not put them in any particular order.

Heres the list :

1.Old Black Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

2.All Black Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

3.Fantastic Flowery Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

4.Like Coffee Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

5.Modern Magic Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

6.Artistic Sky Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

7.HPA Wood Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

8.Emo Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

9.Curtain Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

10.Fashion Press Template.

Live Demo And Download Details

To see my Top 10 Magazing Style Templates Click Here
To see My Top 10 Artistic Style Templates Click Here

Thats my top 10, Thanks go to Theme Craft and BloggerStyles.

All the tip's and gadgets in this blog will work great on these templates you could start by adding four columns to the footer Click Here to see how or add the Flower falling effect Click Here to see that post.

Please remember to back up your old template before changing just in case you want to change back.The templates you download have to be unzipped.

I will add more Great lists of templates for you in the future, if you need more help let me know.

Have you a favorite or did i leave out a great dark style template ?

Add Four Columns To The Footer Section At The Bottom Of Your Blog

2010-01-09T23:59:00.006Z

Almost all the new blogger templates have three or four columns in the footer section.It's a great place to add more content to your blog.You can see in my footer section i have made full use of the 3 sections i use.You can add things like your hit counters, about me, links, ads whatever you like.

To see what are we changing take a look at my demo's blog for an example using the minima template : Click Here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

You will see the footer has changed from one column to four column and i have put some random widgets in place.

Once you make the change your layout will also change so you can easily add and remove gadgets like in the images below :

Take a look at the before and after images below :

Before :

After :

Lets add 4 columns to your blog :

Step 1. In your dashboard click ►►'Layou't ►►'Edit Html'

Find the following piece of code in your template :

(Click CTRL and F for a search bar to find code)

<b:section class='footer' id='footer'/>

Step 2. Replace the code you found with this code :

<div id='footer-column-container'>
<div id='footer1' style='width: 225px; float: left; margin:0; '>
<b:section class='footer-column' id='footer-column-1' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'>
<b:widget id='Text1' locked='false' title='Spice Up Your Blog 4 COLUMN' type='Text'/>

</b:section>
</div>
<div id='footer2' style='width: 225px; float: left; margin:0; '>
<b:section class='footer-column' id='footer-column-2' preferred='yes' style='float:left;'>
<b:widget id='Text4' locked='false' title='Spice Up Your Blog 4 COLUMN' type='Text'/>
</b:section>
</div>

<div id='footer3' style='width: 225px; float: right; margin:0; '>
<b:section class='footer-column' id='footer-column-3' preferred='yes' style='float:right;'>
<b:widget id='Text3' locked='false' title='Spice Up Your Blog 4 COLUMN' type='Text'/>
</b:section>
</div>

<div id='footer4' style='width: 225px; float: right; margin:0; '>
<b:section class='footer-column' id='footer-column-4' preferred='yes' style='float:right;'>
<b:widget id='Text2' locked='false' title='Spice Up Your Blog 4 COLUMN' type='Text'/>
</b:section>
</div>
<div style='clear:both;'/>
</div>

Step 3. Find this piece of code in your template :

]]></b:skin>

Step 4. Add this code Directly above or before ]]></b:skin>

#footer-column-container { border: .3px dotted #cccccc;}

.footer-column { margin: 0 10px 0 10px; padding:5px;
color: #666666; line-height: 1.5em; font-size:12px;}

.footer-column h2 {
padding-bottom:.15em; text-align:center;
font:"normal normal 80% 'Comic Sans MS','Lucida Sans Unicode','Trebuchet MS',Sans-serif";
color:#333333;
line-height:1em; letter-spacing:.1em;
border-bottom: 1px solid #cccccc;}

.footer-column ul { list-style:none; margin:0 0 0; padding:0 0 0;}

.footer-column ul li {
background: url(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rKG-ziTSNUQ/S0lIvwTxXfI/AAAAAAAAAnA/0--Nk6Q6v4g/s320/bullet-1.gif) no-repeat;
margin:0 0 0; padding-left: 16px;
padding-bottom: 0.5em; line-height:1.2em;}

.footer-column .widget {margin:0 0 .5em; padding:0 0 1em;}

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

Now save your template.

The four columns are added to your blog.When you go to your layout you will see four gadgets are already added with the title 'Spice Up Your Blog 4 COLUMN' you just remove them and add the gadgets you want.

Now you have all that extra room you could add a link to Spice Up Your Blog in your footer if you want, just use this link, thanks :

<a href="http://www.spiceupyourblog.com" target="_blank">I Spiced Up My Blog.</a>

OK what else can you add to your new footer section ?

Here is a list of gadgets and widgets on this blog that you could add : Click Here

Have you changed your footer ? let us know, and if you need more help as always just leave a comment.

My Top Ten Magazine Style Free Blogger Templates

2009-12-23T23:01:00.004Z

In this post i will share my top 10 Magazine Blogger Templates.

Magazine templates are the most common amongst the top bloggers.They have a professional look and set up nicely for displaying ads or Adsense ready.

I have Full size previews below and all the widgets, gadgets and extras you see in the previews and live demos are built in to the template.

The template i am currently using is a Magazine template called Bemagazine and is in the list below.

Most of these templates have cool built in extras like :
*Social bookmark buttons *Re-tweet buttons * Email subscriptions *Search bars *Read more functions *Featured content sliders *Menu bars and more..

Some of these extras will need to be edited you will see instructions on the download page.

So in no particular order here is the list :

Note: Click Live Demo To View The Template,Click Download To Download The Template And Get The Template Details.

1.Silverline Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

2.White Clean Magazine.

Live Demo

Download And Details

3.Dark Orange Magazine.

Live Demo

Download And Details

4.Woodmag Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

5.Mahusay Magazine Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

6.BeMagazine Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

7.Rebel Magazine Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

8.Zinmag Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

9.Revolution church Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

10.Brownline Template.

Live Demo

Download And Details

Before we finish : If you need more help or have an opinion or suggestion Please leave a comment Below.
To help you this is a Do-Follow Blog leaving a comment will also help your blogs Google rank.

So that's the list to be honest i could have added 50 more cool magazine templates.

Thanks go to Btemplates and Ipietoon.

Please remember to back up your old template before changing just in case you want to change back.

I will add more Great templates for you in the future.

Which one is your favorite or have i left out your favorite magazine template?
Also if you do use one of these let us know so we can have a look !

My Top Ten Elegent Artistic Style Free Blogger Templates

2009-10-30T18:55:00.006Z

There are now thousands of blogger templates available.A lot of them are very similar and quite boring so in this post i have my top ten templates that are a bit different.All the template are free to use and have been tested on all browsers.

The following templates will get you well on the way to spicing up your blog.

Included are templates with built features like :

►Social bookmark buttons ►Re-tweet buttons
►Email subscriptions ►Search bars
►Read more functions ►Featured content sliders
►Menu bars and more..

Here's the top ten in no specific order:

Another Under Sea World Template
Features

Built in search

Built in Rss feed link

Menu bar