Blog DIY: Useful Tools
August 29, 2008 by Jennifer
This week we have 2 very helpful Tools that you can utilize and are Super Easy!!
First up is the Email Me Generator located here. If you would like to add your own email to your Blog to make it accessible for your readers to contact you, this is 1 way to do it. It also has an encoder that helps you to ‘hide’ your email address from being harvested by spam software!
The instructions are pretty much self explanatory, here is a sample of what I created:
When you click on the above link, you’ll be sending an email to me! Pretty neat! (I used the Encoding one for this one!)
Next up is the Drop Down Menu Generator. If you have a lot of information on your sidebars and want a “cleaner” look, this is a great tool to have.
To use this tool, simply follow the instructions to place your links into the Menu, then Copy & Paste the code into your Sidebar. I tried to place a sample of what I created here, but its not allowing me to. If you want to see the finished product, I have a drop down menu at the top in the upper left sidebar!
Thats all for today.If you would like to see more in this series, you can follow along here.
BLOG DIY: Creating a Signature
August 22, 2008 by Jennifer
Ok, this one was pretty fun for me and I thought you would like to learn too! This way you can change your signature whenever you feel like it or want to make a statement! To follow along with this series, you can go here.
Start off by going to The Signature Generator. Follow the instructions on creating your customized signature.
This feature will walk you through the process of making your own signature quickly and its Free ! Not to mention SUPER Easy!! Your really gonna love this tool! The only setback I see is the limited choices of colors but I guess I can work around that.
Voila! You now have a signature. See how easy that was? Ok, now what? Well you’ll want to get it on your posts so here are 2 ways I discovered:
How to Upload to Your Blog:
Watch this video for an easy way:
To get your signature on your Blogger Post, you would go into Photobucket and copy the HTML code directly, then go to Posts in Blogger, then click on Edit HTML and Paste it.
For this way to work, you would have to add the code before each post you write.
For another quick Trick you can try this way (I found this way to be just as Easy):
*Copy the signature’s HTML code
*Log into blogger
*From Dashboard choose “settings”
*Choose “formatting”
*Scroll down to “Post Template Box”
*Paste the code in the box
*Save your settings
By using this technique, it will automatically place your signature for you !
I used the generator to make the bottom signature, it was fun and they do have a lot of cool options, worth checking out! I simply pasted the HTML code to the bottom of this post, easy peasy! Happy Writing!
Blog DIY: Patterned BackGround
August 14, 2008 by Jennifer
Today we have a special DIY Blog Treat! Revka (who is a real Web Designer) of RS Designs is posting for us today!! I am so glad too, as she has been so helpful in the past /present with my Blog.
View here to see my review on RS Designs, which I wholeheartedly recommend as I didn’t just get a Web Designer, I got an awesome new friend who is dedicated to her work and making you happy!!
BTW, she recently had a baby and he is the cutest ever!! View pictures of him here and say hi!!! Even with a new baby, she is still hard at work! You can follow the series along here.
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Welcome to this edition of Blog DIY! I am Revka Stearns of RS Designs, and I am honored that Jennifer asked me to write a post for her series.
Today, I am going to teach you how to create a patterned background for your blog.
- Locate an image that you would like to use for your background. You can either pay for an image from a site like 123 Royalty Free, Stockxpert, or iStockphoto, or you try a Google search for free backgrounds or free patterns. If you choose the free route, make sure your read any licenses or terms of use to make sure that you are not using the image illegally. (If you know how to use an image editing program, you can create your own background image.)
- Save the image to your computer.
- Upload the image to the Web, either into an image account, like Photobucket, or into a post on your blog.
- Locate and copy the image’s URL.
- Access your blog’s HTML. In Blogger, this is found by clicking on the Layout tab in your dashboard and then clicking on Edit HTML.
- Find the code section that begins with
body. This is the section that governs how the background of your page will appear. - In the
bodysection, find the line of code that begins withbackground. - Insert your cursor before the closing semi-colon (;), add a space, and then type
url("http://urlofyourimagegoeshere.com") repeat top left. (Do not type the period; that is just ending the sentence. *smile*) - If you blog in Blogger, preview to see if you like your changes. If not, try a different image.
- Save your changes, and view your new patterned background.
I hope this tutorial has been clear. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Blog DIY: Get Custom Colors
July 11, 2008 by Jennifer
The Ctyme Color Chart is very easy to use and easy to understand!
When you first open the link above, this is what the page will look like:
These are all the color choices that you can choose from. Each color has a number code, these codes are what you will need to get the color you select.
Now, open up another window to access your blog. Once there, go to “Layout” then “Edit Fonts & Colors“. You should see this screen:
Where you see the red circle is where you will place the color code that you have selected. Just remember, the # sign must stay in front of the color code. Enter the code and save your changes.
And that’s it! You can change the colors of your fonts, background even the header with this chart.
That wasn’t so hard now, was it?
Now say that you are visiting a blog or a website and you just LOVE a color on that site. Well, you can get the color code simply by hovering your mouse over the specific color and obtain the # code by using Instant Eyedropper.
Eyedropper is a free software tool for webmasters (or bloggers like ourselves!) that will identify and automatically paste to the clipboard the HTML color code of any pixel on the screen with just a single mouse click.
This is a really neat one to use and I found it to be fantastic to use! First you will need to download the software which only took seconds (of course its free!) and then your off & ready:
1. Move the mouse pointer to the Instant Eyedropper icon in the system tray.
2. Press and hold the left mouse button and move the mouse pointer to the pixel whose color you want to identify.
3. Release the mouse button & Voila, you have the color code!
Now, open up another window to access your blog. Once there, go to “Layout” then “Edit Fonts & Colors”. Place the color code that you have selected in the boxes. Just remember, the # sign must stay in front of the color code. Enter the code and save your changes.
Now go forth & colorize your world!
To see more in our Blog DIY Series, click here.
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