How to use the Blogger Reading List?

With the Blogger Reading List, you can read all of the latest posts from your favorite blogs right on your Blogger Dashboard! Your Blogger Reading List, conveniently located under your list of blogs on your dashboard, enables you to subscribe to any blog with a feed. It will update instantly each time a new post is published on any blog in your Reading List. Additionally, you can check out our latest Blogger Buzz posts from the "Blogger Buzz" tab, and the latest Blogs of Note from the "Blogs of Note" tab.

It is simple to add a blog to your Reading List. First, click on the "Blogs I'm Following" tab under "My Reading List" on your Blogger Dashboard.


Then, click on the blue "Add" button in the bottom left corner of your Reading List.


Next, insert the URL of the blog you'd like to follow in the URL box. You can add as many blogs as you'd like by clicking on "Add another". When you have added all of your favorite blogs, click the orange "Add" button.


You'll then be given the option to either follow publicly or privately:

Once you've decided on following publicly or privately, click the orange "Follow" button and that's it! You've added all your favorite blogs to your Reading List! Now, every time one of the blogs are updated the latest post will be displayed in your reading list under the "Items" section.


Additionally, adding a blog to your Reading List will create a subscription to the blog in your Google Reader account.


How to remove a blog from your Reading List

To remove a blog from your Reading List, go to the "Blogs I'm Following" tab under your Reading List on your dashboard.


Then, click the blue "Manage" button. You will be taken to a page with a list of all the blogs that you are following. To stop following one of the blogs, click the trash can icon next to the blog you want to stop following. You will instantly be removed from following the blog and it will be removed from your Reading List.


You also have the option to change how you'd like to follow the blog (publicly or privately) from the drop-down

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How to add a poll to my blog?

Do you ever wonder about your visitors' opinions? Maybe you'd like to find out what your readers think about controversial subjects, or perhaps you just want a vote on whether your should change your blog's font to Verdana. Either way, it's simple to do by adding a poll to your blog.

You'll start by going to the Layout Page Elements tab for your blog:

Click the "Add a Page Element" link that appears in the sidebar for your layout. You'll get a popup window with all the different types of page elements you can add to your blog. Look for the one called "Poll" and click on "Add to Blog."

The poll settings let you enter the question you want to ask, and the possible answers you want to allow. You can enter as few or as many possible answers as you like; if you need more than are shown, just click the "add another answer" link.


By default, polls are set to run for a week before they stop accepting new votes, but you can change this time frame by entering a new date in the settings. You can also check the option to allow people to vote for multiple answers, if appropriate.

Once you've saved your poll, it will appear on your blog. The "Vote" button will cast a vote for whatever option is selected, and will display the current tally of all votes. You can also click "Show Results" to see what votes have already been cast without making a vote of your own.

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How to arrange elements in your blog template

Blogger's Layout feature is an easy-to-use template editing feature that allows you to edit and customize your Blogger template without any knowledge of HTML or CSS. You can easily edit and customize the colors, fonts, header and sidebar of your blog with a few clicks of the mouse. To customize your blog's layout, go to the Layout Page Elements tab in Blogger.

If you're using a classic template and would like to use the Layout feature, you can read instructions on how to switch.

Moving elements in your template

How to arrange elements in your template

You can arrange the elements in your template the way you want them displayed. Simply click on the element you'd like to move and drag and drop it where you want it to be. You can move your page elements to the bottom of the page, anywhere in your sidebar, or below or above your blog posts. (Note: you can move all elements except your navbar, blog posts and header in some templates.)

Editing elements in your template
Here's an overview of what you can configure when you click Edit for each of these elements:

•Navbar: Select the color you'd like your Navbar to be.
•Header: Add or edit the header of your blog, which includes your blog title and blog description.
•Blog posts: Choose the number of posts to display on your main page. You can choose either the number of days with posts to display or the total number of posts on the main page. You also have the option to show email post links that let your visitors easily email posts from your blog to their friends.
•Profile: Edit/add your profile title, 'About Me' description, and location.
•Blog archive: Edit/add your blog archive title, select your display style (hierarchy, flat list or dropdown menu), choose to display post titles, display oldest posts first, choose your archive frequency (monthly, weekly or daily) and date format.

How to add a page element
You can add several page elements to your blog page or sidebar by clicking Add a Page Element. This will open a pop-up window. Click Add to Blog in the proper element section to add it:


•List: Add a list with the ability to add a title, select the number of items to display, sort your list alphabetically and add links to your list elements.
•Link List: Add a link list to your blog with the ability to add a link list title, select the number of items to display and sort your link list alphabetically.
•Labels: Add a list of all the labels you've used on your posts. Click each link to see a page showing all the posts with that label. You can change the title of the list, and sort it alphabetically or by frequency of use.
•Picture: Add a picture from your computer or the web. You can also add a title and caption to your picture and shrink the picture to fit into your blog perfectly.
•Text: Add text to your blog (such as a welcome message or footnote) with our rich text editor.
•HTML/JavaScript: Add third-party functionality or other HTML/JavaScript code to your blog.
•Feed: Add content from a site feed. Enter the feed URL, then click Continue. You'll then be able to add a title, select the number of items to show (up to five) and display the item dates and/or authors by selecting the appropriate check boxes.
•Logo: Add one of our stylish Blogger logos to your blog.

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How to use the Blogger Layouts features?

Are you tired of dealing with HTML and CSS every time you want to change the look of your blog? Well, it turns out that there's an easier way. With the Layouts feature, you can drag-and-drop to move parts of your page around, and choose new fonts and colors with easy mouse clicks. Newly created blogs will work this way automatically, but for blogs without this feature, you'll need to upgrade your template. Here's how.

1.Find the name of your blog on your dashboard, and click the Template link next to it. If this link says Layout instead, then it's already upgraded and you can skip the rest of these steps.








2.On the Template page you should see the standard window of HTML code. Now look in the navigation links for the tab that says Customize Your Design and click it.







3.You'll get a message explaining that Blogger will make a backup of your current template and replace it with an upgraded one. The backup will be made available indefinitely, so you can revert back to it later if you need to. Click the Upgrade Your Template button to continue.





4.Choose one of our default template designs. You'll be able to modify it all you want, once you pick one of these as the starting point. Click Save Template when you've made your choice.









Now you're all set. You'll end up on the new Page Elements tab, where you can start arranging things however you like. If you want to know more about using these new features before you dive in, you can read about them here: Layout Guide and Fonts & Colors. Have fun!

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How to republish your blog after your have Ftp blog?

If you have an FTP blog, you will still need to republish your blog in order to reflect updates. To republish your blog, go to Posting Status:
















Republish Index will only republish your blog's index (home) page, and your Atom feed, if you have one:
















Republish Entire Site will do exactly that- republish all your blog's pages, including the index page, archive pages and post pages:












A status indicator will show how much of your blog has been published:











For troubleshooting purposes (or if you're just curious), you can click the See More link to view a listing of files that were published:

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What is FTP?

FTP is the publishing method by which Blogger transfers blog files to remote servers, so you only need to know about it if you are publishing to your own website. If you are using our free BlogSpot hosting, the publishing is all taken care of for you automatically.

Blogger works with both passive FTP and SFTP (secure FTP), but not active FTP. If your hosting provider only supports active FTP, you can ask them to enable either of the other versions so that you can work with Blogger.

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How to switch your template to another provided by Blogger?

Switching templates in Blogger is easy... too easy:

Go to Layout! Pick New Template: :

Finally, click the orange "Save Template" button.

Notes:

Before switching to a new template, it's a good idea to back up your current one (if you've made changes to it). Go to the Layout Edit HTML tab, and copy and paste the template code to a text file on your computer.

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How to makeClickable Image Header

However, doing it in the manner above will still leave you with an unclickable graphic. If you want the image to be clickable so that it takes you back to the home page (or any other site you wish), you will have to write the image HTML this way:
< href="URL of home page">< alt="" src="http://www.blogger.com/picture" width="W">< /a>. This was the method used for the first example blo

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How to make Non-clickable image Header

Have ready the URL of the image. Now when you click "Add a Page Element", instead of selecting "Picture" select "HTML/Javascript" instead and click ADD TO BLOG. Then type < alt="" src="http://www.blogger.com/URL" width="W"> into the HTML editor, where W is the width of the image you want displayed. This will have to be equal or less than the width of the sidebar. If you don't know the width of the sidebar, get to the template editor (click LAYOUT > TEMPLATE > EDIT HTML) and look for this block of codes

#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 150px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
}

This tells me the width of the sidebar is 150 pixels.

It will be good to type in some description of the image in between the quotation marks in alt="" as search engine cannot read images but can read the text in the alt tag. This will be an advantage to you if you want your blog to be easily found by search enginges. Another advantage is that if for any reason, the image cannot be displayed, instead of a blank box, the text withing the quotation marks will be displayed instead. The alt tag is optional and you may leave it out if you want. But putting some description between the quotation marks will be good for search engine which cannot read images, but can read the alt text. Also, if the image cannot be displayed for any reason, the text get displayed instead.

When ready, click SAVE CHANGES. Then in the LAYOUT, preview if you want, and click SAVE if you are satisfied. If you are not satisfied with the positioning of the elements, you can hover your mouse over the widget (then the cursor will change to a cross) and drag it to wherever you like.

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how to Add unclickable graphic in the Header of Blogger beta blog

Click "Add a Page Element" and a pop-up will appear. Select "Picture" and click "Add to blog". In the next page, there will be 4 fields and some radio buttons for you to click. The fields are "Title", "Caption" and two fields for image. It is best to leave the title blank. If (rarely) you want a caption below the image, then fill in that field with your caption, otherwise leave it blank. If you have your photo stored on your computer, click "Browse" (the radio button for "Browse" is already ticked by default), then select the photo from your computer.

You may also tick the radio button to load an image already hosted on the web if you know the URL, but if the image is not hosted by you, there may be copyright and bandwidth issues involved. If you select this option, just fill in the field for the image URL and click "Save changes". For this, the safest option is to tick "Shrink to fit" as you have no control over the size of the photo.

The advantage of this is you don't have to deal with any HTML, but the disadvantage is that the image is not clickable

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Adding a "Add a Page Element" (Page Element is now called Gadget) widget in the Blogger Beta Layout

A"Add a Page Element" (Page Element is now called Gadget) widget in the Blogger Beta Layout
This is how you can add a graphic to your header. Sign into Dashboard. For the blog you want to modify, click LAYOUT, then click EDIT HTML. Then look for this block of codes in the template:

< id="header-wrapper">
< ?xml:namespace prefix = b />

< id="Header1" title="Replacing Blog Header (Header)" type="Header" locked="true">
< /b:section>




Change maxwidgets='1' to maxwidgets='4'(or any other number greater than 1, or even leave a number out, then there is no maximum) and change showaddelement='no' to showaddelement='yes'. (you may also leave out the figure in maxwidgets='' in which case the number of widgets you can add to the header is unlimited). So the section should now be


< id="header-wrapper">
< id="header" class="header" showaddelement="yes" maxwidgets="4">
< id="Header1" title="Replacing Blog Header (Header)" type="Header" locked="true">
< /b:section>
< /div>


Click SAVE TEMPLATE. Then click PAGE ELEMENT tab to go back to LAYOUT. You will see an extra "Add a Page Element" above the Header.

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know what footer for blogs with methods

A blogger wants to "add a "footer" to a Blogger blog". Wished he had elaborated more as there are various ways to add a "footer to a blog. Let us take the easiest one first:


Add a footer via the Footer section of the LAYOUT
Easiest way to explain is to start with a screen shot of the Blogger LAYOUT:



There are altogether 5 sections, this being a blog with 2 sidebars (3 columns). If yours uses a 2 column (1 sidebar) template, you will have only 4 columns, that is, blog Header, main column sidebar and footer. To answer the question, we only concentrate on the last one - footer section. The red arrow is pointing to a "Add a Page Element" link. To add a footer, just click on "Add a Page Element" and select the type of Page Element you want for your blog.


Add a "footer" via "Add a Page Element" in Main Column Section
What is explained here is a "footer" but not really a footer. It will only be something that appear at the bottom of the main column (where the post or posts are displayed).

Refer to the topmost red arrow, the one pointing to a "Add a Page Element" link in the Main Column section. If you use a standard Blogger template, you probably wouldn't have this. If you want to add one, refer to How to add a "Add a Page Element" Link for Main Column (post was originally published to show one way of adding a graphic Header, but can be used for any kind of Page Elements).

To add a "footer" in the Main Column, click that "Add a Page Element" link in the Main Column, select the type of Page Element you want in the "footer", save. After saving, you will find a new Page Element at the top of the Main Column section. Just drag the new Page Element to the bottom of the Main Column section, then save the changes.

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How to center date header and change font size

"Do you know how centre the date?????"

Open the template editor by going to Dashboard > Layout > Edit HTML and look for these codes:

/* Posts
-----------------------------------------------
*/
h2.date-header {
margin:1.5em 0 .5em;
}

and change it to

/* Posts
-----------------------------------------------
*/
h2.date-header {
margin:1.5em 0 .5em;
text-align:center;
}

and if you also want to change the font size, add this line - font-size:200% or font-size:12px; or whatever values you wish, so that the codes become


/* Posts
-----------------------------------------------
*/
h2.date-header {
margin:1.5em 0 .5em;
text-align:center;
font-size:200%;}

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How to post microsoft powerpoint presentation to blog

Yes It is now possible to embed a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation into a Blogger post.
To do this, you will have go to Scribd. You can either just upload your Powerpoint file from your computer to Scribd, but I would advice that you sign up for an account first (you can upload first, you will be given a chance and encouraged to register for an account later when you publish. The reason for signing up is when you have an account, you can get access to all the files you uploaded to Scibd, you can edit or delete the files you uploaded.

Click on the upload button, click on the "Click to Upload" button:



wait for the file to be uploaded, then click the "Publish" button:



After successfully publishing, there will be a script for you to copy and paste into your post. The only thing is, you have to ensure that the script will fit into the main column (posts). If you don't know the widths of the different sections of your blog, refer to How to find the width of your blog Header, main column (posts), sidebar.

ALL IS WELL

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How to find width of your blog header ,sidebar,and main colum

To get the width of the blog Header, sidebars, main column, sign into Dashboard. In the section for the relevant blog, click LAYOUT, then click EDIT TEMPLATE. This will open the template editor window. Search through the templates for the following:

#header-wrapper {
width:750px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
}

#main-wrapper {
width: 400px;
margin-left: 20px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
}

#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 150px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
}

These codes are from the template of this blog. The first block of codes tells me that the width of the Header is 750 pixels. The second block says the main column width is 400 pixels. The last two block of codes tells me that both the sidebars are of width 150 pixels.

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Add music to your blog:Another easy way

Here is another easy way for you to add music to your blog. Go to eSnips. There you can upload your music file and other files like videos, photos and files. Here we will just be discussing music, but videos, etc., should be no different. The best way to go is to first sign up for an account first. Then you can have a folder for your files which you can refer to whenever you need to. If you have your own music file, first upload it. You still can have music if you don't have your own music file. All you have to do is to choose one which is available to the public in eSnip. If you don't have your own music file, or you want one that is available in eSnip, click on fresh from the "DJ Community" and click on a selection. Click "MP3 Widgets" and you will be presented with a page where you can copy the script to add to your blog (see screenshot ):

The default is to only play the music if a visitor click on the Play button. However, you can make the player play the music automatically the moment the page opens by choosing Yes in the Auto Play drop down menu at the bottom of the preview page (see bottom of the screenshot above). This setting (autoplay) is not favoured by many because of fear of unwanted interruption like when a person is surfing at night and there is a baby sleeping nearby. The person will have to quickly exit the site to stop the music playing. That is why the default is set to "no".


Listening to music online
Not satisfied with just putting music on your own site. Like to listen to music on other sites online?

Find places to Listen To Music Online for free. The internet has allowed sites to play Music 24/7. There are literally hundreds of Online Music sites
and even you can Stream Music on your own website.

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change sidebar title background color

Well, that is not too difficult. Sign into Blogger (Dashboard), click LAYOUT > EDIT HTML to open the template editor and search for this:


.sidebar h2 {
etc. etc.
}
etc. etc. means whatever may be in between { and } but which is not relevant to this post

Edit it (add a line) to read
-----------------------------
.sidebar h2 {
background-color:blue;
etc. etc.
}


If you cannot find
-------------------------
.sidebar h2 {
etc. etc.
}

Then just add this:
--------------------------
.sidebar h2 {
background-color:red;
}

to anywhere before
-----------------------------
]]<>/b:skin<


but preferably just after:
/* Sidebar Content
----------------------------------------------- */


so that it is together with others in the template which is related to the sidebar. That section of the template will then look like this:
/* Sidebar Content
----------------------------------------------- */
.sidebar h2 {
background-color:red;
}



Note: My aim is to make this blog easy to understand, so if the above is difficult for you to follow, do make a comment and let me know what is the source of your difficulty.

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How to Add Mp3 Player to your blog

With Google Gadget, you can easily add a MP3 Player to your blog.All you have to do is to go to Google Gadget, choose "MP3 Player", click "Add to your webpage" and will be taken to the page Add this gadget to your webpage. You can set, title, the height and width of the MP3 Player. A default URL of a song is already added for you. If you have your own song hosted somewhere, all you have to do is to replace the URL of the default song with the URL of your own song.

In the case of the above blog, a check of the template revealed this:

.sidebar {
float:left;
border-top: solid 1px #fff;
padding: 4px 0 0 7px;
background: #fff;
width: 260px;

That is, the width of the sidebar is 260 pixels. I thus set the width of the MP3 Player to 255 (see screenshot below):

you then click "Get the Code", copy the code generated, go to the template Layout, click "Add a Page Element" in the right sidebar section, choose HTML/Javascrip in the pop-up, pasted the code into the window and saved, then drag the new Page Element to the bottom of the right sidebar section.

To play the music, all one has to do is to click on the pink button.

An MP3 Player you can carry around
Not satisfied with just having an MP3 Player in your blog? Want a MP3 Player you can carry around? Find all kinds of the Mp3 Players you can carry, and order them right to your home. Online Stores have made the process of Comparison Shopping much easier. At one site you can and Compare Prices and get a great deal on a new player.

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Adding music to you blog

There are many ways to add music to your blog. The most common way is to embed it into your post, or in New Blogger (formerly Blogger beta), add it as a HTML/Javascript widget via the "Add a Page Element" in the Layout.

You will first have to find a music file that is already hosted on the web, or if you have your own music file stored in your computer, upload it into a file host and then get the URL of the file. If you don't have any music file saved in your computer to upload, you can find files already hosted at freemp3mail.com, select the artist, click "Free Download" and you will be taken to the file hosted on the web. You can copy the URL from the address bar of that page.
In the HTML/Javascript widget window or the post editor window, paste this code:

< embed src="URL of music file" width="150" height="40" autostart="false" loop="false">


You will have to substitute "URL of music file" with the actual URL of the music file in the script. In the script, there four attributes - width="X", height="Y", autostart="false/true" and loop="false/true". You will have to make sure that the value of width attribute X is consistent with the width of the container in which you intend to add the player into. For example, the width of the sidebar is 160 for this template, so I have to add a value less than 160 if I want to put it in the sidebar. For the autostart attribute, if you put it as true, the music will start automatically the moment your blog is loaded. Many have the opinion that this is a bad choice as the visitor may be visiting your site in the middle of the night when others are sleeping, and may be forced to quickly exit your page to stop the music. If you put the autostart attribute as false, the visitor will have to click the start button to start the music.

There are other ways of adding music to your blog. For example, you can use this site
Sonific to generate a script for putting into your post (the player will only appear in that post) or the Page Element (the player will then appear in all pages of your blog). You register for an account, verify your email address, sign in, select a songspot, and you will be taken to this page to fill in the field for the blog platform you are using and the URL of the blog you want to put the songspot in (see screenshot below, ):

As you can see from the screenshot, you have various option like orientating the player horizontally or vertically, select the size, whether to start the music automatically or manually, etc. You will also have to select your blog platform (which in our case will be Blogger) and type in the URL of the blog you intend to embed the player into. When you are finished the configuration, click "Activate" and the next page will display the script for you to paste into your post or the Layout. If you paste it into your post, when you try to publish it, you will get an error message "Your HTML cannot be accepted.......". Ignore it, tick "Stop showing errors for this post" and publish.

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How to create drop down menu

A blog reader asked (desperate) for a way to create a pull down menu for his posts of recipes. I have got good and bad news for him. The good news is that there is a simple way to get a drop-down menu. Use Drop-down Menu Generator, which I used to generate a script to paste into a HTML/Javascript Page Element. The bad news for me is that the width of the drop down menu is dependent on the description (post title or anchor text) you put for the link to the post.

If he is still interested in doing it, this is how to proceed to generate the drop-down menu. For this task, it will be helpful to use a browser like FireFox which have tabbed browsing. In one tab, log into the Blogger account and click "POSTS" for the relevant blog. A page with with a list of posts will appear. Right click on "VIEW" on one of the post and select "Copy Shortcut" to copy the post URL into the clipboard.

Open another tab and surf over to Drop-down Menu Generator. Paste the URL into the "Link URL" field. Then type the title of the post into the field for "Text shown". Continue the same process until you have entered all the post you want to appear in the drop-down menu, or you run out of fields to paste the Link URL.



Click on "Generate" and the script will be generated into the window below. Highlight all the script, copy into clipboard, then in the tab for the Blogger account, paste it into a HTML/Javascript "Add a Page Element" window and save.
Enjoy it

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How to add download button in your blog

First you will need up upload your pdf,word file, to your server using an FTP program of your host's file manager. You can put it in a sub folder or in the main folder..

Once your image is there, you will want to just make a simple link to that file.. Like this

< href="http://yourdomain.com/subfolder/filename.pdf">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD< /a>

Obviously you will want to replace "yourdomain.com" with your actual domain name.. and if you put it in a sub folder within that domain, you will replace the words "subfolder" with your actual folder name.

The text "CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD" can be changed to say whatever it is you want to.. that will be the link that the visitor clicks on to bring up the download box.

If you are doing this within your wordpress post writer, all you have to do is highlight the text you want to link, click the little link button, and put the url path directly to the pdf.. thats
THAT easy

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How to Embed Google Calendar on a Website or Blog

Getting Started - Settings

Screen Capture

Does your club, band, team, company, or family website need a professional looking calendar? Why not use the free and easy Google Calendar. You can share responsibility for editing events and embed your live calendar on your website to let everyone know about upcoming events.
To embed a calendar, open up Google Calendar and log in. Next go to the left-hand side and click on the little triangle next to the calendar you want to embed. You'll see an option box expand. Click on Calendar Settings.

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Howto make a link to another webpage or blog?

1.Highlight the text you'd like to turn into a link. If you do not select any text before using the link button, your link will be created but without anything to click on.
2.Click the Link button (or hit control+shift+a on your keyboard):

3.A pop-up window will appear prompting you for a URL you'd like to link to. Type the URL in the text box. Remember the http://!

If this link button doesn't appear in your browser, or isn't working for some reason, you can type in the link by hand:

< href="http://URL">TEXT< /a>

Here's an example scenario:
Let's say you want to tell people about some cool website you found, let's call it, www.somecoolwebsite.com. Here's an example of what you might type into your blog:

Hey all. Check out

< a href="http://www.somecoolwebsite.com/">< /a>

It's a really cool website I found.

In this example, the word "this" would be the link to www.somecoolwebsite.com. That is, it would show up as a blue underlined word on your blog. The key things to note are:

1.The "a href" stuff must be enclosed in these kind of brackets <>. That lets the computer know you're entering HTML and not just typing stuff to be displayed.
2.The website you want to link to must be in quotes, and must always start with http://. If you don't have the http://, the link probably won't work.
3.Any text you type after the > that closes out the bit where you write the website address will be the actual link that shows up on your blog. The < /a> tag lets the computer know that any text after < /a> is just normal text and should not be part of the link. Note: You have to put the < /a> in, otherwise the rest of your blog post will be treated as a link, and it will probably cause other weird things to happen that you don't want

Note:close all html code with <> and < />

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How to create a Blogger account?

In order to get started with Blogger, you'll first need to create an account. On the Blogger homepage, click the "Create Your Blog Now" button:





On the following page you'll be prompted to create a Google Account. You can use your Google Account on other Google services. If you already have a Google Account perhaps from Gmail, Google Groups, or Orkut, please sign in first. After you've done that, you'll need to enter a display name and accept Blogger's Terms of Service.

Once you're done with this, you'll be prompted to Create a Blog and get started!

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create a blog that Blogger will host for free?

Before you can create a free blog on Blog*Spot, Blogger's hosting service, you need to have already created an account on blogger.com. Once you've logged into blogger.com, click the Create a Blog link above your list of blogs:

On Step 2, enter a Title and Address (URL). You'll also need to type in the verification word displayed on this page, to confirm that you are a real person and not a computer. When you're done, click continue:

On Step 3, you can choose a template for your blog; this is how it will appear when you publish it. Next, Blogger will create your new blog and reserve your spot on BlogSpot. As soon as you make your first post, your page will appear at the address you chose. You're all ready to blog!

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How to use a custom domain name on your blog?

Note: The setup process for newly-purchased domains may take up to 24 hours.

Publishing on Blog*Spot is the fastest and easiest way to use all of Blogger's great features. (And for free, no less!) If you don't care to have blogspot.com in your blog's address, though, you can get a domain of your own. We'll continue to host all your content as before, but it will be displayed at your new address. (Unlike FTP publishing, which requires you to buy both a domain name and a hosting service.)

Choose and Register Your Domain
The first thing you'll need to do is to choose a domain name, like example.com and register it. You can register domain names from any of a number of different registrars, and you can use .com, .org, .net or any other valid addresses. Remember: you only need to get the domain name; you don't have to pay extra for hosting service. The easiest way to register a domain is to buy your domain directly through Blogger. If you go this route, we'll automatically configure all of your relevant DNS settings and attach your new domain to your existing blog immediately.

Update the DNS Settings
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet. To take care of this, you need to do two things:

•Create a CNAME record for your blog's address, which should be a subdomain of the form www.example.com.To create a CNAME record for your domain with the DNS, associating your domain with ghs.google.com. The exact procedure for doing this varies depending on your domain registrar, but you can find instructions for many common registrars here. If yours isn't listed, or if you run into other difficulties, you can contact your registrar directly and they'll be able to help you out.
•Create 'A' NAME records for your naked domain (blog.com)Creating A records for your naked domain is important as it allows Google to redirect people who use in your naked domain name (blog.com) to your blog page (www.example.com). If you do not do this, visitors who leave off the www will see an error page.
There are four separate A records you will create, and can be done from the same control panel you accessed your CNAME records. Simply point your naked domain (example.com, without the 'www') to each of the following IP addresses:

216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21

Your DNS setup is now complete!

Update Your Blogger Settings
Almost done! At this point, you have a domain name, and the DNS servers know to direct people to Google when they want to see your blog. But Google hosts lots of blogs, so we have to make sure the right one is associated with this domain. You'll do this on the Settings Publishing tab for your blog in Blogger.

If you're publishing on Blog*Spot, you'll see a link near the top offering to switch you to a custom domain. Go ahead and click that link.

The Blog*Spot Address setting now changes to Your Domain. Fill in the domain you registered, and then save your settings.

Now the only thing left to do is to tell everybody about your new address!

Notes:

•If your new domain isn't taking you to your blog, wait another day or two to make sure all the DNS servers have been updated. If it still isn't working, contact your registrar to make sure you entered the DNS settings correctly.
•Your original Blog*Spot address will automatically forward to your new domain. That way, any existing links or bookmarks to your site will still work.
•You can use this feature with domains (e.g. example.com) or subdomains (e.g. ). However, you cannot specify subdirectories (e.g. example.com/blog/) or wildcards (e.g. *.example.com).

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How do you setup an FTP (or sFTP) connection to your external web host?

If you already have an existing website, you can publish to your site via FTP or sFTP.

Go to Settings! Publishing:

and select a connection method:

When you're done, save your server details via the Save Settings button at the bottom, and republish your blog









Notes:

•The default port numbers will be used (:21 for FTP and :22 for SFTP). Specifying an alternate port will not work.
•Do not include http:// or ftp:// in the server address or the path setting.

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