How Can I Do That?

by Bonnie Calhoun

This is the third in the series of Adsense posts. The other two are HERE, and HERE.

Today I'm going to teach you how to wrap Adsense code into a blog post. The first example isn't exactly rocket science so even the most novice of bloggers will be able to accomplish this with ease.

First the glaring question: Why would I want to give myself the heart palpitations that come with messing with the stupid HTMl in my template to put in an equally stupid ad?

LOL...the answer to that: Ads placed within blog posts have been tested and proved to give the maximum in CTR (click thru rate). LOL...this means that you make a lot more money than with other locations on your page.

Let's first look at the use of the Adsense Widget.

From your Dashboard, click Layout. It will open on the Page Elements page. Click the Edit link in the Post Box. There is a clickable link in that open Configure box that you can click to put Ads between any number of posts. Read this Blogger Article about Placing Ads between posts.

From here on, it's going to get a little tougher, so the first thing I would recommend is Backing Up Your Template if you already don't have a copy of it saved in a NotePad file on your own computer. When you open the Layout tab, and click Edit HTML it will give you the Backup link...Please USE IT!!!


Okay...you're all backed up...now on to putting Adsense in your posts. Check the Expand Widget Templates box above the Edit window. Search for the following lines:

<data:post.body/>
or
<p><data:post.body/></p>

You will need to Parse Your Adsense Code like I taught you to do in THIS POST. This is how the post section code will look after you add the Parsed Adsense Code and the line to direct the ad to sit left, or right. In this code I have it set for left. To move it to the other side of the post, change the float position to right.

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hello blogging friends! I haven't been ignoring you *snort-giggle* I just didn't have anything worthy of a post to report. I'm happy to say that I've found something new that could be of service to to, especially to those with team blogs!

Recently it has been asked frequently how the members of a team blog could get their image and/or signature on their posts! Well until Blogger comes up with a post editor solution, each team member can accomplish it with just a minor adjustment.

Each team member will need to open a "New Post" box. Into that box you are going to enter your name...as a signature. You can see how I accomplished that in the image below. And you are also going to upload an image of yourself. I made the size on this one, 50px X 60px, but that size is up to the individual.

Click on the image to open it larger, and in it's own window so you can read what it says!



Now...to get the text to wrap around the image start typing the post right after the closing image mark. The example in the picture is of this specific post, so you can see how it comes out.

After each team member has done this in his/her own post, they could save a copy of the signature and image in a file on their own computer to reuse on subsequent posts...or they could just open up their last post, and copy and paste that part into their next post!

Happy blogging!

Hi all! I haven't been ignoring you, I'm just really busy writing...That's right *snort*, I'm a writer (among other things). But that's not why I'm posting today. I ususally don't post about how to do something unless I've actually tried it myself, and understand how it works.

So today I'm going to show you how to reset the Blog post element. Okay, I know you're asking why in the world would you want to do that? Well there could be a couple of reasons. Like if you comment link at the bottom of the post disappears, or the posts won't show...or anything major malfunction of any other part of that particular widget.

Now...going back to the comment thing for a minute. If your comment link is not showing on your blog posts, check out these thress things first to make sure that all of your settings are correct:

Post Options in post editor...the box at the bottom of the rectangle post box that you write in....click on 'Post Options' and make sure comments are allowed.

Settings - Comment tab...on the Settings tab, go to comments and make sure they are set to "Show".

Template - Page Elements - Blog post...and lastly go to your Layout(Template), go to Page Elements, then click on the edit box in the Blog Post element...hint:(it will be the biggest on on the page). When the Coonfigure box opens up, make sure comments are checked.

Okay, after all that your @#%$# comment link is still not showing...LOL...chill! We can fix it.

LOL...we're going to play in your template HTML...wheeee!

Go to Template...Edit HTML...scroll down in the code until you find this piece of code (the black highlighted section):
Okay, select it like I did and cut that puppy out of there. Save the piece in your mouse because you're gonna put it back in a few minutes. And remember where it was, so that you can pust it back in the exact same place...LOL! If your anal retentive like me...copy a whole section of the template...like say five lines before and after the section you're going to cut out and save it on a Notepad page ore WORD page...just so you can see the exact spot to put it back!

Okay...I digress...cut that highlighted section out of the template and click save...it will be fine...go ahead...click!

Now...this page pops up:" Warning Will Robinson, Warning...LOL...just kidding, I'm a Lost In Space addict! Anyhow...the page says...Egads, you're about to delete a widget!...LOL...never fear...click that Confirm and Save...with pride!

Okay now that you've deleted the bad bugger, you're going to reset the widget by scrolling down the template to the spot where you deleted the piece of code that is still in your mouse...Remember up above I told you to remember where you took it out of...another thing that you could do to remember the spot, before you take the piece out hit your Enter key a few times before and after the section, LOL...it will leave a big hole in the template, that will be easy to find!

Okay...mouse pointer in the empty spot...right click...paste....put that baby back and hit Save.

TaDa!!!! You're all better now, the Blog widget has been reset!

Okay guys and gals...Blogger has finally made it possible for you to really screw up your Googly life...LOL...just kidding!

They have finally made it possible to move blogs...at will..between accounts. Now I'm not going to create more accounts to give you a show and tell but my Blog*Star buddy Chuck has a post with a lot of pictures!!

The steps are relatively easy!

First...with Google, set up the second account where you want to transfer the blog.

1.) From your Dashboard, go to Settings, then to the far right tab called Permissions.

2.) As the original administrator of the blog, invite the second account to be a blog member using the email address of the new account.

3.) Log into the second mail account and accept the invitation.

4.) As the original Administrator, make sure both accounts are "Administrators"...just click on the button that says guest and it will change to Administrator.

5.) Click "Remove" for the account that you want to delete. The account that is left is now the administrator.

6.) Log in with the new account and the blog will be on your Dashboard with full administrative access. Voila!

Hi folks! It's been a while since I posted, but I'm trying to only post relevant things here, that people need instruction with.

This is a new trick I recently learned. Imagine me...learning a new trick...I guess you really can teach old dogs...uh, er...nevermind. Anyhow...I used to use a complicated program to do screenshots, and someone taught me an awesome easy way to do it. Now I'm sure you could use any photo manipulation program but the easiest way for people using Windows is to use Microsoft Paint.

Here's what you do. On the top right-hand corner of your keyboard is a key that says PrtSc...that means Print Screen. Hit that, then open up Paint, click the edit button, when the menu opens click Paste. The picture below is me copying this blog as a screenshot:

Then hit Save As...when the box open, give it a name, and below that box use the dropdown menu to save it as a jpg (picture). Now that you've got this shot, you may want to crop the picture. On Paint, see that tools menu running down the left side of the page...see at the top of the menu, the white box with the dotted rectangle in it...that's the crop box.

Click there...your pointer will turn into a cross-hair. Put the cross-hair where you want to start the cut, hold the left mouse button and drag the cross-hair till you get all that you want of the picture, then let go. (Notice in the picture below, the dotted line.)

Put the pointer in the box and right click on copy. Open a new Paint workspace (Go to File, click..on the dropdown menu choose New) and hit edit, and then paste...and the rest of the save procedure from above, and you wind up with the small piece below...Viola!

Okay so I've been really busy...I haven't been neglecting posting...just posting here. If you notice my cool icon at the top of the left column, I've been designated as a Blog*Star by the Google/Blogger help boards.

LOL...This means I officially have no life. That I spend most of my time on the Blogger Help boards dispensing advice to wayward Bloggers that are lost in the maze of Google and Blogger.

But it's fun! It's a lot of fun to teach someone to do something that they didn't know how to do before. I remember being on that end of the stick. Knowledge is power, and the more you understand Blogger, the greater the fun...so ask away!!

The purpose of this post is to give you a way to backup your entire blog onto your computer. The singular easiest way is when you make a post make a copy on your computer...Okay, okay, so I'm no fun at all. That's a plain old text post that doesn't look the least bit cute or laid out like your blog page does!

Sooooo....then you will need another browser...The Mozilla Firefox one! It's always a good idea to have more than one browser installed on your computer anyhow. Internet Explorer get persnickity sometimes and a backup is a good thing.

Anyhow, on Firefox one of the cool downloads is ScrapBook. You can get it HERE

With Scrapbook you can screen capture your whole blog. There are numerous ways of capturing...in fact....a whole page load of capture features HERE. My favorite way is to choose a month from my Archives. That way it puts a whole month on one page. Then you can save a Web page by right-click > [Capture Page].
Also you can save a Web page by drag-and-drop favicon in the location bar or browser tab into ScrapBook Sidebar.

The great thing is that ScrapBook is able to save a Web page more exactly than the Firefox standard [Save Page As] (Ctrl+S) feature. The page saved is an exact copy of what you see on the page!

You can organize collected Web pages in ScrapBook Sidebar as a tree similar to Bookmarks Tree, sorting items by drag-and-drop, creating folder and putting items into it, and so on.

ScrapBook Notes is a text/HTML edit feature resembling Opera's Notes, which enables you to add plain text items to ScrapBook and edit them in sidebar or browser tab. Major particular specifications are:

* The first line becomes the title of the note
* You can insert tab with tab key.
* You can insert timestamp with F5 key.
* Saving automatically when you close a note or open another note
* When opening a note in a browser tab, you can preview it as HTML.
* You can customize the template for the preview (note_template.html).
* You can search for notes by the Full Text Search.

So go and grab Firefox if you don't already have it...and then grab this very functional and cool add-on!