Your Blog Settings

We are going to look at the blog settings now.

Looking at the above menu, we have used several of the menu items in previous tutorials: Posts, Pages, Layout, and Template.  This tutorial will look specifically at those in the portion of the menu pictured below.

Accessing Your Mobile Site

Many parents access various websites and information using their mobile devices. For this reason, I wanted to present a tutorial on accessing the mobile site that Blogger assembles parallel to the web version of your blog.  (To access the mobile version type ?m=1 after the / on your blog’s url.)  

Remember

?m=1  will take you to your mobile site.

Adding Gadgets and Other Subscription Options

In the last post, we discussed adding links to enable parents to find distribution through social media.  In this post, we will edit the gadget choices and enable email and another RSS subscription option. 

July 1, 2013, the Google Reader will be closed down.  However, anyone using Feedly will experience a seamless transition.  

P.S. In the video, I forgot to mention a gadget that may be useful, considering how multicultural America is.  It is the translation gadget.  To use this gadget follow the steps below:

1. Select LAYOUT from the left menu.  
2. Within the layout, find ADD A GADGET.
3. When the Gadget window opens, TRANSLATE is the fourth option down.  Click the PLUS SIGN NEXT TO TRANSLATE.

That adds the option to translate the blog.  It will not translate it perfectly, but it should at least make it readable in other languages.

Creating Links To Social Media, Editing Template

In this post, I show you how to edit the template to create links to social media sites where your content will be delivered.


Next, we will deal with other gadgets and subscription options.

External Template Pt. 2: Uploading the Template

In the last post, I showed you how to download a template that you have chosen from an external site.  Now, this tutorial will detail how to upload that template for use on your own blog.

On the first page I saw upon signing in (Dashboard), I chose my blog. (This was easy since I only have the one.)

Next, I clicked on Template in the menu on the left side.

Then, I clicked  Backup/Restore in the top righthand corner of the screen.

Finally, I clicked browse, selected the template from where I stored it on the desktop and clicked upload.

External Template Pt. 1: Selecting and Downloading a Template from an External Site

In the last tutorial, I showed you how to customize your blog using the Blogger customization options.  In this tutorial, I will show you how to use any of thousands of templates you may find the code for on the web.

First, you need to type "Blogger templates" into your search engine because that is the platform that we are using.  

Then you choose a site.  I like btemplates.com.

Download the template and save the zipped folder to a place that you can find it.  

Finally, unzip the folder.

I will show you how to upload the template that you selected from the external site.

Using a Blogger Template

You can choose a template one of three ways: from here on Blogger, from an external site, or by designing it yourself using html or xml. In this tutorial we will talk about how to customize on blogger though. So lets get started!

Starting signed in on blogger.com and viewing your dashboard, you should click on the blog that you have created.

Once you have selected your blog, you will be directed to an overview of that blog. On the left hand side of this screen you will see a menu. Select TEMPLATE. You could select your template from this page by clicking APPY TO BLOG beneath the desired template or...

You could click CUSTOMIZE under the LIVE ON BLOG picture. Now you are in the template wizard. There are more customization options here and you can view a preview below as you make each change.

Once you are satisfied, click APPLY TO BLOG. You have a template! Click VIEW BLOG to see your beautiful blog!

How to use a template from another site will be covered in another tutorial.

Create a Blog

This first tutorial is about how to set up your blog for parent teacher communication.

Go to blogger.com and sign in. (You will need a Google account before you start, but you can create one by clicking sign up on the Sign In page. Sign up is in the upper right hand corner. Follow the prompts. It is pretty easy.)

To create a blog, click on NEW BLOG.

Choose a name for your blog and check for availability. If it is unavailable, you can change the domain name but keep your title the same if you like.

Click CREATE BLOG!

Congratualtions! You have a blog!

Next, I will show you how to customize with a template.