Thursday, April 21, 2011

How To: Q&A Edition



How To:

The Q&A Edition




Your questions answered

In every How To post there is a link to a form where you can submit questions for future How To posts. Sometimes these questions require lengthy responses and so I have answered them in a full post, but others are shorter and don't really need a long post explanation. For these shorter questions I've decided to compile a few and answer them all in one post.

Q: How to just do plain borders around text.  Thank you :)



I'm not sure I understand the question exactly, but if you want a plain line around your text then you would use the following code:

<div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% ; border:3px solid #000000; padding: 5px 8px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Plain borders</b></span></div>
</div>
This will give you something that looks like this:

Plain borders

For a more detailed explanation on how you can adjust the thickness and color of the borders, you can refer to the post How to Make Colored Boxes.


Q: I know this should be really obvious, but what's the best way in blogger to change font size, color, etc.? I write mostly in HTML editor. Is it better to use text editor for stuff like this?

I guess "obvious" and "better" really just depends on your preference. The HTML editor is a perfectly fine way to change these features and preferred by a lot of people. Personally, I like writing my posts in the "Compose" tab located right next to the "Edit HTML" tab. 

In Compose you'll see a bunch of pictures that resemble what you'd see in a text editing program like Microsoft Word. I find this easier because I don't need to think about code and instead I can just click on pictures to do what I want. For me, the only time I use the HTML Editor is when I need the greater flexibility when doing things like borders, certain colors, etc.


Q: Is there a way to tell when followers don't follow you anymore? I thought I saw a post where someone said they knew a person quit following them, but from what I can tell, unless you have your followers memorized, it's all about numbers. Am I wrong?

As far as I can tell, you're right. The only way I can tell if I've been unfollowed is by looking at the number.  I'm pretty sure you can see who unfollowed you on Twitter, but I don't think Blogger has a similar application. 
If anyone knows if there is a way to see who has unfollowed through GFC, then please share!


Q: I've been thinking to add buttons to my blog - like from the blogs I love!  - I usually just have them in my blog roll, but I would like to display their buttons - when available - too. 

And I've seen some blogs were they have this automatically rotating thing, sort of like a slide show, and I was wondering if there was an 'easy' way to do this. Thanks!!

Go to your dashboard and go to Design --> Page Elements --> Add a Gadget

Select the HTML/JavaScript option

Copy and paste this code: 

<div class="textwidget"><marquee direction="up" width="205" onmouseover="this.stop()" scrollamount="2" onmouseout="this.start()" height="200" align="center">
PASTE BUTTON CODE HERE
PASTE BUTTON CODE HERE
PASTE BUTTON CODE HERE
</marquee></div>
The 205 in red sets the width. You can change this number to adjust the widget to fit your sidebars. 

The up controls the direction the pictures scroll. You can change this to "left" "right" or "down"

Where it says "Paste button code here" delete that and paste in the code bloggers have on their sidebar for you to "grab" In my case it would be this code: 

<a border="0" href="http://smallreview.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/34gwkm9.jpg" /></a>

You can paste in as many button codes as you want.

Q: How do you make the GoodReads, Facebook, Twitter, etc pictures bloggers have on their sidebars?

These are essentially buttons and you would make them the same way you would make a button for your blog. You can see detailed instructions on how to do this in the post How to Make a Button.

Basically you will need to find a place to host the picture you would like to use. Then you will copy the url for the picture and paste it into this code: 

<a border="0" href="http://smallreview.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/34gwkm9.jpg" /></a>

The part in red is where you will paste the link you want the button to lead to. If you're creating a button to go to your Goodreads page, then you will paste your Goodreads link here. 

The part in blue is where you will paste the link to your picture. Here are a few pictures you can save to get you started:






 I hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything clarified. If you've submitted a question that I haven't answered yet, rest assured it will be answered in an upcoming post. I have posts scheduled for every question I've received so far.

The form is anonymous, so please don't feel shy at all!

I'm certainly not an expert, but I'll try my hardest to explain what I do know and research what I don't know.

Click here to read previous How To Posts 

23 comments:

  1. Thanks for those pics for the buttons. I wondered how you did them! Thanks again :)

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  2. I was wondering how people made their buttons scroll! This is great. Thanks :)

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  3. Always helpful. The borders and box html has been wonderful. Thanks for the button pics too!

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  4. I need to stop being so lazy and start actually doing some of these tricks I'm learning from you. My blog is a sad, boring little place.

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  5. I was wondering how to do the buttons so this post is extremely helpful. I'm going to bookmark it and then try some of the stuff when I get the time :)

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  6. Thanks on the button scroll thingy!
    :)
    You explain things so simple :)

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  7. I love your How To posts! I added the button scroll, and it looks great, but I took it off, because when you look at it on a PC it doesn't show up right. Awww, thanks though!

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  8. Glad you all found this helpful! Thank you to those of you who submitted questions and you’re very welcome for the answers!

    Logan, Don’t be silly. Your blog is filled with sparkles and awesome. Every time I read your posts I want to build you a Rapunzel tower and trap you in it until you’ve written and published a book :) You can write the dedication: To Small, because I would like to be released now. Please. :)

    T.B. I'm sorry it didn't look right! Are you using a Mac? I'm not and the code displays fine on my browsers (Firefox and Internet Explorer). Did the PC browser you used have scripts allowed?

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  9. I do think having hair that long would be kind of cool. I mean, having it to your waist or feet would be annoying, but when it's several stories long that's got to be pretty neat.

    But how would I wash it all?

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  10. Thanks Small... you are so helpful. I am going to use your wonderful HTML to add a couple of buttons to my blog.

    I really can't express how much I appreciate you writing helpful posts like this one. You make our blogs beautiful! --- THANK YOU ---

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  11. I promise myself that I will try out one of the things I've learnt in your how to posts! Thank you for doing this, all these tips are so helpful. You're helping to make all our blogs better places :)

    P.S Thanks for the birthday wishes and for the lovely comments! I'm interested to see what I think of Princess Of Glass, I love the idea of continuing with Poppy's story. It's a shame that you liked it just a little bit less than Princess Of The Midnight Ball.

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  12. Huh. Interesting. I had no idea you could keep track of who unfollows you. Guess there goes my anonymous unfollowing days. Oh well.

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  13. Logan, You would wash it with magic. Hair that long? There must be magic involved. Plus, everyone knows that princesses have magical helpful forest animals. So maybe they would wash it for you. :)

    Gina, You’re so welcome! I’m really glad all of you find these posts so helpful. I really enjoy writing them. :)

    Stephanie, :) I’m so happy they’re helpful! It is a shame, but I liked it only the tiniest smidgen less than PotMB, so it was still a very good book for me. It was just one of the characters that I disliked for a large part of the book but was later supposed to like. I had trouble getting over my earlier dislike.

    Cialina, I think you’re safe. At least on Blogger. And at least as far as I can tell. I can only tell that my number goes down, but I can’t see who specifically unfollowed.

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  14. Thank you so much! I've been trying everything to make a blog button roll! *Secret* Your buttons going onto the blog roll :)

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  15. Ok Small you must go check out my blog, I used your "How To" post and was able to put up a "FOLLOW ME" HTML Gadget which has a Twitter, Goodreads and Shelfari box in it from your site! Wow!!! it really worked I'm so excited, I needed to share.

    PS: I "hosted" my images on my flickr pro account - didn't know I could do that.

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  16. Very helpful post. I'm still working my way around getting to know html. It's fun but also frustrating.

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  17. Gina! It looks awesome! I’m so glad you told me. I love it when you guys link back or let me know so I can go and check it out. It’s so much fun seeing my tutorials “in action” You made my day :)

    Missie, Ha, yeah, fun but very frustrating! It’s like a process of continually beating my head against a wall and then all of a sudden it works!

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  18. @Small - Well, I'm glad it makes you happy too, because I was on "cloud nine". It took me a bit to figure out the link part of it. At first it didn't work, but I stuck with it and WOW I'm just tickled its up and it actually works (links go to the right place). Yipee!!!

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  19. Thanks!! I just asked how to do this on Twitter, and Vy sent me here. :)

    Jennifer of Little Shelf

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  20. Jennifer, You’re welcome! I’m so glad it was helpful. Vy is wonderful :) Aw, I love that you’re Little Shelf to my Small Review!

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  21. Yay! I've been searching for this - Thank you :)

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  22. All of these are so helpful. Thank you!

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