Check Out My Blog

I'm using this blog to demonstrate some of the things that you can do with yours - so have a look around my posts and see if there's anything you'd like to be able to do, too. If you can't figure it out for yourself, let me know!

What to Look Out For

Images

Don't get stressed!

Most of my posts have at least one image in them - they help break up the text, and add a bit of life to a page. It's a bit dull if all your posts are just a slab of dull-looking text.

Blogger gives you a number of ways to grab images - for instance, you can upload them from your own computer or link to images elsewhere on the web. In "Thing 17" we'll look at how you can use Creative Commons licenced images (including what on earth I mean by "Creative Commons" licences!).

Videos

Like images, Blogger also gives you several different ways to add videos to your post - the easiest of which is adding one from YouTube.

Tags/Labels

It's useful to put tags on your posts - it makes finding them easier, and also allows you to group things together. Try to add the label "Sot23" to all your posts about Sot23.

If you look on the right-hand sidebar, you'll notice that I've got a listing of the labels I've used, and how many posts have included each tag. Click on a label, and you'll be shown all the related posts.

If you'd like a similar list of labels, you'll need to edit your Layout, and add a Labels widget to your sidebar.

Pages

Posts are what you use to add content from day to day, but pages are permanent places for static information - your "About Me" page, for instance. You can also add in links to other related websites, perhaps the main Sot23 blog, your friend's Sot23 blog or your own personal web page.

I've added a page and several links - and then used the option to show them as Top tabs.

Links

It's always useful to have links in your text to useful, related information.

Custom Background

I've changed the default background of the template that I'm using, to fit in better with the style of my blog...

Custom Font Styling

...I've also changed the font style and size (use the Template Designer) to make it look more how I want it to look.

The Template Designer allows you to do a reasonably amount of customisation - but if you want complete control on how each part of your blog looks (right down to individual heading styles), you'd need to create some bespoke CSS code ("cascading style sheets"). But that's way beyond the scope of this 23 Things course.