Blog Templates

I have mentioned that I looked into creating a custom template for Blogger. It was not as easy as I first thought and I did not have the time to better figure it out. But I thought I would share with you what I learned.

Two notes:

First, create a test blog. You need this for two reasons. A: You cannot upload a new template and view it without it being published to your blog. B: If you do have an issue, you won't mess up your actual blog.
Second, I am a web developer and know a fair bit of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Creating a custom template involves all three of these. But don't be discouraged. Give it a try.

Here are some tutorials and sites that I found helpful:

The Web Designers Guide to Blogger Templates
Template of Doom
Tutorials on Blogger Template Design
Cheats Guide to Customising Blogger
How to Host your Template Images

I also used Gimp extensively.

My biggest suggestion would be to design your blog layout, where you want things to be and what images you want, first. Then after the design is done start building the template.

There are also some good resources for free blogger templates. Make sure you check them out as well. At the very least they may be inspiring. You can also download them and peak under the hood to see how something works.

Ultimately I decided to go with a customization of built in blogger template. But it was fun to play around with making custom templates.

Using a Layered GIMP Image for a Status Meter

Krista M said she like my status images over on the side bar, and asked where I got them. I made them myself in GIMP. Here is a guide on how I made them. It assumes a little familiarity with GIMP, but not much. Hope you find it helpful.

Layered Status Tracker Image

Summary: Create an image in GIMP having 1 layer for each percentage step. Mark only the layers that you need for a given percentage as visible and save as gif/jpeg.

Also, I am going to attempt to make a Google Gadget that will allow you to use custom images for status tracking. But I can't make any promises about it.