Tauxeef Blog

How to Check your Google Page Rank in 2015 to 2016 Report

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 06:04:00 +0000

According to Google:

"PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to receive more links from other websites."

Source: Wikipedia

Briefly, the PageRank is an assessment of the importance of a web page. This relevance is calculated and published on a scale from 0 to 10. Google basically takes into account the number of links that each page receives, however, it's no use getting any links, it is important that these links are from quality sites which are related to your links, preferably internal links. A greater importance has the quantity of internal links, linked by other websites, which happens when you create a post and someone publishes the link that redirects to this posting that you created. Therefore, the more links your blog or site has, the higher is the probability of having a good PageRank.

Now that you understand what PageRank is, how about checking yours?

You can easily calculate your PageRank and verify the importance of your page.
Just enter the address of your website / blog below and check it out:

Check Page Rank of your Web site pages instantly:

This page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

In case you want to add a button to your blog to promote your PageRank, please visit this page: PageRank Buttons

Simple Way to Add Author Name & Picture on Multiple Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 06:03:00 +0000

Adding the Author's Profile Picture / Avatar and Name in Blogger

Step 1. From the Blogger Dashboard, go to "Template" and click the "Edit HTML" button.

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box. Paste the following code inside the search box, then hit Enter to find it:

<span class='post-author vcard'>

Just below this line is the rest of code, which should look something like this:

              <span class='post-author vcard'>
                <b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
                  <b:if cond='data:post.authorProfileUrl'>
                    <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'>
                      <meta expr:content='data:post.authorProfileUrl' itemprop='url'/>
                      <a expr:href='data:post.authorProfileUrl' rel='author' title='author profile'>
                        <span itemprop='name'><data:post.author/></span>
                      </a>
                    </span>
                  <b:else/>
                    <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'>
                      <span itemprop='name'><data:post.author/></span>
                    </span>
                  </b:if>
                </b:if>
</span>

Note: If you are using a custom template, it could look something like this:

<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/>
</span>
</b:if>
</span>

Step 3. Now that you found the code, delete it. Please note that it should start and end with the tags marked in yellow. This code is repeated two times and you will need to remove both occurrences.

Step 4. Next, search for this line (you'll find it twice and you should stop at the second one):

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

Step 5. Just below the line, paste the following code:

<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:post.author == "AuthorName"'>
<span class='author'><a href='Author-Profile-URL'><img src='Author-Image-URL'/></a></span>
</b:if>
        <b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
          <data:top.authorLabel/>
            <b:if cond='data:post.authorProfileUrl'>
              <span class='fn'>
                <a expr:href='data:post.authorProfileUrl' itemprop='author' rel='author' title='author profile'>
                  <data:post.author/>
                </a>
              </span>
            <b:else/>
              <span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
            </b:if>
        </b:if>
      </span>

Replace the AuthorName text with the EXACT name that appears on the Blogger profile, i.e., the one that appears in the posts or comments. If it is added in a different way, Blogger will not recognize the username, nor the image and the code will not work.
To display the author's pic, add the URL of the author's Blogger profile and the image URL by replacing the text in blue. I recommend you to use an image with a maximum height of 40px and 40px wide. Once done, the photo of the author will appear next to the "posted by" text just below the post title.

Now for those who maintain a blog with more than one author, you will need to add the following code just above <b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>

<b:if cond='data:post.author == "AuthorName2"'>
<span class='author'><a href='Author2-Profile-URL'><img src='Author2-Image-URL'/></a></span>
</b:if>

If you have more than two authors, repeat this block of code for each author that you want to add.

Let's go ahead and add the CSS styles...

Step 6. Search (CTRL + F) this tag:

]]></b:skin>

Just above the ]]></b:skin> tag, paste the following code:

.post-header {
width: 100%;
padding: 2px 5px;
margin: 5px;
clear: both;
float: left;
}
.author img{
float: left;
margin: 0px 5px 10px 0px;
max-width:100%;
height:45px;
border-radius: 10px;
}
.post-author{
color:#777;
font-size: 13px;
font-style: italic;
}
.post-author a {
color:#777; }

Note: to change the size of avatar, increase/decrease the 45px value.

Step 7. Click on the "Save template" button and that's it. You should see now the profile picture and name of the Blogger author below the title of each post.

Learn About CSS Transitions in 2015 to 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 06:00:00 +0000

First check out the demo below :

Hover Over Me!

This transition is achieved by using the CSS3 transition property - property which is supported in all major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari (for Safari we will need the -webkit- prefix to get this effect).

The CSS3 Transition Syntax

The syntax of the transition supports four values:
- the property affected by the transition, such as color, border, background, width, etc.
- the duration of this transition in seconds, i.e., how long it will take to change your style completely
- the delay time for the transition to be executed, also in seconds, i.e., how long it takes for the transition to start when the mouse hovers over that element;

Check out the code below:

.example {
transition-property: width; /* property that undergoes a transition */
transition-duration: 2s; /* duration of the transition */
transition-timing-function: linear; /* timing-function */
transition-delay: 0; /* length of time to delay the start of a transition */
/* now we will repeat the entire declaration with the -webkit- prefix for the effect to work in Chrome and Safari */
-webkit-transition-property: width;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-timing-function: linear;
-webkit-transition-delay: 0;
}

In the example above, the elements with the class .example will become wide within two seconds as the mouse passes over them.

When we define the style of a link, usually we need to use the a:link selector, and when defining the style when the mouse is over the link, we need to use the :hover selector. However, the transition can be used in any HTML element, not just links. To make the transition effect to work properly, we should define two blocks of style for that element, i.e. the normal style for a tag/id/class and the style on mouse :hover for a specific tag/id/class.

For example:

tag, #id, .class {
/* insert here the styles that you want for the selector */
/* insert below the transition effects */
}
tag:hover, #id:hover, class:hover {
/* Insert here the styles for when the mouse is over the element */
/* here it is not necessary to repeat the declaration of the transition */
}

You can add the same style on multiple selectors separated by commas as I have done above, although that's not necessary.

Below are some transition examples with their respective codes.

I will not use the transition-timing-function in these examples because it makes no difference, as the first value is the duration in seconds and the second is the delay.

Example 1

Transition example

/* with a single property */
#example1 {
background-color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}
#example1:hover {
background-color: #B5E2FF;
}

Example 2

Transition example

/* with four properties and delay */
#example2 {
background-color: #9c3;
border: 8px solid #690;
padding: 20px;
color: #fff;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,border;
-moz-transition-duration: 1s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,border;
-webkit-transition-duration: 1s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,border;
-o-transition-duration: 1s;
}
#example2:hover {
background-color: #690;
border: 8px dashed #fff;
color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,border;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,border;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,border;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}

Example 3

Transition example

/* with seven properties and delay */
#example3 {
padding: 15px;
background-color: #FF7CA6;
font-size: 16px;
width: 30%;
font-weight: bold;
color: #fff;
height: 20px;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-moz-transition-duration: 1s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 1s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-o-transition-duration: 1s;
}
#example3:hover {
background-color:#9c3;
width: 60%;
height: 60px;
padding: 50px;
font-size: 30px;
color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}

Example 4

Transition example

/* with all the properties simultaneously */
#example4 {
padding: 15px;
background-color: #9c3;
color: #fff;
font-size: 16px;
width: 30%;
font-weight: bold;
transition: all 2s;
-webkit-transition: all 2s;
}
#example4:hover {
background-color: #FF7CA6;
color: #242424;
width: 60%;
}

Final words:

- the transition declarations need to appear in the CSS. In Blogger, the CSS is located before ]]</b:skin>
- as you can see in the examples above, you can assign different rules for the transitions of different elements in a single rule - just separate them with commas.
- it is not mandatory to use the four properties in the transition declaration, but their order must always look like this: property/duration/timing-function/delay.
- the duration and delay values must be expressed in seconds, but sometimes a second is a long time for a transition. In this case you can use values with milliseconds, for example, .5s means half a second.
- In small time intervals, the timing of the transition-function property does not give a remarkable effect being most useful only in more advanced animations. The possible values are either ease (the default, which makes the transition with a slow beginning, then gets faster and ends slowly), linear (the same transition speed from beginning to end), ease-in (transition begins slowly and then the speed increases), ease-out (transition starts fast and slows down at the end) and ease-in-out.

How to Add Share Box in Blogger Blog 2015 EasyTrick

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 05:58:00 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to register and add this feature on your blog and you will get to know some of the customization options of these buttons. So let's get started!

Getting the AddThis share buttons code

Step 1. Visit the https://www.addthis.com/get/sharing page.
Step 2. To get the sharing buttons and to access the AddThis sharing stats to find out how many people shared your post by using the AddThis feature, click on the "Create account" button.

The site will ask you to make a small registration. Fill out the information to register. It's quick, simple and it's free. To finish the registration, click on the Register button.

Step 3. After you've been logged in, right below the "Get sharing buttons for", choose the "A website" option.

Step 4. In the "Select style" section, choose the buttons style that you think would look the best on your site/blog. Please note that on the right side you can see a preview of these buttons.

Step 5. After you have chosen the style, the site will provide a code - click on the "Grab it" button to copy it.

The code provided will look like this:

<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style ">
<a class="addthis_button_facebook_like" fb:like:layout="button_count"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_tweet"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_pinterest_pinit" pi:pinit:layout="horizontal"></a>
<a class="addthis_counter addthis_pill_style"></a>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true};</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-XXXXXXXXXXX"></script>

Now that you have selected and set up your AddThis sharing buttons, let's add them in the footer of the posts.

Adding the AddThis sharing buttons on Blogger

Step 1. Access your Blogger Dashboard and go to Template, then click on the Edit HTML button on the right:

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box.

Step 3. Type the following line inside the search box and try to find the second occurrence of it - hit Enter:

<div class='post-footer'>

Step 4. Just above this line, add the code for the AddThis social sharing buttons.

Note: If you want to add at the beginning of your posts, add the code below the second:

<div class='post-header'>

How to add more AddThis buttons

To add more buttons, simply choose the button for that social network and add the code just before the </div> tag (refer to the step 5 from above).

Some examples:

<a class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> /* linkedin button */
<a class="addthis_button_google_plusone" g:plusone:size="medium"></a> /*gplus button */
<a class="addthis_button_digg"></a> /* digg button */
<a class="addthis_button_stumbleupon"></a> /* stumbleupon button */
<a class="addthis_button_print"></a> /* print button */

CSS3 AddThis Share Buttons

You can add just a single button, so that when the reader hovers over it, a menu will open with the options of social networks to share the post.

Visit this page for a demo.

Step 1. Go to Template > click on the Edit HTML button > press the CTRL + F keys and search:

<div class='post-footer'>

Just above this line, paste the following code:

<style type='text/css'>
.addthis_share_btn a, .addthis_share_btn a:visited {
background: #FF5C00; /* background color of the button */
display: inline-block;
padding: 6px 12px;
font-family: arial,helvetica,lucida,verdana,sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
line-height: 1em;
color: #fff;
text-decoration: none;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
border-radius: 5px;
box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
text-shadow: 0 -1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.25);
border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.25);
position: relative;
cursor: pointer;
}
.addthis_share_btn a:hover {
background: #D45500; /* background color on mouse hover */
color: #fff;
}
.addthis_share_btn a:active { top: 1px; }

.addthis_share_btn a span, .addthis_share_btn:visited a span {
background: url(http://www.addthis.com/cms-content/images/gallery/icon-addthis.gif) no-repeat left;
padding: 1px 0 1px 18px;
}
</style>

<div class='addthis_toolbox addthis_share_btn'>
<a class='addthis_button_compact' href='http://addthis.com/bookmark.php'>
<span>Share</span></a>
</div>
<script src='http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js' type='text/javascript'/>

Customization

- To change the color of the button according to the colors of your template, modify the color value in red.
- If you want to change the "Share" text, replace the text in blue.

Step 2. Save the changes by clicking on the Save template button and you're done!

DropDown Menu in Blogger 2015 - How to ADD

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 05:56:00 +0000

To achieve better user interface and interaction, the CSS dropdown menu features sub categories that appear with a nice touch of CSS3 box-shadow, text-shadow and a cool transition once the parent link is activated by a hover.

Please visit this demo page to see it in action.

Adding the CSS dropdown navigation menu in Blogger

Step 1. Access your Blogger Dashboard and go to Template > click on the Edit HTML button

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box. Type the tag below inside the search box and hit Enter to find it.

</header>

Step 3. Just below </header> add the HTML structure:

<div id='contact-links'>
    <div id='my-links'>
        <a href='#'>About</a>
        <a href='#'>Contact</a>
                <a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bsoTf8EpVbE/Uw_W2HmlPOI/AAAAAAAAGXQ/RS57fNXl1tE/s1600/facebook-icon.png' title='Facebook' width='18px'/></a>
<a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9OXxCWCilgM/Uw_WNEqUShI/AAAAAAAAGXI/2T6Dc8zVrxA/s1600/twitter.png' title='Twitter' width='18px' /></a>
        <a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LQABZjrBgiY/Uw_X4zGqixI/AAAAAAAAGXo/jlR7r1blHso/s1600/google-plus-icon.png' title='Google' width='18px'/></a>
        <a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NsPs8DRJfP4/Uw_XnNMAHTI/AAAAAAAAGXg/qC2kA_T-BdY/s1600/rss-icon.png' title='RSS Feed' width='18px'/></a>
    </div>

    <div id='menu-container'>
        <nav id='neat-menu'>
            <ul>
              <li class='active'><a href='/'>Home</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
                <li><a href='#'>Single Menu</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Single Menu</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </nav>

        
        <div id='menu-search'>
          <form method='get' action='/search'>
                <input autocomplete='off' name='q' placeholder='search...' type='text' value=''/>
            </form>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Replace the # symbols with the URLs of your links and replace the texts in blue with the titles that you want to appear. To change the social media icons, add the links of your icons instead of the ones in blue. If you don't know how to upload and get the URL of an image, please read this tutorial.

If you want to remove the sub categories, remove the code within the tags highlighted in yellow, including the ul tags. To remove only a menu element, remove the part that starts with <li> and ends with </li>

Step 4. And now let's add the CSS styling for the menu. Search for the following piece of code:

]]></b:skin>

Just above ]]></b:skin> add this code:

#contact-links {
    text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
    margin: auto;
    position: relative;
    width: 100%;
}
#contact-links a {
    color: #4C9FEB;
}
#contact-links a:hover {
    color: #3D85C6;
}
#my-links {
    float: right;
    font-size: 12px;
    margin: 4px 10px;
    overflow: hidden;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}
#my-links a {
    margin-left: 7px;
    padding-left: 8px;
    text-decoration: none;
}
#my-links a:first-child {
    border-width: 0;
}
#menu-container {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#f6f6f6, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#f6f6f6, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#f6f6f6, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#f6f6f6', endColorstr='#e9eaea',GradientType=0 );
    border-radius: 0 0 4px 4px;
border:1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
    box-shadow: -1px 1px 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8) inset;
    clear: both;
    height: 46px;
    padding-top: 1px;
}
#neat-menu {
    float: left;
}
#neat-menu a {
    text-decoration: none;
}
#neat-menu ul {
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}
#neat-menu > ul > li {
    float: left;
    padding-bottom: 12px;
}
#neat-menu ul li a {
    box-shadow: -1px 0 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8) inset, 1px 0 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8) inset;
    border-color: #D1D1D1;
    border-image: none;
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 0 1px 0 0;
    color: #333333;
    display: block;
    font-size: 14px;
    height: 25px;
    line-height: 25px;
    padding: 11px 15px 10px;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}
#neat-menu ul li a:hover {
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#efefef, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#efefef, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#efefef, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#efefef', endColorstr='#e9eaea',GradientType=0 );
}
#neat-menu > ul > li.active > a {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#55A6F1', endColorstr='#3F96E5',GradientType=0 );
    border-bottom: 1px solid #2D81CC;
    border-top: 1px solid #4791D6;
    box-shadow: -1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset, 1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    margin: -1px 0 -1px -1px;
    text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}
#neat-menu > ul > li.active > a:hover {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#499FEE, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#499FEE, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#499FEE, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#499FEE', endColorstr='#3F96E5',GradientType=0 );
}
#neat-menu > ul > li:first-child > a {
    border-radius: 0 0 0 5px;
}
#neat-menu ul ul {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#F7F7F7, #F4F4F4) repeat scroll 0 0 padding-box transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#F7F7F7, #F4F4F4) repeat scroll 0 0 padding-box transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#F7F7F7, #F4F4F4) repeat scroll 0 0 padding-box transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#F7F7F7', endColorstr='#F4F4F4',GradientType=0 );
    border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
    border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
    box-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF inset;
    height: 0;
    margin-top: 1px;
    opacity: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    width: 240px;
    padding: 0;
    position: absolute;
    visibility: hidden;
    z-index: 1;
    -webkit-transition: all .5s;
    -moz-transition: all .5s;
    -ms-transition: all .5s;
    -o-transition: all .5s;
    transition: all .5s;
}
#neat-menu ul li:hover ul {
    margin-top: 0\2;
    height: auto;
    opacity: 1;
    visibility: visible;
}
#neat-menu ul ul a {
    border-right-width: 0;
    border-top: 1px solid #D1D1D1;
    box-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF inset;
    color: #444444;
    height: 24px;
    line-height: 24px;
    padding: 7px 12px;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}
#neat-menu ul ul a:hover {
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#55A6F1', endColorstr='#3F96E5',GradientType=0 );
    border-top: 1px solid #4791D6;
    box-shadow: -1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset, 1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}
#neat-menu ul ul li:first-child a {
    border-top-width: 0;
}
#menu-search {
    margin:8px 10px 0 0;
    float: right;
}
#menu-search form {
    background: url("http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NzU9je1udG4/Uw-1tZku4eI/AAAAAAAAGWs/-h4BU1mFTiU/s1600/menu-search.gif") no-repeat scroll 5% 50% transparent;
    border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
    border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px;
    box-shadow: 0 1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05) inset, 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
    height: 26px;
    padding: 0 25px;
    position: relative;
    width: 130px;
}
#menu-search form:hover {
    background-color: #F9F9F9;
}
#menu-search form input {
    color: #999999;
    font-size: 13px;
    height: 26px;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
    background: none repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    border: medium none;
    float: left;
    outline: medium none;
    padding: 0;
    width: 100%;
}
#menu-search form input.placeholder, #menu-search form input:-moz-placeholder {
    color: #C4C4C4;
}

Step 5. Click on the Save template button to save the changes... and you're done! ;)

I hope you like this CSS3 dropdown menu and if you enjoyed this tutorial, please share and subscribe.

How to Know about Page Elements of a Blogger Layout

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 05:53:00 +0000

For a better understanding, here are some basic explanations about the Page Elements located in the Layout section of a Blogger dashboard.

What are the Page Elements?

Page Elements is, basically, the body of our blog. To access the Page Elements, we need to click on the "Layout" option in the Blogger dashboard.

Understanding the Page Elements sections

The Blogger Layout is made of "sections and elements". The sections mark certain areas of a page. Every section is represented by the tag <b:section> and has an unique "ID" that names its element which is followed by a "class" tag. Each section has some attributes and through these, we can determine the number of elements allowed in the section and if this section gives the option to add a "page element".

Let's take a look to an example of the default code related to the header section found in the HTML of a Blogger template:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<-- rest of the code -->
</b:section>

Breaking apart the code above:

<b:section is the opening tag of the section.
class='header' - describes the existing group inside the "header" element
id='header' - identifies and specifies the header as a single element.
maxwidgets='1' - determines the number of elements allowed in the "header"; here we have the number of gadgets that we can include in the header section. In this example, '1' means that this section allows us to add only a gadget.
showaddelement='no' - the 'no' attribute means that the header will not show the "Add a gadget" link or we won't be able to move any Page Elements. To activate this option so that we can add new Page Elements (Add a gadget), we should change 'no' to 'yes'. By setting the "showaddelement" attribute to 'yes', we'll be able to arrange the elements as we like, just click on the element that you want to move and drag & drop it wherever you want.

The spaces reserved for adding elements in the existing sections are called Gadgets (or Widgets). You can easily add various Page Elements by clicking "Add a Gadget" link. This will open a pop-up window for you to pick and choose which elements should be added. Click on the Gadget's title or on the blue plus sign symbol to add it to your blog's layout.

After you have added a page element, gadgets can be moved up, down or sideways. You can put them wherever you want. Of all the existing gadgets, the most used is the "HTML/JavaScript". Inside this gadget (widget) you can insert any code, as long as it is in the HTML or JavaScript language.

Each time you decide to add a new gadget, click on the "Add a gadget" link in the area where you want to add it. For example, if you want to add a JavaScript code and want it to appear in the sidebar, you should click on the "Add a gadget" in the "sidebar" section, choose the "HTML/JavaScript" option and paste the code in there.

Once you have added new gadgets (widgets), it is recommended to check the changes by clicking on the Preview button before saving anything. So, if something went wrong, you simply click on "Clear" so that everything that was not saved to return to its previous state. If the position of any Page Elements (Gadgets) has been rearranged, you will need to click on the Save arrangement button in order to see the changes.

Add CSS Code To Blogger using Template Designer in 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:09:00 +0000

Some readers have complained that when they had to add the CSS codes to install some feature in Blogger, they found it difficult to locate the ]]></b:skin> tag. So, I decided to make this quick tutorial to show you another way of adding the CSS without having to access the Blogger HTML editor.

Adding CSS via the Blogger Template Designer

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and select the blog that you want to customize.

Step 2. From the Blogger dashboard, choose "Template" and click on the "Customize" button.

Step 3. Click on the "Advanced" tab.

Step 4. Now just add your CSS code inside the right field, located in the "Add CSS" tab (if you have more options, you may need to scroll down the list). Here you can add any CSS code when you want to apply a new style to your template.

Step 5. Once added, click on the "Apply to blog" button to save the changes.

Following this method you can't edit the existing CSS styles already added in your template, which will require to access the template's HTML and make the modifications there. Here you can only add new styles and edit the existing styles added through the Template Designer panel.

It is also important to mention that when adding the CSS styles, it isn't required to put the <style type="text/css"> ... </style> style tags, which normally would go above the </head> tag of the template html. Adding those tags may result in an error.

If you change the template, the CSS added here will be removed. The same goes for any other additions or CSS customizations made through the Template HTML editor.

6 Ways to Improve the SEO of a blog in 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:07:00 +0000

The phrase "content is king" is one of the widest spread Internet memes being used by so many bloggers, with the idea that you should focus on having quality content, while the rest don't matter much. This is not true. Quality content is important, but it shouldn't be the only concern of a blogger today. In addition to producing quality content, your text needs to be optimized for the search engines.

Boost traffic & increase SERP visibility with SEO

6 ways to improve the SEO of a blog

Now, let's see what would be the basics that any blogger needs to learn about SEO and other simple SEO knowledge. Below are 5 easy tips to improve the SEO of your blog:

1. Define the keyword

When you write a post, it is recommended to choose the keyword (or term) suitable for your text. What you want is that this keyword - or term - to be searched on Google, and then get your post among the top. For this, you need to use this keyword a few times in the text.

For example, here the keyword could be SEO, but this term is too generic and I could hardly get in the top for this search. Then I'll work with a phrase or a long tail keyword, so that this post will rank for the term "easy ways to improve the SEO of a blog". I will use this phrase a few times, but without overdoing it.

2. Use the keyword in the post title

Now that I have defined the keyword, I will use it in the post title. This step is very important, and certainly will help you to get a better rank in search engines. As you can see, what I have in the title is the easy ways to improve the SEO of a blog keyword, along with other words to form an attractive and optimized title for SEO.

3. Use the keyword in the H2 tags

You must also use heading tags (h2, h3) in your posts. Here, I am using the keyword "easy ways to improve the SEO of a blog" in a H2 heading. Do this always, because it also helps to become well positioned in the search results. If you don't know or don't understand what are the heading tags, I would suggest to do a further research on this subject.

4. Use the keyword in the text

Make use of your chosen keywords throughout the text. Especially in the first paragraph (please note that I have repeated the title in italics in the first sentence). But be careful when doing this, there is a maximum and minimum limit for that. A good keyword density is between 1.5% to 4.5% for best results. Less than that will have no effect and more than that can alert the search engines and your text might be considered spam.

5. Publish Posts with 300 words or more

Posts under 300 words have little chance to be among the top results in search engines. Of course, you will be able to rank for multiple keywords that are less popular with less than 300 words, but for the most competitive keywords that have the potential to bring a greater number of visits, it will be nearly impossible.

Thus, it is recommended to write posts with more than 300 words. It's not hard when you really understand the topic you're talking about.

Conclusion

As you can see, with some simple SEO techniques you can improve the traffic coming to your blog from the search engines. I hope you enjoyed these 5 easy ways to improve the SEO of a blog!

How to Add Numbered Page Navigation in Blogger 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:04:00 +0000

Adding Numbered Page Navigation to Blogger

You can add this widget in just two steps.
1. Adding The CSS.
2. Adding The Script.

Now let's see how to add the CSS style for page navigation.

1. Adding The CSS

Step 1. Go to Blogger Dashboard > Template > click on the Edit HTML button:

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box.

... type or paste the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Now choose one of the following numbered page navigation styles and copy the code just below it. Just above ]]></b:skin> paste the code of the style that you want to use:

Style 1

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{padding: 3px 7px;margin-right:5px;background:#E9E9E9;color: #888;border:1px solid #E9E9E9;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover,.pagecurrent{background:#CECECE;text-decoration:none;color: #000;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .showpage, #blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #888;}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 2:

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{padding: 5px 10px;margin-right:5px; color: #F4F4F4; background-color:#404042;-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);-moz-box-shadow:0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#EC8D04;text-decoration:none;color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .showpage, #blog-pager, .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #000;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);-moz-box-shadow:0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);}

Style 3:

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto; padding: 7px; text-align:center;font-size: 11px;background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear,left bottom,left top,color-stop(0, #000000),color-stop(1, #292929));background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: linear-gradient(to top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%); padding: 6px;-webkit-border-radius: 3px;-moz-border-radius: 3px;border-radius: 3px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{padding: 3px 10px;margin-right:5px; color: #fff;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover,.pagecurrent{background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear,left bottom,left top,color-stop(0, #59A2CF),color-stop(1, #D9EAFF));background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: linear-gradient(to top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);text-decoration: none;color: #000;-webkit-border-radius: 3px;-moz-border-radius: 3px;border-radius: 3px;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}.blog-pager-older-link, .home-link, .blog-pager-newer-link {background: transparent;}
a.blog-pager-older-link, a.home-link, a.blog-pager-newer-link {color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;background: none;}

Style 4:

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 14px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #666; background-color:#eee;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#359BED;text-decoration:none;color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #fff;background:#359BED;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 5

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px; }
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 13px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #3E5801; background-color:#E0EDC1;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#FEF6DF;text-decoration:none;color: #E16800;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #D25E71;background:#FFDEDF;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 6

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px; }
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 13px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #AD0B00; background-color:#FAB001;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#DB4920;text-decoration:none;color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #fff;background:#DB4920;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 7

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px; }
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 12px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #222; background-color:#eee; border: 1px solid #EEEEEE;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#E5E5E5;text-decoration:none;color: #222;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #fff;background:#DB4920;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Note: if you want to hide the "First" and "Last" buttons add this line below the CSS code:

.firstpage, .lastpage {display: none;}

2. Adding The Script

Step 4. Now find (CTRL + F) this tag:

</body>

UPDATED! Working version for more than 500 posts:

Step 5. Add the following script just above it:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "static_page"'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
/*<![CDATA[*/
    var perPage=7;
    var numPages=6;
    var firstText ='First';
    var lastText ='Last';
    var prevText ='« Previous';
    var nextText ='Next »';
    var urlactivepage=location.href;
    var home_page="/";
/*]]>*/
</script>
<script src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/page-navigation2.js"/>
</b:if>
</b:if>

Configuration

After installing, you might want to change these default settings:

perPage: 7,
numPages: 6,
var firstText ='First';
var lastText ='Last';
var prevText ='« Previous';
var nextText ='Next »';
}

1) perPage: how many posts will be shown in each page (7). This value has to be the same as the number of posts on the main page. Otherwise, add the same number by going to "Settings" > "Formatting" and type it in the "Show at most" field, then click on the "Save Settings" button.

2) numPages: how many pages will be shown in the page navigation (6)

3) to replace the 'First', 'Last', "« Previous" and "Next »" texts, just type your own within the quotes.

Labels fix:

By default, Blogger will show 20 posts on label pages. To make this widget appear on label pages, we will have to cut down this down to the value that we gave for the perPage variable.

Find each occurrence of the following code snippet:

expr:href='data:label.url'

Replace it with this one below:

expr:href='data:label.url + "?&max-results=7"'

Here 7 is the number of posts to be displayed per page.

Step 8. Click on the Save Template button and that's it! Enjoy!

How to add Static Pages to a Blogger Blog 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:01:00 +0000

Among the options that we can find by hovering over a page and which we can see in the screenshot below are:

Edit: To access the editing panel and to edit its contents.
View: Open a new tab with the actual page.
Share: Share it on Google+ (which was not possible before)
Delete: remove a page.

In order to create a page, we need to open the pages editor from the button that says New Page. Almost every option tells us its function.

How to add a Web Address in the Pages widget

Many Blogger users wanted to know how can we add other web addresses, so that they display in the list of the Pages widget, since this option no longer appears in the "Pages" tab?

Well, now we will have to open the settings of the Pages widget by going to Layout, then click on the Edit link in the widget / gadget for Pages (if you don't have the Pages gadget, just click on the Add a gadget link and select "Pages" from the pop-up window). And from there, we will find the option that says: Add link page and we will have to type the Web Address in the second field every time we want to add a new page from a specific address or URL (see the screenshot below).

Another cool feature that has been built is that now it will be possible to add a search description, and in that field to add the text that we want to appear in search results. Until now, this option has been available only for blog posts.

This option will appear once you enable the Enable search description? option by choosing Yes. This will show up on "Meta Tags" by accessing the preferences for the search engines: Settings > Search preferences > Meta Tags > Enable search description?

How to Share Blogger Posts or Pages to Google+ 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 08:58:00 +0000

It's important to note that once you've upgraded your blog to connect with Google+, the posts or pages published on your blog will be listed on your personal Google+ profile. However, you have the option to select whether your content will be shared on your Google+ Profile or Page and associate some blogs with a Google+ page, while keeping other blogs connected with your profile.

How to associate your blog with a Google+ page

In some cases, you may want to associate a blog with the Google+ Page for your brand, business or organisation, rather than your personal profile. For this, simply access your Blogger dashboard, visit the Google+ tab and there you can swap the Google+ connection from using your profile page to a Google+ page linked with your account:

On the right, you'll have the following options:

- Automatically share after posting: This option is enabled by default on all blogs linked to Google+. When you publish a blog post or page, a snippet will automatically be shared publicly on your Google+ page or profile. You can disable this setting just by unchecking this box.
- Promote to share after posting: If you don't want your post to be published automatically, then you can check this option. This option will allow you to share only some blog posts, or share to specific circles.
- Use Google + comments on this blog: This option enables the new Google + comment system on your blog. This is also a new feature provided by Google.

Share Blogger posts or Pages on Google+

If you have the Prompt to share after posting option checked, next time you publish a blog post, you'll see a share box inviting you to share your post with your Google+ followers. Note that the default circle is set to "Public" but you can modify your circles every time you choose to share.

Once you click the Share button, this post will appear on the profile or page to which you have connected your blog. Keep in mind that if you have posts scheduled to be published later, you will no longer be asked to publish to your Google+ stream. In this case, you can choose to Share your post/page at any time by clicking the Share link beneath a post or page.

You can also click on this option each time you want to share only certain posts, or if you want to retroactively share posts and you don't want to constantly change the setting.

As soon as you've chosen to use your Google+ profile on your blog, you can start sharing your content on Google+. If you haven't yet made the switch, click on this link to get started.

White hat SEO and black hat SEO - Differences/Similarities

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 17:03:00 +0000

What is black hat seo?

From the 'SEO dictionary', the term black hat has to do with the abusive techniques that will force the search engines to look at a specific site and rank it. This might work at first, but the algorithms can already see some of these techniques that have become common for a fast result.

Such practices to trick the search engines are, for example, the excessive use of keywords, especially in headings and subheadings; transparent keywords to the user - the so-called hidden text, automatically generated content, pages redirecting automatically to other content and more.

What is white hat seo?

The white hat has to do with the good techniques in the 'eyes' of search engines. These are considered ethical techniques for the ranking, helping, thus, the positioning of a website or blog. However, working the white hat is a process that requires dedication and results may take longer to appear (this is why so many people opt for black hat in order to 'try' something more 'effective') but the results could be much more stable and satisfactory.

Keep in mind that Google has good tricks up its sleeve to penalize anyone who doesn't act in accordance with the policies and rules of their website - this includes removing your page from any of the positions. Fair enough, after all, why Google would 'reward' somebody with the top spot if he doesn't provide good content for his users and, at the same time, doesn't meet the requirements of the algorithm?

For those who are interested and want to stay on top of Google search results, visit the webmaster guidelines page. There, you can find further information about how to create a good content, how the design of your blog/site should be and how to work with your links. Also, you can find mentions about black hat techniques.

Check Your Google Page Rank in 2015-16

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 17:01:00 +0000

Briefly, the PageRank is an assessment of the importance of a web page. This relevance is calculated and published on a scale from 0 to 10. Google basically takes into account the number of links that each page receives, however, it's no use getting any links, it is important that these links are from quality sites which are related to your links, preferably internal links. A greater importance has the quantity of internal links, linked by other websites, which happens when you create a post and someone publishes the link that redirects to this posting that you created. Therefore, the more links your blog or site has, the higher is the probability of having a good PageRank.

Check Page Rank of your Web site pages instantly:

This page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

In case you want to add a button to your blog to promote your PageRank, please visit this page: PageRank Buttons

How to Add Author Profile Picture in Multi Author Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 16:58:00 +0000

Adding the Author's Profile Picture / Avatar and Name in Blogger

Step 1. From the Blogger Dashboard, go to "Template" and click the "Edit HTML" button.

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box. Paste the following code inside the search box, then hit Enter to find it:

<span class='post-author vcard'>

Just below this line is the rest of code, which should look something like this:

              <span class='post-author vcard'>
                <b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
                  <b:if cond='data:post.authorProfileUrl'>
                    <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'>
                      <meta expr:content='data:post.authorProfileUrl' itemprop='url'/>
                      <a expr:href='data:post.authorProfileUrl' rel='author' title='author profile'>
                        <span itemprop='name'><data:post.author/></span>
                      </a>
                    </span>
                  <b:else/>
                    <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'>
                      <span itemprop='name'><data:post.author/></span>
                    </span>
                  </b:if>
                </b:if>
</span>

Note: If you are using a custom template, it could look something like this:

<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/>
</span>
</b:if>
</span>

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

Step 5. Just below the line, paste the following code:

<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:post.author == "AuthorName"'>
<span class='author'><a href='Author-Profile-URL'><img src='Author-Image-URL'/></a></span>
</b:if>
        <b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
          <data:top.authorLabel/>
            <b:if cond='data:post.authorProfileUrl'>
              <span class='fn'>
                <a expr:href='data:post.authorProfileUrl' itemprop='author' rel='author' title='author profile'>
                  <data:post.author/>
                </a>
              </span>
            <b:else/>
              <span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
            </b:if>
        </b:if>
      </span>

<b:if cond='data:post.author == "AuthorName2"'>
<span class='author'><a href='Author2-Profile-URL'><img src='Author2-Image-URL'/></a></span>
</b:if>

If you have more than two authors, repeat this block of code for each author that you want to add.

Let's go ahead and add the CSS styles...

Step 6. Search (CTRL + F) this tag:

]]></b:skin>

Just above the ]]></b:skin> tag, paste the following code:

.post-header {
width: 100%;
padding: 2px 5px;
margin: 5px;
clear: both;
float: left;
}
.author img{
float: left;
margin: 0px 5px 10px 0px;
max-width:100%;
height:45px;
border-radius: 10px;
}
.post-author{
color:#777;
font-size: 13px;
font-style: italic;
}
.post-author a {
color:#777; }

CSS3 Transition Property Basics 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 16:54:00 +0000

The CSS3 Transition Syntax

.example {
transition-property: width; /* property that undergoes a transition */
transition-duration: 2s; /* duration of the transition */
transition-timing-function: linear; /* timing-function */
transition-delay: 0; /* length of time to delay the start of a transition */
/* now we will repeat the entire declaration with the -webkit- prefix for the effect to work in Chrome and Safari */
-webkit-transition-property: width;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-timing-function: linear;
-webkit-transition-delay: 0;
}

tag, #id, .class {
/* insert here the styles that you want for the selector */
/* insert below the transition effects */
}
tag:hover, #id:hover, class:hover {
/* Insert here the styles for when the mouse is over the element */
/* here it is not necessary to repeat the declaration of the transition */
}

Transition example

/* with a single property */
#example1 {
background-color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}
#example1:hover {
background-color: #B5E2FF;
}

Example 2

Transition example

/* with four properties and delay */
#example2 {
background-color: #9c3;
border: 8px solid #690;
padding: 20px;
color: #fff;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,border;
-moz-transition-duration: 1s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,border;
-webkit-transition-duration: 1s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,border;
-o-transition-duration: 1s;
}
#example2:hover {
background-color: #690;
border: 8px dashed #fff;
color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,border;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,border;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,border;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}

Example 3

Transition example

/* with seven properties and delay */
#example3 {
padding: 15px;
background-color: #FF7CA6;
font-size: 16px;
width: 30%;
font-weight: bold;
color: #fff;
height: 20px;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-moz-transition-duration: 1s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 1s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-o-transition-duration: 1s;
}
#example3:hover {
background-color:#9c3;
width: 60%;
height: 60px;
padding: 50px;
font-size: 30px;
color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}

Example 4

Transition example

/* with all the properties simultaneously */
#example4 {
padding: 15px;
background-color: #9c3;
color: #fff;
font-size: 16px;
width: 30%;
font-weight: bold;
transition: all 2s;
-webkit-transition: all 2s;
}
#example4:hover {
background-color: #FF7CA6;
color: #242424;
width: 60%;
}

Share Blog Posts in Social Media (WIDGET) 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 16:51:00 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to register and add this feature on your blog and you will get to know some of the customization options of these buttons. So let's get started!

Getting the AddThis share buttons code

The site will ask you to make a small registration. Fill out the information to register. It's quick, simple and it's free. To finish the registration, click on the Register button.

Step 3. After you've been logged in, right below the "Get sharing buttons for", choose the "A website" option.

Step 5. After you have chosen the style, the site will provide a code - click on the "Grab it" button to copy it.

The code provided will look like this:

<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style ">
<a class="addthis_button_facebook_like" fb:like:layout="button_count"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_tweet"></a>
<a class="addthis_button_pinterest_pinit" pi:pinit:layout="horizontal"></a>
<a class="addthis_counter addthis_pill_style"></a>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true};</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-XXXXXXXXXXX"></script>

Now that you have selected and set up your AddThis sharing buttons, let's add them in the footer of the posts.

Adding the AddThis sharing buttons on Blogger

Step 1. Access your Blogger Dashboard and go to Template, then click on the Edit HTML button on the right:

<div class='post-footer'>

Step 4. Just above this line, add the code for the AddThis social sharing buttons.

Note: If you want to add at the beginning of your posts, add the code below the second:

<div class='post-header'>

How to add more AddThis buttons

To add more buttons, simply choose the button for that social network and add the code just before the </div> tag (refer to the step 5 from above).

Some examples:

<a class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> /* linkedin button */
<a class="addthis_button_google_plusone" g:plusone:size="medium"></a> /*gplus button */
<a class="addthis_button_digg"></a> /* digg button */
<a class="addthis_button_stumbleupon"></a> /* stumbleupon button */
<a class="addthis_button_print"></a> /* print button */

CSS3 AddThis Share Buttons

You can add just a single button, so that when the reader hovers over it, a menu will open with the options of social networks to share the post.

Visit this page for a demo.

Step 1. Go to Template > click on the Edit HTML button > press the CTRL + F keys and search:

<div class='post-footer'>

Just above this line, paste the following code:

<style type='text/css'>
.addthis_share_btn a, .addthis_share_btn a:visited {
background: #FF5C00; /* background color of the button */
display: inline-block;
padding: 6px 12px;
font-family: arial,helvetica,lucida,verdana,sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
line-height: 1em;
color: #fff;
text-decoration: none;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
border-radius: 5px;
box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
text-shadow: 0 -1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.25);
border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.25);
position: relative;
cursor: pointer;
}
.addthis_share_btn a:hover {
background: #D45500; /* background color on mouse hover */
color: #fff;
}
.addthis_share_btn a:active { top: 1px; }

.addthis_share_btn a span, .addthis_share_btn:visited a span {
background: url(http://www.addthis.com/cms-content/images/gallery/icon-addthis.gif) no-repeat left;
padding: 1px 0 1px 18px;
}
</style>

<div class='addthis_toolbox addthis_share_btn'>
<a class='addthis_button_compact' href='http://addthis.com/bookmark.php'>
<span>Share</span></a>
</div>
<script src='http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js' type='text/javascript'/>

Customization

Quickly Add Neat CSS3 Dropdown Menu in Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 16:47:00 +0000

Please visit this demo page to see it in action.

Adding the CSS dropdown navigation menu in Blogger

Step 1. Access your Blogger Dashboard and go to Template > click on the Edit HTML button

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box. Type the tag below inside the search box and hit Enter to find it.

</header>

Step 3. Just below </header> add the HTML structure:

<div id='contact-links'>
    <div id='my-links'>
        <a href='#'>About</a>
        <a href='#'>Contact</a>
                <a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bsoTf8EpVbE/Uw_W2HmlPOI/AAAAAAAAGXQ/RS57fNXl1tE/s1600/facebook-icon.png' title='Facebook' width='18px'/></a>
<a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9OXxCWCilgM/Uw_WNEqUShI/AAAAAAAAGXI/2T6Dc8zVrxA/s1600/twitter.png' title='Twitter' width='18px' /></a>
        <a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LQABZjrBgiY/Uw_X4zGqixI/AAAAAAAAGXo/jlR7r1blHso/s1600/google-plus-icon.png' title='Google' width='18px'/></a>
        <a href='#'><img height='18px' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NsPs8DRJfP4/Uw_XnNMAHTI/AAAAAAAAGXg/qC2kA_T-BdY/s1600/rss-icon.png' title='RSS Feed' width='18px'/></a>
    </div>

    <div id='menu-container'>
        <nav id='neat-menu'>
            <ul>
              <li class='active'><a href='/'>Home</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
                <li><a href='#'>Single Menu</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Single Menu</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Dropdown</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 1</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 2</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 3</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 4</a></li>
                        <li><a href='#'>Menu element 5</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </nav>

        
        <div id='menu-search'>
          <form method='get' action='/search'>
                <input autocomplete='off' name='q' placeholder='search...' type='text' value=''/>
            </form>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

]]></b:skin>

Just above ]]></b:skin> add this code:

#contact-links {
    text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
    margin: auto;
    position: relative;
    width: 100%;
}
#contact-links a {
    color: #4C9FEB;
}
#contact-links a:hover {
    color: #3D85C6;
}
#my-links {
    float: right;
    font-size: 12px;
    margin: 4px 10px;
    overflow: hidden;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}
#my-links a {
    margin-left: 7px;
    padding-left: 8px;
    text-decoration: none;
}
#my-links a:first-child {
    border-width: 0;
}
#menu-container {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#f6f6f6, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#f6f6f6, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#f6f6f6, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#f6f6f6', endColorstr='#e9eaea',GradientType=0 );
    border-radius: 0 0 4px 4px;
border:1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
    box-shadow: -1px 1px 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8) inset;
    clear: both;
    height: 46px;
    padding-top: 1px;
}
#neat-menu {
    float: left;
}
#neat-menu a {
    text-decoration: none;
}
#neat-menu ul {
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}
#neat-menu > ul > li {
    float: left;
    padding-bottom: 12px;
}
#neat-menu ul li a {
    box-shadow: -1px 0 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8) inset, 1px 0 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8) inset;
    border-color: #D1D1D1;
    border-image: none;
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 0 1px 0 0;
    color: #333333;
    display: block;
    font-size: 14px;
    height: 25px;
    line-height: 25px;
    padding: 11px 15px 10px;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}
#neat-menu ul li a:hover {
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#efefef, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#efefef, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#efefef, #e9eaea) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#efefef', endColorstr='#e9eaea',GradientType=0 );
}
#neat-menu > ul > li.active > a {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#55A6F1', endColorstr='#3F96E5',GradientType=0 );
    border-bottom: 1px solid #2D81CC;
    border-top: 1px solid #4791D6;
    box-shadow: -1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset, 1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    margin: -1px 0 -1px -1px;
    text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}
#neat-menu > ul > li.active > a:hover {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#499FEE, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#499FEE, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#499FEE, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#499FEE', endColorstr='#3F96E5',GradientType=0 );
}
#neat-menu > ul > li:first-child > a {
    border-radius: 0 0 0 5px;
}
#neat-menu ul ul {
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#F7F7F7, #F4F4F4) repeat scroll 0 0 padding-box transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#F7F7F7, #F4F4F4) repeat scroll 0 0 padding-box transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#F7F7F7, #F4F4F4) repeat scroll 0 0 padding-box transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#F7F7F7', endColorstr='#F4F4F4',GradientType=0 );
    border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
    border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
    box-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF inset;
    height: 0;
    margin-top: 1px;
    opacity: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    width: 240px;
    padding: 0;
    position: absolute;
  &nbnbsp; visibility: hidden;
    z-index: 1;
    -webkit-transition: all .5s;
    -moz-transition: all .5s;
    -ms-transition: all .5s;
    -o-transition: all .5s;
    transition: all .5s;
}
#neat-menu ul li:hover ul {
    margin-top: 0\2;
    height: auto;
    opacity: 1;
    visibility: visible;
}
#neat-menu ul ul a {
    border-right-width: 0;
    border-top: 1px solid #D1D1D1;
    box-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF inset;
    color: #444444;
    height: 24px;
    line-height: 24px;
    padding: 7px 12px;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}
#neat-menu ul ul a:hover {
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    background: linear-gradient(#55A6F1, #3F96E5) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#55A6F1', endColorstr='#3F96E5',GradientType=0 );
    border-top: 1px solid #4791D6;
    box-shadow: -1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset, 1px 0 0 #55A6F1 inset;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}
#neat-menu ul ul li:first-child a {
    border-top-width: 0;
}
#menu-search {
    margin:8px 10px 0 0;
    float: right;
}
#menu-search form {
    background: url("http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NzU9je1udG4/Uw-1tZku4eI/AAAAAAAAGWs/-h4BU1mFTiU/s1600/menu-search.gif") no-repeat scroll 5% 50% transparent;
    border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
    border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px;
    box-shadow: 0 1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05) inset, 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
    height: 26px;
    padding: 0 25px;
    position: relative;
    width: 130px;
}
#menu-search form:hover {
    background-color: #F9F9F9;
}
#menu-search form input {
    color: #999999;
    font-size: 13px;
    height: 26px;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
    background: none repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
    border: medium none;
    float: left;
    outline: medium none;
    padding: 0;
    width: 100%;
}
#menu-search form input.placeholder, #menu-search form input:-moz-placeholder {
    color: #C4C4C4;
}

Step 5. Click on the Save template button to save the changes... and you're done! ;)

I hope you like this CSS3 dropdown menu and if you enjoyed this tutorial, please share and subscribe.

How to Understand the Page ELEMENTS OF BlOGGER LAYOUT

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 08:06:00 +0000

For a better understanding, here are some basic explanations about the Page Elements located in the Layout section of a Blogger dashboard.

What are the Page Elements?

Page Elements is, basically, the body of our blog. To access the Page Elements, we need to click on the "Layout" option in the Blogger dashboard.

Understanding the Page Elements sections

Let's take a look to an example of the default code related to the header section found in the HTML of a Blogger template:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<-- rest of the code -->
</b:section>

Breaking apart the code above:

<b:section is the opening tag of the section.
class='header' - describes the existing group inside the "header" element
id='header' - identifies and specifies the header as a single element.
maxwidgets='1' - determines the number of elements allowed in the "header"; here we have the number of gadgets that we can include in the header section. In this example, '1' means that this section allows us to add only a gadget.
showaddelement='no' - the 'no' attribute means that the header will not show the "Add a gadget" link or we won't be able to move any Page Elements. To activate this option so that we can add new Page Elements (Add a gadget), we should change 'no' to 'yes'. By setting the "showaddelement" attribute to 'yes', we'll be able to arrange the elements as we like, just click on the element that you want to move and drag & drop it wherever you want.

ADD CUSTOM VARIABLE DEFINITIONS TO BLOGGER.COM

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 08:03:00 +0000

Most default Blogger templates, such as the Minima Template, use these settings for the CSS, which makes it easier to modify these variables through the Blogger dashboard, using the "Template Designer" (Template > Customize) editor and accessing to the "Advanced" section.

If the definitions are already established in the CSS, we'll be able to change the background colors, font colors, styles or sizes, directly from our Blogger dashboard without having to touch the HTML code of our template.

If these values are not set, we can define them by creating our own variables. The more variables are created, the greater will be the ease of changing colors and fonts of the Page Elements by going to the "Template Designer" and accessing the "Advanced" tab.
In some cases, we can't change the color or font of a particular template if the designer has not implemented the variables in the template and didn't defined and specified a particular value directly into a property, and if there is no definition for these values, we may not be able to customize it through the Blogger's Template Designer.

There are two types of variables:

1) Color Variable:

<Variable name="body.background.color" description="Outer Background" type="color" default="#66bbdd" value="#66bbdd"/>

In red is the variable name. Here you can put any name you want, however, it must not contain spaces, that's why we may see some variable names using a dot "." between each word.
In green is the description that will appear in the Fonts and Colors panel (it can contain spaces).
In blue is variable type, which in this case is "color"
In purple is the default value, which runs in the absence of any other value.
In orange is the value of the selected color.

2) Font Variable:

<Variable name="body.font" description="Font" type="font" default="normal normal 12px Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" value="normal normal 12px Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" />

In red the variable name without spaces.
In green the description of the variable, may contain spaces
In blue is the type of the variable, which in this case is font.
In purple the default font.
In orange is the font that you choose.

We can find the variables definitions in the <head> section of our Template by accessing the HTML code (click on the Edit HTML button). There we should see a pair of <b:skin>..</b:skin> tags. The CSS style declarations will go in between those tags, along with the variable names.

How to Create Variables with type Color

Now, let's see how we can create type="color" variables in our template.

Please copy the below snippet and replace the names and types as you like, then paste the code below this comment:

/* Variable definitions
====================

Code to copy:

<Variable name="NAME" description="DESCRIPTION" type="color" default="#xxxxxx" value="#xxxxxx" />

For a better understanding, let's take a look at this example with variable of type "color":

<Variable name="variablecolor" description="Variable with light blue color" type="color" default="#DDF2FF" value="#DDF2FF" />

Here I have created a variable of type "color", with the "variablecolor" name. The color values (#DDF2FF) can be applied to all the borders of my blog and whenever I want to apply color styles to a specific border, I will type it like this:

border: 1px solid $variablecolor;

Note that I have added the "$" symbol before the variable's name which should be added everytime you want to implement a new variable definition.

Once we have created the variable, we can apply it on any property (not only borders) of any selector (page element) where it is possible applying the chosen color.

For example, if I want to add this color in the main-inner background (sidebar and posts area), I will add it just after the "main-inner" class selector, like this:

.main-inner {
background-color: $variablecolor;
}

Now that a new variable has been established, save and return back to the blogger dashboard by clicking on the "Customize" button > Advanced tab. You will notice that there is a new variable called "Variable with light blue color" - to change the color, just use the color picker tool.

How to Create Variables of type Font:

Now let's say I want to create a new variable of type="font" which I want to apply on the title of the sidebar gadgets. I will add it this way:

<Variable name="gadgetstitlefont" description="Gadgets Title Font" type="font" default="normal normal 16px Arial,Verdana,'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Sans-serif" value="normal normal 20px Cambria"/>

In this variable that I just created, the default font to be searched by the web browser should be Arial, and in its absence, Verdana and so on. Otherwise, apply the Cambria font which is actually the font that we want and which can be easily changed by accessing the Blogger Template Designer.

Once the font variable has been implemented, we can add it to any property of any selector where we want to define this font style.

To define where this variable should be applied (which, in my example, is the title of the sidebar gadgets), I will need to include the values directly in the "h2" property of the "sidebar" (sidebar-right-1) selector, by creating the following CSS rule:

#sidebar-right-1 h2 {
font: $gadgetstitlefont;
}

And I will add this above the ]]></b:skin> tag of the Template (don't forget to add the "$" symbol before the variable's name, otherwise it won't work).

Now that we have given a new variable, Save the template and return to the Blogger dashboard by clicking on the Template > Customize button and access the Advanced tab. Scroll down and you will notice that there is a new variable named "Gadgets Title Font" - if you want to change the font type or size, you can do it directly by using this panel.

After you've decided what font style should be applied, click on the Apply to blog button on the right side.

As you work on your template design, you can add lots of variables for different colors and fonts, however, for other types of CSS attributes, there's not necessary to create variables. The other types (such as margin, padding) can be included in the HTML of the template (above ]]></b:skin>) just as they normally would be.

How to USE CSS CODE IN BLOGGER

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Adding CSS via the Blogger Template Designer

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and select the blog that you want to customize.

Step 2. From the Blogger dashboard, choose "Template" and click on the "Customize" button.

Steps to USE Cookies in JAVASCRIPT

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 07:56:00 +0000

Like many other things, cookies may suffer a poor use and hence their bad reputation. For instance, some websites can store and study the browsing habits of a user without their knowledge. This is why most browsers already include a system to filter them and can decide if they will provide some privacy or not.

If you want to see a live example of how a cookie works, please visit this page and refresh it a few times. You should get an alert window telling you about how many times you visited the page.
(script source: javascriptkit.com)

There could be other ways to use cookies but a server could do this with JavaScript. Below we have a simple script that can be used as many times we want, even for different purposes. Basically, what the following script does is to create three functions: the first one is to set a cookie, the second one is to read it, and the last one is to erase it. We can apply it in Blogger by accessing the template HTML and add it just before the </head> tag:

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[

// Set cookie
function setCookie(name, value, expires, path, domain, secure) {
document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value) +
((expires == null) ? "" : "; expires=" + expires.toGMTString()) +
((path == null) ? "" : "; path=" + path) +
((domain == null) ? "" : "; domain=" + domain) +
((secure == null) ? "" : "; secure");
}

// Read cookie
function getCookie(name){
var cname = name + "=";
var dc = document.cookie;
if (dc.length > 0) {
begin = dc.indexOf(cname);
if (begin != -1) {
begin += cname.length;
end = dc.indexOf(";", begin);
if (end == -1) end = dc.length;
return unescape(dc.substring(begin, end));
}
}
return null;
}

//delete cookie
function eraseCookie (name,path,domain) {
if (getCookie(name)) {
document.cookie = name + "=" +
((path == null) ? "" : "; path=" + path) +
((domain == null) ? "" : "; domain=" + domain) +
"; expires=Thu, 01-Jan-70 00:00:01 GMT";
}
}

//]]>
</script>

Once done, in order to set a cookie, we only need to put the name and the value in quotes when we call the function. Additionally, we will set the expiry date by getting the current Time (in milliseconds) and add the required number of minutes (in milliseconds):

var expiration = new Date();
expiration.setTime(expiration.getTime() + 10000); //Expire after 10 seconds
setCookie("cookiename","hello",expiration);
}

The above code sets a cookie called cookiename, with the hello value and set its expiry date to 10 seconds after it has been set (10000 milliseconds = 10 seconds). If we want to restore the value of this cookie, then we should use the second function with the cookie name:

var checkCookie = getCookie("cookiename");

By adding this code below <body>, we created a cookie with the value 'hello' which can be shown on the screen if we want to. The cookie will disappear after 10 seconds:

<script type='text/javascript'>
var expiration = new Date();
expiration.setTime(expiration.getTime() + 10000);
setCookie("cookiename","hello",expiration);
var checkCookie = getCookie("cookiename");
document.write(checkCookie);
</script>

The erase function is used in the same way as the one for reading just by clicking on the name of the cookie. The setCookie values for 'domain' and 'secure' are not utilized. Use 'domain' on the Javascript cookie if you are using it on a subdomain, where the cookie is set on the widgets subdomain, but you need it to be accessible over the whole yoursite.com domain.

The combination of these three functions will allow us to handle cookies for specific purposes, as we will see in the near future.

How to ADD A JQuery WIDGET BOX in BLOGGER

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 07:54:00 +0000

What this Lightbox does, is to display larger versions of the images that will pop-up into a larger box once we click on them, and allows us to easily navigate through that set of photos by using the previous and next buttons.

To see it in action, please visit the following demo blog and click on any picture to enlarge it.

Adding jQuery Lightbox to Blogger

Step 1. From your Blogger Dashboard, click on Template > Edit HTML

Step 2. Click anywhere on the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box. Paste the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Choose one of the Lighbox styles from below and paste the CSS code just above the aforementioned ]]></b:skin> tag:

Custom Blogger Lightbox with White Background

#jquery-overlay{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;z-index:90;width:100%;height:500px;}
#jquery-lightbox{position:absolute;top:10%;left:0;width:100%;z-index:100;text-align:center;line-height:0;}
#jquery-lightbox a,#jquery-lightbox a:hover{border:none;}
#jquery-lightbox a img{border:none;}
#lightbox-container-image-box{position:relative;background-color:#fff;max-width: 960px;max-height: 560px;margin:0 auto;}
#lightbox-container-image{padding:10px;}
img#lightbox-image {max-height: 540px;max-width: 940px;}
#lightbox-loading{position:absolute;top:40%;left:0%;height:25%;width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:0;}
#lightbox-nav{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;height:100%;width: 100%;z-index:10;}
#lightbox-container-image-box > #lightbox-nav{left:0;}
#lightbox-nav a{outline:none;}
#lightbox-nav-btnPrev,#lightbox-nav-btnNext{width:49%;height:100%;zoom:1;display:block;}
#lightbox-nav-btnPrev{left:10%;float:left;}
#lightbox-nav-btnNext{right:10%;float:right;}
#lightbox-container-image-data-box{font:10px Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:#fff;margin:0 auto;line-height:1.4em;overflow:auto;max-width: 940px;;padding:0 10px 0;}
#lightbox-container-image-data{padding:0 10px;color:#555;}
#lightbox-container-image-data #lightbox-image-details{width:70%;float:left;text-align:left;}
#lightbox-image-details-caption{font-weight:bold;}
#lightbox-image-details-currentNumber{display:block;clear:left;padding-bottom:1.0em;}
#lightbox-secNav-btnClose{width:66px;float:right;padding-bottom:0.7em;}

Custom Blogger Lightbox with Dark Background:

#jquery-overlay{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;z-index:90;width:100%;height:500px;}
#jquery-lightbox{position:absolute;top:10%;left:0;width:100%;z-index:100;text-align:center;line-height:0}
#jquery-lightbox a,#jquery-lightbox a:hover{border:none}
#jquery-lightbox a img{border:none;}
#lightbox-container-image-box{position:relative;background-color:#000;max-width: 960px;max-height: 560px;margin:0 auto}
#lightbox-container-image{padding:10px;}
img#lightbox-image {max-height: 540px;max-width: 940px;}
#lightbox-loading{position:absolute;top:40%;left:0%;height:25%;width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:0}
#lightbox-nav{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;height:100%;width: 100%;z-index:10}
#lightbox-container-image-box > #lightbox-nav{left:0;}
#lightbox-nav a{outline:none}
#lightbox-nav-btnPrev,#lightbox-nav-btnNext{width:49%;height:100%;zoom:1;display:block}
#lightbox-nav-btnPrev{left:10%;float:left}
#lightbox-nav-btnNext{right:10%;float:right}
#lightbox-container-image-data-box{font:10px Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:#000;margin:0 auto;line-height:1.4em;overflow:auto;max-width: 940px;;padding:0 10px 0}
#lightbox-container-image-data{padding:0 10px;color:#fff}
#lightbox-container-image-data #lightbox-image-details{width:70%;float:left;text-align:left}
#lightbox-image-details-caption{font-weight:bold}
#lightbox-image-details-currentNumber{display:block;clear:left;padding-bottom:1.0em}
#lightbox-secNav-btnClose{width:66px;float:right;padding-bottom:0.7em}

Step 4. Now find the following tag and just above it, add the below scripts:

</head>

Script for Lightbox with White Background:

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/custom-lightbox-for-blogger.js' type='text/javascript'/>

Script for Lightbox with Dark Background:

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/custom-lightbox-for-blogger-black.js' type='text/javascript'/>

Step 5. Click on the "Save template" button to save the changes.

Finally, we need to disable the original Blogger Lightbox so that it doesn't interfere with this one that we just added: go to "Settings" > "Posts and comments" and on the right side, you will see the "Showcase images with Lightbox" section > select "No" and click on the "Save settings" button on the upper right side.

Now, view your blog and click on any image to see this Custom Blogger Lightbox in action. Enjoy!

5 Quick Ways to BOOST Traffic & IMPROVE SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 16:17:00 +0000

Boost traffic & increase SERP visibility with SEO

5 Quick ways to improve the SEO of blog

Now, let's see what would be the basics that any blogger needs to learn about SEO and other simple SEO knowledge. Below are 5 easy tips to improve the SEO of your blog:

1. Define the keyword

2. Use the keyword in the post title

3. Use the keyword in the H2 tags

4. Use the keyword in the text

5. Publish Posts with 300 words or more

Conclusion

As you can see, with some simple SEO techniques you can improve the traffic coming to your blog from the search engines. I hope you enjoyed these 5 easy ways to improve the SEO of a blog!

How to ADD Page Navigation Fast in Blogger BLOG

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 16:15:00 +0000

Adding Numbered Page Navigation to Blogger

You can add this widget in just two steps.
1. Adding The CSS.
2. Adding The Script.

Now let's see how to add the CSS style for page navigation.

1. Adding The CSS

Step 1. Go to Blogger Dashboard > Template > click on the Edit HTML button:

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box.

... type or paste the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Now choose one of the following numbered page navigation styles and copy the code just below it. Just above ]]></b:skin> paste the code of the style that you want to use:

Style 1

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{padding: 3px 7px;margin-right:5px;background:#E9E9E9;color: #888;border:1px solid #E9E9E9;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover,.pagecurrent{background:#CECECE;text-decoration:none;color: #000;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .showpage, #blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #888;}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 2:

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{padding: 5px 10px;margin-right:5px; color: #F4F4F4; background-color:#404042;-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);-moz-box-shadow:0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#EC8D04;text-decoration:none;color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .showpage, #blog-pager, .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #000;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);-moz-box-shadow:0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);box-shadow: 0px 5px 3px -1px rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.53);}

Style 3:

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto; padding: 7px; text-align:center;font-size: 11px;background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear,left bottom,left top,color-stop(0, #000000),color-stop(1, #292929));background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%);background-image: linear-gradient(to top, #000000 0%, #292929 100%); padding: 6px;-webkit-border-radius: 3px;-moz-border-radius: 3px;border-radius: 3px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{padding: 3px 10px;margin-right:5px; color: #fff;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover,.pagecurrent{background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear,left bottom,left top,color-stop(0, #59A2CF),color-stop(1, #D9EAFF));background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);background-image: linear-gradient(to top, #59A2CF 0%, #D9EAFF 100%);text-decoration: none;color: #000;-webkit-border-radius: 3px;-moz-border-radius: 3px;border-radius: 3px;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}.blog-pager-older-link, .home-link, .blog-pager-newer-link {background: transparent;}
a.blog-pager-older-link, a.home-link, a.blog-pager-newer-link {color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;background: none;}

Style 4:

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px;}
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 14px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #666; background-color:#eee;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#359BED;text-decoration:none;color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #fff;background:#359BED;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 5

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px; }
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 13px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #3E5801; background-color:#E0EDC1;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#FEF6DF;text-decoration:none;color: #E16800;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #D25E71;background:#FFDEDF;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 6

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px; }
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 13px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #AD0B00; background-color:#FAB001;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#DB4920;text-decoration:none;color: #fff;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #fff;background:#DB4920;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Style 7

#blog-pager{clear:both;margin:30px auto;text-align:center; padding: 7px; }
.blog-pager {background: none;}
.displaypageNum a,.showpage a,.pagecurrent{font-size: 12px;padding: 5px 12px;margin-right:5px; color: #222; background-color:#eee; border: 1px solid #EEEEEE;}
.displaypageNum a:hover,.showpage a:hover, .pagecurrent{background:#E5E5E5;text-decoration:none;color: #222;}
#blog-pager .pagecurrent{font-weight:bold;color: #fff;background:#DB4920;}
.showpageOf{display:none!important}
#blog-pager .pages{border:none;}

Note: if you want to hide the "First" and "Last" buttons add this line below the CSS code:

.firstpage, .lastpage {display: none;}

2. Adding The Script

Step 4. Now find (CTRL + F) this tag:

</body>

UPDATED! Working version for more than 500 posts:

Step 5. Add the following script just above it:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "static_page"'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
/*<![CDATA[*/
    var perPage=7;
    var numPages=6;
    var firstText ='First';
    var lastText ='Last';
    var prevText ='« Previous';
    var nextText ='Next »';
    var urlactivepage=location.href;
    var home_page="/";
/*]]>*/
</script>
<script src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/page-navigation2.js"/>
</b:if>
</b:if>

Configuration

After installing, you might want to change these default settings:

perPage: 7,
numPages: 6,
var firstText ='First';
var lastText ='Last';
var prevText ='« Previous';
var nextText ='Next »';
}

2) numPages: how many pages will be shown in the page navigation (6)

3) to replace the 'First', 'Last', "« Previous" and "Next »" texts, just type your own within the quotes.

Labels fix:

expr:href='data:label.url'

Replace it with this one below:

expr:href='data:label.url + "?&max-results=7"'

Here 7 is the number of posts to be displayed per page.

Step 8. Click on the Save Template button and that's it! Enjoy!

How to Display Posts in Grid View Style with Thumbnails UPDATED

noreply@blogger.com (Muhammad Haris) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 16:12:00 +0000

If you have a wallpaper or photo blog that would benefit from displaying a thumbnail grid style layout, look no further. Here's how you can add Grid (gallery) View to Blogger posts.

Adding Grid (Gallery) View to Blogger Posts

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and go to Template > click on the Edit HTML button

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box

Step 3. Type </head> inside the search box and hit Enter to find it.

Step 4. Just above the </head> tag, add the following script and style:

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-migrate-1.1.0.js"></script>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "index"'>
<script type='text/javascript'>//<![CDATA[
$(document).ready(function() {

    var width = 200;
    var height = 170;
    var placeholder = 'http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7Ie-cUwxWB4/U2KIRWgvpNI/AAAAAAAAIfU/Mj6qpg5S2fk/s1600/no-thumb.png';
    var margins = "0px 0px 10px 10px";
    var fitThumb = 1;
    var titleTopPadding = 5;
    var titleBottomPadding = 8;
    var titleLeftRightPadding = 5;

    var titlePadding = titleTopPadding + 'px ' + titleLeftRightPadding + 'px ' + titleBottomPadding + 'px ' + titleLeftRightPadding + 'px';
    $('.post-body').each(function(n, wrapper) {
        var wrapper = $(wrapper);
        var image = $(wrapper).find('img').first();
        var link = wrapper.parent().find('h3 a');
        var linkURL = link.attr('href');
        var linkTitle = link.text();

        $(link).remove();
        wrapper.empty();

        if (image.attr('src')) {
            var thumbHeight = image.attr('height');
            var thumbWidth = image.attr('width');
            var thumbParent = $(image).parent();

            wrapper.append(thumbParent);

            if (fitThumb) {
                image.attr({
                    src: image.attr('src').replace(/s\B\d{3,4}/, 's' + width + '-c')
                    });
                image.attr('width', width).attr('height', height);
            } else {
                image.attr({
                    src: image.attr('src').replace(/s\B\d{3,4}/, 's' + width)
                    });
                image.attr('width', width);
                var changeHeight = (thumbHeight / thumbWidth * width).toFixed(0);
                image.attr('height', changeHeight);
            }

        } else {
            var image = $('<img>').attr('src', placeholder).attr('height', height).attr('width', width);
            var thumbParent = $('<a>').append(image).appendTo(wrapper);
        }

        thumbParent.attr('href', linkURL).css('clear', 'none').css('margin-left', '0').css('margin-right', '0').addClass('postThumbnail');

        var thumbTitle = $('<div>').prepend(linkTitle).css('padding', titlePadding).css('opacity', '0.9').css('filter', 'alpha(opacity=0.9)').css('width', width).appendTo(thumbParent);
        var ptitleHeight = thumbTitle.height();
        var summary = parseInt(ptitleHeight) + parseInt(titleTopPadding) + parseInt(titleBottomPadding);
        thumbTitle.css('margin-top', '-' + summary + 'px');
        wrapper.css('float', 'left').css('height', height).css('width', width).css('margin', margins).css('overflow', 'hidden');
    });
    $('#blog-pager').css('clear', 'both');
});

function hideLightbox() {
    var images = document.getElementsByTagName('img');
    for (var i = 0; i < images.length;++i) {
        images[i].onmouseover = function() {
            var html = this.parentNode.innerHTML;
            this.parentNode.innerHTML = html;
            this.onmouseover = null;
        };
    }
}

if (window.addEventListener) {
    window.addEventListener('load', hideLightbox, undefined);
} else {
    window.attachEvent('onload', hideLightbox);
}
//]]>
</script>
<style>
.post {
    border-bottom: 0 dotted #E6E6E6;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
}

h2,.post-footer {
    display: none;
}

a.postThumbnail div {
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #fff;
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: bold;
    text-transform: capitalize;
    background: rgb(125,126,125);
/* Old browsers */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%, rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%);
    background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(125,126,125,1)), color-stop(100%,rgba(14,14,14,1)));
/* Chrome,Safari4+ */
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%);
    background: -o-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%);
    background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%);
    background: linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%);
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='
    #7d7e7d', endColorstr='#0e0e0e',GradientType=0 );
}

a.postThumbnail:hover div {
    display: block;
}

.post-body img {
    background-color: transparent;
    border: 1px solid transparent;
    padding: 0px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 12px;
    -moz-border-radius: 12px;
    border-radius: 12px;
    opacity: 1;
    transition: opacity .25s ease-in-out;
    -moz-transition: opacity .25s ease-in-out;
    -webkit-transition: opacity .25s ease-in-out;
}

.post-body img:hover {
    -ms-filter: "
    progid: DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=70)"
    ;

filter: alpha(opacity=70);
    -moz-opacity: 0.7;
    -khtml-opacity: 0.7;
    opacity: 0.7;
}
</style>
</b:if>

Note:
- If you want to make the post thumbnails larger, modify the 200 (width) and 170 (height) values in blue
- To change the default thumbnail for when there are no images, replace the URL in red with your own.

Step 5. Click on the Save template button to save the changes and View your blog. Now you should have a nice grid view on your Blogger posts. Enjoy!