Create Custom Youtube Video Player.

As Google Video will be discontinuing uploads bloggers will now have to turn to Youtube to showcase their videos on their blogs. Uploading videos directly to Blogger can also frequently cause errors like this :"Sorry, there was an error uploading your video. Please contact support and include the following information: Blog Id:******* Video Id:68e2ght***" "Now YouTube allows you to create a

The Labels Gadget for Classic Templates in Blogger.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all readers of The Blogdoctor! As a sort of gift to all Ye Olde Classic Template users out there I decided to release The Labels Gadget for Classic Templates.There are many bloggers who still persist with Classic templates for various reasons. It has been their oft repeated demand for a Labels gadget in the sidebar as can be added in the

Shows All Posts Blogger Gadget Installer.

The Blogger Archive Gadget shows only the post titles of the latest month (in Hierarchy mode). The rest of the months and post titles are hidden behind small black arrows which have to be clicked to reveal them.The Feed Gadget shows only the latest five posts if used along with your blog feed. Here is The "Shows All Posts Blogger Gadget Installer" which when added to your blog enables your blog

How to Change DNS Settings for Custom Domains?

Blogger offers a great method to change your blogspot address to a DOT COM address by buying a Custom Domain for only 10$ US. Using a Custom Domain gets your blog a brand new address without losing traffic, search engine position or Google Page Rank (Page Rank is only lost temporarily).  Your blog is still hosted by Blogger free of charge with unlimited storage (for posts) and unlimited

Join The Blog Doctor at Google Friend Connect.

Google Friend Connect the new social network from Google is out. To join The Blog Doctor Community via Friend Connect, please click the Join This Site button in the Members gadget in the middle column at the top :The advantages of Google Friend Connect are.........Advantages of Google Friend Connect1. Increase Blog Traffic.2. Interact with others who are interested in the same subject.3.

Create Thumbnail Albums in Blogger with WLW.

To create thumbnail albums in Blogger posts we create tables and insert images in each table cell.  The process of coding a table in HTML is cumbersome and prone to errors. In Windows Live Writer (WLW) this can be done with a few mouse clicks......   Start WLW. From the top menu click 'Insert'------>'Table'.  Choose how many rows and columns the table should have and it's width. Remember to

15 Reasons to Use Windows Live Writer for Posting to Blogger.

Windows Live Writer is a client software used to post to blogs on various platforms directly without using a web browser. Here wre the advantages of using it for creating posts on your blog................1.   It is free.   You can download it here. 2.   Insert tables without coding : A table made with Windows Live Writer .

Introducing The Blog Doctor!

Many of the regular readers of this blog may have noticed that Beta Blogger for Dummies is now redirecting to http://www.blogdoctor.meYes, using the power of Blogger Custom Domains I finally bought www.Blogdoctor.me and from now on you will find your favorite blog at this address.I am also in the process of overhauling the blog template to make it load faster (a much repeated demand). So kindly

Two Types of Custom Domains.

Using Blogger's Custom Domain facility you can redirect your blogspot blog to a brand new domain or URL and it will cost you only 10$. Blogger is not however responsible for domain management services which are offered by Godaddy or Enom.   Custom Domains work by using changed DNS records in DNS servers. There are two types of Custom Domains...........   The two types of Custom domains are :

Cheap DOT COM Websites For 10$ US Only.

In these times of economic recession everyone wishes to save money. If you want to start a dot com website you will have to shell out dollars for hosting it.   Using Blogger you can have a website where the hosting is totally free and you have to pay only for the domain name..........   1. CREATE GOOGLE ACCOUNT. The first step is to create a Google Account.   2. Create a Blog. The

How Custom Domains Work?

Instead of using long blog addresses like "thestoryofmyschoolyearsinamerica.blogspot.com" you can use Custom Domains to redirect the above blog to somethng more Web 2.0ish like "www.sasn.com" (Short And Sweet Name). Now your visitors need only type 'sasn.com' to visit your site.To use Custom Domains you need only two things :1. Create a Blog on Blogger.com.2. Buy a Domain Name from a Domain

Blogger and Wordpress on same Domain.

You can have a Blogger blogspot blog and a Wordpress blog on the same domain. This will enable you to have the best of both worlds. The minimal cost is ten dollars for Blogger plus fifteen dollars for Wordpress (not including hosting).To illustrate this I bought a domain name and hosting on BLUEHOST.COM............... WHAT IS A DOMAIN?A domain is a group of computers on the Internet with a common

The Meta Gadget for Blogger.

Wordpress has a meta widget which can be added in the sidebar. It contains links to login, logout, feed links and the link to Wordpress.org. Blogger does not have such a gadget. Instead it has the Blogger Navbar which can lead you to nasty blogs.Here is a Blogger Meta Gadget and a Google Meta Gadget which you can add to the sidebar : Google Gadget.Blogger GadgetSince feed links are better shown

Delete Comments Without Trash Can Icon!

To delete a Blogger comment first click the '4 COMMENTS' link below the post on the Main Page to open the comments page. Then click the Trash Can icon below the comment. Sometimes the Trash Can icon is not present. In such cases follow this method to delete the comment..........The Blogger Help article on deleting comments suggests using the following methods to see the Trash can icon :1.

Upgrade Classic Template without the "UPGRADE YOUR TEMPLATE" button.

Authentic Blogger Statement :"I would like to change my 'Template' to 'Layout' but on the tab 'Customize Design' I don't even see the button of 'Upgrade', what should I do? "Recently have seen many such appeals in the Blogger Help Group so I decided to investigate. Apparently the Blogger Team is working on a fix. Till then you can try out what I discovered..............Blogger blogs have either

How to Change Slideshow Size?

The slideshow gadget in Blogger is quite small and may look minuscule in larger width templates. If you have a large width sidebar and wish to increase the size of the slideshow within it here is how you can do it.........Step 1. Add Slideshow Gadget to sidebar :Login at Blogger.com.Click Layout link under Blog Title on Dashboard.On Add Page Elements tab click 'Add Gadget' link.In popup window

Ajax Blog List Gadget with Post Preview.

Last week Blogger enabled Google Gadgets for Layout Blogs. You can now add a Google Gadget directly by login at Blogger.com, click Layout link on Dashboard and click 'Add a Gadget' link. This replaces the 'Add a Page Element' link.The first gadget on the Basics subtab in the popup window is the Blog List gadget. This gadget shows off what you read with a blogroll of your favorite blogs. It shows

Table of Contents with Preview for Blogger.

A Table of Contents is essential for each blog so that readers can look at the post titles and decide which post to visit. The Blog Archives widget can be configured to show all post titles but it has the dates also cluttering up the view. Then there are the arrows collapsing past months so that all post titles are not seen at once.Classic templates have a Previous Posts section which shows only

The Minimalist Minima Photoblog Template.

The Minima Template or Layout is used whenever you want to customize your blog any which way you want. There are no graphics used in the template as are used in the Rounders template. The Rounders and other templates with graphics are more difficult to customize as the images have to be resized to the new dimension.Here I have attempted to simplify the Minima template further by making it a

Easy Blog Backup for Bloggers!

Blog Backup has always been a bit of a problem for bloggers ever since the advent of the New Blogger. In Classic Blogger it was easy by using the Httrack utility from httrack.com.In the new Blogger data was separated from template/layouts. XML was introduced. Hence one could backup blog by saving each post via browser or by using feeds. Now with Blogger introducing import-export facilty backup

Making the COMMENTS Link more User Friendly.

The "0 comments" link at the bottom of the blog posts can hardly be called intuitive. Viewers fail to understand it's significance. That is why on this blog I have customized it to make it more viewer friendly.If there are no comments on the post this is what appears "Be the first to leave a comment!". If only one visitor commented on the post viewers see "1 VIEWER CLICKED HERE TO COMMENT ON THIS

How to Recover Deleted Blogs?

BLOGGER UPDATE 28 MARCH 2009Now Deleted blogs appear on Dashboard with option to Undelete them.Due to a change in Blogger policy last year deleted blogs could only be reclaimed by the owner/account which deleted them. Now login to your Dashboard at Blogger.com and you will see the blogs you deleted on Dashboard with a link to Undelete them. DO NOT DELETE A BLOG TO RECLAIM IN ANOTHER ACCOUNT.

Quick Quiz for Bloggers.

Here is a quick quiz to find out more about common blogger queries. Enjoy!Blogger Quiz

List all the posts in alphabetical order in Blogger.

PROBLEM : How can you list all the posts in your blog in alphabetical order?SOLUTION :................We will use Yahoo Pipes to solve this problem as we did in How to Display Combined Labels in Blogger?GET BLOG FEEDFirst we get the blog feed URL. In this case we will use :http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/atom.xmlThen to include all posts we add this parameter to the above feed url :?

How to Display Combined Labels in Blogger?

Labels are used in the new Blogger to categorize posts according to categories. Clicking on a Label in the sidebar displays all posts associated with that label. Click another label and all posts from that label will be displayed. Here is a method by which two labels can be combined..........GET LABEL PAGES URLLabel Pages in Blogger have the following type of address :http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/

Increase Traffic with Web Slices for Blogger.

Uptil now you could subscribe to blogs and read them in your Feed Reader. With Web Slices viewers can subscribe to parts of your blog page in Internet Explorer 8. They will then see updates directly on the Favorites bar of IE8. See picture below :Here is how to set it up in blogspot blogs.........Login at Blogger.com.Dashboard will open.Under Title of your blog click the Manage : Layout

Change Post Formatting According to Author.

If you have a Team Blog made up of two authors you can change the formatting of the posts written by one author to differentiate them from the other author's posts. In a Team Blog the About Me Profile widget is replaced by a Contributors List widget. This lists the name of the authors linked to their profiles.Note down the names since we will use one of them in implementing this hack...........

Three Column Sand Dollar Template for Bloggers.

A reader wanted to modify the Sand Dollar Template to show three columns. This is a Fluid width template which resizes the blog according to the monitor resolution of the viewer's machine. It has two columns. The sidebar is at the left and occupies 31% of the screen width. The Main or Posts column is to the right and is sized at 66%.View After Modification. Click on Picture to enlarge it.Since

Equal Height Columns Template for Blogger.

Blogger has many templates which you can pick by going to Pick New Template under the Layout tab. At present all templates are two column templates. These have a main posts column and a sidebar at the right or left for your Profile and Archives and other widgets you wish to add.They can be easily modified to add a third column in three steps. These column are however of unequal height. The height

Add Background Picture to Header in CSS.

In Blogger you can directly upload a picture to the Blog Header. A few bloggers have been reporting problems with this method. Hence here is the old method brushed up for use with Classic or Layouts Template........REMOVE HEADER PICTUREThe first step is to remove the old picture. Sometimes the picture refuses to get removed. Then the first remedy is to clear the cache. Always use Firefox browser

How to Classify Blogger Labels?

Blogger introduced Labels to categorize posts with the introduction of the Layout Template. A Label is added in the bottom frame of the post editor when creating a post. All Labels are shown in a Label widget in the sidebar. When a Label is clicked all posts associated with it are displayed.If you want to show which Labels are associated with most posts in your blog yu can add a Label Cloud where

Different backgrounds in each post!

A background put in your blog serves as a sort of branding for your blog. For example if it is a travel blog a background picture of the Eiffel Tower can serve very well. You can also have transparent backgrounds in your blog over which the blog text scrolls.What if your blog posts are on different topics? Then you can put a different picture as the background for each post.......SOURCE THE

Monitor Blog Health in One Glance.

Google Webmasters is a very useful tool to see how your blog is doing in Google. To use this tool you have to add your blog to it by pasting a verification metatag in your template. After doing this you can login to Google Webmaster Tools and check out the various pages to see how many pages have been indexed and so on.For newbies this may be a bit confusing. Google Webmasters Tool has now

Anchor Link to Skip to Top of Page and to Updates.

When your blog page is too long you have to provide navigation links to enable the viewer to quickly jump to the top of the page after scrolling down to the bottom. In Anchor Links and Mail To links I described how to make such links within your post. These are useful especially if you want to make a FAQ page.If you want a "Skip to Top" link at the bottom of your posts or in your blog footer it

Free CSS Navigation Menus in Blogger.

A reader wanted to know how he could add a navigation menu bar in the header. You can add your most frequently occuring labels as tabs in the header (See header of this page) but if you want to add only four or five links like in the picture below :here is an easy method to do so..............CREATE POSTSThe first step is to create posts which will be linked to the various links in the menu bar.

Three Column Template in Three Steps.

Three column templates are popular because they make more use of the screen real estate. Adding another column to your blog enables you to add more widgets or advertisements to your blog.In this post I will show you how to transform your blog into a three column blog in three simple steps. Have a look at the before and after screenshots below : --->BEFOREAFTERTo demonstrate this I have taken the

Fix the Page Elements Layout Editor No Scrollbar Problem.

The Page Elements subtab of Layout (previously - Template) tab is used to Add and Arrange Page Elements. Since 12 Feb 2008 there have been no scrollbars in it. This causes the Page Elements on wider templates to disappear below the right edge and bloggers cannot access the Edit button on them. See picture below :This can be fixed by modifying the CSS part of the template for the wireframe layout

Add Myspace Layouts to Blogger Blogs.

If you have a Myspace site and want your Blogger blog to be customized with the same look you can easily put your Myspace Layout on top of your Blog Layout. See picture of Blogger blog with a Myspace Layout on it below :This is for Blogger blogs with Layout Templates. Those blogs with Classic Template should first Upgrade to Layouts Template...............LOAD THE MINIMA LAYOUTThe first step is

Blog in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu!

Blogger had made available the ability to blog in Hindi in April 2007. Now Blogger has enabled blogging in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu...........Transliteration for Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu BlogsTo enable transliteration in your blog login at www.blogger.com and click 'Settings' link under your blog title on the Dashboard. The Basic tab will open. Scroll down to 'Global

Make Three Column Classic Template.

Bloggers who are on ftp are forced to use the Classic Template as Blogger does not provide Layout Templates to blogs outside Google servers. A reader wanted to add a third column to his blog hosted on ftp and hence this post. Readers with Layout Templates can refer to How to Add Third Column To Blog.In this example I was able to transform the two column Minima Classic Template into a Three

Blogging Software and Hardware.

Frame the Blog Header Image.

The Image you load in the Blog Header serves as a branding image for your blog. It is hence important that it should be loaded correctly and positioned properly at the top of your blog. Viewers will recall your blog better if you have a striking blog header image at the top.Recently many bloggers had complained about their header images shrinking. Blogger has introduced a fix which resizes every

Blog in Arabic, Hebrew and Persian!

Blogger has now introduced facility to blog in Arabic Hebrew and Persian! These languages are written from right to left and those who have been using hacks to write in this manner need no longer do so.............Templates also have added code for right to left direction change. When creating a post in the Post Editor a new bidirectional toolbar is now available.To change your language settings

Best of 2007- A Blog Snapshot!

I know what you did last summer! How did we do in 2007? What were the best posts and the best moments of 2007?We present to you a Blog Review of 2007...........When 2007 started this blog was only two months old. There was already a good amount of content in the blog. These were the most popular posts published in 2006 :How to Add Picture to a Beta Blog Header?How to Change Width of Blog?What are

Show Top Labels Only In Labels Widget.

As you write more and more posts you will keep adding labels to them to categorize your posts. You can add more than one label to any single post. Labels are useful as they serve as keywords channelling traffic to your posts through search engines like Technorati.However the list of labels in your blog can get to be very long stretching your sidebar until your blog post looks like a flag on top

Buy Me A Beer code for Blogger.

Wishing all our esteemed readers a Very Happy New Year! As a New Year Gift ( of sorts! ) we will show you how to install the "Buy Me A Beer/Coffee/Cup of Tea" code below your posts.You can also install this code in a Html Page Element in your sidebar.........Here are the steps to follow :1. Login at Blogger.com.2. If login is successful you will open the Blogger Dashboard page.3. Click the Layout