Monday, 20 January 2014

Add a Cool Style to Blogger Threaded/Nested Comments

If you need a fresh style to the threaded comments of a standard Blogger template, here's a simple CSS that will help you to apply a different background, make your avatars rounded, add a border with rounded corners and a triangle which is actually an HTML entity to get that speech bubble look on your comments.

You can see a demo here.

To have this style in your comments, all you need to do is to paste the below code inside the CSS part of the template, which is between the <b:skin> and </b:skin> tags.

Styling Simple Nested Comments with CSS

Step 1. From the Blogger Dashboard, go to "Template" and press 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. Paste or type the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it
]]></b:skin>
Step 4. Just above ]]></b:skin> add this CSS:
.comments .comment-block {
background: #F9F9F9;
color: #555;
box-shadow: 0 4px 10px #EEEEEE;
position: relative;
margin-top: 10px;
margin-left: 60px;
padding: 10px;
border: 4px solid #EEEEEE !important;
border-radius:10px;
font: 1.190em/1.2 Cambria,Georgia,sans-serif;
}
.comment-thread li .comment-block:before {
position: absolute;
display: block;
left: -26px;
color: #EEEEEE;
content: "\25C4";
font-size: 30px;
}
.comments .avatar-image-container {
width: 60px;
height: 60px;
max-height: 60px;
margin:0px 0px 0 -28px;
padding: 0px;
border: 7px solid #EEEEEE;
border-radius:60px;
}
.comments .avatar-image-container img {
overflow:hidden;
width: 60px;
height: 60px;
max-width: 60px;
border:0 !important;
border-radius:60px;
}
.comments .comment-thread.inline-thread {
background: none;
}
.comments .continue {
border-top: 0px solid transparent;
}
.comments .comments-content .datetime {
float: right;
font-size: 11px;
}
.comments .comments-content .user a{
font-size: 15px;
color: #498EC9;
}
.comments .comments-content .datetime a:hover{
color: #777;
text-decoration: none;
}
.comments .comments-content .comment:first-child {
padding-top: 0px;
}
.comments .comments-content .comment {
margin-bottom: 0px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
}
.comments .continue a {
padding: 0px;
}
.comments .comments-content .icon.blog-author {
background-image: none;
}

How to Change Blogger Threaded Comments Background, Border and Colors

  • replace the #F9F9F9 value to change the background color of the comments;
  • #555 to change the text comments color;
  • #EEEEEE to change the color of the shadow around comments;
  • 4px solid #EEEEEE to change the border width (4px), style (solid) and color (#EEEEEE) around comments;
  • 1.190em to change the comments font size;
  • to change the arrow color, replace the #EEEEEE value from color: #EEEEEE;
  • to change the border width (7px), style (solid) and color (#EEEEEE) around avatars, modify this part: 7px solid #EEEEEE;
  • to change the avatars size and roundness, change the 60px value;
Here is a tool from that may help to pick your favorite color: Color Code Generator

Step 5. Finally, click on the "Save template" button... and you're done!

YouTube Monetization Disabled

YouTube Account Suspended
Is your YouTube Monetization Disabled? then, it may be due to any of the three reasons delineated below.

Monetization Reviews

If you do not own the rights for the video that you have just submitted for monetization review, then your account might be next in line for disabled monetization. If you repeatedly submit such videos then you are bound to get banned from monetization. You will never get back the ability to monetize your videos on YouTube using the same Adsense account.

Banned Adsense Account

If your Adsense account is banned due to invalid click activity or any such thing then you will lose your ability to monetize YouTube video using that account.

Community Guidelines

If you receive multiple Community Guidelines strikes, copyright strikes and/or worldwide Content ID blocks, you may lose the ability to monetise your videos on all the accounts linked to your AdSense account. All of your accounts must be in good standing to regain monetisation after six months. Note that account monetisation may still be disabled if you delete the blocked videos.
If you have any doubts regarding this, then please feel free to leave a comment below.

The Sky of Verdun 3D - dogfight in HTML5

Came across this seemingly fun little game over here, too bad I don't have a Occulus Rift (yet):



Check their page for the Win32 and browser server/client download.

Friday, 17 January 2014

Google use Google-Sites, so we should too!

This QuickTip explains why I now feel happier about using elements from Google Sites in my blogs.


What is Google Sites, and why would a Blogger use it

Long ago (back in the late 2000's) there was a product called Google Pages, which people could use to make their own simple websites. It wasn't the greatest product that Google ever made (or purchased), and eventually it was retired, with websites made with Pages transferred over to the newer Google Sites.

Sites always seemed a bit clunky. It doesn't seem to have a huge number of users.   And there are vastly better products for building more-complex websites, and for building simple ones (eg using Blogger to make a "real" website).

Now, I did use a Sites filing cabinet as the document-store for one of my sites that makes lyrics of certain public domain songs available in PowerPoint format. I chose it before Google Drive had been released, and when Docs was not nearly as good as it is now. And SEO does matter for this blog, so I came to appreciate that the link to a file in sites includes the file-name.

But I've always had a nagging sense that one day Sites would be retired too, and I'd have to move my files and edit all my posts to re-set the links.


Why won't Google retire Google Sites

Despite my previous misgivings, I'm now feeling a lot more relaxed about Google Sites.  

Why?   Well I don't have a crystal ball.   But this recent post from the Google Testing blog talks about how they are into "dogfooding" and that Sites is one of the tools they do this with, to " host team pages, engineering docs and more"

Just to explain, "dogfooding" is corporate-jargon for using your own products. As in "eating your own dogfood".  It's sometimes called "drinking your own chapmpagne" in companies that see themselves as a bit more refined, or "eating your own cooking".

Google's post is telling us that they are using Sites for building tools that they use in their own work. Most likely, they have a website built in Sites, which manages their plans for future Blogger development, and available only to people inside the company and working on the Blogger project.

So that makes me feel reassured that most likely:
  1. Sites won't be canned any time soon, or
  2. If Sites is turned off, Google will have a replacement tool which will provide the same (and better) features, and they will convert items now built in Sites to this better tool.

Phew!

Maybe it's time to review my file-hosting approach again, or to re-visit Sites and look at their FAQs, home-page and support-community, to see what other Sites tools I might find useful.

How have you used Sites in conjunction with your blog?




Related Articles:

File-hosting options: places to store files that you share from your blog

Why SEO doesn't matter for lots of bloggers

Thursday, 16 January 2014

How to Add an Admin Control Panel in Blogger

A while ago I posted some tutorials on how you can remove the Blogger Navbar or add a Peek A Boo Effect so that it would show only when we mouse over on top of our page.

However, customizing or removing the Blogger Navbar also has its downside because the admin links for "New post", "Customize" and "Log Out" will be no longer visible and navigating through the blog functions could be really frustrating sometimes. When the navbar is visible, blog administrators can easily create a new post or customize their template with just one click; however, when the navbar is hidden, many more clicks are required to access the Blogger dashboard panel again.

In this tutorial, we'll see how to add an "Admin Control Panel" menu with many cool additions such as:
  • access to the Blogger's Homepage
  • create a New Page or Post
  • view all your posts
  • read your comments
  • access the Blog's layout to add or rearrange gadgets
  • edit the HTML of your Template
  • refresh current page or post
  • open a new tab with your blog's homepage
  • access the blog' settings
  • view your stats
  • log out
We will put all these options on the top of your page as a menu and we will make it visible only to the administrator of the blog, so our blog visitors will not be able to see it.

The result will look something like this:

admin control panel for blogger

Adding Admin Control Panel to Blogger template

The Admin Control Panel will only be visible when the blog author is logged in and will not display to blog readers, same with the Post Edit or widget pencil icons which are only visible to you while you are logged in.

To add the admin panel to Blogger, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Go to "Template" and 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

Step 3. Paste this line inside the search box then hit Enter to find it:
<body expr:class='&quot;loading&quot; + data:blog.mobileClass'>
Note: if you can't find this line, try to find the <body> tag.

Step 4. Just below that line or tag, add the following code:
<span class='item-control blog-admin'>
<style>
.control-panel ul{z-index: 20; position: absolute; margin: 0px auto; background-color: #F6F6F6; width: 100%; }
.control-panel ul li{display: inline-block; float: left; padding: 7px 0px;}
.control-panel ul li a {color:#686868;padding: 7px 15px;border-right: 1px solid #E3E3E3;font-weight: bold;font-size: 13px;}
.control-panel a:hover {text-decoration:none; color:#FC8F44;}
</style>
<div class='control-panel'>
<ul>
<li><a href='http://www.blogger.com/home'>My Blogs</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#editor/src=sidebar&quot;' rel='nofollow'>New Post</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#editor/target=page&quot;' rel='nofollow'>New Page</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#posts&quot;' rel='nofollow'>All Posts</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#comments&quot;' rel='nofollow'>Comments</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#pageelements&quot;' rel='nofollow'>Layout</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#templatehtml&quot;' rel='nofollow'>Edit HTML</a></li>
<li><a href='#' onclick='location.reload(true); return false;'>Refresh</a></li>
<li><a href='/' target='_blank'>New Tab</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#basicsettings&quot;' rel='nofollow'>Settings</a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=&quot; + data:blog.blogId + &quot;#overviewstats&quot;' rel='nofollow'>Stats</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.blogger.com/logout.g'>Logout</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</span>
Step 4. Click on the "Save template" button to save the changes.

Now take a look on your blog. While you are logged in to Blogger, you should notice your control panel appear on top of your blog. Enjoy!

With this admin control panel for Blogger you can easily access the functions of the blog and you will not have to always open your blog page and the Blogger homepage at the same time.