Cannot access Blogger account - what to do

If for whatever reasons you cannot access your Blogger account, go to Blogger.com and click the "Cannot access your account?" link



and you will be presented with 2 choices:
1. Lookup blogspot URL (input the URL of your blogspot.com blog)
or
2. Lookup email (enter your email address if your blog is not hosted on Blogspot (custom domain) or can't remember blog URL or don't have a blog



The next step will be to check your email address or addresses and follow the instructions there. You will be given a hint, example check gmail.com account or check yahoo.com as shown in screen shot below:



BTW it is good to update your Google account such as giving a handphone number to recover your account in case you don't have other means to recover your account in which case an SMS will be sent to your handphone.

Easily publish tables with Windows Live Writer

Wish to draw attention of readers of Blogger for Dummies about a very well received recent post in Blogger Tips and Tricks, namely Easily create tables with Windows Live Writer

and also this comment by this commentator Laronski:

Windows Live Writer is a fantastic offline blogging tool with a WYSIWYG editor. It interfaces with just about any blog service [Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress, etc.] If you're a blogger you'll find this tool incredibly helpful- and it's refreshingly free from Microsoft.

Here's a link to the main Windows Live Writer gallery...
Windows Live Writer Plugins

That's good information… Much obliged...

Until next time,
Larry Henry Jr.

Publish text and pictures direct from computer with Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Writer table plugin

Tabs - differences between new xml LAYOUT template and old classic template

For a blog reader whose POSTING tabs have only NEW POST an EDIT POSTS sub-tabs with no EDIT PAGES sub-tabs, his blog probably is still using the old classic template and not the new xml LAYOUT (now called DESIGN) template.

If so, you can see from the DASHBOARD that the DESIGN tab will be missing and in its place will be the TEMPLATE tab highlighted in red (see screenshot below):



Those with the new xml LAYOUT (now called DESIGN) will see DESIGN tab (highlighted in red in the screenshot below) and not TEMPLATE as in the above screenshot:



Update: If for any reason you want to use the old classic template, you can still do so irrespective of whether your blog initially started with the old classic template or your blog is a brand new blog. All you need to do is to go to the Dashboard, click the DESIGN (previously LAYOUT) tab, then Edit HTML tab and at the bottom you will see under Old Templates:
Layout Templates (Launched 2006)
Select Layout Template

Classic Templates
Revert to Classic Template | View Classic Template

Click Revert to Classic Template and your blog will be using the old classic template.

Map showing location of visitors - How

A blog reader wants a map in his blog sidebar to show locations of visitors to his blog like the one you see at the bottom of the first left sidebar of Career and you (note: that blog is a demo blog with not many visitors so you may not see many dots on the map, but will be different if your blog has lots of visitors).

To install a similar gadget for your blog, an easy option will be to go to ClustRmaps, type or copy-paste your blog URL, type in your email address and click [Make my map] and the codes for your map will be generated.

Sign into your Dashboard > Design > HTML/Javascript gadget

Paste the codes into a HTML/Javascript gadget, save, drag the gadget to wherever you want the map display, save and it is done,

Easily make HTML sitemap for your blog using Javascript

Note: HTML sitemap to facilate vistior (human) navigation only. If you are looking for a sitemap to submit to Webmaster, you will need an XML sitemap or a Google Sitemap.

A commentator at Blogger Tips and Tricks (HTML) Sitemap (Table of Content) said: "Hi Peter, This sitemap is really good and helpful. I would like to add a sitemap like this one to my blogger blogs. Can you please give me a detailed reply on creating a sitemap like this and loading it to blogs and then to Webmaster tools."

Fortunately for me, that is not difficult a task for all you need to do is to first create a post or better, a static page, making sure you are in the Edit HTML mode, copy the following Javascript:

<script style="text/javascript" src="http://www.abu-farhan.com/script/daftarisiblogger/blogtoc-min.js"></script>
<script src="http://myblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=9999&alt=json-in-script&callback=loadtoc"></script>

and paste it into the post editor/page editor making sure to replace http://myblog.blogspot.com with the actual URL of your blog. To make this clearer, below are 2 examples of the codes I used to create such HTML sitemaps of 2 of my blogs, one of which is Blogger for Dummies sitemap which is a blogspot blog with the URL http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com:

<script style="text/javascript" src="http://www.abu-farhan.com/script/daftarisiblogger/blogtoc-min.js"></script>
<script src="http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=9999&alt=json-in-script&callback=loadtoc"></script>

and the other Blogger Tips and Tricks Sitemap which is a custom domain with my own registered domain name http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com without the blogspot in the URL:

<script style="text/javascript" src="http://www.abu-farhan.com/script/daftarisiblogger/blogtoc-min.js"></script>
<script src="http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=9999&alt=json-in-script&callback=loadtoc"></script>

Note that such HTML sitemap generated by the above Javascript automatically updates each time you publish a new post and is fuss and maintenance free.

Regarding submitting to Google Webmaster, the above generates a HTML sitemap and not a XML sitemap so is not suitable for submission to Google Webmaster, but it would be instructive to hear what Matt Cutts of Google have to say about HTML sitemap.

Regarding XML sitemap, perhaps for now refer to Adding Google sitemap to your blog. I will follow up with another post on sitemaps later.

Acknowledgement: We are indebted to Abu Farhan for the Javascript used in this post.

Fixed width versus fluid width templates

The very first task after settling on a URL of a blogger would be to select a template. Initially you can select any as they can be easily changed. However, eventually you will have to select the final template for the blog and that can either be a fixed width layout or a fluid (liquid) width layout.

Definition: Fixed layouts are layouts that start with a specific width for the main column and sidebars, determined by the template designer. They remain that width, regardless of the size of the browser window viewing the page. Fixed width layouts allow a designer more direct control over how the page will look in most situations. They are often preferred by designers with a print background, as they allow the designer to make minute adjustments to the layout and have them remain consistent across browsers and computers. (Fixed width layout)

Definition: Liquid layout are layouts that are based on percentages of the current browser window's size. They flex with the size of the window, even if the current viewer changes their browser size as they're viewing the site. Liquid width layouts allow a very efficient use of the space provided by any given Web browser window or screen resolution. They are often preferred by designers who have a lot of information to get across in as little space as possible, as they remain consistent in size and relative page weights regardless of who is viewing the page. (Liquid Layout)

The reason why some bloggers may opt for the fluid width template is that they want to fully utilize the whole width of a computer screen of a visitor so there will be no "wasted' blank space anywhere as the content of the blog will stretch or shrink according the the width of the computer screen. This however bring the disadvantage of not being in full control over how a visitor view the blog and may result in some unintended results such as when you add a wide photo which may look very awkward on a small narrow screen.

I very much prefer fixed width template as I will then know what are the limits of what I can put in the content with fixed widths.

How to create composite image of 2 photos side-by-side

I have shown how to display 2 images side by side using the HTML table tag <table> but because a blogger asked to display a particular pair of photos side by side which actually turned out to be a single composite picture of 2 photos side by side, I am going to illustrate how this alternative method do displaying 2 photos side-by-side using my favorite free Irfanview photo editor.

First I am going to upload 2 photos of some trishaws (pedicab, bikecab, cyclo, becak, or rickshaw or in my country, becha) taken during my holidays in idyllic Terengganu displayed below using HTML table tag
:



Say, supposed you are HTMLphbic, meaning you hate HTML, here is how to make a single composite image of 2 photos side-by-side. First, open Irfanview or similar photo editors. I then go to Menu > Create New (Empty) Image (see screen shot below) and create an empty image, say, 800x500. Using the mouse, drag and drop to select a rectangle roughly proportional to the size of the photo (see screen shot below, red arrow to highlight selected rectangle):

Screen shot 2

Now go to one of the photo, right-click on the photo and select COPY IMAGE to copy into clipboard (see screen shot below):

Screen shot 3

Now go to the first image that you want in the composite picture, either right-click on the image and select COPY IMAGE or go to the Menu, click EDIT > COPY IMAGE to copy image into clipboard. Now go back to the created image with the selected rectangle (screen shot 2), go to MENU > EDIT > PASTE and the first photo will be pasted into the selected triangle just like the screen shot below:



Now drag and drop to create the second selection (see screen shot above) and copy-paste the second photo and you will end up with the single composite photo with 2 images side-by-side: