Basics of Blogging-Creating a Blog with a WordPress eBook

Basics of Blogging-Creating a Blog with a WordPress eBook

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Formatting Web Pages with CSS

So what is CSS, it actually means Cascading Style Sheets and they are made up of a collection of formatting rules that can control the appearance of content on a web page.

The whole purpose of  using CSS is to separate content from presentation. The actual content of the page is defined by the HTML (hyper text markup langauge) and is contained in the page itself. HTML defines what the content is, the body , a paragraph and so on. What CSS does is apply a style and format to the HTML so for instance you can use CSS to define exactly what the command does.

For a command this would typically be features like the font name, size, spacing, colour, etc anything related to style. It could also be used to define unit sizes such as whether your font is displayed in pixels or points for example. In fact it can define every feature of every HTML function from body, to headers, to bulleted lists, to backgrounds to everything else defined by the HTML code.

CSS is split into two parts -  the selector and the declaration.

The selector is the name assigned by the HTML i.e. 'p', 'body', etc. So the selector says what is going to be formatted.

The declaration is the style information and states what the style elements are. So looking at the example for 'p' :

p {
    text-align: left;
    margin-right: 5px;
    margin-left: 5px;
}

'p' is the selector and everything else that is contained between the {} is the declaration. So as you can see the declaration is also split into 2,  the property 'text align' and the value 'left'. Of course more properties can be added as appropriate for the 'selector in question. Also what needs to be understood is that where ever the
command is used by the HTML code that these properties will be applied as defined.

Using this facility means that your style and formatting can be updated very easily, when you update a CSS rule in one place the formatting of all the documents using that CSS rule will be adjusted accordingly; adopting the new style.

There are different types of rules: -

• Custom CSS rules or class styles - these allow you to apply style attributes to any range or block of text. They all begin with a period(.) An example would be to create a class called '.box_border' you could then define a background colour for the box, add a border of a certain width and define that in a different colour, then apply the apply it to a portion of already styled paragraph text, effectively overriding the properties for the properties for that portion. Hope that made sense.
  
• HTML tag rules -  these redefine the formatting for a particular tag, for example 'h1', 'p', 'body', etc.
• CSS selector rules, these are advanced styles and they redefine the formatting for a particular combination of elements or for other selector forms. For example a 'h2' header that appears in a table can be made different to a 'h2' that appears in the body text. Advanced styles can also redefine the formatting for tags that contain a specific id attribute. For example you could create an id called #menu1 and then the styles applied to '#menu1' would be applied to the attribute pair id="menu1".
  
  A good use for this would be the positioning and size of the menu as illustrated below: -

#Menu1 {
    position: absolute;
    height: 21px;
    width: 58px;
}

Type of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

There are 3 types of CSS

• Inline:  a one time style placed in the code
• Embedded:  a style sheet that controls the elements of only one page
• External: one external sheet that can control the appearance of multiple web pages by linking back to them.

It is not unusual for website designs to use all 3 types of the options in combination. There is no problem with this but to be true to the principles of CSS then every effort should be made to separate content from presentation as much as possible i.e. by putting all the CSS code into an external page (3rd option).

This will provide you with the following benefits: -

• You will maintain a consistent look across all pages linked to the style sheet
• You can easily update all the pages at once
• Your pages will be much smaller and will load more quickly

Something else to bear in mind is that different browsers apply the CSS coding in different ways, so checking in multiple browsers becomes essential for a proper solution to the design style.

A way of minimizing this problem is to apply standard practices to the design, and if you do you should enjoy increased longevity of the site, make it more accessible via different browsers and types of browsers and above all it will allow you to update and maintain your website with ease.

The Best Website Design Tools

With so many software programs available, deciding on the best option can be quite tricky for a budding web designer. It is my belief that if you are going to seriously consider making web design a career move that you should adopt and learn the industry standard software. The reason it is the industry standard is simple, its because it is the best.

My lens on Web Design Tools goes into more detail and a review of what I consider to be the best design tools available.

This image was produced to illustrate navigation systems and was produced entirely using my recommended graphics software.

Duplicate Content Penalty – Real or Myth? | A Good Time is Blog Time

Duplicate Content Penalty – Real or Myth? | A Good Time is Blog Time:


If you know the difference between good and bad duplicate content you can avoid having your website or blog penalised by the search engines. This is especially important if you are submitting articles in support of your online publications.


This has been a long discussed and often misunderstood ruling, find out the facts by visiting A Good Time is Blog Time.

Moulin Website Design is now Live

OK I think I have kept you waiting long enough, my new website is now officially published and can be found at Moulin Website Design, Languedoc Roussillon, France.

I really like the site and I am very pleased with it, so if you like the look of what you see and would like a similar website or something completely different, as Monty Python used to say, then please get in touch.

You can contact me though the 'Contact Us' page on the website and I will be very happy to discuss any requirements you have for website design

Don't forget, you don't even have to be in France to commission a design, there is plenty that can be done to sort out a specification across the Internet, by email or on the phone.

Moulin Website Design - New Website

It has come to that time when I have recognised the pressing need to release a new full blown website in support of my website design activities. So I am currently in the process of putting the final touches to the brand new Moulin Website Design pages.

I thought it might be good to give you a quick look at the new home page as a little taster before final release, so here it is.

I am pretty excited about it and really looking forward to taking it live for all to see and use.

There is a lot of great information on the site and I am sure you will enjoy having a read of what I have put together, some of which is completely new and some you may already have become familiar with.




The design when finished will be available at http://moulinwebsitedesign.com/ and is where you will be able to see exactly what services we have to offer in a much friendlier format than using the blog arrangement. Don't fear however, the blog will be remaining alive and well after the release (perhaps with a little bit of a revamp as well) as an important part of the whole website designing service on offer.

OK I know I should have done this ages ago but better late than never.

Changing your Google Blogger Template

Changing your Google Blogger template is a fairly straight forward process and can be done relatively quickly and problem free particularly if you are changing one of the standard templates for another.

Making a backup

Before you start making any changes it is a good idea to create a full back up of your blog. To do this go to Layout tab via 'Customise' in your menu bar at the top of your blog view, assuming you are signed in of course.

Select 'Edit HTML' where you will see a 'Download Full Template' hyperlink.



Click on the link and from the call to action box check the 'Save File As' option and then click 'OK'.

This will download a full copy of your existing blog and all its settings to your hard drive as an XML file. Just remember to note where you are saving it to so you can find it again and jot down the full file name in case you have to search for it.




Restoring your blog is done from the same screen and all you do is browse to the required XML file i.e. the one you saved earlier and then click on 'Upload'. Your original file will then be written into your code box, hopefully you will not need this option.

To replace your template with a standard Blogger template

Still in the 'Layout' tab you can select 'Pick New Template', you will then be presented with a number of different template choices with options to change the colours to one of preference.

You can preview each template in the the various colors, so its simply a case of working through the various templates and having a look, then when you find one you really like simply click on 'Save Template' then go and view the finished result.


You may find that some of your pictures and text may need tweaking slightly if you have selected a completely different arrangement i.e. the positioning may not be optimal, but other than that things should have been configured pretty much automatically with all your widgets and ads still in place.

To modify the header of your blog so that you can use an image of choice, you go to the 'Page Elements' option from the 'Layout' tab and where it says 'Creating a blog (Header)' click on the 'Edit' hyperlink.






You will now be presented with a box that allows you to upload an image that can either sit behind your existing header text or can replace it completely.

If you have no photo editing software it would be a good idea to click the 'shrink to fit' check box so that the image is automatically sized to the right width for your blog, assuming it has more pixels than the blog width in the first place.



Make your choice for replacing or sitting behind your current header then click on'Save'.

You can go and look to see what it looks like by viewing your blog. If you don't like it go back to the same screen and select 'remove image' and save. That will put you back where you started.

Photoshop Elements is a great software program for editing your graphics to the size and format you want for that special effect, check out the details by clicking on the link.









Using a 3rd party template

There are lots of free Blogger templates on the Internet, I provided a post on some free templates earlier where you can access a few options.

For this particular source of templates you will need to copy the code they provide you with into the Edit HTML box of your blog.

This is done in the 'Edit HTML' screen you visited earlier when making a backup of your blog, simply delete all the code that is in the box and replace it with the code from your 3rd party supplier.

You can preview the result before saving and simply discard the changes if you don't like the look of the finished result.

A word of warning, many of the templates produced come with some errors, so you need to be sure the look is worth the risk.

Also many of the standard widgets you had installed could be lost and you may need to figure out how to put them back. This may or may not be easy and could require a level of tweaking and perhaps sacrificing some of the options you previously had working for a better look.

That said, often the templates are fine and don't cause any problems, also don't forget with a full back up available you can always just revert to your old format, so its not that big a risk.

While we are on the subject of the 'Edit HTML' screen, this is where you can go to play around with colors, sizes and other options, it depends on what you are trying to achieve how much you change these parameters, but you can configure things to look significantly different from here.

Always create a full back up before you start so you can go back if you need to and remember you can preview and discard before saving if you don't like what changed.

Knowing coding certainly helps when you are editing HTML code but there are some things that can be changed even by a complete novice without too much risk, colours, widths, font types and so on, you just have to be careful and check as you go along.

So there you have it, go make your Blogger blog look a little more unique.

Website Search Optimization-Link Building Strategies

Website Search Optimization-Link Building Strategies

Latest post on Website search optimization looking at the multiple way of finding and adding back links to your website. There are do's and dont's involved in any linking strategy, get it wrong and it could spell disaster but get it right and you will have traffic flooding to your site.

Find out what part of the strategy is likely to be the most effective and a few ways of linking that you may not have thought about.

Website Search Optimization

So many bloggers and webmasters sacrifice the best content, grammar and fluidity of their writing so that they can include what they consider to be the best search engine optimized keywords in their text that are exact matches to high volume enquiries.

Question is whether that is a good or bad strategy, will it bring and retain more traffic to the site or ultimately will it be detrimental and a self defeating strategy.

Have a look at Blog Writing to find out the answer and the reasoning behind the conclusions.

Build a Blog Community with Google Friend Connect

Build a Blog Community with Google Friend Connect

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This is my latest post on 'A Good Time is Blog Time' detailing the why and how for adding Google's friend connect to a blog or website other than a Blogger or Blogspot Blog.

It really concentrates on the importance of a webmaster using the tools at his disposal to make life easier for anyone visiting his site.

Think of it as being a facilitator, someone who's objective is to make a site visitors experience a pleasant one when they land.

Doing routine tasks such as leaving a comment, asking a question, registering interest or sharing information with friends should be a simple and easily applied process. Make these kinds of tasks difficult and you should not be surprised if no one hangs around.

Take a look at A Good Time is Blog Time for a bit more of a detailed explanation.