Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Problems with design template explained

EDIT: Melissa is a God-send and has obviously helped me with the issue. Yay!!!!!
Melissa left a comment asking me to detail my template disaster. So here goes. (I thought this would be easier than doing it in comments..lol)

I have found a number of sites for 3-column blogger templates. They told me to copy the code and paste it into the html place on my settings. It also said I would need to revert back to classic blogger (which is an option under settings). I did that and it either didn't work or took away my ability to add blog posts and get into the settings area again. So, I was on LA's blog the other day and she was talking about a site that worked for her. The website is HERE.
The instructions on that site, which took forever to load for me, says that I should download the code then upload it where it says 'upload template' in my settings. Well, when I clicked on the design I wanted (either minima white or minima ochre) it just gave me the code...no option to download. So I tried the copy/paste thing and it didn't work. Kept throwing up an error about the code not being properly formed and tags needing to be closed. I left a comment for the guy and no answer. I am getting so fed up I want to scream!

It bugs me even more because I'm one of those anal people who likes things to be symmetrical. I want my blog in the middle and 'stuff' on either side. I hate that when I want to add something new it all goes on one side....it irritates me.

2 comments:

Melissa said...

This is what I thought you were going to say. But no use typing out my reply if I was *wrong!* :)

So...

#1: To download the templates on those pages: If clicking on the links isn't working for you, then, right click on a link and hold that "click" down. A menu should appear under your mouse. Select the option for "save to disk" or "download linked file" or "download target file" or whatever option looks similar to that when you right click on the link. -Different browsers word it differently. It should then download a file for you that has an .xml extension, which you can then upload in your blogger template html area.

#2: Cutting and pasting:
To fix this problem, check for two things...

FIRST, after you've pasted the code, go through and change every single and double quotation mark by hand (or use find and replace if your browser does that.) The single and double quotes that are being copied when you cut and past are a stylized kind and won't work correctly. You need normal boring ones. If no single or double quotes come up in your search, then copy and paste one of the ones from that code into your search field. Then it'll find them.

SECOND, make sure that all opening and closing tags are in the same case. For example: if you have an opening tag that looks like this
<div>

then the closing tag needs to look like this
</div>

Not like this

</DIV>

Blogger doesn't like when one tag is in upper case and another is in lower case. They have to both be upper case or both be lower case, otherwise they won't be recognized as a "matching pair."

Personally, I think your first option will be easier. Download an XML template and then upload it.

BEFORE YOU DO THIS:

-Make sure you download a copy of your current template so that if something goes wrong, you can re-upload it again.

-When you upload the new template, you may lose all or some of your side widgets, so copy all that information down in advance in case you have to re-add the widgets and their information to your sidebar(s) again. Your posts themselves should transfer fine.

Questions? :)

Melissa said...

Ooooh! Lookey! Yay! :)