Step 3: Personalize your template, part 1

(Sorry for the long time lapse in continuing this blog; things have been insane around here and I haven't had time.)

So we now have a blog name and a template. Next, we fiddle around with the template and customize it.

To refresh, this is how the blog looks now:

One extremely nifty feature of blogger is that you can fix the design of the blog anytime when you're visiting the actual blog site instead of going to the dashboard every time. You can either hover over the little fixit icon on the corners of the gadget you want to fix - see the little icon at the lower left corner of the 'blog archive' section - and if you want to tinker with the overall design, just scroll up to the top of the page where it says DESIGN. Click there. It will direct you straight to your dashboard, to the template editing area. There you can see what your blog currently looks like in the regular and mobile versions. Click on the orange CUSTOMIZE button. You're now in the Template Designer.

Here you can continue tinkering around to your heart's content.... The options are limitless. You can go through all the different template types again if you don't like the one you currently have. I like the one I chose, Awesome Inc., so I'll stick with it. I did decide however that this color is way too bland and I changed it to the pink coloring. Immediately, you'll see the change right below on the very screen.

Go to the left and click on Backgrounds.

Now you can see the color theme that's the default for your template and template style, as well as the background image.

You can play around with the color themes, and you can also change the background picture for your blog. Click on the center of the picture and you will get a pop up with a listing of the many different background photos available in blogger. Scroll them; according to the theme of your blog you should be able to find something to suit your tastes. I chose something from "Food & Drink" for the recipe blog, the Family section for the autism blog, and the Business section for this very blog. You can also choose to keep your background clean or with the default image.  Or, you can choose upload image and upload a photo you have in your computer.

After playing around with the different images I realized I did not like that particular template of "Awesome" because it removed the neat boxes around the gadgets. Therefore I went back to Templates and chose the fourth "Awesome template" which gave me my boxes back.

As for the background picture, I went to Textures and chose this one.

I left the color theme intact for now.

Next, go to 'Adjust Widths'

I like when the actual posts are wider than Blogger's default. So I'm going to widen both the blog side of the template as well as the gadget side.

This is totally up to your taste. If you want more picture margins between the two sides of your blog, don't tamper with the widths. I do like less margin and wider boxes.

Next, click on LAYOUT.

Here you get to decide how many columns of gadgets you want, and on which side of the page you'd like them. Initially on the autism blog I had the default layout as pictured, but I found it way too cluttered, and switched to a single column. On this blog, I made the single column on the left side of the page, but generally I like it on the right side of the page. Im going to switch to a single column here too.

Theres something really nifty about the layout portion of the Template Designer; You can actually move your page elements around. If you decide you'd rather want the Archives first and About Me second, go ahead and simply switch them around. You can also click 'edit' on any page element and fix them inside. We will do that later on.

Okay, I think I've given you enough work for today. Next entry IYH we will tinker with the final and most fun part of the template designer, "Advanced" - which is the fonts and colors of the text of the page, more or less.

If any of you are really following my steps in setting up a blog, please share with me your blog address. I'd love to check it out. I can even use your blog as an example here and it can generate traffic for you. Let me know if you want individualized input on your blog.

Before you close your template designer, make sure to hit the orange button "Apply to Blog" so the changes don't get lost.

Catch ya later, y'all.