Create Thumbnail Albums in Blogger with WLW.

To create thumbnail albums in Blogger posts we create tables and insert images in each table cell.  The process of coding a table in HTML is cumbersome and prone to errors.

In Windows Live Writer (WLW) this can be done with a few mouse clicks......

 

Start WLW. From the top menu click 'Insert'------>'Table'.  Choose how many rows and columns the table should have and it's width. Remember to keep the table width smaller than the post column width or this may break the template. Also you can choose whether to show table borders and/or the padding between cells.  Here I have inserted a two column-three row table.

Next click in each cell and choose 'Insert'----->'Picture'.

All Photos by law_keven

Select the file from your disk and click Open.  You can even select pictures from the web.

To add more pictures right click the last cell and choose 'Insert Row Below' to insert a new row in the table.

 

After inserting the pictures select each picture by clicking on it. In the right sidebar the Image Properties dialogue box opens. Here you can :

1. Resize pictures.
2. Rotate pictures.
3. Adjust picture contrast.
4. Frame pictures.
5. Add drop shadow to pictures.
6. Link each picture to any webpage or source picture.
7. Add watermark to pictures to deter copiers.
8. Add special effects like sepia, emboss, sharpen or blur pictures.
9. Add ALT text to the picture code. (This text appears if picture fails to load)
10. Adjust picture temperature.

 

If you are creating a photoblog you can create such a thumbnail gallery on the Main Page of the blog. Then link each picture to a post containing more pictures of the same kind.

 

For example first create a post containing a gallery of images like the one above.  This will be your animal gallery post.  Change the date of the post to a backdate so that the post does not appear on the Main Page. 

 

Then in your Main Gallery insert a small picture of an animal and link that picture to the post above containing many animal images.

 

Repeat the above two steps to create a whole photoblog containing picture-posts on various subjects all linked to the Main Gallery.

 

Enjoy!

The Minimalist Minima Photoblog Template.

The Minima Template or Layout is used whenever you want to customize your blog any which way you want. There are no graphics used in the template as are used in the Rounders template. The Rounders and other templates with graphics are more difficult to customize as the images have to be resized to the new dimension.


Here I have attempted to simplify the Minima template further by making it a single-column template. This will enable bloggers to upload large photos or wide videos in their blog without worrying about the sidebar falling down!




This template is useful to bloggers who wish to show off their content without any distracting sidebars. The first step was to increase the width of the template :


This was done by simply getting rid of the sidebar code in the Template Code box :

  <div id='sidebar-wrapper'>
        <b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>
<b:widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Blog Archive' type='BlogArchive'/>
<b:widget id='Profile1' locked='false' title='About Me' type='Profile'/>
</b:section>
      </div>

Then I increased the width of the main-wrapper in this code in the Template Code box :

#main-wrapper {
width: 660px;
....
}

This is the column containing the posts. If you want you can increase the width further depending on your monitor resolution. (Start button on Windows Taskbar---->Control Panel------>Display Properties----->Settings tab----->Lower left Screen Resolution in pixels).


Since the outer-wrapper contains the main-wrapper you have to increase width of former by same amount :

#outer-wrapper {
width: 660px;
...
}



The next step was to put in widgets in the footer. I have made three columns in the footer and you can add your widgets there. See picture below :





To outline the main column I have used a yellow color. If you wish to change the color you can change it in this code :

#main-wrapper {
width: 660px;
......
background:#ffff00 !important;
}

Change 'ffff00' to the hex number of the color you want and save template.


You can download the template here. Right click the link and choose "Save Link as" and save the XML template file to your desktop. Then upload template to blog.

This is a Layout template and cannot be used if you have a Classic template blog unless you upgrade blog to Layouts.