How to Center the Blogger Header Image

The header of a website is what distinguishes your blog; it's your identity or digital fingerprint. Whenever a visitor accesses your blog for the first time, the header is one major aspect that is used to determine who you are and the type of content that they can expect to read. Therefore, it's important to develop a header that is both prominently placed and telling of your brand name.

What would seem to be counterintuitive to that idea is the default Blogger settings for header positioning. Whenever you upload a header to the site, it will automatically be aligned to the left of the page. Some Blogger users may be okay with this setting, especially if they are using a header design that doesn't contain a background. Others may find that their background headers appear cut off, incomplete, or indistinguishable from the rest of their content.

If you find yourself in the second category of users, there is a way to adjust the positioning of your header so that it is displayed as a center Blogger header. By centering your site header, you have greater flexibility over the overall design, and it allows you to really shine light on this content. It's hard to miss a header that is placed smack dab in the middle of the screen on every page that someone navigates to.

Center Header Image with Blogger Template Designer

Making the change is relatively easy. You'll be able to make these adjustments on every page of your Blogger blog without having to change them individually. All you need to do is to modify the CSS of your blog that can be found directly through your Blogger dashboard. Even if you have little to no experience in web design or coding, you can center Blogger header by following these next few steps.

Step 1. Log in your blogger account and select your blog, then go to "Template" and click the "Customize" button on the right side.

Step 2. Navigate to "Advanced" > "Add CSS" tab and paste the code in the empty box:

#header-inner {
background-position: center !important;
width: 100% !important;
text-align: center;
}
#header-inner img {
margin: auto;
}

If you have a small image and you want it to become full width, add this CSS instead:

#header-inner {
 background-size: cover;
 width: 100% !important;
 text-align: center;
 }
 #header-inner img {
 width: 100%;
 height: 100%;
 }

Step 3. Hit the ENTER key after you paste the code snippet, then click the "Apply to Blog" button.

Here are some other aligning options for your headers:

Align Blogger Header Banner and Text Side by Side

Image on the right and title on the left

#header-inner {
background-position: right !important;
width: 100% !important;
}
.titlewrapper, .descriptionwrapper {
float: left;
clear: both;
margin-left: 20px;
}

Image on the left and title on the right

#header-inner {
background-position: left !important;
width: 100% !important;
}
.titlewrapper, .descriptionwrapper {
float: right;
clear: both;
margin-right: 20px;
}

Note: for larger images, you may need to resize them in order to make them appear side by side with the text.

That's it!

After making the changes to the CSS and saving your modifications, you may navigate back to your homepage. Refresh the page and you'll notice that the header is now centered, instead of on the left. Click on a few of your page links and make sure that this modification has been made to every page or post on the blog.

If by chance you don't see the changes to the header, go back through the code that you modified and make sure that you have copied and pasted the information into the file exactly as instructed. Even minor modifications in the code, or a missing semicolon may fail to make the changes you are trying to achieve, or come away with different results than what's expected.

The great thing about CSS is that it is your site's central hub for all things design. From the CSS file, you can modify just about any appearance on your site to give the blog a custom look and feel. Once you're comfortable performing minor adjustments to the appearance of your site, you can start to get creative and come up with your very own modifications.

Make Blogger Header, Navigation and Footer Full Width

Blogger is a user-friendly service that provides a lot of really attractive looking default templates for those just starting out. Default templates come in handy, but the nice things about owning your own blog is that you have the chance to add your own personal touch. As a matter of fact, templates aren't made to restrict your freedom of design, but instead they're there to provide you a foundation to build from. With every default template available on Blogger, you can make changes to fit your style.

One of the most common requests out of the Blogger community when making alterations is how to change the look of some of the key sections like headers, navigation, and footers. Initially, these items are designed to fit within just 1/3 of the page, surrounded by padding and margins on either side. These margins are used to give the page a slim fitting appearance, but could also cause your content to look compressed.

Important: Backup your Template

Making the changes to a full screen Blogger navigation, footer, or header can be done and won't take you much time. Before you can make any changes, you should save extra copies of the template .xml file in case anything goes wrong. That way, if you don't like it or it doesn't come out looking like it should, you can reuse the contents of the original file to restore your blog to working condition.

Demo

Hover your mouse over the image to see a before and after example:

How to Make Header, Navigation and Footer Full Width in Blogger

Step #1: Access Your CSS File

If you've never opened up your CSS file before, log in to your Blogger account, select your blog and navigate to Template > Edit HTML. This will bring up the code of your template containing all your blog's internal files in one place.

Step #2: Modify the Background

Click anywhere inside the code area > press CTRL + F keys and type the following line > hit Enter to find it (stop at the first occurrence of it):

body {

Just below body { you should see some lines that will look like this:

body {
font: $(body.font);
color: $(body.text.color);
background: $(body.background);
padding: 0 $(content.shadow.spread) $(content.shadow.spread) $(content.shadow.spread);
$(body.background.override)
}

Where you see the highlighted line above in the code, remove the line and replace it with:

padding: 0px;

Different templates will have minor variations, but you should still be able to find these lines within every template.

Step #3: Change the Content Section

Next, search using the CTRL+F keys for this part:

.content-inner {

Just below it, you will see this line:

.content-inner {
padding: $(content.padding) $(content.padding.horizontal); 
}

Remove the line in red and replace it with:

padding: 0px;

This will remove any of the padding around the inner content, so it won't leave any room on both sides.

Now find this part:

$(content.background.color.selector){

Just below it you will see this line:

$(content.background.color.selector){
background-color: $(content.background.color);
}

Replace the line in red with:

background-color: $(body.background);

Finally, search for this tag:

]]></b:skin>

And just above it, add this CSS:

.main-outer {
background: $(content.background.color);
}

Step #4: Make the Content Outer Full Width

Content is displayed differently between browsers, so you'll next want to fix this so that it alters the width across the board. This code can be found searching for:

.content-outer, .content-fauxcolumn-outer, .region-inner {

And just below it you will see the following lines:

.content-outer, .content-fauxcolumn-outer, .region-inner {
min-width: $(content.width);
max-width: $(content.width);
_width: $(content.width);
}

Delete the line in red and replace that line with:

max-width: 100%;

Step #5: Finish It Up

Now you have just two more lines you need to change. Look for:

</b:template-skin>

And click on the right arrow to expand the styles. Note: you will need to search for </b:template-skin> tag again, and just before it you'll see these symbols highlighted in yellow:

]]>
</b:template-skin>

Above this ]]></b:template-skin> section of code, add the following:

.main-outer {
max-width: $(content.width);
margin: 0 auto;
}

Then run a search for:

]]></b:skin>

Add these lines of code just before/above it:

.tabs-inner {
padding: 0px;
}
.section {
margin: 0px;
}
.header-inner .widget {
margin: 0px;
}

Save the template and exit out of the editor.

Finished!

Following along with this tutorial won't affect or alter the pictures you are using on the blog, just the design of the content area. If you have a logo that stretches across the screen and fits perfectly for 1/3 page header, you will need to resize and re-upload this content so that it is able to work with the new adjustments.

Automatically Resize Blogger Images to Fit Blog Post Area

Blogger offers most of the tools you would need to add and resize Blogger images quick and easy. You can upload photos directly on the platform and even change the dimensions based on the type of content that you are attempting to produce.

In order to do this, create a post and click on the small photo icon on the top toolbar next to the font style settings. A pop-up will show up on your screen asking you where you'd like to upload the image source. You have a choice between adding pictures from:

- Your local computer
- Previously uploaded images on the blog
- Picasa Web Albums
- An image URL

Once you select the image that you want to use, you'll see four image sizes to choose from - small, medium, large, and x-large; it also gives you the option to determine the alignment. If you find that the four preset dimensions aren't providing the outcome you desire, there are easy ways to resize Blogger images to custom dimensions in order to fit your blog post area.

Step #1: Retain the Image Quality

If you know that you are going to need to resize Blogger images once you post them to your blog, make sure that you start with a photo larger than the 640px dimensions of the x-large option. It's easy to bring an image down in size, but if you try to make a small image bigger, you'll lose some of the quality. Just make sure that you watch out for the file size containing the image; the larger the file, the slower it will load on your website.

Photoshop is a powerful image editor that can help you to resize Blogger images or modify your images before you post, but it is also an expensive investment. There are also many other freeware image editors that can perform the simple task of resizing the photo. Determine what size you'd like the photo to display on the page and manually resize Blogger images to those dimensions; other users have found that 700px is a pretty flexible width size that works well on posts.

Once you've got your photo resized and added to your post, click on it and choose the 'Original size' option. If your photos are going to exceed the post editor, it probably means that they are larger than the body of your post, so let's fix that and make them fit exactly.

Step #2: Modify The Site's CSS

Next, you'll want to modify the CSS of your Blogger template to accommodate the adjustments. Don't worry; you won't need much coding experience to complete this task.

Open up the Blogger dashboard and go to 'Template' > 'Customize'. You'll see the option for 'Advanced', click on it and find your way to the 'Add CSS' tab... paste the following CSS code inside the empty box:

.post-body img {
max-width: 100%;
max-height: auto;
display: block;
margin: auto;
}

Adding the code to this section, automatically adds it between the <b:skin>....<b:skin> tags of your Template (Template > Edit HTML, above the ]]></b:skin> tag). So, no matter whether you add it above ]]></b:skin> or within the Add CSS box, the effect should be the same.

Remember that when you make changes to the CSS of the blog's Template, these changes will affect every post previously added, using the "Original size" dimension option.

To spruce up the post even more, add the last three lines shown in green below:

.post-body img {
max-width: 100%;
max-height: auto;
display: block;
margin: auto;
box-shadow: none;
border: none;
padding: 0px;
}

Screenshot

This code will get rid of any borders and padding around the image and give it a much more natural look within the post. Hit the "Apply to Blog" button once you've finished adding it.

Note: This will only change the images set to Original size. To resize images with different sizes and apply this change on ALL the pictures added to your posts, add this CSS instead:

.post-body img {
width:100%;
height:100%;
display: block;
}

Please consider that, if you have posts with photos floating either on the right or left side of the content, they will automatically go full width.

Step #3: Create A Post

After making the adjustments to both file size and CSS, you may go back to the post editor and repeat the Step 1 to add an image. When you return to the screen that asks for size, click on the "Original size" option and confirm your choice. Your newly added image will then be displayed with the adjustments that you created, so that it fits nicely the width of the post area.

What is the difference between padding and margins?

For those who would like to know more about HTML and CSS, today we will see about the difference between margin and padding CSS properties which allow us to add blank space between the HTML elements, preventing the elements from getting 'stuck' together.

Although both possess similar functions, each has its particularity. 

1. Padding determines the inner margins, being responsible for determining the distance between the content of a given element and its border.
2. Margin is applied to the outside of an element affecting how far the element is away from other elements.

For more info, please take a look at the picture below:

Difference between margin and padding

Just as you have the option to define the borders for each side of your HTML elements (eg. borders in the sidebar), you can do the same with the margin and padding properties. All you need to to do is to change the top, right, bottom and left values??.
These values ??that you can select include: pixels (px), centimeters (cm), millimeters (mm). em units (em), x-height (ex), inches (in), picas (pc) and point sizes (pt).

By using margin and padding, you should add each value set in the four corners, as follows: top, right, bottom, left and each value must refer to each side of the HTML element. The first value is for the top, and they follow a clockwise direction, so the value would be close to the right, then bottom and finally, left.

Example 1: 

padding:5px 15px 5px 15px;
- top padding is 5px 
- right padding is 15px 
- bottom padding is 5px 
- left padding is 15px  

margin: 10px 5px 10px 5px;
- top margin is 10px
- right margin is 5px
- bottom margin is 10px
- left margin is 5px

If you define a single value, the distance applies to all sides, so it will be applied to the 4 sides of the HTML element that you want to modify.

Example 2:
padding: 5px (top and bottom) 15px (left and right);
margin: 10px (top and bottom) 5px (left and right);

If it helps to do it visually, think of an A4 page of type inside a picture frame. The margin is the space between the edge of the sheet of paper and the other elements (the parts of the frame) and the padding would be the space between the edge of the sheet and where the type starts on the page. The border would be the edge of the sheet of paper.

It's probably easier to understand if you have borders, then it also becomes obvious which one to use. Do you want the "space" after the border (outside the element = margin) or before the border (inside the element = padding).

How to Add CSS code To Blogger using Template Designer

If you are having difficulties adding the CSS codes in a Blogger template, here's a short guide that will show you a more practical and fast way to add CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) so that it will be easier for you to customize your blog.

Some readers have complained that when they had to add the CSS codes to install some feature in Blogger, they found it difficult to locate the ]]></b:skin> tag. So, I decided to make this quick tutorial to show you another way of adding the CSS without having to access the Blogger HTML editor.

Adding CSS via the Blogger Template Designer

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and select the blog that you want to customize.

Step 2. From the Blogger dashboard, choose "Template" and click on the "Customize" button.

Step 3. Click on the "Advanced" tab.

Step 4. Now just add your CSS code inside the right field, located in the "Add CSS" tab (if you have more options, you may need to scroll down the list). Here you can add any CSS code when you want to apply a new style to your template.

Step 5. Once added, click on the "Apply to blog" button to save the changes.

Following this method you can't edit the existing CSS styles already added in your template, which will require to access the template's HTML and make the modifications there. Here you can only add new styles and edit the existing styles added through the Template Designer panel.

It is also important to mention that when adding the CSS styles, it isn't required to put the <style type="text/css"> ... </style> style tags, which normally would go above the </head> tag of the template html. Adding those tags may result in an error.

If you change the template, the CSS added here will be removed. The same goes for any other additions or CSS customizations made ??through the Template HTML editor.

CSS3 Transition Property Basics

You can see on various blogs an interesting effect on some links. Most of the time, when you hover over a link, something changes in its style: it will either change its color or background or will become underlined. What about this cool effect that consists in gradual transition from one style to another, as you can see in this demo below:

Hover Over Me!

This transition is achieved by using the CSS3 transition property - property which is supported in all major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari (for Safari we will need the -webkit- prefix to get this effect).

The CSS3 Transition Syntax

The syntax of the transition supports four values:
- the property affected by the transition, such as color, border, background, width, etc.
- the duration of this transition in seconds, i.e., how long it will take to change your style completely
- the delay time for the transition to be executed, also in seconds, i.e., how long it takes for the transition to start when the mouse hovers over that element;

Check out the code below:

.example {
 transition-property: width; /* property that undergoes a transition */
 transition-duration: 2s; /* duration of the transition */
 transition-timing-function: linear; /* timing-function */
 transition-delay: 0; /* length of time to delay the start of a transition */
/* now we will repeat the entire declaration with the -webkit- prefix for the effect to work in Chrome and Safari */
 -webkit-transition-property: width;
 -webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
 -webkit-transition-timing-function: linear;
 -webkit-transition-delay: 0;
}

In the example above, the elements with the class .example will become wide within two seconds as the mouse passes over them.

When we define the style of a link, usually we need to use the a:link selector, and when defining the style when the mouse is over the link, we need to use the :hover selector. However, the transition can be used in any HTML element, not just links. To make the transition effect to work properly, we should define two blocks of style for that element, i.e. the normal style for a tag/id/class and the style on mouse :hover for a specific tag/id/class.

For example:

tag, #id, .class {
/* insert here the styles that you want for the selector */
/* insert below the transition effects */
}
tag:hover, #id:hover, class:hover {
/* Insert here the styles for when the mouse is over the element */
/* here it is not necessary to repeat the declaration of the transition */
}

You can add the same style on multiple selectors separated by commas as I have done above, although that's not necessary.

Below are some transition examples with their respective codes.

I will not use the transition-timing-function in these examples because it makes no difference, as the first value is the duration in seconds and the second is the delay.

Example 1

Transition example

/* with a single property */
#example1 {
 background-color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}
#example1:hover {
background-color: #B5E2FF;
}

Example 2

Transition example

/* with four properties and delay */
#example2 {
background-color: #9c3;
border: 8px solid #690;
padding: 20px;
color: #fff;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,border;
-moz-transition-duration: 1s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,border;
-webkit-transition-duration: 1s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,border;
-o-transition-duration: 1s;
}
#example2:hover {
background-color: #690;
border: 8px dashed #fff;
color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,border;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,border;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,border;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}

Example 3

Transition example

/* with seven properties and delay */
#example3 {
padding: 15px;
background-color: #FF7CA6;
font-size: 16px;
width: 30%;
font-weight: bold;
color: #fff;
height: 20px;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-moz-transition-duration: 1s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 1s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-o-transition-duration: 1s;
}
#example3:hover {
background-color:#9c3;
width: 60%;
height: 60px;
padding: 50px;
font-size: 30px;
color: #FFFF00;
-moz-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-moz-transition-duration: 2s;
-webkit-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
-o-transition-property: background-color,width,height,padding,font-size,color;
-o-transition-duration: 2s;
}

Example 4

Transition example

/* with all the properties simultaneously */
#example4 {
padding: 15px;
background-color: #9c3;
color: #fff;
font-size: 16px;
width: 30%;
font-weight: bold;
transition: all 2s;
-webkit-transition: all 2s;
}
#example4:hover {
background-color: #FF7CA6;
color: #242424;
width: 60%;
}

Final words:

- the transition declarations need to appear in the CSS. In Blogger, the CSS is located before ]]</b:skin>
- as you can see in the examples above, you can assign different rules for the transitions of different elements in a single rule - just separate them with commas.
- it is not mandatory to use the four properties in the transition declaration, but their order must always look like this: property/duration/timing-function/delay.
- the duration and delay values ??must be expressed in seconds, but sometimes a second is a long time for a transition. In this case you can use values with milliseconds, for example, .5s means half a second.
- In small time intervals, the timing of the transition-function property does not give a remarkable effect being most useful only in more advanced animations. The possible values are either ease (the default, which makes the transition with a slow beginning, then gets faster and ends slowly), linear (the same transition speed from beginning to end), ease-in (transition begins slowly and then the speed increases), ease-out (transition starts fast and slows down at the end) and ease-in-out.

How to Increase Thumbnail Resolution on Blogger

When we add a widget on Blogger, the thumbnails will keep a default size of 72 x 72px which might not look good if we try to make them bigger using only CSS. However, with a bit of JavaScript we'll be able to replace the thumbnail with the same image of higher resolution and this way, larger images will no longer appear blurry.

In this tutorial we will see how we can replace the default thumbnail size of the popular posts widget even though we can apply this trick on any of the blog widgets.

Demo Blog.

Changing the Thumbnail Size for the Popular Posts Widget

Step 1. First, let's add the Popular posts gadget by going to Layout > click on the Add a gadget link and select Popular Posts from the popup window.

Step 2. Next, go to Template > click on the Edit HTML button > click anywhere inside the code area and press CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box.

Step 3. Type or paste the following tag inside the search box then hit Enter to find it:

</head>

After you found the </head> tag, add this CSS above it:

<style type='text/css'>
.PopularPosts .item-thumbnail a {
clip: auto;
display: block;
height: 130px;
margin: 0 0px 5px;
overflow: hidden;
width: 210px;
border: 2px solid #EEEEEE;
border-radius: 20px;
}
.PopularPosts .item-thumbnail img {
position: relative;
top: -30px;
transition:all .2s linear;
 -o-transition:all .5s linear;
-moz-transition:all .2s linear;
-webkit-transition:all .2s linear;
}
.PopularPosts .item-thumbnail img:hover{
opacity:.6;
filter:alpha(opacity=60)
}
.PopularPosts .widget-content ul li {
background: #F9F9F9;
border: 2px solid #EEEEEE;
border-radius: 10px;
box-shadow: 0 4px 10px #EEEEEE;
color: #555555;
padding: 10px;
margin-bottom: 5px;
}
.PopularPosts .item-title {
clear: both
font: 14px Cambria,Georgia, sans-serif;
color: #2288BB;
font-weight: bold;
text-transform: uppercase;
text-align: center;
}
.PopularPosts .item-snippet {
display: none;
}
.widget .widget-item-control a img {
height: 18px;
width: 18px;
}
</style>

Step 4. Now search for this tag:

</body>

... and just above it, add this script:

<script type='text/javascript'>                  
function changeThumbSize(id,size){
var blogGadget = document.getElementById(id);
var replacement = blogGadget.innerHTML;
blogGadget.innerHTML = replacement.replace(/s72-c/g,"s"+size+"-c");
var thumbnails = blogGadget.getElementsByTagName("img");
for(var i=0;i&lt;thumbnails.length;i++){
thumbnails[i].width = size;
thumbnails[i].height = size;
}
}
changeThumbSize("PopularPosts1",210);                  
</script>

What I highlighted in red is the widget ID for the Popular Posts gadget. To change the thumbnail size for any of your blog widgets, first you need to find the gadget/widget ID and then add a line below this part:

changeThumbSize("PopularPosts1",210);
changeThumbSize("widget-ID-HERE",210);

 ... and replace widget-ID-HERE text with the ID of that widget/gadget.

Note: you won't see the changes if the widget has a class selector - for this you may need to change class with id and replace the dot "." symbol with "#" within the CSS...

If you don't know how to find the id of a particular widget, please check out this tutorial on How to Use Firebug to Design a Blogger blog.

Step 5. Finally, press the Save Template to save the changes. And that's it!

How to create click events using CSS

An event is something that happens when we do something. In CSS, the most common is the hover selector which helps us to select elements when we mouse over them and then an event is executed automatically. There is one way to avoid this since in modern browsers there is a property called pointer-events which allows us to disable them. For instance, if we have a link and we set the pointer-events property value to none, it would simply not work:

<a href="page-url" style="pointer-events: none;">Click here</a>

Many use :target to make it work, however, this is not always the best choice if we consider its jumping behavior - click on the link below to see what happens:

Link with target

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam eu cursus dui, ac fermentum eros. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce elementum sapien et augue fringilla aliquam. Ut a viverra libero, eget commodo nisi. Maecenas ultrices facilisis dignissim.

<style>
#linktarget {display: none;}
#linktarget:target {display: block;}
</style>
<a href="#linktarget">Link with target</a>
<div id="linktarget">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam eu cursus dui, ac fermentum eros. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce elementum sapien et augue fringilla aliquam. Ut a viverra libero, eget commodo nisi. Maecenas ultrices facilisis dignissim.
</div>

Another option is to use the :focus selector which will make the hidden content to expand on mouse click.
The advantage of this selector is that the page stays still, however, we have to click anywhere "outside" to close the expanded content and besides this, the hidden content should be immediately after, with no intermediate tags:

Demo with focus

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam eu cursus dui, ac fermentum eros. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce elementum sapien et augue fringilla aliquam. Ut a viverra libero, eget commodo nisi. Maecenas ultrices facilisis dignissim.

<style>
.focuselector {display: none;}
span:focus ~ .focuselector {display: block;}
</style>
<span tabindex="0">Link with focus</span>
<div class="focuselector">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam eu cursus dui, ac fermentum eros. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce elementum sapien et augue fringilla aliquam. Ut a viverra libero, eget commodo nisi. Maecenas ultrices facilisis dignissim.
</div>

The last method is more fancy even though it requires more tags but it works the best since it allows us to create a toggle effect, i.e., expand on click and then collapse when clicking again. In this case, we'll use the :checked selector:

Demo with checked

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam eu cursus dui, ac fermentum eros. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce elementum sapien et augue fringilla aliquam. Ut a viverra libero, eget commodo nisi. Maecenas ultrices facilisis dignissim.

<style>
.checked-selector {display: none;}
:checked ~ .checked-selector {display: block;}
input.hidden[type=checkbox] {position: absolute;left: -999em;}
</style>

<label for="toggle-hidden">Demo with checked</label>
<input type="checkbox" id="toggle-hidden" class="hidden" />
<div class="checked-selector">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam eu cursus dui, ac fermentum eros. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce elementum sapien et augue fringilla aliquam. Ut a viverra libero, eget commodo nisi. Maecenas ultrices facilisis dignissim.
</div>

To apply these effects on the links and content that you want to hide and expand only on mouse click is very easy: when you create a post, paste one of the codes above inside the HTML box and replace the text in blue with the name of your link and add your text instead of the green one.

Create a CSS Image Slider with Thumbnails for Blogger

Image galleries/sliders are particularly useful for photoblogs, but they could also serve those who occasionally need a gadget like this. As we saw in a previous tutorial, on the top of the block we had some small thumbnails which were enlarged at the bottom each time an image was selected. The difference is that there we had to click the thumbnail in order to show a larger version and that was acquired with JavaScript.

This time will use only hover and CSS.

DEMO

How to Add A CSS Image Slider with Thumbnails to Blogger

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger Dashboard and go to Template > Edit HTML

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box

Step 3. Paste the </head> tag inside the search box and hit Enter.

Step 4. Just above the </head> tag, add this code:

<style type='text/css'>
.image-container {
position: relative;
width: 640px;
height: 530px;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align:center;
overflow: hidden;
}
.image-container a {
display: inline;
text-decoration: none;
}
/* Mini-thumbnails style */
.mini-thumbnail {
width: 18%; /* mini-thumbnails width */
margin:1px;
opacity: 1;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
-moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
box-shadow: 0px 0px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
}
/* Style for the main thumbnail */
.large-thumbnail {
position: absolute;
width: 100%;
top: 800px;
margin:0 auto;
text-align: center;
display: block;
-webkit-transition: top 1s ease;
-moz-transition: top 1s ease;
-o-transition: top 1s ease;
-ms-transition: top 1s ease;
transition: top 1s ease;
}
.feature {
top: 110px;
width: 100%;
opacity: .3;
}
/* style for the selected mini-thumbnail */
a:hover .mini-thumbnail {
opacity: .5;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
-moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
}
/* transition effects for the selected image */
a:hover .large-thumbnail {
top: 110px;
width: 100%;
z-index:3;
opacity: 1;
-webkit-transition: top 1s ease;
-moz-transition: top 1s ease;
-o-transition: top 1s ease;
-ms-transition: top 1s ease;
transition: top 1s ease;
}
</style>

Here we set a specific height (530px) and width (640px) so that we can slide an image out of the bounds of the container and have it be hidden (overflow:hidden);
The absolute positioning on the larger thumbnails (.large-thumbnail) pulls them out and places them specifically in the spot that we've chosen using a value of 800px for the top property;
The mini-thumbnails which are actually a second image remain all the time above in a static position and are altered only slightly in terms of style for distinguishing the active (a:hover .mini-thumbnail) on mouse over.
Step 5. Save the changes by clicking on the Save template button.

And finally, we need to add the HTML code.

Step 6. Paste the below HTML structure to where you want to display the gallery by going either to Layout and add a new gadget (click on the Add a gadget link and choose HTML/JavaScript), or inside a post or page within the HTML section.

<div class="image-container">
<a href="javascript:void(0);">
<img class="mini-thumbnail" src="MINI-THUMB-URL1" />
<img class="large-thumbnail" src="LARGE-THUMB-URL1" />
</a>
<a href="javascript:void(0);">
<img class="mini-thumbnail" src="MINI-THUMB-URL2" />
<img class="large-thumbnail" src="LARGE-THUMB-URL2" />
</a>
<a href="javascript:void(0);">
<img class="mini-thumbnail" src="MINI-THUMB-URL3" />
<img class="large-thumbnail" src="LARGE-THUMB-URL3" />
</a>
<a href="javascript:void(0);">
<img class="mini-thumbnail" src="MINI-THUMB-URL4" />
<img class="large-thumbnail" src="LARGE-THUMB-URL4" />
</a>
<a href="javascript:void(0);">
<img class="mini-thumbnail" src="MINI-THUMB-URL5" />
<img class="large-thumbnail" src="LARGE-THUMB-URL5" />
</a>
<a href="javascript:void(0);">
<img class="large-thumbnail feature" src="LARGE-THUMB-URL1" />
</a>
</div>

In this example we left the link empty (javascript:void(0);) but you can add one if you want - just replace javascript:void(0); with the url of your page/post.
To add pics inside the image slider just replace MINI-THUMB-URL and LARGE-THUMB-URL texts with the URL of your images. Note: The last LARGE-THUMB-URL1 should be replaced with the URL of the default image that will appear on your slider. 

If you need more information on how to get the URL of images, I recommend you reading this tutorial:
How to Upload Images and Get the URL

Finally, save your widget/gadget or publish your page/post and that's it! Enjoy :)

How to add a thumbnail image/photo gallery in Blogger

For those who would like to show pictures in an image gallery, here's a beautiful gallery made with JavaScript and CSS. This image gallery displays the available thumbnails either vertically or horizontally on top of the selected picture, thus making it easier for you to pick different images on mouse click.

With the help of CSS, we can make the <img> element to display on same position with the rest of the thumbs and style the thumbnails as small blocks with a defined height/width. The script will add a click-event for each <li> object that changes it's child's <img> visibility and will assign an "active" class name to the <li>.

Related:
Image Slider with Mouse Hover Effect using only CSS
Possibly the Most Simple jQuery Slider
Spacegallery: A Time Machine-like Slideshow/Image Gallery 

How to Add Image Gallery with Thumbnails to Blogger

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account, select your blog and go to Template > Edit HTML

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box:

Step 3. Type the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

</head>

Step 4. Now pick one of the styles below and copy the code below it:

Style 1

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

<style type='text/css'>
#image-gallery {display: none;}
  #jquery-gallery {padding:0;margin:0;list-style: none; width: 500px;}
  #jquery-gallery li {width:84px; height: 80px;background-size: 100%;-webkit-background-size: cover;-moz-background-size: cover; -o-background-size: cover;background-size: cover;margin-right: 10px; border: 3px solid #fff; outline: 1px solid #E3E3E3; margin-bottom: 10px;opacity: .5; filter:alpha(opacity=50); float: left; display: block; }
#jquery-gallery li img { position: absolute; top: 100px; left: 0px; display: none;}
  #jquery-gallery li.active img { display: block; border: 3px solid #fff; outline: 1px solid #E3E3E3; width:490px; max-height: 375px;}
  #jquery-gallery li.active, #jquery-gallery li:hover { outline-color: #DFDFDF; opacity: .99;filter:alpha(opacity=99);}
#gallery-caption { position: absolute;color: #000;font-weight: bold;background: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; bottom: 0px;}
</style>

Style 2

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

<style type='text/css'>
#image-gallery { display: none; }
#jquery-gallery {padding:0;margin:0;list-style: none; width: 200px; }
#jquery-gallery li {background-size: 100%;-webkit-background-size: cover;-moz-background-size: cover; -o-background-size: cover;background-size: cover;margin-right: 10px; width: 80px; height: 80px; border: 3px solid #fff; outline: 1px solid #ddd; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; opacity: .5;filter:alpha(opacity=50); float: left; display: block; }
#jquery-gallery li img { position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 200px; display: none; }
#jquery-gallery li.active img { display: block; width:370px; border: 3px solid #fff; outline: 1px solid #E3E3E3; }
#jquery-gallery li.active, #jquery-gallery li:hover { outline-color: #bbb; opacity: .99;filter:alpha(opacity=99);}
#gallery-caption { position: absolute; right: 50px;color: #000;background: #FFFFFF;font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0px;}
</style>

Note: The display: none; of the first ID (#image-gallery) is to prevent images appear with their actual size before they go inside the gallery container, this is while loading the code. In #jquery-gallery we have the width of the container for the thumbnails (200px), so that they display in two rows and for this we need to count the width of the thumbnail (80px) plus the margins between them. The left declaration of #jquery-gallery li img is to move the larger thumbnail that shows on mouse click so that it won't overlap with the smaller thumbnails.
Step 5. Paste the code of the chosen style just above the </head> tag.

Step 6. Now above the same </head> tag, add this script:

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
var gal = {
init : function() {
if (!document.getElementById || !document.createElement || !document.appendChild) return false;
if (document.getElementById('image-gallery')) document.getElementById('image-gallery').id = 'jquery-gallery';
var li = document.getElementById('jquery-gallery').getElementsByTagName('li');
li[0].className = 'active';
for (i=0; i<li.length; i++) {
li[i].style.backgroundImage = 'url(' + li[i].getElementsByTagName('img')[0].src + ')';
li[i].title = li[i].getElementsByTagName('img')[0].alt;
gal.addEvent(li[i],'click',function() {
var im = document.getElementById('jquery-gallery').getElementsByTagName('li');
for (j=0; j<im.length; j++) {
im[j].className = '';
}
this.className = 'active';
document.getElementById('gallery-caption').innerHTML = this.title;
});
}
},
addEvent : function(obj, type, fn) {
if (obj.addEventListener) {
obj.addEventListener(type, fn, false);
}
else if (obj.attachEvent) {
obj["e"+type+fn] = fn;
obj[type+fn] = function() { obj["e"+type+fn]( window.event ); }
obj.attachEvent("on"+type, obj[type+fn]);
}
}
}
gal.addEvent(window,'load', function() {
gal.init();
});
//]]>
</script>

Basically, what this script does, is to look if there is any ID named "image-gallery" and get the different list items that may exist within it. These elements will be displayed as thumbnails and a function will decide what to do when they are clicked. So, each time we click on a thumbnail, the "active" class will be assigned and the thumbnail should be visible in the larger container.

Step 7. Finally, save the changes by clicking the "Save template" button.

And here's the HTML code providing a normal list with the image-gallery ID, enclosed within a DIV with a relative position, so that it will avoid side effects of other pre-existing positions.

Step 8. Paste the below HTML to where you want to display the gallery by going either to Layout and adding a new gadget (click on the Add a gadget link and choose HTML/JavaScript), or inside a post/page in the HTML section.

<div style="position:relative;">
<ul id="image-gallery">
<li><img src="IMAGE-URL1" /></li>
<li><img src="IMAGE-URL2" /></li>
<li><img src="IMAGE-URL3" /></li>
<li><img src="IMAGE-URL4" /></li>
<li><img src="IMAGE-URL5" /></li>
</ul>
</div>

Note: if elements on your page overlap with this gallery, you might need to add the height declaration after the "position: relative;" The value of height depends on the size of your gallery.

Example:

<div style="position:relative; height: 500px;"> 

Change IMAGE-URL1 with the image URL. If you don't know how to get the address of an image, see this tutorial: How to Upload Images and Get the URL

In case you need to add links to your images, add this HTML structure instead:

<div style="position:relative;">
<ul id="image-gallery">
<li><a href="page-URL"><img src="IMAGE-URL1" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img src="IMAGE-URL2" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img src="IMAGE-URL3" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img src="IMAGE-URL4" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img src="IMAGE-URL5" /></a></li>
</ul>
</div>

Again, here you need to replace the page-URL text with the URL of your page/post.

Update: To add captions, please include the lines in orange and then replace the "Caption" with the text that you want to appear on each picture:

<div style="position:relative;">
<ul id="image-gallery">
<li><a href="page-URL"><img alt="Caption" src="IMAGE-URL1" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img alt="Caption" src="IMAGE-URL2" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img alt="Caption" src="IMAGE-URL3" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img alt="Caption" src="IMAGE-URL4" /></a></li>
<li><a href="page-URL"><img alt="Caption" src="IMAGE-URL5" /></a></li>
</ul>
<div id="gallery-caption"></div>
</div>

Save your widget or publish your page and you're done!

How to Use Character Entities in CSS, HTML and JavaScript

Sometimes, when using scripts, we must write special characters like accents by using a special set of codes called character entities, however these don't always look good or we get a question mark or other strange symbols. Usually, this is solved if the character encoding is done right but the logic may not always work.

In Blogger, special characters most of the time appear correctly, but when it is about other services, like external files, things can get complicated.

For example, this usually looks good and when you click on this link, you should see the letters in the right way:

alert(" � � � � �  ? ? ? ");

If we are trying to use other method and we want to use this type of characters, sometimes we need to write them in a special format called escape sequence which is nothing but a backslash followed by a letter and a number in hexadecimal format. In the case of common characters or accents, it would be \x followed by two hex digits:

\xe1 is the letter �
\xe9 is the letter �
\xed is the letter �
\xf3 is the letter �
\xfa is the letter �

Other combinations generate special characters:

\n is a line break
\t is the tab character
\' is single quote
\" is double quote
\\ is a back slash

Or we can use \u followed by the Unicode character code expressed as four hexadecimal digits:

\u00e1 is the letter �
\u00e9 is the letter �
\u00ed is the letter �
\u00f3 is the letter �
\u00fa is the letter �

this will allow us to see correctly what we couldn't before if we were using some other services:

alert(" \u263a \u2764 \u271b ");

On this page you can find a comprehensive list of all the characters, both symbols and different alphabets.
Although rare characters are not often used in the CSS, there is a case when they are necessary as well, like when using the content property with the :after and :before pseudo-elements.

The same criteria applies there, but we only need to add a backslash followed by the four-digit hexadecimal code. For example:

content: ":\24d1\24d4\24d5\24de\24e1\24d4";

content: ":after  \263a  \2724  \2602";

:??????

:after ? ? ?

Remember that IE doesn't understand the :before pseudoclass with content, and you would have to set the list-style-type property as none, or you would get 2 bullets in CSS compliant browsers.

How to Add a Tiny jQuery Circleslider to Blogger

Tiny Circleslider is a small jQuery plugin generating a circular carousel of images that we can slide infinitely (circular). When clicking on the red dot, the main picture moves to the left and another set of images will slide out. There is nothing complicated about using this type of carousel, however when it's about customizing it, we need to use a bit of arithmetic. All these details can be found in the author's homepage, so I'll just limit myself to show you the basics.

To see it in action, please visit the below demo blog and just drag the red dot:

Tiny jQuery Circleslider Demo

Adding the Tiny CircleSlider to a Blogger Blog

In order to make it work, first task is to add the javascript jQuery library in the template:

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account > select your blog

Step 2. Go to "Template" and hit the Edit HTML button:

Step 3. Click anywhere on the code area and search by using the CTRL + F keys for this tag:

</head>

Step 4. Just above the </head> tag, add the following scripts:

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/jquery.tinycircleslider.min.js"/>

Please note that if you already have another version of jQuery, you will need to remove the line in red.

Step 5. Now, let's add the CSS styles above the same </head> tag:

<style>
  #rotatescroll { /* is the rectangle container */
    height: 300px;
    position: relative;
    width: 300px;
  }
  #rotatescroll .viewport { /* is the rectangle containing the images */
    height: 300px;
    position: relative;
    margin: 0 auto;
    overflow: hidden;
    width: 300px
  }
  #rotatescroll .overview { /* is the list with the images */
    left: 0;
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
  }
  #rotatescroll .overview li { /* each item of the list */
    float: left;
    height: 300px;
    position: relative;
    width: 300px;
  }
  #rotatescroll .overlay { /* the image with the circle overlapping the list */
    background: transparent url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRT2JTjj53eXgQiC7NmmoT5UQNaEy5HukzX0dirZdTqBMSkreTtvII3F3mkOqiQkNl_cMz-Mrbr4wKTLva7kyQQges2xk1B6tpmilo99Fjzby2R_ugsYmnlUrkCM23kMAxNVhImYq8b-qz/s1600/bg-rotatescroll.png) no-repeat 0 0;
    height: 300px;
    left: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    width:300px;
  }
  #rotatescroll .thumb { /* the red circle that allows us to navigate */
    background:transparent url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDKkAiknZuADnTDv2Sn_2b6cpCQT8_g8MNvd-S1Z6amlqrvHD8dq7FIvDWiWIf5K-pA6zUPQm2Fxv2ma9WO-tpcsN66RoIWDcTR4OdfE4S6nzItqwxaMAODln_PB_TqYQYMx3LKvHUREOV/s1600/bg-thumb.png) no-repeat 0 0;
    cursor: pointer;
    height: 26px;
    left: 137px;
    position: absolute;
    top: -3px;
    width: 26px;
    z-index: 200;
  }
  #rotatescroll .dot { /* the points indicating the position of each image */
    background: transparent url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZjwBXOZm3BPATAtMdGxvtJ13_bHyD7Zyvy5YshMmAxsVKuvdehSzWztvtjvvZ9aHcxJLnBav16MppqupyslAN396zjiibLEXY_4TqbNu8bAL8QE6l89ydZXa3KzJRC765t5iYnyRXQGk/s1600/bg-dot.png) no-repeat 0 0;
    display: none;
    height: 12px;
    left: 155px;
    position: absolute;
    top: 3px;
    width: 12px;
    z-index: 100;
  }
  #rotatescroll .dot span { /* are hidden by default */
    display: none;
  }
 #rotatescroll .viewport ul.overview li img {
   width: 100%;
   min-height: 260px;
   margin-top: 20px;
   padding:0;
   border:0;
 }
</style>

Screenshot

Step 6. Save the changes by clicking the Save Template button

And here's the HTML that has to be added to where we want to display the carousel. To add it inside a post, click the "New post" button on the left side of your dashboard and paste the below code in the "HTML" box of your post:

<div id="rotatescroll">
  <div class="viewport">
    <ul class="overview">
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div class="dot"></div>
  <div class="overlay"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$('#rotatescroll').tinycircleslider({
interval: true,
snaptodots: true
});
});
</script>

Adding HTML inside a Blogger post

Replace the imageURL text with the URL of your images.

Some other options that could be added, separated by commas:
1) snaptodots: false if you want no dots to be shown when dragging them
2) hidedots: false if you want to display the internal points (by default is true)
3) intervaltime - is the time between slides (by default 3500)
4) radius - defines the size of the circle (by default is 140)

To add it to your sidebar, simply go to "Layout" > click the "Add a Gadget link" > from the popup window, choose "HTML/Javascript" and paste the code inside the empty box.