Sunday, 27 October 2013

Before/After Photo Effect with jQuery

If you have a design or makeup blog, or if you are using before and after image comparison, this script will surely be very useful for you. In this tutorial, you will see how to add the Before/After plugin, a script that works with jQuery to display two pictures dynamically for comparing them at the same time.

To see it in action, please click on the demo link from below - by dragging sideways the small bar, you'll see both images that are being compared:



Implementing this script is really easy. We just need jQuery, the Before/After script, and the two images to compare.

How to add Before/After Effect on Blogger Images

Step 1. Go to Template > Edit HTML and click anywhere inside the code area. Now press the CTRL + F keys and search for the following tag - hit Enter to find it:
</head>

Step 2. Right before </head> paste the following scripts:
<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/jquery.beforeafter.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(function(){
$(&#39;#beforeafter1&#39;).beforeAfter({showFullLinks : true});
});
</script>
Step 3. Click the Save template button to save your changes.

Note: if the above script doesn't work for you, add it above the </body> tag. Also, please see if you have added jQuery in your template (if you did so, then remove the line in green)

Step 3. To add it as a gadget - go to "Layout" > click on the "Add a gadget" link > choose "HTML/Javascript" option in the pop-up window and paste this code inside the empty box:
<div id='beforeafter1'>
<div><img alt='before' src='URL of the first image' width='500' height='291'/></div>
<div><img alt='after' src='URL of the second image' width='500' height='291'/></div>
</div>
Add the URL of the first image that is the "Before" image, and the URL of the second image that should be the "After" image. Also, don't forget to specify the width and height of each picture, so that they work on all browsers (see the part in orange and just add the height and width of your images).

If you want to add more images, you will need to change the ID of the container. In my example, the container is called beforeafter1, so you will need to change it to beforeafter2 and so on, although, you can choose any name as long as all are different.

Then, add another line, like the blue one from below, in the first code that you added in step 2:
<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/jquery.beforeafter.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(function(){
$(&#39;#beforeafter1&#39;).beforeAfter({showFullLinks : true});
$(&#39;#beforeafter2&#39;).beforeAfter({showFullLinks : true});
});
</script>
You can add as many before/after images as you want, as long ass all containers have a different ID and the corresponding lines are added in the script.

Below each image /photo container are the "Show only Before" and "Show only after" links that, once you click on them, will display the "before" or "after" picture. If you want to hide these links, then just change "true" to "false" in the first code (step 2) and they will not be displayed anymore.

Note: if you see white space around the drag icons, then search for this code in your template:
   <Group description="Images" selector=".main-inner">
     <Variable name="image.background.color" description="Background Color" type="color" default="#ffffff" value="#ffffff"/>
And change the #ffffff value to transparent. That's it!

Autor: Catch my fame

Spacegallery: image gallery/slideshow made with jQuery

There are many types of galleries for images that can be found on the internet, but we rarely find one displaying images so differently like this one. Those using Mac OS X will surely notice a lot of similarity with Time Machine and those who don't, I'm sure will enjoy this type of effect for viewing images.

image gallery with jQuery for blogger
SpaceGallery is a JQuery based slideshow / image gallery that performs overlaying in a visually appealing manner and provides a smooth fade out effect to images. This 3D image gallery lets you float through your pictures easily by enlarging them with an Apple-like animation.

To see the SpaceGallery slideshow in action, please visit this demo blog and click on the first image:


How to Add Spacegallery Image Slideshow to Blogger

To implement this gallery is very easy. Just follow the steps below:

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and select your blog. Next, go to Template and click the Edit HTML button:

Step 2. Click anywhere on the code area and search by using the CTRL + F keys for this tag
</head>

Step 3. Just before/above the </head> tag, paste 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/SpaceGallery/eye.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/SpaceGallery/utils.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/SpaceGallery/spacegallery.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
(function($){
var initLayout = function() {
var hash = window.location.hash.replace('#', '');
var currentTab = $('ul.navigationTabs a')
.bind('click', showTab)
.filter('a[rel=' + hash + ']');
if (currentTab.size() == 0) {
currentTab = $('ul.navigationTabs a:first');
}
showTab.apply(currentTab.get(0));
$('#myGallery').spacegallery({loadingClass: 'loading'});
};

var showTab = function(e) {
var tabIndex = $('ul.navigationTabs a')
.removeClass('active')
.index(this);
$(this)
.addClass('active')
.blur();
$('div.tab')
.hide()
.eq(tabIndex)
.show();
};

EYE.register(initLayout, 'init');
})(jQuery)
//]]>
</script>
Note: if you have already jQuery in your template, please delete the line in red.

Step 4. Next, search (CTRL + F) for this tag:
]]></b:skin>
Step 5. Above the ]]></b:skin> tag, paste the following CSS style:
#myGallery {
width: 100%;
height: 400px;
}
#myGallery img {
border: 2px solid #52697E;
}
a.loading {
background: url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbnrXQE1N2iX0byf6wUMW52zMqzEHwyM3WROt3b7H_iiJIb6WVtFkQFvA3dvQx2VA4O5QhrwaZsOyG0E_9nthpnEneboZXZ7M_Z5DDvaiagRYFVsrOJrWnV-yrvjuHjvW1CtaXdPMG6ynu/s1600/ajax_small.gif) no-repeat center;
}
.spacegallery {
position: relative;
overflow: hidden;
}
.spacegallery img {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
}
.spacegallery a {
position: absolute;
z-index: 1000;
display: block;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
Step 6. Hit the Save template button to save the changes.

Step 7. Finally, go to Layout > Add a Gadget > HTML/Javascript and copy-paste the code below:
<div class="spacegallery" id="myGallery">
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
</div>
Replace the Image URL text with the image addresses that you want to appear on the gallery, considering that the last image is the first to be displayed.

If you want to add this slideshow inside a post, go to your dashboard and create a New Post, then paste the code in the HTML section.

That's it! Now, you can enjoy this simple image gallery on your blog and although, it has no display options or settings, it is without a doubt a gallery that will draw the attention of your readers.

Source: eyecon.ro

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Top three qualities of a successful blogger

The qualities of a blogger should be attended at all times in order to become someone popular on the internet. A blogger should have plenty of ideas for creative writing, along with a truckload of motivation. The results sought will not come overnight and there's no guarantee that this will be easy.

These are the two things that you need in order to fulfill your dream of running a successful blog: a lot of exclusive content and readers' loyalty. In each case, time is required to develop the success. This is a process and not a short-term event.
qualities of a blogger

Related: How to Write SEO Optimized Blog Posts

Top Qualities To Become a Successful Blogger

Here are three qualities of a blogger who as a site administrator will need to have, if your goal is to manage a successful blog.

Patience

A successful blog is a product of time and effort and for this, you will need patience. As I said before, the results will not appear quickly overnight, so it is important to realize this from the start. If you are constantly trying to develop new and creative ideas for writing on your blog and, at the same time, you are worried whether you will see any results, this will only make things more difficult.

The building of a successful business online is a "long term" effort and you must decide if you accept this challenge or not. This is one the most important qualities of a blogger.

Credibility

Much of the traffic of any successful blog results from its unique content, as well as its credibility. In fact, the quality of what's in the site, will have a direct impact on what will become viral visitors that are coming to your platform. If you will provide quality content, people will talk about your blog, and once they do it, others may come to see what you have. It depends on you to publish useful and accurate information and your readers will do the rest.

Consistency

Maintaining a steady stream of creative writing ideas is vital to be able to constantly update the blog. The frequency of publication to a proper schedule is related to the amount of time you have available and your level of motivation. However, it is recommended to establish a sort of consistency, so that people can schedule their own visits accordingly. Just remember that the more often you write, the more people will visit, so their loyalty will grow faster and their referrals will be extended.

To become a popular blogger, it is important to have a healthy source of creative writing ideas, along with a lot of patience and motivation. Ultimately, it will be up to you, as a site administrator, to provide the three qualities of a blogger that we discussed above, who is searching tirelessly his goal of having a successful blog. In the end, your own motivation and patience will be the glue with which all the elements will be put together so that your dream will come true.

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Add Keyboard Keys Effect To Your Text in Blogger with CSS

For many of us the design and the template are the most important, making our readers be more interested and coming back to our blog. There's an HTML element meant for marking up keyboard keys named <kbd> which can be styled with CSS, so why not use it to make those elements look the keyboard keys?

Thus, in this tutorial, I am going to show you how to create a keyboard keys effect with CSS. It doesn't require images so your blog will load faster.

how to add keyboard keys with css in blogger

How to Add Keyboard Keys to Blogger


Step 1. From Blogger Dashboard, select your blog and go to Template > Edit HTML

edit the html of blogger template

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area, press the Ctrl + F keys and search for this piece of code:
]]></b:skin>
Screenshot
Click on the arrow to expand the code

Step 3: Just above ]]></b:skin> paste this CSS style:
kbd{
border:1px solid gray;
font-size:1.2em;
box-shadow:1px 0 1px 0 #eee, 0 2px 0 2px #ccc, 0 2px 0 3px #444;
-webkit-border-radius:3px;
-moz-border-radius:3px;
border-radius:3px;
margin:2px 3px;
padding:1px 5px;
}
Step 4. To save the changes, press the Save change button.

Finally, we need to add the html <kbd> tags to the text on which we want to apply the keyboard keys style.
From your blogger's dashboard, go to create a New Post, write the text on which you want to apply the style and go to the HTML tab. Before and after the text, add the following HTML tags:
<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>F</kbd>

Screenshot
text with keyboard key effect

This will make it to look like this:

Ctrl + F

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

How to do natural SEO on Blogger

Although many insist that blogs hosted on free servers, such as Blogger, are not ideal for getting your blog well-ranked, the truth is that a blog hosted by Blogger can be really fast and well positioned on the Internet if you are using the right SEO tools.

Now, given the latest updates from Google, the best would be hiring a specialized person. However, if you don't have the resources or you want to learn doing this job alone, you can choose to begin with the natural SEO.

Here are some tips to do natural SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

blogger seo

Natural SEO Techniques for Blogger

Pick a Good Domain

We must try having our keyword included in the domain name, and even if this may sacrifice our branding, we can use the redirection.

Create Value Added Content

Not only rewrite articles, or write like they would be intended for us. When writing our posts, we should consider our target audience, i.e., giving advices, tips, suggestions or guidance on specific topics and aside, use links, anchor text and key phrases.

The topic of the links is important

They should be of quality and while, it's no longer required to place five or ten links within the text of your website, now what truly matters, is to make the link relevant to the context.

Finally, the domain, in value-added content and a right use of the internal and external links, will prove to be useless if we don't try to update our blog constantly.

How often should you update your blog?

You don't have to do this on daily basis, even if this may be ideal as, this way, we could achieve a greater relevance in search engines. But don't forget about your blog either. Let's say, two or three times a week would be enough. What should not happen is updating only three times a week and doing nothing next week.

Keep in mind that search engines happen to pass daily on our blog in order to index our content.

I hope that you find these SEO tips useful and if you would like to receive more tutorials by email, subscribe for free to this blog, check out the facebook page or add the RSS feed.

Monday, 21 October 2013

How to Add a Recent Forum Topics Widget to Blogger

If you are using the Nabble forum in your blog is very likely that this gadget will interest you because, as the title suggests, it will display the lastest topics that have been published in your forum in a very similar manner to the recent comments gadget that works with the blog's feed.

nabble forum
If you want to add a list with the Recent Forum Topics then follow the steps below:

Go to your forum and look at the bottom where it says Feeds, click on that link and then two links of the Feed will appear (the first being the Topics only Feed and the other one is Topics and replies) - choose the one you want.
using nabble feeds to see latest forum topics

After this, log in to your Blogger Dashboard, go to Layout, click on Add a Gadget link, choose Feed from the gadgets list and paste the Feed URL you have selected inside the text box.

configure gadget feed in blogger

Click on Continue, and you only have to configure the parameters, then Save changes to see the results.

That's it! Enjoy :)

Add a forum on your Blogger blog with Nabble

Forum is a platform where visitors can interact with each other and discuss different hot topics. There you can add desired topics for getting comments and diverse suggestions on them. If you have a good traffic, then you can place questions on daily basis for the potential visitors to answer, thus your forum simultaneously converts itself into a huge frequently asked quesions section "FAQ". Forums will provide your visitors an open social atmosphere to express their useful ideas and share other's ideas.

In this brief tutorial, I have explained simple steps to add a forum to your Blogger or blogspot blog. So let's get started!

blogger forum, blogspot nabble forum

How to Create a Forum With Nabble


To implement a forum we will use Nabble, in my opinion, one of the best free options. We go to Nabble page and there, we will create an account (keep in mind that this account will be the moderator of the forum).
And once we have everything set (it also has a wide variety of customizing options), go to Options -> Application -> Change appearance:

nabble change appearance

There, we can also edit the CSS of the forum and other things...

Now we have to give the structure of a real forum, i.e. organizing it by categories. To do this click on the Options menu, select Application, then click Change application type:

nabble option change application type

Then choose the Forum category and save your changes.

To finish, we only have to create categories and for this go back to Options, this time select Structure and then choose Create a new sub-forum:
nabble create new sub-forum

Fill in the details of the category and that's it, you will have your forum running.

The rest are small details, like sort categories (Options > Structure > Manage sub-forums), customize your avatar and your signature (YourNickname > Account Settings), change permissions (Options > Users > Permissions), etc.

Now for integrating the newly created forum to your blog, you must go to Options - Embedding options and copy the javascript code.
nabble forum embedding options

Embed the forum in a Blogger page


Login to your Blogger Dashboard, select your blog, click the Pages link on the left sidebar and create a new Blank Page


Once there, get in the HTML mode.


Paste inside the empty box the code that we copied earlier, and if everything went well, we should see our brand new forum for our blog!

create a forum for blogger with nabble

I hope this tutorial was helpful to you and you will begin using this great service.