2344.
Well, that's what I certainly hope.While most of my friends and the cool kids find themselves blogging on WordPress and suchlike, with all thier awesome cusomizability, I've stayed with Blogger because it's comfortable, forgiving, and familiar. I customize the front page of this blog to the limit I feel comfortable doing so.
The problem with taking it to the next level with Blogger is the template code. I've programmed in Pascal, Euphoria, even Lisp, but this is what I call abstruse! No insult intended to the Blogger developers, of course, it works and I don't have to fret about it and that's what I want. But what I also wanted is a way to take my customization even further, to bring this to some level where it's completely different.
Well, Blogger in Draft (which I've made my dashboard home in order so as not to keep missing the nifty as it happens) has a new thing – Blogger Template Designer, which looks like it will abstract the Blogger template design process to a new, more friendly level. Right up my street, I'd say:
We’ve added a fair bit to Blogger over the years, but one thing that’s been constant for some time has been our collection of templates. While a number of talented designers around the web have offered their own fresh and interesting designs that you can apply to your Blogger blog, our stock set has grown a bit stale, and you’ve noticed. You let us know — in the forums, on Twitter, sitting next to us on airplanes, even from across the counter at a Harvard Square stationary store, and we’ve been listening.
Today we’re taking a big first step in improving not just our template designs, but all the ways that you can customize the look and layout of your blog.
So a lot of us, myself included, are going to be poking around in Template Designer over the near term and seeing what we can come up with. The possiblities certainly seem exciting, and an amazing, visually exciting browserscape just might happen.
Or maybe everything will start to look like MySpace. I sure hope not, that!
Oh, I'm just woolgatherthing – this is some pretty nifty stuff, and I'm going in there with the big crayon to be sure.
One other thing: if you create a new template, tweet about it with the hashtag #newbloggertemplate, and Blogger might feature yours some time.
- Visit: http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogger-template-designer.html at the Blogger in Draft blog to get the whole rundown and skinny and slim shady and all that thing there.
2 comments:
There are lots of web templates available so there is no need to make one unless it is for the corporate. If we want to make a template then this service can be very expensive so it is better to get one one.
The above was reposted by me after shriving it of the linkage information. I hate comment spammers – why should I support you if you're not going to support me, and the negligible traffic this blog may (or more likely may not) garner due to your comment spammy don't count as support.
I'm reposting the content because it's one of the lamest examples of comment spam I've ever seen, and I have a bone to pick with it.
It's pure stupid, so pure it burns. Here's why:
First dumb remark:
There are lots of web templates available so there is no need to make one unless it is for the corporate.
Survey says? … BZZZZZZT!
While there is nobody forcing anyone to custom-design a blog, and there are a lot of templates out there for Blogger, WordPress, what have you that you can use and won't pull your eyes out, the idea that "there's no need to have one unless you're doing it all corporate" just makes me angry.
It's one reason why even though there are literally millions of blogs out there, you tend to feel like you're reading only five or six.
Look, if you want your blog to look like everyone elses, that's fine. There's actually no sin there. Let your writing speak for you. Be charming, corny, goofy, or whatever pleases you. A lot of blogs are fun just because of the writing, and some of the most trafficked blogs on the planet have the most ho-hum templates backing them up.
On the other hand, and this is what gets me, if you want to add a little art that nobody else could really do to it, then there should be nobody, absolutely nobody, telling you that you "don't need it because you're not corporate"! Your desires are as limited as your gumption and your industrious at learning how to implement.
Don't ever let anyone else tell you that, on a computer, they can set your boundaries. Set your own boundaries – when you care to, how much you can or want to learn, or not at all!
That statement really pisses me off.
The second one just leaves me scratching my head:
If we want to make a template then this service can be very expensive so it is better to get one one.
What service? Blogger Template Designer? It's free, you simpleton! Are you talking about contracting with a designer? Well, that can be expensive, but in design, you get what the hell you pay for!
Take it as an indication that the marketing link went back to someone's web design firm. I didn't price it, and it was in the UK anyway, but I bet they'll try to get something out of you for it.
Gaaah. People!
Post a Comment