Sunday, December 19, 2010

How to create a new page...

Hi Kathy:

I'm very much visual learner myself, needing to see (with pictures) how things work.  On the flip side, it's also easier for me to explain with pictures (but then, I work with preschoolers and love picture books! ;-)

Any of the following screen shots can be enlarged by clicked on them.

To start with (and to change the colour of the tabs), you need to be working in Blogger's updated editor.  If you don't know if you are, you can check under the "Settings" tab:

Select the "Basic" link and scroll to the very bottom of the page.


Make sure "Updated editor" is selected.  If the "Old editor" button is dotted, click on the circle for "Updated" and hit the "Save Settings" button at the very bottom of the page. 

Now, to create a new page, go to your "Dashboard" (which is the first thing you'll come to when you log into http://www.blogger.com/).  Click on the blue button, "New Post".

It will take you to a page where you would generally write and publish a new post.  But instead of doing that, you're going to select the "Edit Pages" link.  From there you can hit the "New Page" blue button.

You can then add your page title, whatever content you want, and when you're finished, select the "Publish Page" orange button at the bottom.

Your brand-new page will automatically appear on your blog, sandwiched between the header and your posts.

Now, to change the colour of the tab (either the background, or the text) is a different step.  You need to return to the layout screen and choose the "Design" tab.  This is usually where you would select and edit gadgets that go on your blog.  When you published your first page, blogger automatically added the "Pages" gadget.  In that, you can choose the order of the pages as they appear on your blog or change the title of your "Home" page.  But to change the colours, you need to select "Template Designer" (which is why you needed to make sure you had the Updated Editor - I don't think it's available in the old version).

It will then take you to this screen, with editing features on the top half (in the grey) and a preview of your blog on the bottom half.  On the very left side, select "Advance" and in the next box over, select "Tabs Text".  This is where you can change the font, the size, and the colour of the text that appears in the tabs, just by clicking on the little boxes of colour.

To change the background of your tabs, stay in "Advanced" and choose "Tabs Background" (which is right underneath "Tabs Text".  You can change the colour of the tab background just by clicking on a colour box.  (Mine is set at transparent at the moment, so you get the colour of the blog background coming through).

Once you're happy with your choices (I never am, and usually find myself editing half a dozen times! ;-)  Click on the "Apply to blog" orange button on the far right of the screen.  It will turn gray, and a yellow box will pop-up on the top middle of your screen that says "Template Applied".  To return to your blog, click on the "Back to Blogger" link.

Your blog is then ready to go!