Widget, O Widget...

And if there is a way not through it… try making your way around it! That, is what I say.

I spent the entire day yesterday trying to get myself to understand Blogger Widgets. I was hoping I could customize my template to look the way I like. What I like is:

1. A three column template.
2. My links and stuff on both the sides.
3. And allow my Page Elements to show up on the Layout page and since it doesn’t work on my screen(for some very strange reason), I’d like that I make new widgets and they show quick edit on my blog.

That is all I ask for and that is all I tried to do. But… but… it didn’t work. I did make the widgets and they did show up…. on the Page Elements page of the template and not on the blog for quick editing. Now how am I supposed to know that?! The Page elements page shows errors on my screen and I cant see my Page elements!

Anyway, there was no way through it… and so I took the shortcut… ask someone else on some other computer in some other country to do it!

So as you can see (Yes, to the left of the screen) I have added a couple of new links. 🙂

While we are talking about Blogger and templates and widgets, I wonder if you are interested in the widgets as much as I am. The New Blogger is definitely better than the previous one. For those of you who haven’t noticed the difference…

1. You don’t need to republish anymore.
2. You have labels.
3. A few more templates
4. And….*drum roll please* Widgets! So now, you can add anything and everything without having to be HTML literate. And what’s more is that you can drag and drop the stuff around and change the fonts and clours without having to even touch the HTML stuff.
5. Another important change you can only notice if you check the HTML code is that they now use XML which is… well… a little tough to understand if you have been quite good around the HTML. And (allow me to repeat myself), they have widgets which I am not sure how it makes their job easier ’cause it sure does make our job hard when it comes to tweaking the template the HTML way! And I have a feeling that that is why they have done that. So that we don’t customize the template all the time.

Anyway, the New Blogger is all very nice except for the fact that if you have a problem then you have a big problem kinda thing. But… then… they have the help. And ofcourse, (did you know?) they have blogs that blog about blogger and blogger templates!! Cool, eh?

Check these out if you like. If not for changing your template then atleast … for general knowledge.

How2Blog
Beta Blogger for Dummies
Widgets of Beta Blogger

Hmmm… now how do I add that third column… ?