This post has been updated - http://xomisse.com/blog-tips-follow-options-alternatives-to-google-reader/
Google Retires Reader | Alternatives to Google Reader and Google Friend Connect
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Showing posts with label Organizing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Organizing. Show all posts
Google Retires Reader | Alternatives to Google Reader and Google Friend Connect
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Google Retires Reader | Alternatives to Google Reader and Google Friend Connect
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Organizing
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Social Networking
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Websites
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Removing the Space between Images Part2
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Posted in:
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Photography
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Tutorials
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Bloglovin' Update | Personal Profile Pages
Monday, December 10, 2012
Blog Post has moved - http://xomisse.com/blog-tips-ultimate-guide-to-bloglovin
Bloglovin' Update | Personal Profile Pages
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Websites
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Desk Organisation | Where I work
Monday, November 12, 2012
Posted in:
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Photography
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Quickly Alter Your Blog Design
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Huge post from me today, hopefully it makes sense. If not, I will split it up into smaller posts and explain things a little more but for now this is kind of an overview. If you have any questions leave them below. You can do so much in HTML & CSS that its hard to include everything but here is the main things you can do to alter your blog design.
Altering your Blog Titles can really change the look of your blog. Changing small little things such as borders, colours and sizing will create a new theme and style. Open Template > Edit Html and depending on what you want to alter, find one of the following
Blog Post/Page Title = h3.post-title
SideBar Title = h2 (*)
Date Header = h2.date-header (*)
Blog Post Title/ Link Colour = a:link
Hover Link Colour = a:hover
Visited Link Colour = a:visited
Comment Heading = .comments h4
Comment Link = .post-comment-link
(*) Notice that these are both h2, meaning changes to one will slightly alter the other. To separate them you have to alter the name in HTML so they are no longer connected.
Whats in Blue is the code, Alter whats in Red. The OR's mean you have to pick one option.
Change Background
background-color: #Hex Color ;
background: url("Direct URL for Image");
Change Font
font-size: Number px OR Number em) ;
font-family: font name ;
text-transform: lowercase OR uppercase OR capitalize ;
Align Title
text-align: left OR center OR right ;
Decoration
text-decoration: underline OR overline OR line-through OR blink ;
Borders
border: Width Size px solid OR dashed OR dotted OR double OR groove OR ridge OR inset OR outset #Hex Color ;
Or if you only want a border on one side you can use the following
border-left:
border-right:
border-top:
border-bottom:
If you want your border to have circular edges, then use the following
border-radius: Size px;
Similarly to above, you can alter your headings. I use h4 & h5 to create the blue & orange heading you see to break up this post into categories. You can also customise your .post blockquote using the CSS coding above.
Have a look at padding and margins to create space between different elements and make your blog look less cluttered.
One thing that can really improve your blog is a good navigation. Here are some tutorials to help
Clean up this area, make sure it's easy to read and is clutter free. Use Titles to categorise areas and link to important areas. Change the background or titles like shown above. Take note of the size of your sidebar and make sure images fit nicely. Have a little bit about yourself, with an image. Learn how to enlarge Bloggers Profile image here & experiment with rounded corners for images.
To change the design find either .main-inner .column-right-outer or .main-inner .column-left-outer and again edit using the above coding.
I wrote this post about some easy steps to better SEO. This will bring more traffic to your blog and keep Google happy.
Please download a backup of your template before editing anything!
Main Post Area
Post Title, Sidebar Title & Date Header
Altering your Blog Titles can really change the look of your blog. Changing small little things such as borders, colours and sizing will create a new theme and style. Open Template > Edit Html and depending on what you want to alter, find one of the following
Blog Post/Page Title = h3.post-title
SideBar Title = h2 (*)
Date Header = h2.date-header (*)
Blog Post Title/ Link Colour = a:link
Hover Link Colour = a:hover
Visited Link Colour = a:visited
Comment Heading = .comments h4
Comment Link = .post-comment-link
(*) Notice that these are both h2, meaning changes to one will slightly alter the other. To separate them you have to alter the name in HTML so they are no longer connected.
Whats in Blue is the code, Alter whats in Red. The OR's mean you have to pick one option.
Change Background
background-color: #Hex Color ;
background: url("Direct URL for Image");
Change Font
font-size: Number px OR Number em) ;
font-family: font name ;
text-transform: lowercase OR uppercase OR capitalize ;
Align Title
text-align: left OR center OR right ;
Decoration
text-decoration: underline OR overline OR line-through OR blink ;
Borders
border: Width Size px solid OR dashed OR dotted OR double OR groove OR ridge OR inset OR outset #Hex Color ;
Or if you only want a border on one side you can use the following
border-left:
border-right:
border-top:
border-bottom:
If you want your border to have circular edges, then use the following
border-radius: Size px;
Custom Headings & BlockQuotes
Similarly to above, you can alter your headings. I use h4 & h5 to create the blue & orange heading you see to break up this post into categories. You can also customise your .post blockquote using the CSS coding above.
Example of an altered Heading
Example of an altered Block Quote
Spaces
Have a look at padding and margins to create space between different elements and make your blog look less cluttered.
Entire Blog
Add Navigation, Buttons, Links
One thing that can really improve your blog is a good navigation. Here are some tutorials to help
- Social media links beneath your post
- Center Page Tabs
- Horizontal Navigation with Images
- Social Media Buttons
- Drop Down Navigation Menu
Sidebar Area
Clean up this area, make sure it's easy to read and is clutter free. Use Titles to categorise areas and link to important areas. Change the background or titles like shown above. Take note of the size of your sidebar and make sure images fit nicely. Have a little bit about yourself, with an image. Learn how to enlarge Bloggers Profile image here & experiment with rounded corners for images.
To change the design find either .main-inner .column-right-outer or .main-inner .column-left-outer and again edit using the above coding.
Increase SEO, Increase Traffic
I wrote this post about some easy steps to better SEO. This will bring more traffic to your blog and keep Google happy.
Don't forget, I'm always happy to help with any HTML questions. I do get a lot so please be patient, I do try and get back to you right away but sometimes it takes me a little bit. I also take blog design orders if anyone wants a blog re-design, I take care of everything I've mentioned in this post and loads more so you can get details about that here.
Quickly Alter Your Blog Design
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Organizing
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Setting up nRelate - Increase Traffic
Saturday, September 8, 2012
This post has been moved - http://xomisse.com/set-up-nrelate-to-increase-blog-traffic
Setting up nRelate - Increase Traffic
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Organizing
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Traffic
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10 Steps to make your Apple Mac Run Faster & Free Up Memory
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Posted in:
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Information
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Mac
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Organizing
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Tutorials
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Use Time Machine to Backup your Apple Mac
System Preferences > Time Machine > Pick you External Hard drive
Why Use Time Machine?
- it keeps hourly backups for the past 24hours
- daily backups for the past month
- weekly backups for all previous months
- the oldest backups are deleted when disk becomes full
Great way to make sure everything is saved externally incase anything every happens and the best part is, its automatic once you hard drive is plugged in so you don't have to worry about it. If anything happens, everything is stored to then restore your computer. You can see below all the backups that you can scroll back into to find something (photo, document, music, file, etc)
Use Time Machine to Backup your Apple Mac
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Easily Follow Blogs with iReader
Monday, September 3, 2012
iReader is a great way to read RSS updates on your Mac. What I love about this is that you can sync it with Google Reader, therefore you can get all your blogger/GFC subscriptions as well as other websites! There's a management system so you can organise your subscriptions into folders, you can sync with iCloud, favourite articles, customise keyboard shortcuts for faster reading. Another fab thing is it supports offline reading and it's very easily laid out. If you follow blogs via RSS Feed, this App may be your new best friend.
The left had column shows what you are subscribed to, when you click on one, the posts update in the middle column, you can flick through or use the search bar and when you select one the post appears in the last column so you can read it. You can pin certain posts/articles and then select to only show those pinned. View all unread posts makes it easy to see what you missed and you can easily share posts you enjoyed from the services menu. Available to download from the App Store.
How do you follow blogs? Have you tried this?
Easily Follow Blogs with iReader
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Add LinkWithin to Blog
Saturday, September 1, 2012
LinkWithin is a realy handy widget to have installed on your blog. It shows stories (previous posts) at the end of each blog post that you publish. This helps to navigate people around your blog, making them stay longer. When they finish reading your newest post, they might see something interesting and click on it to read. Setting up LinkWithin is really easy and almost automatic.
First thing you need to do is head over to LinkWithin here, Fill in your details in the box that appears and follow the online instructions (click "Instal Widget" in point 1). After selecting your blog, it will ask you to name & save ("Add Widget").
Now you will see something similar to this image beneath each post. They tend to be similar topics. Make sure to use an image in your blog posts, as this will catch the readers attention.
A new alternative is nRelate, read about it here.
First thing you need to do is head over to LinkWithin here, Fill in your details in the box that appears and follow the online instructions (click "Instal Widget" in point 1). After selecting your blog, it will ask you to name & save ("Add Widget").
Usually, it will appear on the top of your sidebar, either right or left. Move it to under your blog posts gadget, like I show in the following photos.
Now you will see something similar to this image beneath each post. They tend to be similar topics. Make sure to use an image in your blog posts, as this will catch the readers attention.
A new alternative is nRelate, read about it here.
Add LinkWithin to Blog
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Navigation
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Organizing
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Tutorials
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Setting Images/Photos as Links
Thursday, August 16, 2012
I got asked this the other day so I thought I'd do a quick post about it. This can be used for buttons, photos...any image that you want to link to somewhere else, be it another website, a blog post, a certain label, anywhere.
Layout > Add a Gadget > HTML/Javascript.
Layout > Add a Gadget > HTML/Javascript.
The code
<a href="URL LINK" target="_blank"><img src="IMAGE DIRECT ADDRESS/LINK" border="0" alt="DESCRIPTION"></a>
URL LINK - The link to the post/tag/label/website or whatever it is you want to link to.
IMAGE DIRECT ADDRESS/LINK - The address/link of the image itself, should be hosted somewhere such as shutterfly, tinypic, photobucket, flickr, etc.
DESCRIPTION - Of the Link/Image.
Add Multiple Images
To add another image, simply add it again underneath so it looks like...
<a href="URL LINK1" target="_blank"><img src="IMAGE DIRECT ADDRESS/LINK1" border="0" alt="DESCRIPTION"></a>
<a href="URL LINK2" target="_blank"><img src="IMAGE DIRECT ADDRESS/LINK2" border="0" alt="DESCRIPTION"></a>
To use a Tag/Label as a Link
Click the label which you want to create a link for, so whatever label/tag you've given it. Copy the URL link which should look something like;
yourblogname.blogspot.com/search/label/yourlabelname
As you can see under my blog post title, it says "posted in: Tutorials" so my link would be
http://missedesign.blogspot.com/search/label/Tutorials
Simply use this as your URL for the image
It's that simple!
You can see a table of contents of all tutorials here & learn how I used the above coding to make social media buttons that change once you hover over them here.
Setting Images/Photos as Links
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Organizing
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Tutorials
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Create a Drop Down Navigation Menu
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
This post has been updated and can be found on - http://xomisse.com/create-a-drop-down-navigation-menu/
Read more ...
Create a Drop Down Navigation Menu
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Header
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Navigation
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Organizing
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Guide to HelloCotton
Monday, July 30, 2012
Think Facebook combined with bloglovin', with a dash of pink! Yes, HelloCotton is a social networking site for female bloggers. A place to find new blogs, be inspired and follow blogs you love, while allowing you to vote, like, share and comment!
Started in Paris in 2008, it is now a place for creative and inspiring women all over the world to be a part of a huge blogging community, with so many categories to browse through, you're sure to find something you love.
- Fashion
- Beauty
- Lifestyle
- Food
- Family
- Weddings
- Design
- Crafts & DIY
- Culture
- Health & Love
I've already found some lovely, inspiring and creative blogs, from fashion to craft & diy. Absolutely loving this site, kind of reminds me of Stumbleupon because I find some amazing sites but I never have to skip a page. HelloCotton has something I love in each category.
"Hellocotton is the greatest source of inspiration and the best way to discover the latest trends. Hellocotton's aim is for the best women bloggers out there to get together, creating a community of talented writers, in all categories possible. Hellocotton is also a place for blog readers to meet up, follow their favorite bloggers and get inspired."
> Follow me on HelloCotton <
Set up & Create your Profile
Simply register & edit your settings, adding your blog information, social networking sites. Then explore and follow your favorite blogs. Easy :)
Have you joined yet? What do you think?
How many social sites do you have altogether??
Guide to HelloCotton
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Guide to Bloglovin'
Post has been moved to - http://xomisse.com/blog-tips-ultimate-guide-to-bloglovin
Guide to Bloglovin'
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Pearltrees - Create your Online Bookmark
Monday, July 23, 2012
I don't know about all of you, but my computer is jammed full of saved links - from bookmarks to written in a text file to screenshots. I basically have a folder of
"to-do" & "need to read" which gets bigger and bigger and never gets read because it's never organised. I randomly came across this site called Pearltrees and it is amazing! I will talk about it and explain how it works and also how you set up your account. I've been using it for over a month now and I love it. It's so quick and easy!
Pearltrees is a place online to store, share and organise everything that is on the web.
You instal "Pearler" and place it in your bookmarks. Then when you come across something you like on the web, you simply click the bookmark and an options window will pop up (shown below) allowing you to save it to your tree. You can organise your tree into many pearls (like folders) and keep everything in a certain place on your account. No more messy, full bookmark bar's or reading lists.
You can click "Related Interests", this shows you similar pages/pearltrees. Follow your friends pearltrees and find loads of interesting things. Share to Facebook or Twitter or Email your pearltrees. Watch the video below for full details.
Pearltrees is now availble on the iPhone!
"to-do" & "need to read" which gets bigger and bigger and never gets read because it's never organised. I randomly came across this site called Pearltrees and it is amazing! I will talk about it and explain how it works and also how you set up your account. I've been using it for over a month now and I love it. It's so quick and easy!
What is Pearltrees?
Pearltrees is a place online to store, share and organise everything that is on the web.
How does it work?
You instal "Pearler" and place it in your bookmarks. Then when you come across something you like on the web, you simply click the bookmark and an options window will pop up (shown below) allowing you to save it to your tree. You can organise your tree into many pearls (like folders) and keep everything in a certain place on your account. No more messy, full bookmark bar's or reading lists.
 |
| My Pearltree Pearls - Act like Folders |
 |
| Options & An area to drop pearls (webpages) until you organise them |
 |
| Click the Pearler & this window appears asking what you want to do with that page. |
Anything Else?
You can click "Related Interests", this shows you similar pages/pearltrees. Follow your friends pearltrees and find loads of interesting things. Share to Facebook or Twitter or Email your pearltrees. Watch the video below for full details.
Ok, I'm sold! How do I start?
- Set up your Pearltree Account
- Instal Pearler - How to here.
- Start browsing the web, when you find something you want to save. Click the Pearltree in your bookmark bar.
- Log into your account to view, organise and share your pearls.
- Transfer all your bookmarks/reading lists to Pearltrees and enjoy a spacious & clutter free browser!
Update
Pearltrees is now availble on the iPhone!
Have something to say? Let me know below. Liked this post? Share it...
Pearltrees - Create your Online Bookmark
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Useful Apps & Websites
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Warning: Text Heavy!
I tried, tested and researched a few different app's and websites aimed at bloggers and social network users.
When I'm online (more so my laptop than my mac) I like to use 2 browsers, one for my personal facebook, mail, internet use, the other for blogging, twitter, blog, mail, lookbook etc. That way I can have all I need bookmarked, automatically logging in...so on. Most of us that blog use a range of sites, sometimes it can get messy and confusing so I've recently started organising it a little more, using different app's, tools and websites. So here we are...
Useful Apps & Websites
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Browsers
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