Blogger Beta: Random Quote Generator - Part 2
Ramani over at Hackosphere has taken an idea Blogger Beta: Random Quote Generator and turned it into a slick little widget. His post, Random message widget (no Edit HTML!) shows you how. He created a nice form called Random Message Widget Creator that is basically plug and play.
You can find out more about this new/hidden(?) feature of Blogger Beta from phydeaux3 on OMG! Puppies!, which by the way, has nothing to do with puppies.
Check it out...use your imagination to see what else you can do with this feature!
Labels:
Blogger Beta,
Hacks,
Random Quote Generator
17 Comments:
"which by the way, has nothing to do with puppies."
there are.
I like cats better.
Hi Annie,
This is way off topic. I'm trying to find a solution to the following:
I've started a blog; it's still at version .00001 'n all. (Still messing about with it, including titles, tags and whatever.) And I'd like to have a pop-up box thingy, appear on the right-hand-side of the pic in my post. For the mo', I've used your toggle instructions, but I'd like to try the same content with the other idea, coz I'd like my buttons to stay below the pic.
There are instructions at HTML Goodies, but I can't work out how to have the principal code in the template which will allow me to include the feature only when I want it in a post, without having to add something to the template each time I want the feature.
If I've read HTML's instructions right, you have to keep adding code in the template, but change it slightly, if you want to use the feature. With your toggle instructions, I've put the code in the template, and I use the third part of your instructions in the post.
Also, as a matter of interest, I used Machine search vs human interface's instructions for placing the toggle code in the template. When it's suggested to put the commenthidden-commentshown part of the code just after the style thing - in Minima, you have to put that commenthidden blah blah before the /* in that style code part. (Dunno what the other templates are like.)
Most people wouldn't know you can separate those parts. I didn't until I'd checked out some View Source details and noticed that it's separate in there, even though it doesn't show up as separate in the template, unless ya mess with it.
S'cuse the longwinded and lack of tech language; I don't even know what to call that box thing I want, so I'm not sure what to google for instructions. I came upon HTML's instructions by accident, and over there it's called a toggle.
Oh, yeah. Any ideas on how to do the box thing?
Thanks.
Annie -
I've spent the better part of the day trying to insert this header (http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/3130/2735/1600/Picture5.jpg) into the HTML coding. No positive. Help!?!?
@blogwhore, I'm sending you your header graphic which I edited. Here is what I put in your template to make it work:
/* Blog Header
----------------------------------------------- */
#header-wrapper {
background:$titleBgColor url("width: 740px;
height: 142px;") no-repeat left top;
width: 740px;
height: 71px;
margin:22px 0 0 0;
padding:8px 0 0 0;
color:$titleTextColor;
}
#header { background:url("HEADER.URL") no-repeat left bottom;
padding:0 15px 8px;
width: 740px;
height: 142px;
}
OK so my request is something to do with Dynamic Content and Element Positioning (see left column, two down from About D.C.).
Just a heads up... hopefully, I'll be able to work this out after I stop going crosseyed. :P
I've changed my address, re that link I gave above for version .00001 to this.
Also, for the pop-up text, I'm gonna mess with the non-javascript instructions at meyerweb.com.
@terence, I have read your comment over and over, and I still don't quiet understand what it is you want. Do you want a hide/show link beside your picture? Sorry for being so dense.
Sorry about the befuddlement, Annie. I'll try the following to explain it better:
I'd like to try pop-up text boxes in some posts similar to how it works on this photographer's gallery, where he's placed the boxes where he wants them, and each box is the size/shape he requires. I'd also like to be able to make paragraphs, and possibly play with the font/text colour, include links, etc.
Then I found these instructions @ HTML Goodies showing how to create it. But the instructions at HTML Goodies require that for each pop-up text box, one has to add new code to the main template.
I'm wondering if it's possible to have just one set of code in the template, while having the code that one changes, for each new pop-up text box, in the post template - like with the toggle code I use now.
I've been searching quite a lot about it and I think the answer's NO. I'm sure I would have found a solution by now. So I'm going to use HTML's instructions for a post to see how it looks and to see how much I can play with the content in the box. Of course, I'll have to use a clickOn/Off effect, and not just mouseoverVisible/Invisible if I want to include links (if including links in a pop-up text box is at all possible).
I'll come back to see if you have any ideas; I'll let you know when I've given it a go in a post.
Thanks. Sorry about the confusion. Have I done any better, here? lol
@Terence, that is an awesome effect on the photographer's gallery. I love it.
I feel like it would be possible to have the 'standard' part in the template and then add a bit of code to each individual post you want it to appear in. Look at these post on Pullquotes to see what I'm talking about.
Other than that, I don't have anything for you :-( I have never attempted anything like it. This is a great undertaking and I hope you get it figured out. Let me know!
Ok, Annie, I'll take a look at the Pullquotes info. I was kinda thinking of those in relation to this, too.
Really, this rather amazing stuff by Walter Zorn is exactly what I'd like to be playing with. Unfortunately, I think you need your own server or something - don't quite understand that bit.
Otherwise, right now, it's all a bit too hard ... And I'm not happy lol ... I've just downloaded Firefox, have never used anything else but IE, and wanted to see how things look from that angle.
But run me over with a truck, on my test blog I've got a vid post opening correctly but in Firefox it opens with a rendition which has already been deleted.
Huh, I tell ya!
Now I'm really confused ha!
@terence, that is some advanced coding you are attempting, or advanced to me because I'm not familiar with it. It's all relative, isn't it.
IE and Firefox are two different animals. I personally use Firefox, but must make sure my blog displays properly in both. It is a pain. I think after you use firefox you will fall in love. Don't forget the best part...the EXTENSIONS!!!! If you're interested, I'll make a little list of the ones that help me the most with template editing and coding.
A little list would be great. I'm yet to really look at all the Firefox things. Quite frankly, I've read sooo much stuff over the past few days my head is spinning. And until recently, I had no idea what I see on my PC isn't necessarily the same for everyone. Really, I have learnt a ton.
I'll check back re the list, either here or on your homepage in case you put the info there.
Thanks for your time and attention, Annie.
(It's still amazing to me that a post I deleted comes up when using Firefox. That's some kind of magic :0)
@terence, I remember the first time I saw my blog in IE. I was aghast!! Right now I'm struggling with a blockquote issue on Buttermilk Clouds that is causing all text following a blockquote or bulleted list to be messed up. Of course that is in IE. It displays fine in Firefox. I'm about ready to include a disclaimer "Best viewed in Firefox. IE will give you a headache." I don't know what to do with it.
But about those extensions that I use to help with templates and codes:
CSSViewer
MeasueIt
ColorZilla
Backgroundimage Saver
Those are the ones I use most to help with template problems. I need to check out their extension again...they are always getting new ones.
It can get confusing, and words run together after awhile. Then something clicks and it is clear again.
Good Luck!!
Thanks, Annie, I'll check those out.
I've found a solution to that music clip autostarting in Firefox. In case you want to know, here's my thread about it .
An Original Random Object Display Feature: Yogi (Yogesh) from Continue has created an original and easy to manage basic random quote generator script for New Blogger. The quotes data base is simply hosted in a blog post (Yogi’s Quotes Data Base). So far he has two variations of his particular approach to random quote generator that he respectively calls Quote A Day (QOTD) Widget and Quote Of The Moment (QOTM) Widget. He might also come with new variations in the future.
I have implemented the QOTD widget on my blog Union Point in the section entitled "Orientation Express" and I’m even able to display images and links. In the initial phase of the implementation I had some problems to display the various objects but I believed that those problems where mainly related to my cache. The script seems to work perfectly well since I have cleared my cache. I find Yogi’s blog and instructions a little bit hard to navigate and confusing but I believed that Yogi’s approach to Random Object Display worth that you give it a look for your own interest and for the one of your readers. I also believe that Yogi’s original creation deserve more acknowledgment and credit that he has received so far.
Thanks for sharing all your discoveries and your tricks about Blogger.
@alain, I am always happy to credit the creator of any hack or idea.
Regarding this hack, I never claimed it was my idea. I had a reader send me the code and requested a way to get it to work directly under the header. But, in reading Yogesh's post,Quote A Day Widget For Blogger , it seems he didn't come up with the original code for this hack either.
Thanks for the new info on solving display problems and your input!
An Original Random Object Display Feature-Part 2: Hi Annie! I didn’t read the thread of comments under this post title. I know that you give credit to the creator of any hack or idea, but well, I didn’t know that you do it happily...
Maybe the intention of my previous comment was not so clear. I just wanted to point out to you that there are different options for implementing a Random Quote Generator on Blogger. In that context and from my point of view, Yogi’s Random Quote Generator approach and options just didn’t receive much attention from the blogosphere in general so far. I was just anticipating that if you were seduced by the originality of his creative synthesis on the Random Quote Generator theme, maybe you would buzz about it on BlogU.
When I personally look for a special feature for my blog, BlogU is generally among the first blogs I visit. I tend to believe it’s the same situation for a lot of bloggers and blog«her»s.