Thursday 21 February 2008

Party at my house! - DIY XML blogger template


click for a live preview

This Blogger/Blogspot design is called "Party at my house!" and it's available under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

*** A few things ***
This blogger template is for those of you who are comfortable editing images and uploading them to the internet (and then replacing the image path). YOUR BLOG TITLE AND DESCRIPTION WILL NOT SHOW UP - this design is not interactive from your Blogger Dashboard.

The header image is a blank banner that you may do what you wish to:
Here is the image (see it's blank and ready for you):

click the image to view full size
and then right click and "Save Image As....."
(or download the zip file, it's in there too!)

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

"So, how is this different from your other designs?"
It's not, really. I have just included the "blank" header image so you may edit it to include your blog title/description or any images you want. You don't have to edit any other images or change where they are hosted... just the header. If you do nothing and install it as presented in the zip file, it will look exactly the same as this page with "Blog Title Here" in the header image.

"WHY did you make this design like this?
"
Two reasons really - one: I know that a lot of people want to customise their design a lot more (you can use any graphics editor to put your own text onto this banner and there are waaaay more font choices than the silly old internet can handle. DaFont: droolworthy!) and two: I just thought it would be more interesting - and things are definitely better when they're more interesting ;-)

"I don't want to edit my own header image! Can you please let me know how to make my title & description come through from Blogger?"
No. There is no way that your blog title and description is going to come through and actually "fit" well in the banner bit, so bad luck.

"What graphics program can I use to edit this image?"
I have Photoshop CS, but you can use any graphics program that allows you to open/edit a JPEG or GIF - which should be pretty much any graphics program. I have also included the (layered) photoshop file for those of the Photoshop persuasion.

"Ok, I made my own banner, now what?"
Now you'll have to upload it to some hosting on the internet. I host my files on photobucket.com (a free image hosting service) but there are more options out there.
Upload the file to the internet, then find the URL of the image.

Next, go to the "Layouts" >> "Edit HTML" section of your blog.
You will need to replace the original header image - seen on this page - to be your own.

Scroll down until you find the following image path:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa231/free_blogger/HeaderTest.gif

hint: it's under this bit
/* ---( header and site name )--- */


click for a larger view

Replace the original image path with the newly created header image path that you've just uploaded to your own hosting. Make sure not to remove the brackets. Preview to check it's all ok and then save. Viola!

OK OK OK, gimme the template:
  • Download the XML template: here (zip)
  • View a live preview: here
  • Need help installing this? Click here

5 comments :

  1. I wanna tell you how I really appreciate your works, I really really like your templates!!! Thanks for the inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi! i like the font you used on banner ("blog title here"). what is the name of font you used on the banner?

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's name is "Designer" font and it's available free from dafont.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi there! I LOVE this font, thanks so much for allowing us to download it for free!

    I was wondering...what are the colors you used for the header image? Perhaps in hex code...I want to add a sub-title to the header underneath the ribbon. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Trent Rylee, I'll have to get back to you on that one (I'm on holidays right now, but will be back on the weekend).

    xx

    ReplyDelete

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Thanks for reading,
Sharnee