HTML - How to link an image

When you add an image in blogger, it creates an HTML section something like this:

<a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/yourimagename.png">
<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/yourimagename.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5170394954984704994" />
</a>

This links the image to itself so when you click on it, it opens up the image full size in a new browser window. Most of the time this is what you want. But sometimes you want to link the image when it is clicked to a URL instead. To do this, all you need to do is change the <a> tag's HREF to the URL you want to go to when it is clicked.

For instance, when we click on this image, if we want it to go to www.amazon.com, we would change the above URL to:

<a href="http://www.amazon.com">
<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/yourimagename.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5170394954984704994" />
</a>

Internet Explorer - one less reason to use your mouse

This is such a dumb tip but I have to share it. Ever wondered how to navigate to a new page in Internet Explorer 7 without using your mouse to click in the navigation bar? I have seen people use it before and probably if I would have remembered, I would have used it a lot more. But today, I was doing a lot of URL typing and I started to get annoyed to I looked for the shortcut.

By hitting Ctrl - O (open command in IE), a small dialog box is opened with your cursor already placed in the navigation field ready to type in your URL. Type your URL and hit enter and the dialog is immediately closed and your currently opened browser is navigated to the new URL.

So simple and yet so useful!

Free speech - a step in the right direction

Finally, some good news in the free speech department. The Supreme Court ruled today that courts should "give the benefit of doubt to speech, not censorship" in the 2008 political campaign. This can only be good news for any group that is trying to get their message heard in an increasingly noisy atmosphere. You can view the article here:

http://www.nysun.com/article/57275

For years, all I've been hearing and seeing is the erosion of the Freedom of Speech that is so important to America's survival and history. From ridiculous nonsense around derogatory comments about someone's hair style to an ultra-sensitivity towards hate speech. I completely agree with the decision of the Supreme Court on this one. When in doubt, support the right to say what you want even if you don't agree with it.

Maybe this will provide the much needed forum for political interest groups to actually be heard in the wake of the horrible McCain/Feingold campaign finance legislation that is an affront to free speech.

Blogger: remove "Showing posts with label" section

I created some custom links that I placed as part of the header section for easy navigation between label categrories. When someone clicks one of these links, blogger sorts the content to only show content for that particular label. I've worked a lot on the overall design of the site and want a more seamless (non-blogger-esque) experience for readers.

It might seem picky but each time a list of labeled posts is shown, an annoying message is displayed to users such as "Showing posts with label XXXX". This also has a link to View all Posts. This message looks totally out of place on my newly designed template. The other annoying thing about this message is that it lets my readers know that they are still on a blogger site instead of a custom designed site.

So I did a lot of searching and I am dissappointed to report that I couldn't find an answer anywhere. So I went to "plan B". I looked at the source behind the HTML of the blogger page when that message was shown and I noticed that the section was called "status-msg-border". After a lot of playing around with the template, I figured it out. To remove the section completely, follow these steps:

• Login to Blogger
• Click on Template -> Edit HTML
• IMPORTANT! Back up your template before making any changes just in case you screw this up.
• Check the box to Expand Widget Templates
• Then use your browser's Find command (Control-F in Firefox and IE) and search for the words "status-msg-border"
• To be safe (just in case you want to ever show this section in the future, I just commented it out. You can either remove or comment it out. Here is the entire code to remove:

<b:includable id="'status-message'">  
<!-- remove the label show all posts stuff here -->
<!--
<b:if cond="'data:navMessage'">
<div class="'status-msg-wrap'">
<div class="'status-msg-body'">
<data:navmessage/>
</div>
<div class="'status-msg-border'">
<div class="'status-msg-bg'">
<div class="'status-msg-hidden'">
<data:navmessage/>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="'clear:">
</b:if>
-->
</b:includable>

Save your template and click a label. No message should appear now.

* NOTE: This code has been tested for Beta Blogger / New Blogger only. No guarantees on classic blogger.

Removing the Permalink section from Blogger comments footer

I battled with this for hours and the answer was so simple, I almost cancelled my blogger account. So here's the deal, by default at the bottom of every post page where the comments are shown, there is a section called "Permalink" that is listed just under the last comment on the page. I kept wondering what the purpose of this section was. It made no sense to me having experienced the concept of permalinking at hundreds of sites on the web before. I just assumed (bad idea) that it worked as a unique and permanent link to this post for future reference. Well...Yes and no. Yes it is a permanent link, but it is not meant for the general public. Instead, it is a link for other blogger users to use to link to my post to help build search optimization linking for better search ranking on sites like google. It turns out the Blogger's term for this section is "Back Links". Here is a quick description of what they are (http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42533).

After figuring this out, all I wanted to do was remove it as most of my readers are not blogger users and have no interest in this feature. I started searching google trying every phrase I could think of to get some useful results. I tried everything from "Blogger remove peramlink" to more complex terms like "Blogger remove comments footer Permalink Create a link". Nothing! Partially why I am writing this now is to solve this issue for future people.

Here's how to remove it:

• Login to your blogger account
• Navigate to Settings -> Comments
• Change the setting "Backlinks" from Show to Hide.
• Save Settings

That's it. Now go back to a blog post and look at the bottom of the comments. No more permalink section! If only someone else had written this first!

Third column in Blogger (rounders template)

I searched and searched on google and came up with a lot of dead-ends. I have been trying to add a third column to the left side of my other blogs for quite a few days. Then I came across this article by "Tips for New Bloggers" (http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/2007/05/three-columns-rounders-template.html) that worked PERFECTLY.

I highly recommend checking them out. Their tutorials are much more coherent and well organized than Blogging for dummies (whom I still like) but New Bloggers takes it to a higher level. There is not as much ad garbage on their pages either so they load faster and are easier to navigate. Check it out sometime:

http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/

If Ron Paul is crazy, why is he making so much sense?

Although I can't get behind Ron's characterization of why the terrorists attack, I am really liking almost everything else he is saying. It really strikes a chord. I love his straight-talk. I am SO SICK of the rhetoric in politics. When was the last time Bush spoke without a script? I mean it sounds robotic. I don't believe a word he says. I don't think Bush is the bad guy that everyone else thinks he is. Rather, I think he is more the fumbling idiot. A nice Texan homebody who bumbled into the presidency because of his contacts, powerful friends, and family. He is the "Manchurian candidate".

But forget about Bush for a second, he is a disaster in terms of PR and policy. Ron Paul really speaks his mind and when he says something, whether I agree with it or not, I believe what he says and I can tell he really thought it through. He is more of a libertarian than republican. Freedom, founding fathers, and limited government with a strong defense is his policy.

Here is a small exerpt from a debate last month. See for yourself.



I know, I know... Ron Paul! Are you kidding? He is SO radical! Well, that is only because we have been so used to business as usual in politics that Ron seems out in left field. Go back and read the Federalist Papers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Papers) and it is eerie how similar Ron's views sound to those founding fathers.