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dhbrug
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| Posted: Aug 16 2006 at 3:37am | IP Logged
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I have been using Blogger for some time and, while the price is right, it is flexible enough for me.
It can't handle categories automatically, although there are some pretty complex workarounds.
As a way of providing categories or highlighted articles on Bruggietales, I created lists on the left hand side which visitors can use to find some relevant posts. It is manually done by editing the template, but is pretty easy.
Here is an example from my "Homeschooling" list:
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<select name="Homeschoolmenu" onchange="document.location.href=this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;">
<option selected>Homeschooling</option>
<option value="http://bruggietales.blogspot.com/2006/06/yes-you-can- homeschool.html">Yes, You can Homeschool</option>
</select>
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Just copy the part between <option> and </option> for each new article. It doesn't take long and we find it useful for getting to posts I want to re-visit.
The easiest way to work out how someone did something interesting on a blog is "View/Page Source". Then just test the html on your template - making sure you back up the template first!
Cheers
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David
http://bruggietales.blogspot.com
dw Lana 89, dd 91, ds 93, ds 96, ds 98, dd 01, dd 04, ds 07
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Christine
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Joined: March 23 2006
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| Posted: Aug 16 2006 at 10:45am | IP Logged
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One other note, when making changes to the template in blogger (in particular, choosing a new one), be sure to copy your sidebar information (changes) and paste it somewhere or it can be lost. Simply repaste it in the template where it belongs after changing your template.
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Christine
Mommy to 4 girls, 5 boys, & 2 in God's care
Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother
Pretty Lilla Rose
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Aug 16 2006 at 3:47pm | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
| I wish I could find an option that didn't cost money, or very inexpensive so I could have as many blogs and storage as I needed, with minimal work for me. A Pipe dream, I know. $100 a year is too much for a hobby that doesn't bring in any income. |
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Wordpress.com is free, and you can have multiple blogs. I don't know how to edit the templates, though. But I've looked at it and played around with it a little ... they have some nice templates to choose from, and they DO have categories ....
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Aug 16 2006 at 3:48pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, Michele, and David for answering my questions, and Christine, thanks for the reminder about Technorati tags ... I'm really inconsistent with tagging my posts.
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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MicheleQ
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| Posted: Aug 16 2006 at 6:12pm | IP Logged
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Karen E. wrote:
| Wordpress.com is free, and you can have multiple blogs. I don't know how to edit the templates, though. But I've looked at it and played around with it a little ... they have some nice templates to choose from, and they DO have categories .... |
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Oh yes I forgot about WordPress.com! It's basically the same as the WordPress I use (WordPress.org installed on a server that I buy my hosting from) but it has limited templates and you can't edit them. But you can upgrade for $15/year and get the option to edit the css. Still, even with the free plan they DO have lots of options, such as categories, calendar, blog stats, pages, search, rss, flickr, del.icio.us etc. and 40 different templates.
OR you can get a domain name (relatively inexpensive) and get web hosting that offers WordPress as part of the package. Sheildhost offers it with their starter hosting package that's only $3.99/month and gives you a decent amount of space (2000 MB) and bandwidth (50 GB per month).
If anyone wants to do it this way let me know and I can help you get started. Using cPanel can be a bit intimidating at first but once you get use to it and realize all the options you have it can be a lot of fun.
Sorry if this is more than you wanted to know.
God bless,
__________________
Michele Quigley
wife to my prince charming and mom of 10 in Lancaster County, PA USA
http://michelequigley.com
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Christine
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| Posted: Aug 16 2006 at 7:12pm | IP Logged
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Another option for those wanting to use Wordpress on their own site is www.Parcom.net. Parcom gives an additional discount if you pay in full for the year. We are paying $55 a year for our homeschool group's website and the domain name. This is for the $3.99 Plan
I have been very impressed with what Michele has been able to do with her blog and it is the only option that could pull me away from blogger.
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Christine
Mommy to 4 girls, 5 boys, & 2 in God's care
Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother
Pretty Lilla Rose
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MicheleQ
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| Posted: Aug 16 2006 at 8:23pm | IP Logged
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Christine wrote:
| I have been very impressed with what Michele has been able to do with her blog and it is the only option that could pull me away from blogger. |
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Thanks Christine that's really nice to read  but you know, since learning more about css I am realizing that I could have done quite a lot at Blogger - I just didn't know how.
I know for some people it's easier to just have it laid out for you. I get that - I'm just not wired that way - I have to take things apart and figure out how they work.
God bless,
__________________
Michele Quigley
wife to my prince charming and mom of 10 in Lancaster County, PA USA
http://michelequigley.com
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MicheleQ
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| Posted: Aug 17 2006 at 2:07pm | IP Logged
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Oh! I remembered another blog host that's free. Life with Christ is a christian one that does not discriminate. Basically what they say is "It is understood that all registered users are either committed Christians, curious "observers" or consider themselves to be followers of Jesus. You need not be a Christian to use the internet services of LwC, but you must be willing to respect the Christian character of this site."
I opened an account there last year when I started blogging but I was so new to everything I found Blogger to be easier so I never put up anything and forgot about it until yesterday when they sent me an e-mail about something. I went ahead and set up a blog for my dh there so we'll see if it generates any interest from the other Christian bloggers there (he's quite the apologist  ).
Anyway they have a limited number of templates but they are very customizable and have categories and such. Basically if you know css (or are willing to learn) you can do quite a lot. It's also a nice url to have in your blog. We used catholic for the user name so the blog address is catholic.lifewithchrist.org - cool huh?
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Michele Quigley
wife to my prince charming and mom of 10 in Lancaster County, PA USA
http://michelequigley.com
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Helen
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| Posted: Aug 20 2006 at 5:48pm | IP Logged
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I've just been looking around blogs about blogging and I discovered that if you sign up for blogger beta you can have categories in your blogger blog.
From what I saw, it seems that this is new and still has a few bugs to work out. Once you switch to blogger beta you can't switch back.
Has anyone tried this? Is it worth changing?
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: about switching to Typepad
