I'm struggling a bit and could use some help.

Thu Sep 09, 2010 2:09 pm

Hello. Firstly thanks for making and sharing the Falkner Press template, it's great. Thanks also for the comprehensive instructions to install all the elements too, I've been following the instructions here http://www.bloggertricks.com/2009/05/releasing-mind-blowing-magazine-style.html.

I'm a total novice so have been taking it slowly, step by step and over the last couple of days have managed to get a lot of the install done, however, I'm really struggling with one particualar feature and I can't for the life of me figure it out. I wonder if someone woud be kind enough to point me in the right direction?

There isn't anything to see there yet, and a lot of the changes have still to be made but my blog is at http://www.dragonsquid.blogspot.com and I'm having a problem changing the settings for the glider. I've done it and re-done it but it just won't work. I'm not sure really what I'm supposed to be ending up with as the demo doesn't have anything showing in the glider section, so i'm a bit lost.

I've put it all back to the original settings apart from picture number 1 so that I don't get confused. I've changed the img src to my photobucket acc, I changed the img name too but then I wasn't sure what to do with the thumbnail http as it wasn't mentioned in the instructions but I thought it should be changed too. So I had a hunt around the site and I'm wondering if it's supposed to look like this when it's done? http://slideshow-slider.blogspot.com/ I've tried just leaving the thumbnail url alone and nothing showed on the glider, and then I took the sizes from the slider demo and made a little thumbnail img and tried putting the details in for that but still no luck. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any and all help

Thu Sep 09, 2010 3:31 pm

Just had another look around the forum and found the thread about the release of this template. I see it mentioned that some files should be hosted elsewhere and that the instructions are in an installation file that was downloaded. I downloaded the zip for falknerpress from this page http://www.bloggertricks.com/2009/05/releasing-mind-blowing-magazine-style.html?commentPage=2 and there is an installation url in the download that takes me back to the page I downloaded from. If I follow the installation link on that page I end up athttp://www.bloggertricks.com/2008/07/how-to-install-blogger-templates.html but I still can't find any mention of hosting files myself.

I don't seem to have any extra files with the download, otherwise I'd try and figure it out on my own by searching online for info.

I've found out that I need to host something myself, but I don't know what nor where.

Can someone check the link I gave for my download to make sure I'm not losing my mind because I can not find those files that I need to host anywhere.......nor the info to do it.

Thu Sep 09, 2010 5:46 pm

Ok, so every post I find talks about the txt files and I didn't get any with my download (I d/l a few times - always without .txt files) But, I found this post http://www.bloggertricks.com/2009/09/how-to-use-blogger-to-upload-your.html which shows a screenshot of what the xml file should look like, and mine doesn't. I'll post mine at the bottom, but in the meantime I see that those java codes are in a different spot on my xml but they are there so does that mean that it's set up for the free blogger java hosting trick already? And I don't need the txt files so it must be something else?

If yes then I'm back to square one (see post #1).

-------------
The start of my downloaded template is:

Code:: [b] <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//ES" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' xmlns:b='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/b' xmlns:data='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/data' xmlns:expr='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/expr'> <head> <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/> <script type='text/javascript'> //<![CDATA[ function removeHtmlTag(strx,chop){ if(strx.indexOf("<")!=-1) { var s = strx.split("<"); for(var i=0;i<s.length;i++){ if(s[i].indexOf(">")!=-1){ s[i] = s[i].substring(s[i].indexOf(">")+1,s[i].length); } [/b]

Thu Sep 09, 2010 5:50 pm

Is there something I should be doing with the thumbnail http as it's not mentioned in the installation guide?



<div class='imageElement'>
<h3>Crank:High Voltage</h3>
<p/>
<a class='open' href='http://bloggertricks.com' title='Read more'/>

<img alt='Crank:High Voltage' class='full' src='http://54800.com/wp-content/themes/falkner/timthumb.php?src=http://54800.com/wp-content/uploads/a3.jpg&h=280&w=490&zc=0&q=85'/>
<img alt='Crank:High Voltage' class='thumbnail' src='http://54800.com/wp-content/uploads/a3.jpg'/>
</div>

Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:57 am

Even a link to a page that explains would be great if nobody has the time to help.

This is a steep learning curve for me as it's my first attempt at modifying a template and I thought I was doing ok with it. But now I can't move on until I figure out this bit and I can't find the info I need to be able to sort it

Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:42 am

Hi... First of all I know what you are facing... i know sometimes webmasters lost some files that should be included in the ZIP folder...

I just check your blog and the Slideshow works as it should work.

The "Glider Content" is ok as well.

Jour fist post don't have a name and or text content, only have an image, for that reason lokks in that way

The rest of the posts also don't have text, only a few words, that is way they look in that way.

If you post without images you will get that "NO PREVIEW" image by default.
If you post with images you will get the first image ( the close to the start of the post ) resized to some size.

The size of that images can be changed in the script that your blog have.

Just find this:

if(img.length<1) {
imgtag = '<div class="thumbnail"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Toi-rh0Nm00/S_OkQjV_XCI/AAAAAAAAEoo/P36B_K5hqnw/s400/np.jpg" width="125px" height="125px"/></div>';
summ = summary_img;
}

The "No Preview" default image = http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Toi-rh0Nm00/S ... 400/np.jpg
The preview image size = width="125px" height="125px"

Change the values to something that suits you.

is there something I should be doing with the thumbnail http as it's not mentioned in the installation guide?

Just change the URL of the images to your images for the slideshow. You had done that.

I hope that help you, if not just let me know

Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:29 am

Thanks Gyms. It's good to know that it looks ok, that's a help. I must not be seeing what you are though, it doesn't look right in my browser(s) so that's what is making things hard for me. I keep thinking I'm doing it right but then it doesn't seem to be right when I check. I've tried firefox and IE and in both it looks like it's not right.

This is my IE

and this is my Firefox

On both you'll see that it says 'Glider Content', but it doesn't actually show any content on the glider or thumbnails. It must be a setting on my browsers but I have no idea what it could be. (sorry for the big pics, I couldn't work out how to resize them here)

Thanks for the info about the preview pic, that helped too. I've changed the default no preview pic now.

I have some other little tweaks and questions but I'll have a look first to see if I can figure it out on my own before I bother you. I'm going to try and find out how to add more elements to the sidebars but still be able to adjust the order. At the moment anything new I add just gets added right at the top and there's no way to move the widgets etc up or down the running order.

The next few things are all to do with posts but may have something to do with my browser not showing everything. I'd like to add a 'read more' on the post section to lead to the full post. I know it can be done by clicking the post title but I'd rather have a 'read more' text link to do it.

Finally I'd like the little 'crossed tools' showing nexts to the gadgets, elements, posts etc for quick editing from the main blog page but they don't show for me. Failing that I'd like to add a little quick edit to the post itself (I think it usually shows up as a little yellow pencil) but even though all my settings on my dashboard are right *(i think) ie 'show quick edit' etc I still have to go right onto the dashboard and edit posts that way.

anyway, thanks for all your help, it's probably not a big deal for anyone who knows what they're doing- it's just a regular blog- but it's been a monumental learning curve for me and I'm enjoying it. My IQ had risen about 20% the last 4 days.

Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:33 am

On both you'll see that it says 'Glider Content', but it doesn't actually show any content on the glider or thumbnails. It must be a setting on my browsers but I have no idea what it could be. (sorry for the big pics, I couldn't work out how to resize them here)

1 = Thumbnails
2 = Content
3= Name and Link to your post ( full post )

If you don't post any content the area 2 will be empty. The same if you don't post any image.

I'd like to add a 'read more' on the post section to lead to the full post. I know it can be done by clicking the post title but I'd rather have a 'read more' text link to do it.

You are confused... the read more goes in the Home Page, not in the post.

To ad a simply read more to your template go to Design > Edit HTML > Click on expand widget templates

Find this:
<DIV expr:id='"summary" + data:post.id'><br/><p><data:post.body/></p></DIV>
<div class='entryhome'><SCRIPT type='text/javascript'>createSummaryAndThumb("summary<data:post.id/>");</SCRIPT>
</div>
<div style='clear: both;'/> 

Replace with this new code:

Code:: <DIV expr:id='"summary" + data:post.id'><br/><p><data:post.body/></p></DIV> <div class='entryhome'><SCRIPT type='text/javascript'>createSummaryAndThumb("summary<data:post.id/>");</SCRIPT> <br/> <a expr:href='data:post.url'>Read More</a> </div> <div style='clear: both;'/>

Finally I'd like the little 'crossed tools' showing nexts to the gadgets, elements, posts etc for quick editing from the main blog page but they don't show for me. Failing that I'd like to add a little quick edit to the post itself (I think it usually shows up as a little yellow pencil) but even though all my settings on my dashboard are right *(i think) ie 'show quick edit' etc I still have to go right onto the dashboard and edit posts that way.

Not all templates allow that, that "crossed tools" are the quick edit icons, by default your template don't show the quick edit icons. Only will show the quick edit icons in new widgets. The position of that icons can't be changed.

Finally this is the script that create the summary

<SCRIPT type='text/javascript'> var thumbnail_mode = "no-float" ; summary_noimg = 400; summary_img = 370; img_thumb_height = 125; img_thumb_width = 125; </SCRIPT>

You can change these values

summary_noimg = 400 ► Summary without image (post without image) 400 caracters
summary_img = 370 ► Summary with image (post with image) 370 caracters

If the post have a image the image will be resized to these values ( resized on the home page, not in the post page )

img_thumb_height = 125 ► Height
img_thumb_width = 125 ► Width

I hope this help you.

Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:49 am

Thank you, that answers everything I need to know.

Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:35 pm