TechnoBlog : open your blog. - tools

The blog bar

noreply@blogspirit.com (blogSpirit Team) — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 22:10:00 +0100

Maybe, you already know this tool ? If not, you need to click on Blogbar and add it to a custom block of your blog.

Blogbar used to let you search for a some site/blog from directly your blog with the help of the main search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, ...) and some blog search engines (Technorati, Blogpusle, ...).

Now Blogbar V3 lets you search for something on your blog aka your site domain. The Blogbar is now a real service for any blogger. It is THE block you have to add to your columns specially on blogSpirit : it is really easy to insert it on blogSpirit blogs. The reason is simple, Blogbar creators are blogging on blogSpirit (Read the V3 post).

The css map of your blog !

noreply@blogspirit.com (blogSpirit Team) — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:05:00 +0100

Here is a way to know how to handle every graphic element of your blog : The CSS map of your blog.
This tool will help knowing the identity of each style if you wish to personnalize your blog by your self.

. It's brand new and let you :

Recognize the style of name of the important boxes that build your blog layout
Know each text style like links, content titiles, date, sidebar lists etc... Just click on any text element to display the style name in the center box

I've seen much blogSpirit blog with nice CSS designs (like this one), I hope this tool will help many other ones

Légend :
Your CSS blog uses a box model, here are the ones you need to know if want to edit your stylesheet :

box : #container, the main box that contains everything.

box : #left, #right, #banner, #center : 4 important boxes used for left column, right column, center column and banner

box : .sidebar, .content : styles thaht defines some default layout rules like padding properties or font properties

box : table.calendar : this style defines the calendar box that has its own rules

Good luck !

Translate your blog !

noreply@blogspirit.com (blogSpirit Team) — Thu, 19 May 2005 14:05:00 +0200

Ever wanted to translate your blog ?

This tool lets you translate any page of your blog in just one click, you can insert it into a new custom block in design header :

<form action="http://translate.google.com/translate" name="translate" id="translate">
<input type=hidden name=u value="" />
<input type=hidden name=langpair value="" />
<input type=hidden name=hl value="en"><input type=hidden name=c2coff value=1><input type=hidden name=ie value=UTF-8><input type=hidden name=oe value=UTF-8><input type=hidden name=prev value="/language_tools"></form>
<a href="javascript:document.translate.elements['langpair'].value = 'en|fr'; document.translate.elements['u'].value = document.URL; document.translate.submit();"><img style="margin-bottom: 5px;" src="http://myblog.blogspirit.com/images/french_flag.gif" alt="French" /></a>
<a href="javascript:document.translate.elements['langpair'].value = 'en|de'; document.translate.elements['u'].value = document.URL; document.translate.submit();"><img style="margin-bottom: 5px;" src="http://myblog.blogspirit.com/images/deutsh_flag.gif" alt="Deutsch" /></a>

You may find here all languages possible to translate from english with Google. Then update all parameters wrote in bolg in the smaple.

You can also translate your blog from another language, visit this page to know which languages are available then update all parameters with an underlined style.

MSN Search free block

noreply@blogspirit.com (blogSpirit Team) — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 20:51:08 +0200

Enough of Google Search ? Try the MSN Search block :

<form method="get" action="http://search.msn.com/results.aspx">
<input type="hidden" name="cp" value="1252" />
<input type="hidden" name="FORM" value="FREESS"/>
<input type="text" name="q" size="30" style="width:95px; background-color: #f3d9c0; color: #cc6600;" value="MSN Search
" />
<input type="submit" value="Go" style="width:25px; background-color: #f3d9c0; border: 2px solid #000; color: #000;" />
<input type="hidden" name="q1" value="site:YOUR_BLOG.blogspirit.com" />
</form>

That's it ! The best way to insert this block should be the custom blocks (Design -> Column content). Remember to replace 'YOUR_BLOG' by your domain name.

A search engine on your blog.

noreply@blogspirit.com (blogSpirit Team) — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 02:15:00 +0100

Searching for information is the real problem on the internet. This rule also applies to the Blog-o-sphere and even your own blog !

Here is a way to insert a Google search engine on your blog at Blogspirit.

First let's insert the html code in your blog with the help of the "link-note" box.

<div class="link-note">
<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search">
<input type="text" name="q" size="5" maxlength="255" style="width:95px;" />
<input type="submit" name="btnG" value="Go" style="width:25px;" />
<input type="hidden" name="domains" value="http://YOURBLOG.blogspirit.com" />
<input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="http://YOURBLOG.blogspirit.com" />
</form>
</div>

Now we will try to modify the text box. You can edit the width but also the background and the text color :

<div class="link-note">
<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search">
<input type="text" name="q" size="5" maxlength="255" style="width:95px; background-color: #addfe8; color: #01717f;" />
<input type="submit" name="btnG" value="Go" style="width:25px;" />
<input type="hidden" name="domains" value="http://YOURBLOG.blogspirit.com" />
<input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="http://YOURBLOG.blogspirit.com" />
</form>
</div>

The "valid" button can be changed the same way :

<div class="link-note">
<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search">
<input type="text" name="q" size="5" maxlength="255" style="width:95px; background-color: #addfe8; color: #01717f;" />
<input type="submit" name="btnG" value="Go" style="width:25px; background-color: #addfe8; border: 2px solid #000; color: #000;" />
<input type="hidden" name="domains" value="http://YOURBLOG.blogspirit.com" />
<input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="http://YOURBLOG.blogspirit.com" />
</form>
</div>

Before this search engine works, Google needs to know your blog. If you have just created your blog, this can take some days but as your blog is visible on Blogspirit home page, on communities, on Blogspirit search engine or on friends blogs, Google robots will be interested in your blog very soon !