Change the Post Title Font Easily

Hi Annie,

A possible tip for you:

To change my post title font I added a new variable called
posttitlefont at the top of my code. Then I modified the h3 section in
the Post wrapper in the CSS section. To my surprise Post Title Font
now shows up as an option under the fonts and colors tab in the
dashboard!

You can check it out at my blog, Upper Fort Stewart.

Ian Stewart


I received this tip from Ian almost a year ago. Life has a way of putting things on the back burner. This is a neat little edit for a blog post. Here is how it is done.

Open your Dashboard | Template | Edit HTML. Look for the /* Variable definitions section. Add this code to that section:

<Variable name="posttitlefont" description="Post Title Font" type="font" default="normal normal 78% 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, Sans-serif"></variable>

Next find the post header code in the CSS style sheet:

.post h3 {
margin:.25em 0 0;
padding:0 0 4px;
font-size:140%;
font-weight:normal;
line-height:1.4em;
color:$titlecolor;
}

Modify that code by replacing:
font-size:140%;
font-weight:normal;

with this:
font: $posttitlefont;

to make this code:

.post h3 {
margin:.25em 0 0;
padding:0 0 4px;
font: $posttitlefont;
line-height:1.4em;
color:$titlecolor;
}

Save your template. Once again go back to your Dashboard | Template | Fonts and Colors. There will be a new listing in the scroll box called Post Title Font. Now changes can be made to the post title with only a click!

The Scoop on OpenID and Blogger Comments

I have been looking into OpenId and it's connection with Blogger. I went straight to the source, thanks to Janeywan for sending me the link to OpenID Commenting on Blogger Buzz.

If you haven't set up OpenID, you can still link to your blog — or any webpage, for that matter — by using the standard tag inside the comment form.

From Blogger Buzz

First, what does OpenID do? It allows you to take your identity with you, proving that you own a particular URL. Isn't that simple? Yes. And a big surprise is that you may already have an OpenID. If not, don't fret. There are several options to get one:

1. myOpenID which is what I used.
2. claimID
   
3. myvidoop
   
4. myID.net
5. VeriSign Labs
   

What does it mean to you, a blog owner? It means that readers can leave authenticated comments on your blog using their blog URLs from OpenID-enabled services such as WordPress.com, LiveJournal, and AOL Journals, or with their AOL/AIM accounts. When they leave a comment with an OpenID , you will see this icon next to their names. No more comment spoofing.

To enable this on your blog, go to your Dashboard | Settings | Comments | Who can Comment | check Anyone or Registered Users.

This is from myOpenID on using your own URL:

You can use your own URL as your OpenID, and still use myOpenID as your OpenID server. To set this up, create an account, and add the following markup into your page's <head<> section:

<link rel="openid.server"
href="http://www.myopenid.com/server" />
<link rel="openid.delegate"
href="http://youraccount.myopenid.com/" />
<link rel="openid2.local_id"
href="http://youraccount.myopenid.com" />
<link rel="openid2.provider"
href="http://www.myopenid.com/server" />
<meta http-equiv="X-XRDS-Location"
content="http://www.myopenid.com/xrds?username=youraccount.myopenid.com" />

Or another method...which I decided to use:

<link href='http://www.myopenid.com/server' rel='openid.server'/> <!-- For delegating OpenID v1.x-->
<link href='http://youraccount.myopenid.com' rel='openid.delegate'/> <!-- For delegating OpenID v1.x-->
<meta content='http://youraccount.myopenid.com/xrds' http-equiv='X-XRDS-Location'/> <!-- For delegating OpenID v2.x-->;

In both examples put your OpenID username where it says your account.

That's it. You can now use your own URL to log into OpenID enabled sites with myOpenID as your OpenID server.

Now, while I have your attention. Big Bad Blogger apologized for removing the URL field from the comments form prematurely. And they regreted making it appear that they were trying to force you into getting a Google Account. Don't you all feel bad for talking the way you did about them? Shame on you.

The Blogger openID debate

There seems to be a huge rumbling about Blogger these days. A revolution of sorts. I'm not jumping on that band wagon. It concerns comment links and openID.

Let me step out on a limb here and say that I didn't start blogging to become the most popular kid on the block. I started blogging because I felt I had something to share with others. Nor do I comment only to have a link back to my blog. I comment because I have something to say. Either to let the poster know that I appreciate a well written post, or I have something that could be of interest to that poster and their readers. I didn't choose a blogging platform for it's ability to allow links in it's comment section.

With that being said, I do think linking is important. But not for the reason you may think. I like following links and placing links for the information shared within that link.

I will do what I always do with Blogger. Find a way. Just to make it simple for my readers, I have put this in the Comment Form Message in the comment setting section of the dashboard. Now my readers may comment and leave a link to something of interest. Or, if they wish, they can leave a link to their blog. Either way, it is there and easy to use.

I'm playing around with some of the fixes I've found, but at this point I'm not entirely clear on what I'm fixing! It all seems to work fine.

I really don't see what the fuss is about. Blogger will get it together and we will live happily ever after in Blogger Land.