Category Archives: Getting Blog Design Right

How To Keep Your Hair (and Sanity) When Doing Blog Makeovers!

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Ever felt like you’re going slightly totally crazy?

You upload a nice new custom image header.  Or you rename your blog categories!  But when you visit your blog site these new changes haven’t appeared and you see the old version of your blog.

Rest assured you aren’t crazy!

But until you understand the culprit lies with your browser’s cache and learn how to clear your browser cache it will drive you crazy.

What Is A Browser Cache?

When you visit a web page for the first time web browsers such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, Flock and Safari save a copy of that page and its graphics on your computer.  The next time you visit an ‘already visited web page’ it grabs the saved copy of the page from your computer’s hard drive. This makes the page load and render faster because it doesn’t have to grab all the information from the web server that hosts the web page.

This ‘saved copy on your computer’s hard drive’ is known as your browser cache.  It’s normally a good feature unless you need to view the latest version of a web page.

How To Clear Your Web Browser

Web browsers do vary in terms of what method you use to clear their cache.  However the fastest method is to use the shortcut key Ctrl + F5 (press and hold the Ctrl key while pressing F5).  This will reload the web page you are viewing while clearing the cache for most web browsers on Windows including FireFox, Flock and Internet Explorer 7.

On a Mac the short cut keys to reload and clear cache are CMD + R (press and hold the CMD key while pressing R) – thanks Patrick Malley for realizing I had forgotten instructions for Macs.

So the next time you make changes to your blog’s design and are still seeing the old version of your blog remember to try clearing your cache.

Image by fjom licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike.

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Edublogs Themes That Allow Comments on Pages!

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Which blog themes allow readers to write comments on pages is a common question asked in the Edublogs forum.

Problem is some themes allow comments on pages and others don’t.  To find the answer you need to try each theme, which is a lengthy process.  It took me hours to Separate the 100 Edublogs themes Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier.

Thanks to Ginny Paisie from Paisie Perusals we now have the answer because she both road tested all the themes and shared the results in the forum.

UPDATE:

While I was writing this post Paul Beaufait had a similar idea and has written a post:

  1. explaining why being able to write comments on pages is a handy feature for students
  2. and also set up a Google Form for you to leave details if your theme allows comments

We would REALLY love it if you could check the list above and drop past Paul’s post and complete his form to confirm if your theme does/doesn’t allow comments on pages.

Please remember also to take the time to drop past Ginny’s blog to thank her!

You may also want to check out What To Consider When Choosing Your Blog Theme!

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What Do Your Readers Really SEE?

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Image of a blogging bookSimple facts from the stats — for my personal blog Mobile Technology in TAFE.

The Facts

  1. Approx. 50 people visit my blog site each day.
  2. Main web browsers used for viewing my blog are FireFox (52.93 % ), Internet Explorer (39.93 %) and Safari (4.87 %).
  3. Approx. 750 people subscribe to my blog and read my posts using a Feed Reader.
  4. Main feed readers used by my readers are Google Reader (68 %) and Bloglines (7 %).
  5. Approx. 35 people prefer to read my posts via email (Feedburner email subscription).

What The Facts Mean

Even with great content people are less likely to subscribe or continuing subscribing to your blog if your posts are hard to read. It’s important to ensure your posts look nice and are easy to read on your blog, when read in feed readers and by email.

You check this by:

  1. Regularly examining the appearance of your blog using a few web browsers! (Read more here)
  2. Subscribing to your blog in a Feed Reader!
  3. Subscribing to your email subscription!

Here’s how to set up:

  1. Google Analytics for obtaining statistics on visitors to your blog (here an intro on how to use use of Google Analytics).
  2. Feedburner for obtaining statistics on subscribers to your blog
  3. Email subscription using Feedburner
  4. Your feed so it redirects to Feedburner to get accurate subscriber statistics
  5. A Google Reader Account and subscribe to blogs

FINAL THOUGHTS

So how did you go:

  1. Notice any problems that you need to rectify when you viewed your blog in different web browsers?
  2. What are your posts like when read in a feed reader like Google Reader? Have any of the embeds you’ve added been removed?

Image was created using txt2pic.com

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The 100 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier

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Given there are 100 Edublogs themes available for you to use ranging from themes that can’t be altered to themes that are “extremely customizable” you can spend quite a bit of time testing themes to find the “perfect theme”. So I’ve decided to help make your task a bit easier (I hope) by categorizing the Edublogs themes based on:

  1. Layout – number of columns
  2. Color Scheme
  3. Ability to upload own image header
  4. Presence or absence of page links in blog header
  5. Presence or absence of tagline in blog header
  6. Ability to customize theme

Image of assessing blog themes

One Column Themes

Single Column themes have a central post area with no sidebar. These theme appeal to people who like to keep their theme simple by preventing the clutter often created by sidebar widgets. All widgets are located at the bottom of the blog on one column themes.

  1. Image of a one column theme72 Classes – Minmalist white theme with black trim
  2. Ambiru - light grey theme and able to upload your own custom image header (500 x 225 pixels)
  3. Day Dream – offers four different headers to choose from pink with flowers, blue, grey or green leaves
  4. GreenDay – Olive green theme with content located on left of page; doesn’t look anything like supplied screenshot in theme selection area
  5. Roundflow – Extremely customisable theme. Able to change width of column, type of font used on blog and colors of header, background & text
  6. Simplr – This theme allows you to configure some variables to suit your blog such as font size, font type
  7. Striped Plus – Extremely customisable theme that allows you to change width of blog, type of font used on blog, colors of header, background & text and upload own images to use for header and background

One column themes with additional features:

  1. Links to pages in blog header - Ambiru, Day Dream, Green Day, Roundflow and Simplr.
  2. Includes tagline in blog header – Day Dream, Green Day, Roundflow and Simplr

Two Column Themes with Left Sidebar

Image of Two column theme with left sidebar

  1. Anarchy - Black theme with red headings and white text.
  2. Benevolence – Simplistic theme which allows you to upload your own custom image header (700 x 225 pixels).
  3. Borderline chaos – Theme has funky modern color scheme
  4. Fauna - theme has a light grey background image with patterns and allows you to upload your own custom image header (780 x 200 pixels). Posts have a white background.
  5. Pink Kupy – Very pretty in pink with pink patterns in the header. The post column is really narrow with the post background color of pink and the text written in darker pink.
  6. Solipsus – Black and grey tones theme with simple pattern header. The post column is quite narrow and the post background color is grey.
  7. Suhweet – Minmalist purplish theme with the background colour of post light purple.
  8. Tarskei - White simple feeling theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (720 x 180 pixels)
  9. White as milk – Extremely white theme with a white header and felt too white for me.
  10. WordPress Silver II – Clean white theme that allows you to customize your image header using a Flickr tag.
  11. Heminway – Black theme that can be changed to white. Technically speaking it is a two column theme but is unusual in that it columns display posts and the widgets are located below like a one column theme. Didn’t partially like this theme because it displays the latest post as a partial post and you have to click on a link to read the full post.

Two column themes with left sidebar additional features:

  1. Links to pages in blog header - Fauna, Suhweet, Tarskei and WordPress Silver II
  2. Includes tagline in blog header – Pink Kupy, White as Milk, Suhweet, Tarskei and WordPress Silver II

Two Column Themes with Right Sidebar

Two Column themes with right sidebar are the most Edublogs most common theme layout so it has been necessary to break these themes into several categories based on: those that allow you to upload your own image header; and then the remaining themes were categorized based on the theme’s color scheme.

Those that allow you to upload your own image header are:Image of Two Column with right side bar

  1. Blix – 690 x 115 pixels. Blue Green simple theme.
  2. Connections – 741 x 142 pixels. Stylish theme.
  3. Contempt – 750 x 140 pixels. Blue grey professional theme.
  4. Cutline – 770 x 140 pixels. White theme.
  5. Fleshy – 780 x 95 pixels. Grey theme with black trim.
  6. Greenery – 740 x 171 pixels. Extremely vivid green theme with trees in default image header.
  7. Jakarta - 480 x 200 pixels. Sandstone color theme and post background color is tan.
  8. K2 – 780 x 200 pixels. Light grey theme.
  9. Letoprime – size of image not specified. Wide range of default image headers to choose from plus the option to upload your own image header with light blue feel.
  10. Mandigo – 800 x 250 pixels. Lots of options for customizing this theme.
  11. Misty Look – 760 x 190 pixels. Very light green toned theme that includes Post and Comment RSS feed in the blog header.
  12. Ocean Mist – 736 x 200 pixels. Gentle blue toned theme.
  13. Press Row – 770 x 200 pixels. White Simplistic theme.
  14. Redoable – 730 x 180 pixels. Deep grey theme and the background color of posts is grey. Default header is strong red.
  15. Regulus – 730 x 140 pixels. Very customisable theme with ability to change color tones.
  16. Rubric – 215 x 150 pixels. Light grey toned theme.
  17. Seashore – 900 x 180 pixels. Light grey toned theme.
  18. Sumenop – 480 x 150 pixels. Dark theme with curly flowers.

Those with additional features:

  1. Links to pages in blog header - Greenery, Press Row, Blix, Connections, Cutline, Fleshy, K2, Letoprime, Mandigo, Misty Look, Ocean Mist, SeaShore and Redoable
  2. Includes tagline in blog header – Connections, Fleshy, K2, Letoprime, Mandigo, Misty Look, Ocean Mist, SeaShore, Contempt , Jakarata, Rubric and Sumenop

Green Themes

  1. Almost Spring – Simple theme with light green tones
  2. FrameFake – Nice green tones and the post area is scrollable. Links to pages in its blog header.
  3. Green Mairnee – Black header with green tone theme.

Blue Themes

  1. CleanTidy – top post has deep blue background and older posts have grey background color. Links to pages in its blog header.
  2. Deep Blue – strong blue tones
  3. Flex - Blue and grey tones that includes tagline in its header
  4. Fresh Bananas – Light blue simple theme.
  5. Glossy Blue – Vibrant blue with green tones theme which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  6. Nikynik BlueMU – Simple blue theme which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  7. Ocadia - light blue with grey tones theme which includes tagline in its header
  8. Pool - Gentle calm blue theme which links to pages in its blog header.
  9. Steam – Gentle blue and grey theme with wide post area.
  10. Waterlilly – Blue grey toned theme with water lilly image header and includes tagline in blog header.

Yellow Themes

  1. RadMod - Red header with background area of posts yellow.

Brown Themes

  1. Batavia – Simple brown theme with post background color light fawn which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  2. Quentin – brownish red toned theme which includes tagline in its header

Pink Themes

  1. Daisy Rai Gemini - Very soft pinkish tones with a soft flower image header and includes tagline in its header.
  2. Dixie Bell – Soft pink with a pink flower on the right handside of the blog plus includes tagline in its header
  3. Sweet Blossoms – strong pink theme with flowers and includes tagline in blog header.
  4. Twilight – Pink and grey toned theme that includes tagline in blog header

Black Theme

  1. Black Letterhead – Black theme with yellow titles and white text.

White Themes

  1. Copyblogger - strong black header with red highlights and titles giving it strong tones of black and red which links to pages in its blog header.
  2. Crop Circles – white and soft grey tones with an alien crop circle influence which links to pages at the top of the blog plus includes tagline in its header.
  3. Letterhead – Extremely white theme (was a bit too white for me) plus includes tagline in its header.
  4. Man`ja – Simple yellow thin header with white theme which links to pages in its blog header. Very different look and feel from a traditional blog (wasn’t for me).
  5. Simpla – White grey minimalist theme which includes tagline in its header.
  6. Trevilian Way – White minimalist theme. Links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline. Not a fan of its default setting which doesn’t display full post on blog.
  7. Veryplaintxt – incredibly white theme which includes tagline in blog header.

Grey Themes

  1. Blue Moon – Deep blue grey theme which links to pages in blog header plus includes tagline in header.
  2. Deichnetz – Grey tone with a Bavarian forest floor image header
  3. Falling Dreams – Grey pavement theme with pavement image header. Post area is quite narrow.
  4. Gentle Calm – Greyish green minmalist theme which includes tagline in its header.
  5. Gridlock – Able to change the way posts are displayed however wasn’t a fan of this theme.
  6. Kubrick – Able to change the color of the header plus includes tagline in its header.
  7. Light 1.0 – Grey, blue and navy toned theme which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  8. Northern Web Coders – grey, orange pink tones with sun coming through clouds image header which links to pages in its blog header.
  9. Terrafirma – Grey, green, orange toned theme with plant image header. Links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  10. Thoughts – Strong grey theme with speech bubble like image header. Includes tagline in image header.

Patterned Theme

  1. Vistered Little – Post area is transparent so when scrolling you see the image behind the post. Readers can also change the look and feel of the image by clicking on the links in the header. Personally I found this theme too busy and makes it hard to read posts.

Three Column Themes with Left and Right SidebarImage of a three column theme with right and left sidebars

  1. Andreas09 – This theme provides 14 different options for changing the color of the blog header. Links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  2. Anubis - green toned theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (970 x 150 pixels).
  3. Blue Zinfandel Enhanced – White theme with links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  4. Cordobo Green Park – Fluoro green theme with rounded edges and inks to pages in its blog header.
  5. Edublogs Default – White theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (970 x 140 pixels) with links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline. This is the default theme for all new Edublogs blogs.
  6. Garland – This theme provides the ability to change the color of the blog header, background, text and links using font color codes. Has links to pages in its blog header.
  7. Newportal – Blue theme with links to pages in its blog header.
  8. OceanWide – Extremely customisable theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (980 x 198 pixels), change font types and theme colors with links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.

Three Column Themes with Right Sidebars

  1. Image of Three Column with Right sidebarsBluebird – Blue and brown aligned theme with bluebird sitting on a branch in the blog header and links to pages on right hand side of header. Post background color is light blue. Includes tagline in blog header.
  2. Blue Green – This theme has a blue header with green contrasts. Post background color is very light grey blue.
  3. ChaoticSoul – Brownish grey theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (760 x 151 pixels). Post background color is brownish grey with white text in the posts and yellow post titles. Includes tagline in blog header.
  4. Fadtastic – Blue theme with green highlights with links to pages in its blog header. I didn’t like this theme because the default post isn’t a full post i.e. you have to click on link to read full post.
  5. GenkiTheme – Greenish blue feeling theme which Includes tagline in blog header.
  6. Glorious Day – Bluish and greenish tone theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header ( 900 x 180 pixels). Has links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  7. Reaching Darkness – Grey tone theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header ( 900 x 180 pixels) with links to pages in its blog header.
  8. Twenty eight thirteen – Minimalist white theme which Includes tagline in blog header.
  9. Vertigo – Minimalist white theme.

Four Column Themes

  1. CommentPress – Incredibly unusual blog theme. It offers two skin options:
    • Table of Contents skin – which would work well if you wanted to use it for writing a document or wanted to just use the site for providing assignment information (link to the oldest post appears at the top table of contents)
    • CommentPress Skin – provides readers the ability to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text.
  2. Fjords – Bluish grey tone theme with all four columns the same width which means that the post column is excessively narrow and not well suited to lengthy content. It does allow you to upload your own custom image header ( 900 x 200 pixels ).
  3. Quadruple - Navy blue header with blue tone theme with one sidebar on left and two on right. The post area is slightly narrower due to having four columns.

Most Customisable Themes

These themes provide greater opportunity for customizing if you want to change color of your blog based on font color code or change font type.

  1. Roundflow - One Column. Can change the colors on the blog, width of column and type of font used.
  2. Simplr - One Column. Able to change width of column and type of font used.
  3. Striped plus – One Column. Able to change colors on the blog and type of font used.
  4. Mandigo – Two Column. Extensive range of image headers to choose from and able to change colors on the blog using font color codes.
  5. OceanWide – Three column

FINAL THOUGHT

With 100 Edublogs themes there is a chance I accidentally made a mistake like missed your theme, got a color wrong etc. I’d really appreciate it if you could check the information I supplied for your theme and let me know if I need to make any corrections or missed a theme off the most customizable list. Would also like to hear which theme(s) you like/dislike and why.

You might also find What To Consider When Choosing Your Blog Theme and Edublogs Themes That Allow Comments on Pages! helpful

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What To Consider When Choosing Your Blog Theme

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You only have a limited time to make the right impression for first time readers; blog theme, post layout and blog clutter all impact on first impressions. Great content is easily missed if your blog theme is distracting or off putting.

Tips for Road testing Blog Themes

New bloggers often spend considerable time changing their blog theme to work out which theme works best for them.

When road testing blog themes make sure that you have:

  • Several posts on your blog and at least one with an image added e.g. have at least 3 posts published (you can always delete)
  • In one of the post include all heading styles so that you can see the font color, size and type of each heading style
  • Add comments to two of the posts (you can always delete)

Edublogs provides 100 themes for you to choose from ranging from themes that can’t be altered i.e. “use as is” to themes that are “extremely customizable” i.e. change image header, font types, font color and background color. You change your theme by clicking on Design > Theme in your blog dashboard and then click on the theme you want to use.

Features worth considering when choosing a blog theme include:

1. What Is Your Preferred Layout?

Blog themes normally include a header, a content area (for your posts), sidebar area (for your widgets) and come in several standard layouts:

  • Single column with no sidebar (widgets are located at the bottom of the blog)
  • Two Column – normally a wide column for content and narrower sidebar
  • Three Column – with sidebars side-by-side on one side of the blog or either side of the wider content column
  • Four Column – one content column and three sidebars. The content column is often the same width as the other columns. This type of layout tends to be cluttered looking and less suited to reading lengthy content.

Two or three column are the most commonly used layouts. When considering layout you need to think about which side(s) do you prefer the sidebar to be located? Also make sure you check out the width of the blog and the post area.

2. Do you want your tagline displayed in the blog header?

The concept behind a blog tagline is to create a memorable phrase that sums up the tone and premise of a blog. Ideally all blogs should have a tagline since they instantly tell first time readers what your blogs all about and whether you write posts in topic areas that interest them.

Image of a tagline

3. Do you want to be able to upload your own Custom Image Header?

Being able to upload your own custom image header means you can add your “own personal touch” to your blog plus you can use it as a work around for blog themes that don’t include taglines i.e. Add the tagline to the image header using tools like PhotoShop.

4. Do you want links to pages in the blog header?

Some blog themes have links to pages in their blog header while on other themes you use the page widget in your sidebar. I personally like to have page links in my header to make it easier for readers to navigate pages on my blogs.

Image of page links

5. What are your preferred color scheme?

When choosing your theme remember that if color scheme makes your content hard to read you will lose readers. So balance your personal preferences with readability since ultimately you want people to read your content.

Don’t just look at the overall color — remember to check closely the color of: the header; the background; post text and links; post titles; headings in posts; widget titles and links.

When choosing color schemes it is worth doing audit of your blog by watching a first time reader read your blog to observe how they are interacting with the content on the site. Don’t talk to them while they navigate through your site just record how they interact and what engages/distracts them. Once finished ask them questions like:

  • What were their first impressions were?
  • What captured their attention?
  • What distracted them?
  • Do they have suggestions on how you could improve your blog?

While most of the standard Edublogs themes color schemes can’t be altered i.e. “use as is” there are a few themes that allow you to change the theme’s color.

6. What type of font do you like?

Most of the standard Edublogs themes don’t provide the ability to change font type i.e. “use as is” however there are a few themes that allow you to change their font.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’ve tried to cover the basics of choosing an Edublogs theme for your blog. But would love to hear about:

  • What you look for when choosing a blog theme?
  • Which themes you have found are easier for students to use?
  • Are there any blog themes that really popular with your students?

Need help choosing your Edublogs theme?  – check out The 100 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier and Edublogs Themes That Allow Comments on Pages!

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