Saturday, November 13, 2010

Deleting Blogs and Blog-Posts

This article is about the issues involved in deleting a Blogger blog.

Before you start:

If you need help with deleting a blog, make sure you understand the words that are used to describe things in Blogger (ref Blogger, Blogs and bloggers, Posts Pages and Screens: some basic definitions) - many people say "blog" when they really mean "post", and are then surprised when they follow some simple instructions and all their "blogs" (sic) disappear.

Also, make sure that you understand that your Blogger account is just a Google account (except for Blogger accounts created pre 2006). If you want to "delete" a Google account (not just a specific blog), think about whether you really need to delete it as opposed to just never logging in to it again.

Deleting a blog:

If you own the blog and know the password of the Google account

Log in to Blogger, using the owning account
In pre-Sept-11 Blogger: Choose Settings > Basic > Delete Blog.
In post-Sept-11 Blogger (aka the new interface):
Choose Settings from the drop-down main menu, then
Choose Other from the left-hand bar
In the Blog-tools row, click Delete Blog.

Only do this if you want to delete the URL (ie blog address) and not use it again.

If you want to keep the URL, then just delete all the posts (see the next sections). If you want to give the URL to someone else, delete the posts and then transfer the ownership.

If the blog has an pictures stored in Picasa-web-albums, then they will not be deleted. If you want to delete them, you need either manage them from Picasa-web-albums directly, or delete all the posts individually (not using the bulk-selection method) before you delete the blog.

If you don't know the password

The first step, if you don't know the password is to use the the Forgotten Password screen, which asks for the blog's URL or the email address that you used to identify the Google account.

If that doesn't work, Google have some more suggestions for you.

The very last option, if nothing else works, is to take Google's Account Recovery Exam. This attempts to re-connect you with the account using the email account that you had listed with it and/or any other security information that you (or Google) provided in the past.

You will need to convince Google that you really did make the blog: this could be difficult if you don't have access to the email address that you originally associated with the Blogger account, but it may not be impossible if you can answer some other security questions correctly. There may be cases where this seems harsh or unfair, but it's necessary so that Google doesn't start deleting blogs based on malicious requests from people who don't own them at all.

If your blog was created before 2006, you may not have converted your original Blogger account into a Google account. In this case, use the Legacy claim form.

If the blog belongs to someone else

You cannot generally get blogs that don't belong to you deleted, unless the person who published it is willing to delete it themselves - the first step is to try asking them.

There are some exceptions, including:

Taking action against a blogger who has used copyright material without permission, and
Dealing with someone who is impersonating you or breaking Blogger's terms and conditions in some other way - in which case you need to use this workflow.

If the blog belongs to someone who has died

In this case, Google have a special procedure which lets the person who is legally responsible for the blog-owner's affairs get access to their Gmail account: once they have access to the Gmail account, they will also have access to the blog via www.blogger.com, so they can delete it as described above.

Note that this procedure requires the legal representative to:

Have an email account themselves, and
Have received a email message from the deceased person, and
Send in a copy of the full message header from this email message.

So, thinking ahead, if you want someone to be able to access your blog(s) after you have died, it's a good idea to make sure that you've emailed them from the Google account associated with the blog - or give them some other way to access your password(s).

Deleting blog-post(s), without deleting the blog:

To delete one blog post:

Log into the dashboard
In the list of Posts for the blog, hover the mouse over the title for the post: this lets you see links just underneath it for Edit, View and Delete: click the Delete link..
You will be shown a summary of the post and asked to confirm the delete.

If the post contains any photos that are stored in Picasa-web-albums, you will be asked if you want to delete them as well. If you do want to delete them, tick the check-box. It's not automatic because these photos may be used in other blogs or posts as well.

To delete many (or all) blog posts, but not the Blog/URL:

Log into the dashboard
In the pre-Sept-11 blogger inteface:Choose Posts > Edit posts,
Use the tick-box at the left of the post titles to select all the posts you want to delete
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Delete
In the Sept-11 Blogger interface:In the list of Posts for the blog, use the tick-box at the left of the post titles to select the posts you want to delete. (There are links in the top row for selecting All, Published, etc)
Click the trash-can icon at the very top of the list, just beside Revert to Draft..

The number of posts per screen is limited by a drop-down arrow at the top right, and defaults to (I think) 50: if your blog has more posts than you are displaying (some of mine have several hundred posts), then you may need to do this several times.

Removing a blog from your Profile:

If you have a blog that you don't want to delete, but which you do want to delete from your Blogger profile, then:

Log on to Blogger
In pre-Sept-2011 Blogger: From the Dashboard choose Edit Profile > Select blogs
In post-Sept-2011 Blogger, from the drop down menu beside your email address in the top right hand corner of the dashboard, choose Blogger Profile
Un-tick the blogs that you don't want to show
Press Save Settings at the bottom of the page)

Deleting a Google account:

Make sure that you are certain you need to delete the Google account: in many cases, it may be safer to leave it in place, even though you never use it again.

To delete your Google Account, follow the instructions on this page.

The page doesn't say what will happen to your any Blogger blog(s) that you Google account owns. However at the moment it looks like the blog(s) are not deleted. If you want to delete the blogs, you must do this separately (see above), before you delete the account.

If the blogs contain pictures from Picasa-web-albums, these pictures may be deleted.

And if the blogs contain items from other Google-hosted products (eg Docs, custom-maps), then it's likely that these items will also be deleted.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Peugeot 3008

Apresentado no último Salão do Automóvel, o belo crossover finalmente desembarca no Brasil, importado da França. Sinal dos tempos modernos, o 3008 é mais um SUV lançado por uma marca que até pouco tempo atrás ninguém esperaria que fizesse tal coisa. Caso da Porsche com o Cayenne, BMW com o X5 e da Volkswagen com o Touareg, mas todos estes em maiores proporções.

O exterior do 3008 é a maior identificação da sua marca. A frente consegue ter os grandes faróis felinos e agressivos com a grade enorme mesmo sem deixar de lado o tamanho maior de um carro desse tipo. Já suas laterais com detalhes cromados inspiram modernidade sem recorrer a revoluções, enquanto a traseira traz arroubos de esportividade, notados nas lanternas de formato irregular e na tampa do porta-malas em duas partes.

A Peugeot diz-se ter inspirado em um avião ao fazer o painel do 3008, e isso se nota no estilo extravagante do console central, em que se destacam os porta-objetos e o local da alavanca do câmbio. De resto, ele apresenta recursos típicos das minivans, como o porta-malas regulável, em que o piso do compartimento pode ser fixado em duas alturas diferentes ou retirado, para variar a capacidade de carga coberta. Sob o capô ele traz um 1.6 turbo THP, que produz impressionantes 156 cv e 24 kgfm, prova de que a tendência do downsizing definitivamente vai chegar um dia a todos os carros.

O modelo vem em duas versões. A básica Allure sai por R$ 79.900, e já traz computador de bordo, direção eletro-hidráulica, faróis de neblina, sistema de som multimídia, rodas de 17 polegadas e retrovisores elétricos. Já a top Griffe sai por R$ 86.900 e adiciona bancos de couro com aquecedor, sensores de chuva e crepuscular, ar-condicionado bizona, retrovisor anti-ofuscamento e freio de estacionamento elétrico, entre outros.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Fiat Palio Weekend Trekking 1.6 16v

A Fiat definitivamente está disposta a se desfazer dos motores 1.8 da Chevrolet o quanto antes. Em questão de semanas renovou praticamente a linha inteira, trocando esse motor pelos novos 1.6 e 1.8 16v da linha E.torQ, deixando apenas o Stilo intacto – já que ele tem dias contados com a chegada do novo Bravo. O problema disso é que a linha acabou passando por mudanças rápidas demais, e um caso disso é a Palio Weekend Trekking.

Com a remodelação da linha Palio em 2008, esta versão e a básica ELX foram planejadas para ter apenas o menor dos dois motores disponíveis, o 1.4 Fire. Mas eis que no ano passado a Trekking ganhou a opção do 1.8. E eis que no ano seguinte ele precisou ser abandonado, para agora ser substituído pelo 1.6 16v. A grande vantagem é que este motor é mais eficiente que o antecessor. Por ter um projeto muito mais recente e usar dezesseis válvulas, ele atinge desempenho superior ao antigo e ainda consumindo menos.

Mas a Trekking é muito mais do que um novo 1.6 16v de 114/117 cv e 16,2/16,8 kgfm de torque. De série ela traz direção hidráulica, computador de bordo, suspensão elevada e rodas de liga leve. Já a lista de opcionais é a clássica sedução da Fiat, que oferece até sistema de som multimídia, entre outros. Fora a excelente novidade do preço: segundo o site da Fiat, a Trekking 1.6 16v vem com o mesmo preço da 1.4 Fire, R$ 43.940.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Renault Sandero GT Line

Depois de ter sido um dos destaques da marca no último Salão do Automóvel, o compacto da marca incorpora de fato uma versão esportiva. Vindo por R$ 42.590, o modelo aposta na conhecida fórmula de apenas ganhar acessórios estéticos, mas o maior diferencial está no motor: O Sandero GT Line ainda marca a volta dos 1.6 16v à sua linha, com 112/114 cv.

Seu exterior recebeu uma série de detalhes estéticos que lhe deram um aspecto até interessante. A cor preta está nas rodas de liga leve aro 15’’, nas máscaras dos faróis, nos detalhes das lanternas, colunas entre as janelas, e nos adesivos decorativos. Além disso, os retrovisores e o spoiler traseiro ganharam capas na cor preto brilhante. Já no interior, existem apliques pretos no console central e nos puxadores de porta, e revestimentos exclusivos para os bancos, painéis de porta e alavanca do câmbio.

Como era de se esperar, o compacto traz um ótimo pacote de equipamentos. Sua lista é composta por ar-condicionado, direção hidráulica, sistema de som com MP3 e comandos satélite, airbag duplo, vidros dianteiros elétricos, faróis de neblina, computador de bordo e alarme perimétrico, entre outros. O único opcional são os freios ABS.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Adding a subscribe-by-email option, using Feedburner

This article is about using Feedburner to give your blog a "subscribe by email" option. It is targeted to Blogger users, but most of the information applies to any type of website.

Previously I've described how to make a Feedburner feed, and how to put a subscribe to my feed tool on to your blog, as well as explaining why it's important for your blog to offer RSS feeds in general.

An advantage of Feedburner over some feed-management tools is that it includes an email subscription option for people who don't actually want to use feed-reader software but do want to be told about changes to your site.

Services provided by Feedburner's email subscription tool include:

Giving you the code for a "subscribe by email" link to put into your blog
Receive the email addresses that people enter after clicking on the subscribe link.
Checking that the email-address owner really did sign up (ie that it wasn't just someone else signing up for them), by sending a validation email and checking the response
Putting validated subscriber addresses into a database
Sending a message to the addresses in the database when you post to your blog
Dealing with requests to un-subscribe from your blog, and with undelivered messages (eg because the address has been deleted).

Once you have burned a feed using Feedburner, all you need to do to access these services is to activate the email service, and give people viewing your blog a way to subscribe to the email messages.

Setting up a "Subscribe by email" option for your blog:

The Easy option:

Blogger now provide a Follow-by-email gadget. You can add this to your blog in the same way as you add any gadget. Adding the gadget sets up a feed, starts the email service, and puts a place on your blog where visitors can leave their email addresses.

This is the easiest way to get started - but if you use it, you cannot customise the sign-up form, and won't be shown where to set up your email message content. And it only works if you're using Blogger.

The Manual option:

Follow these steps to add an email subscription option yourself.

1 Burn a feed for you blog

2 Go to the Publicize tab in Feedburner

3 Go to the email subscriptions tab (on the left side)

4 Choose Activate to start the service.

5 The Subscription management tab has two options.

The top one gives you a subscription form to put into your blog, which includes a field where your viewer can enter their mail address. To use it:
a) Choose the language that you want the subscription-tool to use
b) Copy the code from the box under "Subscription Form Code", or use the "Use as a widget" option

The bottom one gives you a link to put into your site: when someone clicks on the link a new window opens, and the viewer can enter their email address in the window.
To use it, copy the code from the box under "Subscription Link Code", or use the "Use as a widget" option

No matter which option you choose, you can either:

Insert the code manually:
If you have copied the HTML code, you need to put it into your blog: it can go into a gadget or into a Post or Page - most people use gadgets.

Insert the code using the auto-insert tool (the "use as a widget" option):
If you want to use the auto-inert tool,choose Blogger from the correct (ie top or bottom) drop-down list, and press Go beside it. This opens a window where you can select which blog to add it to (if you have more than one), and also the title to give it.

When you press Add Widget, you are taken to the Design > Page Elements screen, where you can drag-and-drop the new widget into the place where you want it.

What your visitors see:

Web-browsers visitors:

After you have added the gadget, it simply looks like another option on your sidebar (or wherever you put it). When a visitor enters their email address, they are sent a confirmation message and provided they respond to this they also get a message every day that you have posted to your blog - see customising the messages that your email subscribers receive for more information about controlling the content and timing of these messages.

RSS-reader and email visitors

Any people who have already subscribed to your blog using using these tools will not see the subscribe-by-email option if you have installed it into a gadget, but will see if if you put it into a post. This is not a concern though: people who knew how to subscribe before you offered the option won't be surprised when they see you offering the option.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Building Image-only ads from Amazon

When Blogger users put an image-only link from Amazon into their blog, there is often a problem with the image not being found. It applies to code generated at Amazon, not to ads that are made using the Amazon widgets in Blogger.

Previously, I explained how to build customised Amazon product links for use in Blogger. You may need to do this if your readers are mainly not from the USA, or if you need to change the size of the advertisements.

One of the options for links is Image-only: the link shows a picture of the item, which your readers can click. When they click on the picture, they are taken to Amazon to buy the product.

This article explains how to fix the problem of the image not actually showing up on the published blog page, even though no error is reported and Amazon's reports say that the ad displayed.

What is causing the picture to not display?

The procedure for building an image-only link has a step:

"Save this image to your server, then cut and paste the HTML code in the lower left textbox into your web page."

Unfortunately, the HTML that Amazon generates assumes that you will save the image onto the same directory in the server that the web-page is stored on. This is fine for many web-site builders, but doesn't work for Blogger users who store their pictures in Picasa by default, or on other image-hosting services.

How to fix it:

You can fix the problem by uploading the image file to Picasa, or any other file host service, and altering the HTML to use this uploaded file.

Follow these steps:

Copy the HTML provided by Amazon's link-builder, and paste it into wherever you want it in your blog.
Copy the location of the image that Amazon is telling you to put onto your server.
In another window, log on to Picasa Web Albums using the same Google account that owns your blog
Choose Upload
Choose an album to put the image into
(You may want to keep a separate folder for all Amazon Associates products, or you may want some other arrangement eg one folder per page).
Use the From an URL tab, and enter the location that Amazon told you for the source of the image (copied in step 2)
Press Upload, and wait while the picture is loaded.
When the picture has loaded, Picasa-web-album shows the album summary page. Click on the picture you just loaded.
Click Link to this Photo (on the right hand bar) to get the link value (ie the URL or hyperlink) for the photo, and copy it.
Go back to the place in Blogger where you put the HTLM provided by Amazon in Step 1 and edit it.
The HTML will have this structure:
(I've put in some link breaks and bolding to make it easier to read - you can do the same, provided the Post Options - Ignore new lines option is selected ):

<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975841963?ie=UTF8&tag=bloggerhintsa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0975841963">
<img border="0"
src="41FxC9u%2B%2BVL._SL160_.jpg">
</a>
<img
src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=YOUR-AMAZON-ID=as2&o=1&a=0975841963" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
Find where it says SRC "blah-blah-blah.jpg" (ie the piece in bold)
Select everything inside the quote marks, and replace it with the link value for the picture that you loaded into Picasa, so it becomes something like:

<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975841963?ie=UTF8&tag=bloggerhintsa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0975841963">
<img border="0"
src="http://picasaweb.google.com/YOUR-GOOGLE-ACCOUNT/YOUR-ALBUM-NAME?authkey=Gv1sRgCOGyrv2X0-OvmAE#5430348305093079170">
</a>
<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=YOUR-AMAZON-ID=as2&o=1&a=0975841963" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
Save the change (ie publish the post, or save the gadget etc).

Here are some examples of working image links:

How to build customised Amazon product links for use in Blogger

Putting third-party HTML into your blog

Hosting pictures outside Picasa

Finding a Picture's URL in Picasa-web-albums

Understanding Google accounts

Picasa and Picasa-web-albums, and overview.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Putting HTML from a outside sources into your blog

This article is about how to put HTML or Javascript code from 3rd parties into your blog.

Overview

Unlike some blogging tools, Blogger allows you to put HTML code from third-party sites that they are not integrated with (eg PayPal, Flickr, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), into your blog.

The only code that you can use this way is HTML and Javascript: there is no way to add PHP, SQL or any other type of code. (The only exception might be if you can host and execute this code elsewhere, and call it and receive output with Javascript - I haven't tried this, have no idea if it's possible in practice.).

If you have a layout or designer template (ref What type of template do you have?), there are three ways to put outside code into your blog:

Option one: In a widget/gadget.
These can be placed in any location the Design > Page Elements screen gives you access to - usually go into the header, footer or sidebar.
Option two: Inside a specific Post (or Page)
This means that the effect of the code will be shown every time the post is viewed
Option three: In the blog's layout template
This gives you most control over where and how the item appears, but is also the hardest.

These three options are described in detail in the sections below.

If you are using a dynamic template, then you face more limitations: you can put code into posts/pages for sure, but (for the moment anyway) there are limits to what gadgets can be added. And editing your template may be more challenging, because the template-structure is so different.

Warning:
By letting us put 3rd-party code into our Blogger is giving us the responsibility for making sure that only code from trust-worthy sources is used.

If you install code from unreliable sources, you may find that your blog is "hacked" in some way.

Every time that someone wants you to install something to your blog, think very carefully about how much you should trust them.

Option 1: Putting third party code in a gadget

Copy the code from the third-party site.

In Blogger, choose Layout > Add a Gadget > HTML-Javascript Note: Use the gadget created by Blogger which is in the Basic list. Currently you need to see to scroll down the list of gadget to see it.
Don't use the search tool to find it, because currently (2/11/10), it returns a 3rd party gadget that doesn't work.)

Paste the code into the Contents field.

Enter a title, if you want the gadget to have one

Press Save.

Drag-and-drop the new gadget to where you want it to appear.

Save the layout

If you also have a mobile template set up for your blog, and you want this gadget to show up on it, then you need to enable the gadget specifically for it.

Some sites either give you the HTML, and also button that will put their gadget (etc) directly into your blog. I only use these type of buttons if the address bar in the screen that opens has an address starting with blogger.com: if it has something else, then the third-party site may be collecting your Google account password along the way
.

Option Two: Put third-party code inside a post

Copy the code from the third party site

Go to blogger and Edit the Post (or Page) that you want to put it on

Switch into HTML mode

Paste the code in at the place where you want the item to go.
If you are not familiar with HTML, it may help to put in some marker text, eg XXX, at the place where you want the product link while you're still in Compose mode. Then switch to Edit HTML mode, find the marker text using your browser's search tool (eg Ctrl/F), and replace it with the third-part code.

Switch back to Compose mode
This sometimes lets you see the 3rd party item within the post editor - although sometimes it just shows as a blank box, or even just as a blank line (I sometimes surround lines like this with some marker text, eg xxx, while I'm editing the post, to make sure I don't accidentally over-type of the code.
If you forget to go back to Compose mode before you press Publish, you may get confused the next time you edit a post.

Option Three: Put the third-party code into your template

You should only use this option if you are very familiar with how your template works, and you accept the disadvantages of editing it.

Also, be aware that for some third-parties, putting the code into your template can over-ride controls that usually come with it (eg for AdSense, only displaying up to three ad-units and three link-units per screen). For other types of code, the tweaks that are needed to make it work within Blogger may break the other parties terms-and-conditions (eg if they say you cannot change the code at all). You need to weigh up the risks and issues involved for each individual third party.

Edit your template in the usual way
Work out where exactly the code needs to go, and put it there.
Preview the change, to make sure it works
Save the template

Editing your blog's template: advantanges and disadvantages

Types of blogger template

Enabling a mobile template for your blog

Choosing which gadgets are shown on your mobile-template view

Blogger and other Google products

Blogger and some key non-Google products

Amazon integration with Blogger

Putting Chitika ads onto your blog

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