Blogger Magic - Third Party Templates

There are millions of Blogger blog owners - and each owner has their own idea, how their blog should look.

Not every blog owner is willing to settle for using a Blogger supplied template. Some blog owners design their own templates - and others choose templates provided by non Blogger developers.

Some blog owners - even those with no technical background - choose third party supplied templates, and demand instructions in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger. Not every blog owner can be supported, according to their personal level of need.

It's OK for you to install a new third party template, for your blog - though you should plan to do some extra work.

Third party templates should include some installation instructions.

A template publisher should provide instructions for uploading and installing their template. Installation procedures may vary, however.

• Easy install.
• Template restore.
• Template Edit HTML.

Easy install.

If the template publisher is honourable, using an install script, provided by the template publisher, can be the most reliable install procedure. A well written script can extract the template of your choice from the publishers library, copy it to your blog, and tweak the install to your satisfaction.

Giving control of your Blogger account, to an unknown third party, is not always the best idea, however.

Template restore.

If the template publisher provides a template as an XML file, and describes the template as "for Blogger", you can install the template from the dashboard. You will first download the template of your choice, to a local computer.

With a template downloaded locally, you use the Blogger "Backup / Restore" wizard, in the dashboard Template page.

Start with the dashboard Template page.

Hit the "Backup / Restore" button.

Hit the "Choose File" button.

Now, you have the file manager, provided with your computer. Select the file, containing the template just downloaded.



The "Backup / Restore" wizard is part of the Blogger dashboard. The template will be selected, using the file manager wizard on the computer being used.

Template Edit HTML.

This is the most universal procedure - if the template is provided as HTML. Just use the Blogger "Edit HTML" wizard, in the dashboard Template page.

The simplest install uses "Edit HTML", from the dashboard Template page.

Copy the HTML or Text file content, into the window.



In some cases, you may have to do some work, to use an HTML template.

It's your blog - and the template choice is yours too.

You can use any acceptable third party blog template. Many blog features will perform best, though, if you use the Blogger supplied post template.

To ensure up to date Blogger code, always refresh the post template, after installing a third party blog template.

And as always, I'll suggest that you backup the template, before and after installing a custom template.

If you install a third party template, you may have to support your blog, on your own.

Please understand that Blogger won't be able to support your third party template - that is the responsibility of the template publisher. Problems with your blog, after installing third party accessories, will be yours to resolve.

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There are millions of #Blogger blog owners - and each owner is different. Blog design - and templates used - will vary similarly.

Some blog owners cannot be satisfied by the Blogger supplied template library - and require third party produced templates.

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Blogger Resolves The FaceBook Photo Sharing Issue

Blogger Engineers recently added Blogger template code, to provide images in shares to FaceBook.

The added code is included in the standard template header. If you have a custom template, you may need to verify template header content.

If you have added the previously recommended Open Graph Code to your blog, to allow Open Graph based post / photo sharing - and you use the FaceBook Developers Debugger tool, you may see a new diagnostic suggestion.

Given newly added template code, blogs with added OG code may generate ominous warnings in the FaceBook Developers Debugger tool.

Looking at my blog, and the blog main page.

Object at URL 'http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' of type 'article' is invalid because it specifies multiple 'og:url' values: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/, http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/.

Looking at my blog, and a FaceBook Debug log, for this post.

Object at URL 'http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html' of type 'article' is invalid because it specifies multiple 'og:url' values: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html, http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html.

With Blogger now providing a properly resized image, automatically, from each post, the image provided in the previously suggested Open Graph code is now redundant - and causes duplication.

The browser source listing, for this post.

The FaceBook Debugger log, for this post.



Here's what I see now, in the standard template header.

<meta content='Blogger recently added template code, to properly share content to FaceBook. Learn how this affects your blog.' name='description'/>
<meta content='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html' property='og:url'/>
<meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqAwPngF8wVHKBg-4CTrKgEOUXfgtPIjSzp0sFgOqkFhMJhTKHaqT_qX06vE2Ib1fDdOMkwKs6Y17_XlYoZJxTQPoGHh_HerSMTCcWUT4O0JfV77PPXC3hkE6qypiqpqK69lBuQW6wOA-6/w1200-h630-p-nu/Screenshot+2016-03-13+at+14.35.32.png' property='og:image'/>

So, what do we have?

<meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqAwPngF8wVHKBg-4CTrKgEOUXfgtPIjSzp0sFgOqkFhMJhTKHaqT_qX06vE2Ib1fDdOMkwKs6Y17_XlYoZJxTQPoGHh_HerSMTCcWUT4O0JfV77PPXC3hkE6qypiqpqK69lBuQW6wOA-6/w1200-h630-p-nu/Screenshot%2B2016-03-13%2Bat%2B14.35.32.png' property='og:image'/>

The chosen image - resized to 1200 x 630, to suit the FaceBook recommended 1.9 aspect ratio - and large, to suit the FaceBook recommended size.

Now, 3 data elements (2 Open Graph) may be redundant.

• description
• og:image
• og:url

This makes the immediately previous advice unnecessary.

If one wishes to provide author information, that also becomes slightly simpler.

<!-- BEGIN Open Graph tags -->
<meta expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' name='description' property='og:description'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageTitle' name='keywords'/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<meta content='article' property='og:type'/>
<meta content='https://plus.google.com/nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn/about' property='article:author'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageName' property='og:title'/>
<b:else/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.title' property='og:title'/>
<meta content='blog' property='og:type'/>
</b:if>
<meta expr:content='"en_US"' property='og:locale'/>
<!-- END Open Graph tags -->

If you truly want to share author details, you still have some work to do - but photos should now be shared, automatically, if your blog has a template with a standard header.

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Recently, Blogger Engineering added OG code to the standard template header, to allow us to share posts with images to FaceBook, without having to add special code. This should help, for owners of blogs which have standard headers.

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Third Party Templates - Not Always Free

Some third party templates come with extra features - that not everybody appreciates.

How do I get rid of the "lorem ipsum" nonsense, that's part of my signature?

This blog owner just got a shiny "free" third party template, for her blog.

Some custom template providers publish free templates that contain odd, irrelevant details.

When I click on the "Read more" link on my blog, it opens up the post - but has added in a odd kind of signature. It displays my name but is using an image that isn't me, and the "lorem ipsum" text. I have no idea where to edit this?

The typical response, by experienced forum helpers, will be a simple suggestion.

Hopefully, the template publisher can sort the problem. If not, a standard Blogger template, or a different third-party template, may be your best solution.

That's a reply, based on experience.

This particular template oddity has been mentioned, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, a few times - each time with mention of the "lorem ipsum" babble, in the signature.

In one case, the blog owner did contact the template developer - and was kind enough to follow up in her forum thread.

She told me that she would be glad to provide a clean template - for a fee.

It's likely that the "bogus photo" / "lorem ipsum" bit is there, to motivate the blog owner into paying for the template.

In a way, this sort of "fee based" customisation makes sense. The blog owner has 3 choices.

1. Pay extra for the template cleanup.
2. Get a different third party template, from a different provider.
3. Learn to live with the irrelevant babble.

Neither the bogus photo, or the babble, damage the blog. The content is there, as desired - and pleasantly displayed. Not too many blog readers will know that the photo is bogus, or care so much about "lorem ipsum", either.

In a way, it's similar to the legendary photos of imaginary family, that one gets when buying a fancy picture frame, or a new wallet. Some (single, and very lonely) people like the photos - and supposedly, keep them when using the wallets.

Maybe new blog owners won't care, either. They are, after all, rather attractive templates - and popular with women, anyway.

The apocryphal signature section.

The source code for the signature section.



Enjoy the new templates. Pay, when the need arises. Or, refresh the post template (possibly, lose a lot of custom formatting, if you do) - but this should get rid of the "lorem ipsum" nonsense.

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Some non #Blogger supplied templates are provided for a price - and payment is optional, though cleverly motivated. Minor irrelevant content is included, which is most noticeable to blog owners who are publishing blogs with a large and observant reader population.

Conversely, the unwanted content is not important to new blog owners who would appreciate the free templates, which are not noticeably damaged by the irrelevant content.

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