 |
| Photo by Krzysztof Maksimiuk on Unsplash |
I continue to struggle with templates for Google Blogger. I've stuck a default 'Google Blogger' template on the site. My main goal was to have a site with a non-Blogger look to it. To those who don't know, it used to be easy to tell sites that were hosted on Google Blogger. Google Blogger sites had simple templates that gave themselves away as being hosted on Blogspot.
Custom Domains on Blogger
If you have not been following Google Blogger for years then you may not know that Google Blogger aka Blogspot allows one to use 'Custom Domains' rather than blogspot domains. The difference is this domain is 'WeblogWriter.com' rather than 'weblogwriter123.blogspot.com'. For years it has been possible to use custom domains and thus build your domain identity without having it attached to 'blogspot.com'.
So, should one decide to move a domain to another hosting company, it is possible to do so. I am committed to making this work on the Blogger platform. It is part of my personality. If someone tells me everyone is using Wordpress, I want to use something else. So, you will just have to humor me for now.
What can you change in your theme?
These are some of things I was trying to do:- Can you alter all components of your theme?
- Can you change your number of columns?
- Can you change the size of your columns?
- Can you move your column from the left-side or right-side?
- Can you make some posts have their own format?
- Can you make your right column wider?
- Can you increase the size of the body area of your post?
- Can you change the page width of your website?
One of the issues I've been having with blogger templates is the lack of control of page width. I like wide monitors and I like my webpages, or part of the webpage at least, to be as wide as the available screen. The virtue of responsive themes is that they can adjust the website for display on all screen sizes automatically.
The inability to adjust some components on the Blogger pre-canned theme, whether that them came from Blogspot or was purchased from a third-party, led me to investigate theme development software. This in turn led me to explore Artisteer.
The Artisteer Experiment
 |
| Photo by Dan of WeblogWriter |
Artisteer is an old program that is no-longer actively developed. I knew that development had ended, but I also knew that it was one of few programs --- perhaps the only program -- to have the ability to export to Wordpress, Blogger, Joomla, etc.
I suppose one could use Artisteer to create themes and then sell those themes. This did not interest me.
I was not looking for a army of themes, just one good theme. It turns out I could not use Artisteer. I'll write about my Artisteer experience later in the Tools section.
