Thursday, August 16, 2007

Advice Forum Friday ~ Three-Column Template

Happy Friday, y'all! It's time again for Advice Forum Friday.

So how about it, do you need advice about something? It can be anything at all - just post about it at your site, and be sure to link to today's Advice Forum Friday in your post. And finally, don't forget to sign the Mr. Linky down below if you post a question at your blog.

Here's what I need help with today, my friends. I'm trying to find a blog template with three columns. I'm currently using Blogger's Minima template, with custom colors and header (Thanks, Revka!). I really like it, but I would love to have three columns instead of two. Well, if I'm completely honest, I'd love to have an entire redesign, but since I'm on a tight budget, a three-column version of Minima will do just fine, thank you very much!

I've seen free three-column templates out there, but I am fairly clueless about HTML and all that stuff, and I was not successful in installing one here. And I love Blogger Beta's widgets, and would still like to be able to use them.

I know that there has got to be someone out there who can tell me how to accomplish my goal, so please leave me a comment and give me some advice, okay?

Thanks, guys! Have a great Friday!


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Lori, The free html generator I used to create my new blog look was done using PhyscHo (http://psyc.horm.org/) but unfortunately it used old blogger. If I come across anything, I'll let you know :)

Karen said...

Hi Lori...

Tina put me on to Psycho this week and I love it, but probably wouldn't recommend it to those wanting a 'point and click' type of arrangement - its more for those willing to put a bit more time into it. The results are highly customizable with Psycho but its a bit of work.

The first four or five months of my blog were done with a New Blogger 3 column tweak by Blogcrowds. Here's the link:

http://www.blogcrowds.com/resources/blogger_template.php/3_column

I think from memory I installed the code for the Harbor design (first one listed) but then went back and somehow fudged my way through changing the background to get rid of the harbor thing, LOL. I have saved my old blog template so I'm sure I (or Tina) can help you out with putting in your own background (unless you like the lighthouse thing, LOL). I know from when I had mine, you have to choose quite a light background image (you may even prefer to keep it white) because the text in the posts and sidebars is placed directly on top, not boxed off like Tina's blog or mine (ie, Psycho). There are also quite a few other 3-column designs there that segment off the parts a little better than the Harbor design, ie, Rounders 4 on the same (first) page of the above link.

Once the layout is set up how you want, New Blogger takes almost no effort to live with day to day - widgets galore - as you've probably already found with Minima :)

When I switched to the Psycho design this week I'd been contemplating paying a professional (EverydayMommy does a new blog design for $US45 or so) but I stumbled upon Tina's site by accident and noticed a link to Psycho there, and I'm SO glad I did. But yeah, its not for the HTML-challenged (no page elements windows at ALL - everything is added via CODE...scary!), although I must say I've gotten a crash course in HTML the last few days and now that I know a little bit more I can actually see how the dots connect now, LOL.

Oh, and if you haven't already, before you do any new template work, you've got to do two things. Set up a dummy blog to test all these new codes on, and then when you think you've got it down pat, download your template (New Blogger has a link to do this whenever you open the 'Edit HTML' tab...TAKE THE OPTION, LOL).

P.S. I was going to do a post and sign your Mr Linky about this but I've already bored my own readers with multiple posts about HTML this week, LOL.

Cheers,
Lizzie
http://lizzieshome.blogspot.com/

Karen said...

Oh, I forgot to say, if you go with any of the designs from Blogcrowds, they'll give you the whole code so you just copy/paste the entire thing and it should work fine. Don't forget that you can tweak things later (ie, background). It may not look perfect straight up but the code is always manipulatable once saved :)

Cheers,
Lizzie
http://lizzieshome.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Lori, I just came across this post. I can change your current template to three columns without changing anything else. No charge; I just ask to be allowed to put a small button for RS Designs on your site. :)