Using Bitty Browser to Enhance your Posts

If you reviewing particular Website or blog, you may want to include a fresh “screenshot” from the site’s main page. That will give your visitors a better insight on what you are reviewing, and add credibility to your review.

Here, you can use the free services offered by Bitty Browser. Bitty Browser actually helps you keep track of the foreign Web stuff by enabling navigable windows directly within your own site and your own post — it's like Picture-in-Picture for the Web.

Create the widget is easy: enter the desired URL and the embed code will be created automatically. Below is example of my other blog devoted to the Web Freebies, embedded in the post.

Using the service does not require registration. Start from the main page: http://www.bitty.com/

Google Advanced Image Search

Many bloggers use Google image search engine to find suitable images for their blog posts but in some cases it takes a long time to find and filter the appropriate results from the amount loaded for your search terms. You may significantly save time if you use Google Advance Image Search instead of Google Image search. You can also switch interface from Basic Search to Advanced Search from the main image search interface by clicking on small hyperlink to advance search under the Search button, if needed.

Google Advanced Image Search is both powerful and easy to use. Following are some simple instructions on how to use Google Advanced Image Search.

Step 1. Visit Google Advanced Image Search at the following link: http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search. If you plan to use Google Advanced Image Search in the future, it is a good idea to bookmark the site now.

Step 2. Familiarize yourself with the interface. Google Advanced Image Search is extremely intuitive and looks like Google’s advanced search for text information. There are ten easy ways to maximize your image search results – some empty fields in which you can easily enter text, others drop down menus, and others radio buttons. Here is a listing of each of the fields and how to maximize your results with them:

1. Find results related to all the words- in this field you can easily enter keywords that relate to the image you are looking for. At any time you can go ahead and click on Google Search to begin your search for images.
2. Find results related to the exact phrase- in this field you can narrow down your search by including phrasal keywords that relate to your search.
3. Find results to any of the words- for a broader search in which there may not be lots of images available, you can easily add non-specific keywords.
4. Find results not related to the words- this field can help you to remove ambiguity when a search term may have several meanings.
5. Content Types: return images that contain- this search field is a radio button that gives the user three different options which are all self explanatory (1. any content, 2. news content, 3. faces)
6. Size: return images that are- this field is a drop down menu giving the user five different size choices to choose from. The choices are any size, small, medium, large, and extra large. There is no way to input the exact size of an image you are searching for.
7. File types: return only image files formatted as- this field is a drop down menu where the user can choose the type of files that he or she is looking for. There are five different choices that can be selected: any file type, JPG files, GIF files, PNG files, and BMP files.
8. Coloration: return only images in- this field is a drop down menu where the user can choose from the following choices: any colors, black & white, grayscale, and full color.
9. Domain: return images from the site or domain- this is a field that can be inputted with a domain of your choosing. For instance, if you would like to search for an image on Wikipedia, you can easily include the full domain in the box.
10. Safe Search: Safe search allows a user to ask Google to filter your search. For instance, if you are at work or searching for an image at home with your children, you can use the radio buttons to choose the level of filtering to reduce the chances that unsavory material will appear. There are three choices for Safe Search: no filtering, moderate filtering, and strict filtering.

Step 3. Once you have filled in the criteria that you think best supports your image search, simply click on the Google Search button on the upper right hand corner of the page. If you find that your search has resulted in either not enough or too many listings, you may want to change you criteria and try again.

Blogger Help Video Tutorials on YouTube

If you are a Blogger user, as I am, you probably once a while visit Blogger’s Help Center to find some new tips and answers to your technical questions. Blogger specialists decided to go “with the flow” and help those users who prefer visual presentation to the written description. Google Blogger has setup a YouTube channel specifically to show users step by step how to use Blogger features. The channel lacks a big variety of the offered video tutorials. At the moment, there are just 9 clips available. Blogger experts claim that more videos will be added in the coming months so hopefully the inventory of tutorials will increase rapidly.

For your convenience, I am bringing to your attention several of the proposed clips:

Creating Blog on Blogger Platform

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Creating Mobile Blog on Blogger Platform
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Adding new Google Gadget to Blogger Blog
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Creating Podcast on Blogger Blog Platform

Do not let visitors leave your blog!

The simple but effective method of keeping your readers on your site is - creation hyperlinks open in a new window when they are clicked.

Why Define Hyperlinks to Open a New Window?

"Why would one want to have their links open in a new window?", you might ask. The primary, and probably the only reason a blogger would do that - is to trying to keep the user on their site as long as possible. You provide the reference link in the text of your posts not just because you want you reader to go away. In some cases, reader might come back after reviewing the site where you sent him, in some case, he will stay there, move further, or just close the online session. If you have the hyperlink opening a new window in every case, it will be easier for your visitor to come back to your site, when he is done with exploration of the link, you created. And he will be able to painlessly resume investigation of your own site after coming back.

When you provide internal links, directing to your own content, this issue is not very important, since your visitors does not leave actually your site, but just continues its exploration. Opening every time a new window, when customer clicks a new link, is not recommended, since your reader might get a feeling that you are spamming him. He will get annoyed and leave.

But if you are referring to another blog or web site, have a new window opened to display the web page, while keeping your own page in the background.

Create a Hyperlink That Opens a New Window

The basic structure of a hyperlink looks like this:

<a href="http://internet-traders.blogspot.com">Online Stock Trading for Beginners</a>

If you use this code, the clicking on the link will lead the clicker to the new location. To manually change the hyperlink properties, forcing to open a new window on every click, requires code modification. Just add one more property to the ’a’ tag to make it do what we want.

All we need to add is:

target="_blank"

Just like the href property/value pair (href="some value"), you need simply to include the target="_blank" to the ’a’ tag of your hyperlink. Here is what the finished hyperlink will look like:

<a href="http://internet-traders.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Online Stock Trading for Beginners</a>

Some desktop software HTML authoring utilities are able to provide this functionality as an option for you when you create a hyperlink. For example, Post2Blog, I use can do that easily. But if you use online Blog editor, like Blogger, you do not have ready to go option for the hyperlinks properties modification. You need to review the HTML source, find the ’a’ tag you want to modify and then add the target="_blank" value pair to the hyperlink definition.

Removing Newer and Older Post Links in Blogger Blog

If you are using Blogger as blogging platform, you might be used to some of the built-in features, that you consider hard coded, but can be changed with slight template code modification. One of the hacks, presented in this publication, addresses a seemingly minor issue on the page - two links “Older Posts” and “Newer Posts” on the bottom of the page.

For those, who prefer their blog to be maximally close to the static webpages, these links not just unnecessary, but are plainly irritating. There is a way to remove them once and forever. And that is quite easy to do, even for not very experienced users. Note, that this hack will also remove “home” link from the bottom of the blog page.

Open Layout Tab in your blog profile page, choose Edit HTML, and search your code in your blog template for the following text:
#blog-pager-newer-link {
float: left;
}
#blog-pager-older-link {
float: right;
}
#blog-pager {
text-align: center;
}


Now replace that code with the following code:

#blog-pager-newer-link {
display: none;
}
#blog-pager-older-link {
display: none;
}
#blog-pager {
display: none;
}


Save the template and you are done. I hope that was indeed an easy and straightforward one.

Additional Reading:

http://bloggeruniversity.blogspot.com/
http://tipsforwebsite.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-remove-post-and-post-link-on.html

How to disable text selection on Blogger blog

In one of the previous publications, we presented a way to disable right click on the page of your Blogger blog to decrease the copyright violations from your readers “borrowing” your content for their own purposes. To go further in your content safeguarding efforts, you can make the next step, disabling text selection on your page entirely.

This hack was created by Dynamicdrive as well in the form of Javascript, and is also applicable to those bloggers who don’t like their content copied by others. If this concern is on top of your priorities list, then Copy the following code and Paste it to your blog template:


<script type="text/javascript">

/***********************************************
* Disable Text Selection script- © Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (www.dynamicdrive.com)
* This notice MUST stay intact for legal use
* Visit Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ for full source code
***********************************************/

function disableSelection(target){
if (typeof target.onselectstart!="undefined") //IE route
target.onselectstart=function(){return false}
else if (typeof target.style.MozUserSelect!="undefined") //Firefox route
target.style.MozUserSelect="none"
else //All other route (ie: Opera)
target.onmousedown=function(){return false} How to disable
target.style.cursor = "default"
}

//Sample usages
//disableSelection(document.body) //Disable text selection on entire body
//disableSelection(document.getElementById("mydiv")) //Disable text selection on element with id="mydiv"

</script>

How to Remove NavBar in Blogger

There might be multiple reasons, why would you like removing Blogger Navbar from the top of your page:

• This bar highlights that you are part of the Blogger community, and you might not want emphasizing that.
  
• The bar might not fit well to your template design.
  
• Blogger has started random advertisement above the Navbar and this has taken valuable space on you blog page.

Due to the simple fact the fact that the Blogger TOS (Terms of Service) do not specify that keeping Navbar on the blog is a mandatory feature of the Blogger account holder, you have no legal or ethical restrictions on the Navbar removal.

Fortunately, removing the Navbar is a quite easy task, and it can be done in different ways.
1. Go to your blogger Dashboard and select Layout.
2. Click Edit HTML.


Method 1

Find the following record in the template layout
<b:skin><![CDATA[/*
Paste this simple code
#navbar-iframe { display: none !important; }


Method 2 (By Aditya)
Look for <b:skin> and paste the following after that:
/* By Aditya http://the-lastword.blogspot.com/ ----------------------------------------------- */ div.navbar { opacity:0.0; display:none; }


Method 3 (By Praveen)

Look for <b:skin> and paste the following after that:

/* By Apnerve http://www.apnerve.blogspot.com ----------------------------------------------- */ #navbar #Navbar1 iframe { display:none; visibility:none; }



Method 4
Just add the following lines anywhere in your Blogger template [enclosed by <style> tags] and the blogger banner will be gone forever.
#navbar-iframe { height:0px; visibility:hidden; display:none; }


Additional Reading:
http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/2008/10/hide-new-blogger-xml-navbar.html
http://www.cyberspirits.net/2008/06/hiding-navbar-in-blogger-how-to-hide-navbar-in-blogger/
http://www.jaystech.com/2008/08/how-to-hide-blogger-navbar-in-old-new.html
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-to-hide-blogger-navbar-in-new.html

Disabling Right Click in Blogger Blog

Have you noticed, that some web sites do not allow their visitors using right mouse click while pointer is on the blog area. This option is useful for the site and blog owners, who want to minimize the possibilities of the content direct copying to other posts.

Provided cross browser DHTML script from dynamicdrive will help you achieving the same result on your own blog, preventing default right menu from popping up when right mouse is clicked. There are actually two options for this script are provided: Alert Option and Non-alert Option. If the Alert Script is enabled, if someone tries to execute Right click on the blog, then a Message, which can be customized per your desire, appears. If the Non-alert script is activated, then no message is displayed.

To setup this tool in your blog Copy the Following code and paste it to your blog by adding a new page element.

Message Alert Script:

<script language=JavaScript>
<!--

//Disable right mouse click Script
//By Maximus (maximus@nsimail.com) w/ mods by DynamicDrive
//For full source code, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com

var message="Function Disabled!";

///////////////////////////////////
function clickIE4(){
if (event.button==2){
alert(message);
return false;
}
}

function clickNS4(e){
if (document.layers||document.getElementById&&!document.all){
if (e.which==2||e.which==3){
alert(message);
return false;
}
}
}

if (document.layers){
document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
document.onmousedown=clickNS4;
}
else if (document.all&&!document.getElementById){
document.onmousedown=clickIE4;
}

document.oncontextmenu=new Function("alert(message);return false")

// -->
</script>

Message Non-Alert Script:

<script language=JavaScript>
<!--

//Disable right click script III- By Renigade (renigade@mediaone.net)
//For full source code, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com

var message="";
///////////////////////////////////
function clickIE() {if (document.all) {(message);return false;}}
function clickNS(e) {if
(document.layers||(document.getElementById&&!document.all)) {
if (e.which==2||e.which==3) {(message);return false;}}}
if (document.layers)
{document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);document.onmousedown=clickNS;}
else{document.onmouseup=clickNS;document.oncontextmenu=clickIE;}

document.oncontextmenu=new Function("return false")
// -->
</script>