Garrulus Grommeler

I've found several templates that I like for my Townshende blog , and yet every single damned one of them has problems. Some of them have highly technical problems. One, in fact, — a template that I like a lot . . . this one, called Black Splat — had several problems. The code was designed to work around several problems with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser (very typical of Microsoft, actually), but it didn't have the code necessary for other browsers to display that template correctly. It took me about 10 minutes of experimentation, along with some very specific searches to figure out the problem. Most people aren't interested in this crap, but indulge me. Here's the original code: body {    position: relative; /* Fixes browser resizing bug in IE6 */     margin: 10px auto;    width: 980px;    font-family: 'trebuchet ms', arial, sans-serif;    text-align: center; /* IE Centering ...

In the code for this template, the three columns of links at the bottom part of this blog are called the "dashboard." The left column is "dashboard1," the middle column is "dashboard2," and the right column is "dashboard3." One problem I've had with this template from the start is that the title for each set of links butted up against the last link in the set above it. So, I've been pouring over the code trying to figure out how to fix this. I noticed that this problem did not exist in the sidebar to the right, that there was plenty of space between the small block of text with my photo and brief description and the "Writer-Speak . . ." quote. With that as my guide, I tried to find the code that spaced them apart. I found some code that read: .sidebar .widget{margin-bottom:1.5em;} I know a little about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), so I know that a dot preceding a name defines a "class." "Classes" are used in...

Well, this is a start, isn't it? Not a whole lot going on quite yet, but I've got a new template uploaded. I created a new blog and then exported the old blog to the new address, so everything is still intact. It was a bit of a mess at first, getting it all to do what I wanted it to do: creating a new blog, exporting the old to the new, updating the old to the new format, then importing the non-Blogger template I wanted to use. And now comes the long process of getting everything set up the way I want. It'll mean lots of editing, especially to get all the links and everything else I want transferred (that's the most laborious part of importing a new template, as those things get lost in the process — unless you take care to save them first). I originally wanted to go with a template called Reckoning , but I experienced too many problems with the damned thing. The original template, which you can see here , was not designed for Blogger. It's a CSS template (CSS = Cas...