Good looking search bar for your blog or website

In this tutorial i will show you how to make a good looking Google+ style searchbar for your own blog or website with simple CSS and HTML codes.  
First you have to work with the HTML code of search bar so that we can display a simple search bar (we will give this box some style with CSS) you can post the following HTML code anywhere in your website so that it can execute in your blog. You have to make some changes in this HTML code to work on your blog or website (highlighted in red)


<form action="http://www.google.com/search" class="formupsearch" method="get">
<input class="searchinputarea" maxlength="255" name="q" size="25" type="text" value="" x-webkit-speech="true">
<input class="boxsearch123" type="submit" value="search">
<input class="checkbutton23" name="sitesearch" type="radio" value="">
<input checked="true" class="checkbutton23" name="sitesearch" type="radio" value="stramaxon.blogspot.com">
<div class='mpt-links'>
<a class='mdt-oplink' href='stramaxon.blogspot.com/2012/03/good-looking-search-bar-for-your-blog.html' target='blank'>Get this bar<a class='mdt-oplink2' href='http://stramaxon.blogspot.com' target='blank'> -by Stramaxon</a>
</div>
</form>

This HTML code is for rendering the search box, before you add any CSS the search bar will look very simple, but after giving touch of CSS it will look completely different.



On line 1 you can change the http://www.google.com/search to http://www.yoursite.com/search. if you want the search results to appear on your blog/website.
On line 5 change the value="stramaxon.blogspot.com" to value="yoursite.com", or your blogspot blog domain.                                        


I don't know that you know about CSS or not but it's my job to tell you how to make it work, if you are a newbie this guide will help you through, other blogspot users can paste their CSS either in HTML template with <style type='text/css'> inline CSS after </head> , or by going to Blogger Dashboard >> Template >> Customize >> Advanced tab >> Add CSS there you may paste the CSS code directly without adding any other attributes.


CSS codes

If you just want the CSS and don't want read about it, here's the full CSS. (Copy the full CSS code and add it to your blog - How to add CSS)


CSS is most important here to add good looking style to the search box, you can make any desired changes into the CSS to fit your needs, you can change the color, width max length etc.
If you want you can add more CSS styles to the code, i have not added the position attribute to the CSS as it's on you and your site how to maintain the position, the only position i added is to maintain the position of the search box.
I have given the CSS code for all elements separately but remember you may paste these CSS all together. I have shown the CSS separately only so that you can understand it better. 


.searchinputarea {
border: 1px solid lightGrey;
height: 26px;
width: 180px;
box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px transparent;
-webkit-transition: box-shadow 1s ease-in-out;
padding-left: 8px;
font-size: 15px;
font-family: verdana;
padding-top: 2px;
}



.searchinputarea:focus {
border: 1px solid lightGrey;
box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px rgba(0, 110, 250, 0.2);
outline: 1px solid #ECECFA;
}

This code was to style the text area of the search box, change any style you want. The .searchinputarea:focus adds a great light effect once you click on the input area, a flash of blue color appears, you can change the color to any color by changing it from blue and you can remove the effect by deleting entire code after .searchinputarea:focus.

.boxsearch123 {

position: relative;
right: 0px;
vertical-align: top;
cursor: pointer;
width: 40px;
height: 31px;
line-height: 100%;
padding: 0;
font-size: 0;
text-indent: -999px;
color: transparent;

background:url('data:image/png;base64,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') no-repeat #4D90FE center;
border: 1px solid hsl(217, 84%, 56%);
-webkit-appearance: none;
-webkit-border-radius: 0px;
-webkit-transition: background .5s;
}

.boxsearch123:hover
{
background:url('data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABEAAAARCAYAAAA7bUf6AAAABGdBTUEAAK/INwWK6QAAABl0RVh0U29mdHdhcmUAQWRvYmUgSW1hZ2VSZWFkeXHJZTwAAAFKSURBVHjalNJPK0RRHMbx4//fjEJSmqwsZmdhvAvFSjGRt8BGeQEWLC1Y0WSjlJWykUJs2GkysVEjm9lokjJc38Nzm9O592rmV5/umXt+83TOuccEQWBkBGt4QFWesYG00xcRDjK4C2pVwZvzu4Sp/0L6cKVm+8cjLGEeeZQ194SxpJCcmt6xHtM0hw/17CSFnKjhHL0JS86r5wLd/nyzMabf/NU1Kia+TvUcxrg/aUO+NO40ydWiZ1UiIS8aZ5GKCehATuNXPEY62NMMvmVPX6sNrdr/puY+sZJ0sF04cO5EAdvYwq3z3n7qRaSSLtuo7od7wQLn0xe1GlvHmHRDmn6TarWAaQyiHSWc4RKHyKivgGXchGcSx57FgPdu1VvhPbLuduqR0o0NvPNLNxJi9cQEzTYaEgbtKmAfQ/7B1lv2dk+giPKPAAMA+57Ayn+WvQEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=') no-repeat #4D90FE center;
border: 1px solid #2F5BB7;
}

.mpt-links a
{
    font-family:'helvetica';
    font-size:10px;
    text-decoration:none !important;
    position:relative;
    left:31px;
    bottom:3px;
}    
.mdt-oplink2 {
    color:grey !important;

This code will style the search button next to the input area, the search button takes all credit for the good looks, the next line of code that has :hover defines that what the box should change the style to when it's being hovered. 

.checkbutton23 {
display: none;
}

Now add this 3 line of code to hide the check button.


That's all now save the changes and preview your new search box for your website, if there's problem in this code then feel free to comment and subscribe to our site for more web design  helps. 


Related Post : Add new handwriting fonts in your blog or website

Remove empty space left on top after removing navbar from blog

This tutorial will show you how remove the empty space on top after you removed the navbar, the empty space on top after removing the timeline doesn't look so good and thus many people want to remove it as well, show let's start.


Removing the navbar was an easy one and but the empty space left there was not too good, some people want their blog/website header to stick on top (see mine), and if you want like that too you just have to copy-paste some codes from here.



I have tested it with my own test-blog and after getting positive result i am going to teach here. Although it was a 2 minute job to test and make it work so that was not too big deal for me.

I will teach you step-by-step so it will be easy for you to understand.


The CSS code i will use to remove the empty space on top is very small but works good to make a blog look more professional.


  1. Login to your blogger account
  2. On Blogger dashboard select Template tab
  3. Now you should be on the Template tab, click on Edit HTML and then Proceed
  4. Using your browser's search feature (default CTRL+F) search for </head>
  5. After you found </head> in the template code of your blog paste this small line of code above </head>

<style type='text/css'>
.content-inner 

margin-top: -60px !important; 
}
</style>

After you paste this code above </head> preview the template, if you want to adjust it, you can change the -60px to your desired value. Save it and view it.

Related Post: Remove the Navbar from blogger blogs

Facebook pages getting new look 30 March

We will discuss about the new features for Facebook pages as Facebook has made the word out. 

Facebook is changing it's features and look time to time, there have been good changes such in Facebook page insight, changes in wall feature etc. and some head scratching changes for some people like The new Facebook timeline. From 2006 to 2012 Facebook has changed alot, and i have seen many changes with my own eyes.


I was just browsing my Facebook fan page when Facebook started showing a message banner on top of my page, it was similar to the timeline invitation. Have a look at it.



If you also have a Facebook page and got a message like this, preview it. The most shocking thing is that it's look like the Facebook timeline Profile ! However it's on you to switch Timeline or not, but for pages, Facebook said it that all your Facebook pages will automatically change to this new look.


Facebook should realize that 75% of people din't like the timeline itself, then why another timeline for pages?Although Facebook should give an option to either keep it or not, they said all pages will automatically get the new look, however the timeline for pages looks somewhere good, but for pages it will look so weird, it's only page where we can go and see new pictures uploaded in an order, but after the new look will be in, all experienced will be spoiled i think. How weird it will look, you can see on this page .

People who love the old classic look of Facebook pages are not likely to accept the new page look, Facebook always gives heart attack to their user by not providing any switch off 'timeline' button or something like that.



If we compare Facebook to Google, Google is good at giving the user option either to keep the new change or switch back to the old, but Facebook never provided anything like that, if you are a blogger or an Gmail user then you should have come over some times when Google made changes to their look but they always keep the power to change to new or not to the user.

However i would not like to change my Public figure Facebook page to the new looks, i didn't even switched to Timeline, because i already tried it when it was not released for general public. So Facebook page owners you like it or not you will be force fully applied to you, once it releases, we will try to do something about it.

Is Facebook employees not able to make any option to switch to new look or old look, or Facebook want their new design to be applied by all Facebook user?

The only thing left with white background is the home page/news feed page, I beg Facebook not to make any further changes to it, or i will quit Facebook and switch to Google+ forever. If you think Facebook is not doing good anymore you may switch to Google+, it's better, the problem is that not most of our friends are on Google+ that's why i have to open my Facebook.


Brand New Feature

The only feature in new look for pages that caught my attention is the 'Milestone', where we can create a even which describe any milestone the page has completed like reaching 1 million likes or any other milestones, it will be highlighted in page, so that everyone can see it.



Pages that already applied the new look

How to select all friends at once to invite friends on Facebook

Facebook friend invites are useful to invite your friends to view your website or to like your new Facebook page etc. you will see friends invite almost everywhere on Facebook.  


Facebook invites are useful but a sometimes it can be a tough job if you have large number of friends, I had 2525 friends on Facebook and it was very difficult for me to select each and every friend manually to invite them all.

When I started learning JavaScript, I learn how easy it was to manipulate web pages using codes and then I found a way to automatically check all the check boxes on invite boxes.

But before we start, make sure you are using Google Chrome or Firefox, they are good as they support almost every new JavaScript functions and are updated, so using them makes sure that it will not create any problems. I will explain it in step by step procedures.

  1. Open Google Chrome 
  2. Now open any event etc. where you can invite your friends and open the friend invite box
  3. Now scroll down until all your friends appears in the box
  4. Press CTRL+SHIFT+J (for Chrome), CTRL+SHIFT+K (for FireFox)
  5. A JavaScript console pane should open at the bottom of the page
  6. Paste the following line of JavaScript code in the console

Problem using Developer Tools? Check the tutorial on using Developer Tools on different browsers

javascript:elms=document.getElementsByName("checkableitems[]");for (i=0;i<elms.length;i++){if (elms[i].type="checkbox" )elms[i].click()};
After pasting click enter, now wait for a minute and when all friends are selected click on send, if you have large number of friends it may take about 1 - 2 minutes for successfully sending the invites . 


Problem inviting all friends ?

If you are unable to invite all your friends then you must check this updated post which also has a video tutorial. http://www.stramaxon.com/2012/12/inviting-all-friends-facebook.html

Related Post: How to Increase your Twitter followers in 10 minutes

Create false Facebook wall conversation

There are many reason we should try making fake/false Facebook wall conversation, one of the most popular reason is for funny pictures, we can also edit screenshots with paint or photoshop to make conversation in the screenshot but it take a long time.

Have you ever seen a picture of funny conversation on Facebook and most of them are not real but created by editing the screenshot of any Facebook wall conversation. 

The Wall Machine is a great Facebook wall conversation generator, editing the conversation in it is easy as posting comments on a Facebook wall post so anyone who know to use Facebook wall feature can easily use this too.

After going to The Wall Machine , you have to connect your Facebook account with it and then allow the app to your desired information such as email address, friend list etc. now you should be redirected to the 'The Wall Machine' website. Now think a great funny conversation and start making a Facebook wall conversation. 






Along with Wall conversation you can create more stories like 'X' become friends with 'Y', event, like activity and more, it's a complete tool to fool your friends. 



Do more with this app

This is an list of thing you can do with 'The Wall Machine'
  • Make fake conversation and fool your friends
  • Add your desired photo to the profile
  • Want to reorder the comments ? Just hover on right corner of that comment and click on up or down
  • Make fake relationship status activity
  • Save the conversation and show it to your friends
Related Post: Wish Happy Valentine's Day in Facebook chat for whom you love.

Go back in past of Websites

You fond some sites that are very popular, like Matt Cutt's blog and after browsing it for sometime, some thought come into your mind that how this site used to look in early days when it was new. But you can't find anyway to do it, other than asking a scientist for an "Time Machine".  



Ohh, don't worry, we have an easy way to do it. Archive.org is an website, which keeps records and archive of all online contents that went popular, all the sites are crawled by their server and saved on it, to serve people an snap shot of the website at that time.

The snapshot are not actually pictures, it's an HTML document generally used by a website, thus if an image was there on an website and later it was deleted from the server then the images won't be showed in the archive of the website. In easy words, they capture the site's HTML, and save it on their server.

You can easily check any website's past by going to Archive.org and entering the URL in this box.Enter your desired URL and click on Take me Back. Now you can select website at what time you want to see.





How to archive your blog also

If you have a new blog or website, even it's 1 or 2 year old, it will be not crawled by archive.org, if you or not anyone has searched the site on archive.org, so if you want your blog or website to be crawled by them, you or anyone has to search your blog in archive.org, after a few months your website will also start appearing on archive.org archives.

Add new handwriting fonts in your blog or website

Have you visited to a site having so much fancy fonts, but your website has simple web safe fonts. Don't worry you can also have fonts like that in your blog or website. 
To do this you need little knowledge of HTML and CSS, one more thing you need is a Google Account.


Go to Google Web Fonts , on the homepage you will see hundreds of box of words with different fonts, these fonts are a demo to show how the font is. You will see categories of fonts like Sans Serif, Handwritting etc, choose any of the categories or maybe all categories.


Now the fonts will be showed in right pane,there will be 100s of fonts free for you, you can choose any font you like, there no limit, choose any number of fonts, all fonts are free and open source. Scroll up and down and if you like any fonts, see bottom right corner of that box, there will be an "Add to Collection", just click that and it will be added in your personal gallery.




Once you are finished adding all your favorite fonts in collection, then see how to use it. Google first requires you to link a Stylesheet File, in which all your collection's styles are defined, Google will itself give you the code.

In bottom pane on right top corner you will see Use button, click on it, on that page all the fonts will you showed which you added in your collection, if you want select, or deselect by check marking the fox followed by the font name.

After sorting out which fonts you want, scroll down there will be a codebox, where the link has been given. Copy that code, now go to your Blogger Dashboard >> Template >> Edit HTML , using your browser's search feature (CTRL+F {default}) , find
"</head>" (without quotes)  and paste the code you copied above the </head>, it should then look like this.

 
 
Great, now save the template (if you getting error saving template then see below section), now with help of CSS we will integrate these fonts into our blogs element, paragraphs, headers, titles etc. To integrate these files we need little knowledge of CSS, you will get the font family code on the same page where you got the link code just scroll down the page. For example, if i want to style a text with an font, then first I have to define it's class or id, to apply CSS style on it. In font-family attribute we will put the name of the fonts we selected, we will get the font-family name on Google Web fonts page.

.styletext1
{
font-family: 'Bonbon' , cursive;
}

This piece of code will apply 'Bonbon' font on an element classed "styletext1". Below is the
example of above CSS style on an element classed "styletext1"
 
"This is an example of applying font styles with CSS"

 The above text is classed with "styletext1", and when we applied the above CSS code, it turned into the font-family we specified in CSS lines. The HTML code was this.


<span class="styletext1">"This is an example of applying font styles with CSS"</span>

Learn the HTML and CSS code closely. Now try this on your blog or website and then show us in comments.
Notes:
  1. Backup your template before trying this,it will be easy for you to get the old template, if you did any mistakes
  2. The HTML link code Google gave, will not work in XML templates (default templates for blogger)
  3. To make the link code work in XML template then please see our help section below.
  4. If, you don't understand what I am saying, then please check the video.
  5. Adding too much fonts will slow down your website or blog.


Help with issues

The only issue we found in this is the HTML code Google gives on Google web fonts page, which looks like this.



The problem often occurs with XML templates, by default blogger use XML templates for blogs, the main thing is that Google haven't already added the close tag, in HTML files, it will be accepted without any problem but in Blogger, you can to add a "/" before ">" in the code. After which the code will look like this.

<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Bonbon|Herr+Von+Muellerhoff' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>

Now Blogger template will happily accept it and you will be able to use as many fonts you wish to use. 



YouTube Tutorial video