Switch off word verification for comments in Blogger

Many bloggers have complained about how to switch off word verification for blogger blogs, the process is really easy.

These days reCaptcha word verifications are getting harder and due to this readers don't like to post comments on blogs those switched on word verification. 

The process to switch it off is easy and don't need to be a professional to do this, you will feel comfortable with pictures demonstrations. 

The option to switch off word verification is not available in 'New Blogger Interface', so first we have to go back into old Blogger Interface, to do that follow the step-by-step procedures explained in easy English, not too technical language though.
  1. Log into blogger.com 
  2. Now on top of the page there will be a gear icon on top right corner of the page
  3. Click on it and a list will appear, and click on Old Blogger Interface



After clicking on Old Blogger Interface, we will be taken back to the good old interface we used to work in, now we have to find right place where we can make changes to word verification settings, finding it in these large menus becomes little difficult but i will explain with screenshots.
  1. On dashboard click on 'Settings' under the blog you want to switch off word verification for comments.

  2. Under settings menu there will be a sub-menu 'Comments' click on it.

  3. After you click on 'Comments' scroll down to 10th option where you can make changes to word verification settings, just check mark 'NO' if you don't want word verification in your blog.


Scroll down and click on 'Save Settings'.
Now you can switch back to 'New Blogger interface', you will see the option on top, click on it and you will be taken back to the 'New Blogger interface'

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Quickedit don't show anymore! Why ?

We will talk about why Blogger don't show Quickedit (the pencil icon) on blogs to edit gadgets on site when logged in.
On January 30th Google started country specific URL redirection, which turns http://stramaxon.blogspot.com/ to http://stramaxon.blogspot.au/ If it's accessed from Australia, it's only for blogs that don't have it's own domain name but an .blogspot.com sub-domain .

The quickedit is not shown because of this, you will only be able to see quickedit pencil icon in .com domains, but because your blog redirects you to .au or .in you won't be able to see quickedit icon.

What if i want quickedit back ?

1. NCR-No Country Redirection : You can easily get back the quickedit buttons on your blog by just putting ncr at end of the blog address, suppose my blog address is http://stramaxon.blogspot.com put ncr at end of the address and it will look like this http://stramaxon.blogspot.com/ncr  

2. Hide-my-ip : You can get quickedit icon back by using hide-my-ip software, that will hide your identity that you are in India or Australia etc. and thus it will redirect your blog to you .com and if you are logged in into your blog you will see pencil icon next to your gadgets on page

3. Hide my Ass : Hide my ass also provides same features as hide-my-ip, but with hide my ass you can see a site on the go without installing any softwares.

Will it effect my Page Rank and Search ranks ?

The redirection of .com to country specific URL redirection will not have any effect to your page rank or search ranks, Google will always see your blog address as .com , it only changes if you access the blog from countries where Google redirects URL to country specific URLs.

You will see changes in Alexa rankings if you search your blog as www.myblog.blogspot.au or .in , but it doesn't matter as i said Google will always see your blog address as it used to be.

One final way is to settle in USA.

Facebook and other social media gadget for blogger

This tutorial will teach you how to create a good looking social media gadget for blogs
Social media buttons for blogger are very useful for visitor to connect with you on various social networks like Facebook, Twitter , Google+ etc. There are already these types of gadget for blogger in Blogger gadget list, but some people found it very non-stylish.


To make the button i will use CSS and HTML . You may paste the HTML code anywhere in your blog in layout tab, to do this follow some simple step. 

  1. Go to Blogger Dashboard
  2. Now click on Layout tab
  3. There, you will see option to Add a Gadget, click on it
  4. Now a pop-up will appear
  5. Select the HTML/JavaScript gadget from the list
  6. And paste this HTML code in it.
<div class="socialmedia-gadget">
<span><a href="YOUR-TWITTER-LINK" id="iconTwitter" target="_blank" title="Twitter">Twitter</a></span>
<span><a href="YOUR-FACEBOOK-LINK" id="iconFacebook" target="_blank" title="Facebook">Facebook</a></span>
<span><a href="YOUR-FEED-LINK" id="iconRSS" target="_blank" title="RSS Feed">RSS</a></span>
<span><a href="YOUR-YOUTUBE-LINK" id="iconYouTube" target="_blank" title="YouTube Channel">YouTube</a></span>
<span><a href="YOUR-GOOGLE+-LINK" id="iconGooglePlus" target="_blank" title="Google Plus">Google</a></span>
</div>

Remember to replace the link of Facebook,Youtube,Google+,Twitter and feed with your own profile links, save it and see your blog, the gadget is looking so simple, Isn't it ? So we will style it will the CSS. 


You may paste the CSS code in template, follow these easy steps.

  1. Go to Blogger Dashboard
  2. Click on Template tab
  3. Click on Edit HTML button, and proceed
  4. Using Google Chrome default search feature (Ctrl+F) find </head>
  5. And paste this CSS code above the </head>



<style type='text/css'>
.
socialmedia-gadget  
{
padding: 2em 0 1.5em 50px;
}
.socialmedia-gadget span a 
{
display: block;
width: 32px;
height: 32px;
text-indent: -9999px;
background-color: none;
background: transparent url("https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiktoornLQc9YBIJdOnUcsZC39gPE8iVgIFr8jpnVEMOMA3uQFyeaBS4N_6HfAlf9jnwDy5bUwgvfIrkIDvtHTD9LYqX7-dZof_YYTzqP2yI5chxZ5wFF86Qflp8cU9ksvNIcgwSjSVxBr6/s1600/socialbuttons.png") 0 0 no-repeat;
}
.socialmedia-gadget span {
float: left;
display: inline;
margin-right: 8px;
}


#iconTwitter
{
background-position:-33px -33px;
transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out;
-webkit-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-o-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-moz-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-ms-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
}
#iconTwitter:hover {
background-position: -33px 0;
}


#iconFacebook {
background-position: -66px -33px;
transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out;
-webkit-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-o-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-moz-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-ms-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
}
#iconFacebook:hover {
background-position: -66px 0;
}


#iconRSS {
background-position: 0 -33px;
transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out;
-webkit-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-o-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-moz-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-ms-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
}
#iconRSS:hover {
background-position: 0 0px;
}


#iconYouTube {
background-position: -99px -33px;
transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out;
-webkit-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-o-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-moz-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-ms-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
}
#iconYouTube:hover{
background-position:-99px 0
}


#iconGooglePlus {
background-position: -132px -33px;
transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out;
-webkit-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-o-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-moz-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
-ms-transition:background-position .4s ease-in-out; 
}
#iconGooglePlus:hover {
background-position: -132px 0;
}
</style>

Pretty long CSS code, but useful too, remember paste this code above </head> in template, preview it, if it looks great save it.   

New help forums from Google on 9 March

Everything is changing with time, Facebook, Twitter and Google have changed alot, now Google is making changes to it's look and features.

 Google help forums is a place where you get answers for all the question you have regarding Google's product like Gmail, Blogger, AdSense etc. If you have ever come up with the question then you may have visited the help forums atleast once.  


Help forums are active from 2009 and still in use, but Google is not only going to make changes to it's look but it's shifting completely to a new place, all post in old help forum will not be deleted, it will be only available for reference and you cannot post questions or answers to the old forum.




Google+ support

After the launch of Google+ almost every Google product has support for Google+ such as Blogger, Google search, Gmail etc. The old Google help forum doesn't have any support for Google+ other than showing profile information.

Google is going to launch features like +1 a topic you like and it will be shared on your Google+ as soon as you +1



What about my level and badges ?

The level of users will be reset to 1 but their past activities and levels will be considered in the new forum.
They will be making new icon for Top-contributors, Blogger Addict and other badges, actually Google is replacing "Blogger Addict" badge to a new badge called "Expert".
Read this guide about the new help forum.

Let's see what's Google is cooking for us, i am eagerly waiting to see how the new forums will look like.

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,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') 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