Blogging Tip: Dashes

I'm working part time as a communications assistant. I love it and I'm learning so much about writing and the communications world. So I wanted to share something that I've learned with you all today, something that has come in really handy in my own blogging. And that's dashes.

Ever since I learned at work that different dashes have different uses, I've been a big advocate of correct dash use. There are three basic kinds of dashes: hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes. I'm no expert, but I thought I'd share how I think of each one.

First up, hyphens. They're the easiest to use, but also the ugliest and least useful in graphic design.

Now for some territory that is probably less familiar: en dashes.

And finally, my favorite dash of all, the em dash. I forgot to put this in the image, but understandably, em dashes got their names from supposedly being the same width as an uppercase M.

So that's all well and good, right? Hooray for dashes! But they won't do us much good unless we can use them. And the good news is that with just a tiny little bit of HTML code, we can use them in blogs and website. Yippee! Here's a quick cheat sheet explaining what to do to get each dash in your blog.

I used to use hyphens - like this - in place of dashes—like this—but now that I've figured out the quick and easy way to use real dashes, I'm definitely a fan. I personally think using real dashes in blogs give posts a more polished look.

Quick note: I know the code for en and em dashes looks really weird, but that really is what you do: ampersand, ndash/mdash, and then a semicolon.

Was this post helpful, or irritatingly nerdy? :) Would you all be interested in some more HTML related posts? I don't know much, but I'm learning little by little and I'm happy to share things along the way. Let me know what you think.

Blogger's New Interface

A couple weeks ago, I noticed a little bubble on my Blogger dashboard saying something like "try out our new interface!" So I did. And I think I'm still getting used to it a little, but overall I really like the re-design. Here's an image of one of my free fonts posts when it was in progress in both the old interface and the new one.

BEFORE

AFTER

The layout is much different from the old Blogger layout, but it seems like it will be just as user-friendly once I get used to where all the options are. Some new features I noticed...

• It's easier to access the list of posts, which honestly, is the page on Blogger I visit all the time. When I open Blogger, it's where I go first. So it's nice to have it nearby.
• The scheduling posts feature is much more obvious (before it was hidden in an expandable menu), and it now also has a calendar so you can easily select what day you want the post published.
• A "revert to draft" button on the list of posts. That will be helpful if I accidentally schedule a post I'm not done with yet. Before, you had to edit the post and hit the "save as draft" button. This new button right on the post list page saves a step. 
• Numbers of posts, comments, and pageviews are all more visible which is nice.

I think the only thing I don't like about how the layout works is that the number of comments per post isn't as obvious to see.

Design-wise, I think this interface is much better than the previous one. Here's what I like about the design:

• All the gray. A lot Blogger is gray now. Hooray!
• Orange. It's a nice, bright accent color with the gray and white.
• Much less blue. The navy blue was too obvious a combination with orange. I like the gray + orange scheme much better. Blue is still present in some text, but it's more subtle and the neutral grays and white really take center stage.
• The typography. I think (unless I'm mistaken) that Blogger chose a new main font, which is great. Reminds me of what Seth Godin said about typographic creativity on the web. Uniqueness is good.

And downsides to the design? I'm not so crazy about how the post editor box is "floating" in that big gray area. I like that white space is used, but it seems like there could be some way to make it look a little more anchored. And also, the spacing between the posts on the view posts page is a little too big for me. They look a little overly spread out. But these errors are minor, and overall, I think the design is a good move.

If you use Blogger, do you like the new interface? Or even if you're not a blogger, do you think it was a good move based on the screenshots and my comments?

Blog Design Resources

I actually planned this post before I redid my blog design, but the timing worked out perfectly!  I haven't posted anything about blogging and blog design lately, so I thought I'd do something on that topic.  There are tons of great resources out there for blog design.  I'll just share a few that I've come across.

First, there are some helpful things to be found on Kevin and Amanda - a blog with lots of different topics, one of which is blog design. :)  You can find all the blog design posts here.

Another great resource for blog design is Powered by Pastries, a new site Katrina of Pugly Pixel has recently started.  She sells great Blogger templates and such, offers tutorials, and even has two free layouts for download: Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Meringue  It's a really neat site!  Lemon Meringue is the template I used for my new blog design.

One more great site: CoffeeShop.  This blog has lots of great photography and blog design resources (I like their Photoshop actions for editing pictures).  You can find all the tutorials right here.  The blog design tutorials are in the last category, so you'll have to scroll down a bit.

And also, just one more quick tip: use Google.  A quick search is a great way to find answers to HMTL and blog design questions!

I hope these links are helpful to you!

My Blogging Journey: Part Two

Last time, I talked about Blogger and some of the features I like about it.  Today, I thought I'd talk about the design side of blogging, and how I made my blog look the way it does.

First of all, let me say that my blog is an ongoing project.  I'm always adding and changing things, and I always have more to learn about how to do it.  But I love playing around with the design of my blog, so I thought I'd share a few tips today.

The first tip is: templates.  If you're going to have a blog, you need a template you like.  It makes all the difference!  There are lots of options when it comes to templates, including Blogger's template designer.  There are some fine templates to be found there, so take a peek.  However, I find that the templates from Our Blogger Templates suit my style a little better.  It's nothing against the template designer by any means - I think it's a fabulous tool.  I just found a template that I loved elsewhere and stuck with it.  My template is called Shush, and here's the sample photo from Our Blogger Templates.  Do you see the the similarities to my blog?

I've played around with some things like color, etc., but I mostly kept the template the way it was because I liked it so much.

Next... image maps.  This is a fun area of blog design that I'm just getting into.  It's what I used for my freebie section, and I learned how to make image maps from this tutorial on Pugly Pixel.  I highly recommend it!  I've also made use of image maps in a couple of my blog posts, but I don't use them all the time because they are slightly time-intensive.  They're helpful and fun, though.

Third, I want to talk about blog headers.  I think blog headers are important, because they're the first thing that a reader sees when they open up your page!

Finding the right blog header is a constant process for me, and there are times when I make a blog  header and don't put it up because it just doesn't look right.  It's definitely a challenge to get the right one.  Here are a few tips and guidelines that might help, though:

• Make it match or compliment the rest of your blog color-wise, and even font-wise if possible.
• Think about what kind of statement you want to make to your readers.  Do you want them to think "oh, that's pleasant," or "wow, that's some header!" or "that's...unique"...?  There are endless options, and sometimes it helps to step away for a few minutes and think about your blog based on what other people see when they see it.
• If you use a photo, make sure that the text doesn't interfere with it.  One option with Blogger is to upload a photo and put the title of your blog on top.  This is fine, but just make sure a word isn't running through someone's head.  That's not what you want people to see when they first open up your web page.
• As a secondary photo-related tip, see if you can make the photo you use (if you use one) roughly coordinate with the color scheme of your blog.  The colors in my photo on my header right now are mostly red and blue, so it blends even though the colors aren't exact.

And now, a word about gadgets.  There are zillions of things you can put on your sidebar or at the bottom of your blog, and the question is: which ones?  There's no right or wrong answer, but there are a few that are really helpful for your readers.  Here are my favorites:

1. Search box.  Blogger has one on their gadget menu, and it's really helpful to be able to search a blog!  I don't know how often people use mine, but I like having the ability to search other sites, so I put one on my blog.
2. Archives.  In my mind, this one is almost non-negotiable.  People like to be able to see your past posts without having to click "older posts" for half an eternity to get to the end.  It's also neat to see how many posts a month are made with just a glance at the archives.
3. Blog buttons.  This an entirely optional category, but I thought I would share my philosophy for whose blog buttons I put up on my blog.  I don't have a fancy advertising system; I just put buttons up for the things I like.  That makes it simple, and it lets my readers know that if they click on a blog button on the sidebar, they're going to a site I actually personally have visited and enjoyed.

So, those are just some things I've noticed as I've been blogging, and I hope they're helpful or at least interesting to you.  What are your thoughts about blog design?  I'd love to hear.

My Blogging Journey: Part One

Starting this business and designing my blog was such a wonderful learning experience for me.  I loved learning about blog design as much as I could, and it's been a blast to keep on changing and tweaking things as time has gone on.  I know lots of you reading this have blogs, so I thought you might be interested to know how I went about designing my blog, and you might pick up a few tips along the way!

I'm going to be starting an ongoing series about my blogging journey, and including links, tips, and little tutorials along the way.  I won't be posting on any particular schedule; I'll just add a post to this series every now and then.  Today, I thought I would give you the basics, focusing mostly on Blogger.

Let's start at the beginning.  Blogger.

I really love using Blogger as my service provider.  It's incredibly user-friendly, and while I suppose some stereotypes of Blogger blogs have them looking boring or typical, there is so much you can do with Blogger to help your blog look just the way you want it.  Depending on how things go in the future, I'm not necessarily set on staying with Blogger forever, but it's been the perfect way to start out my business and blog, and I'm very content with it right now!  If you're considering making a blog, go with Blogger.  I truly think it's the best choice, not only because it's so popular, but because it really is both easy to use and flexible.

I'm not sure if anyone has had this question in the past, but I understand that some of you might be thinking "wait, she uses Blogger?"  Her URL doesn't have "blogspot" in it!  How can this be?"

The answer, my friends, is custom domains.

 Let me tell you a little bit about the way I set up my blog to have a custom URL, carrieannedesign.com.  First of all, here's why I wanted a custom domain name.  I can think of couple reasons.

1. It's easier for people to remember.
2. It sounds more professional for business purposes.
3. It's more personalized and more unique to me.  There are lots of people whose addresses say ____.blogspot.com, but no one else with my exact domain name.  
4. It is so easy to set up if you go through Blogger!

To me, those were great reasons, and I did it.  You do have to pay a yearly fee for the domain, but it is not exorbitant, and it was well worth it for me.  If you want a custom domain through Blogger, here's what you do:

• From your Blogger Dashboard, go to Settings > Publishing.
• At the top of that page, there should be a message that says you are publishing with Blogger, and it should give you your Blogger URL as well.
• You should also see an option on that page that says "Switch to: custom domain."
• Click on "custom domain," and Blogger will automatically guide you through the process of choosing your own domain name and paying for it.  I found it relatively simple to complete these steps and begin publishing on my own domain.

So, that should answer your questions about the domain name thing, and also let you know how easy it is to switch to a custom domain if you want!

Another thing I want to draw your attention to about Blogger is the design page.  If you click on "Design" when your Blogger dashboard opens, you are taken to a page where you can rearrange the elements of the blog and add new gadgets.  This is how you would add such things as a search box, a Followers gadget, an Archives menu, other gadgets from websites, a custom HTML widget you've created from an image, or anything else that you want to display on your page, particularly on the header and sidebars.  The design page is very handy.  I'm thinking that most of you probably already know about the design page, but I had to hit on it just in case anyone was still in the dark about this cool feature.

Before I leave this discussion of Blogger, I wanted to talk a bit about the post editor.  I'm sure that, if you have a blog, you are already doing just fine with publishing posts, but I did want to draw your attention to some extra cool, little-known features of the post editor.  Below is an image of the post editor with the buttons I'm mentioning circled and labeled.  Please see the text after the image to read about each circled button!

First off, the Link button.  If you go to New Post on your Blogger Dashboard, you should see a button at the top of the toolbar that simply says "Link."  This is probably my favorite thing about the post editor.  If you highlight any piece text in your post, you can then click "Link" and a box will come up that allows you to link that text to a website.  I use this feature in almost every post.  It's great!

Another feature I really like and that I think is very under-appreciated is the Quote button.  Did you even know this existed?  When I discovered it, I decided that it was really neat.  The button is the third one from the end of the toolbar, and it has two quotation marks as the icon.  If you want something quoted, either because it's a quote, or because you just want to draw special attention to it, you can highlight that text and click the quote button.

It will make your text stand out from the rest of the post in a really neat way.  Depending on what template you're using, your quotes will look different, but with mine, the quote button produces this nice tan box and automatically italicizes my text.  Fun stuff!

One other handy feature that I actually don't use as much as I should is the Remove Formatting button.  If you mess something up with the formatting of your post, such as italicizing or emboldening something you didn't want to, you can highlight the messed up text and click the second to last button on the toolbar to return it to its original state.  This one is something that will really come in handy for me!

I hope you are inspired to try out some new stuff with your blog, and I hope my little ramblings are helpful to some of you!  I will try to keep this series going in the future and tell you about more parts of my blogging journey.  Some other topics you can look forward to would be: templates, HTML, and tutorial websites.