How to Add a Title to a Blog Header

This tutorial will cover how to add your blog title to one of my free blog banners.  This tutorial is designed to be used only with a free designer blog header and never meant to be used with any copyright protected images.  I offer a selection of free banners located through out my prefab blog themes and they are easily recognizable with the word "free" above them.  To find one of my free blog banners you can peruse the A-Z List of Blog Themes or select from one of the titles below, which are just a sampling of the free banners I offer...

Some of my Free Headers
A Heart for You, Binding Journey, Birthday Bash, Blueberry Plumcicle, Bundle of Joy, Cherish, Day Dream Believer, Fanciful Love, Flight of Fancy, Fore-Father, Freedom, Gilded Love, Je T'aime, Marleque, Once Upon a Pink October, Practical Magic, Providence, Spring Medley, St. Patty's Day, Stardust, Sunshine Garden, Tattered Garden, Tea for Two, and Vintage Easter

While I'm sure there are many free online options for successfully modifying images, for this tutorial we will be using PicMonkey.  I like this site because it has a reputable WOT rating and offers a nice simple to use interface.

Once you've selected a banner and saved it to your computer, you're ready to begin this tutorial. Be sure the banner is saved in an easy to find location ~ for this exercise I recommend placing the image on your desktop so it's super simple to find.  Now let's begin...

1. Open your browser and go to http://www.picmonkey.com...

2. Once there, hover your mouse over the "Edit Picture" area...

3. And you'll see the words change to "Click to open or drag a photo here"...

Since you have your banner located on your desktop you can easily drag and drop the image into the small rectangle area.

5. In one easy step this opens up the banner image in the PicMonkey photo editing area...

6. Now since my copyright only allows for adding text to banner images we're going to go right down to the text area and click on that...

7. Using the scroll bar, scroll through the selection of text choices to find one you like...

8. Once you've made your selection, click on that title, then click on the "Add Text" box at the top of the list...

9. With this, you'll see the Text box window open up, which includes a color chart and other selections, as well as a small box show up in the center of the banner image...

10. We'll begin by adding our text, then move on to modifying it's appearance, so let's begin by clicking inside that small text area in the center of the banner...

11. Click and type your entire blog title in that space...

12.Now before moving on, I recommend increasing the size of the text box close to how large you want your final text to appear.  To do this, hover your mouse over a corner of the white outline and grab one of the corner circles, then drag the corner out as far as you would like your title to go...

13. As you do this you'll notice your text increasing in size, so continue on until you have the size you want...

With that done you can now use the Text box menu to modify other options for your title.

14. To begin using the Text box options, highlight your blog title by scrolling over it with your mouse or click inside the white box where your title appears...

15. Go ahead and play around with these different buttons and settings to get the right affect you want for your blog title...

Here are a few tips...
✻ If you click within the color lines you can change the color of your font.
✻ "B" and "I" stand for Bold and Italic.
✻ Under the "Size", drag the small circle across the bar to easily increase the size of your text.
✻ Clicking on the arrow next to "Normal" shows a selection of other affects.
It's fun to experiment so don't be shy.

16. When you're finished and your title is just as you would like it, go ahead and click the "Save" link at the top...

17. This opens the "Save" area...

18. In this area; you'll want to leave all of the presets as they are, including the artist's original title* and the image type**...

*Since you're using a free image you'll want to leave the title as is out of respect for the originating artist.

**This is especially important when using one of my blog banners as I only use PNG images for my blog banners which ensure a clear background which helps add dimension to my designs and blog themes.

19. Now click the "Save photo" button...

20. And in the pop-up window click the "Save" button...

That's it! You have successfully added text to a free blog banner, congratulations!  Now you can follow this tutorial ~ How to Install a Blog Header to add your new banner to your blog.

Enjoy~

Working With Google Chrome

This posting will cover some important information and add-ons for using Google Chrome. Chrome is a recent addition to the selection of online browsers which has quickly gained momentum among it's competition; Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.  While Chrome boast noticeable faster web browsing and page loading it should be noted that there are some important add-ons to install before using Chrome on a regular basis.  I discuss these additional add-ons and extensions below...

To install Chrome on your home PC visit this link: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/

Installation is simple, just follow the screen prompts to go through the process.  You can even import your bookmarks from other web browsers and I recommend doing this so you don't have to start over again.  Once installed, you can visit the same link above to find more information and tips on how to use your new browser...

With Chrome installed on your computer we'll move on to discussing how to install add-ons and extensions, necessary for safe web browsing. So let's begin...

Finding Add-ons
To find add-ons for Chrome you'll need to access the "Chrome Webstore". You can do this in one of two ways, either by opening a new tab and clicking on the "Webstore" icon...

Or by clicking on the "Customize and control" icon...

and in the drop-down menu, clicking on "Settings" ...

Then clicking on "Extensions" in the left side list...

In this area you can see all of the extensions, currently installed on the browser, and find new extensions by clicking on the "Get more extensions" link at the bottom of the page... 

Once in the Extensions area of the Webstore, you can easily use the Search feature to find the extensions you're looking for by title or browse their extensive library of add-ons...

Installing Extensions
To install an extension on Chrome, begin by searching for the item you want by typing the title in the search box...

A list of results will show up from your search...

To choose and install the extension click on the "Add to Chrome" button next to the extension you want to install...

Recommended Extensions

WOT
WOT stands for Web of Trust and is a tool I've used for year now.  Using small color coded donut shaped icons, WOT easily shows you which sites are safe and which ones you want to avoid...

You can even participate in WOT by grading websites yourself. They base their ratings on 4 categories including...

Once installed, WOT is integrated into most commonly used platforms like Facebook and Twitter so that even bad links posted by innocent users can be easily avoided.

To install WOT, simply visit the "Extensions" section of the "Webstore" as described in previous steps and search for the title in the "Search" bar. A listing of options will appear... 

To find out more about WOT and to participate in their ratings program visit: www.mywot.com

Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is another invaluable tool I've used for years.  While most visitors to commonly used website like Facebook are greeted by a barrage of online advertising, my sidebar areas areaclear as a noon sky and yours can be too...

To install Ad Blocker, simply visit the "Extensions" section of the "Webstore" as described in previous steps and search for the title in the "Search" bar. A listing of options will appear... 

While there are many ad blocking programs available, I recommend "Adblocker Plus" ~ I've used it for years and have found it to be a reliable and stable add-on.

DoNotTrackMe
One final tool I recommend is the DoNotTrackMe. Tracking was one of my greatest concerns in switching over to Google Chrome. It's commonly known that everything we do these days is tracked by many corporations but rogue sites can use this tool to gain personal information about you such as log-in and financial information.  For this reason I use DoNotTrackMe.  

To install this add-on simply type the title exactly as it appears above, into the search bar on the Extensions page, then click on the "Add to Chrome" button....

After installing this program you may want to make some tweaks to ensure you're able to view the websites you visit and use most often.  Case in point ~ I noticed the top navigation bar went missing on Blogger after installing the DoNotTrackMe add-on.  Through researching the issue I found it was necessary to change the settings for some Google sites so that they were not being blocked.
To access the settings for individual websites just click on the small icon for this program, highlighted in the screen shot below...

This opens a window where you can adjust the settings per site and even access an all inclusive list, by clicking on gear icon in the top right side, to turn the feature on and off for individual sites...

That's it!  I hope you've found this information helpful.  It's always important to get to know our browsers to help keep our information and our computers safe.  Beyond the important stuff there's a whole world of goodies to search through and explore including beautiful themes, helpful tools, and games.  So have fun!

Enjoy~

How to: Install Sidebar Tags

In this tutorial we're going to cover how to install and move sidebar tags on your Blogger blog.  The sidebar area is the column or columns to the side of your main posting area.  The process for working with sidebar elements is surprisingly easy and opens up a world of possibilities for customizing your blog.

Before we begin you'll need to have an image or two, set aside to install on your sidebar.  You can find an assortment of free sidebar tags located within each of my designer blog themes by clicking this title: A-Z Blog Theme List  Be sure to have your image ready to use and in an easy to remember location on your computer.

Once your image is ready we can begin~

1. Log into your blog and navigate to the back area by clicking on "Design"...

2. The back area looks like this...

3. Now click on "Layout" in the left link list...

This is the area we'll be working in to add a few sidebar images.  You layout may look different than mine depending up how you have your blog set up. You can easily change your layout at any time by visiting the "Template Designer".

3a. To add an image to your sidebar area we'll be using the "Add a Gadget" link.  You'll see they appear in several locations within the Layout view...

I find it easier to click the link with the area I want to add the gadget, this helps lesson the confusion that come when you have a lot of sidebar gadgets later on

4. So let's begin by clicking on the "Add a Gadget" in the sidebar area...

5. A pop-up window will appear with a selection of choices....

For those of you who are new to this area, this is how we add all sorts of bells and whistles to our blogs, from the "Followers" and "Subscribe" features to "Labels", "Archives" and "Polls", there truly is a plethora of sidebar goodies.  I recommend taking the time to explore this area further and getting to know some of the tools offered here.

6. For now, we'll scroll down to the "Image" gadget, at the time I'm writing this it's the fourteenth selection down...

 
7. To open the gadget you can click on either the title or the plus symbol...

8. You will now see the options appear for adding an "Image" gadget...

9. Let's read over what the different options are for this section ~

Title - this is where we can title the item which helps when organizing or rearranging your sidebar items.  Leaving this area blank can create a nice clean final appearance to your blog.

Caption - the information typed within this area will appear below the image. A good example is if you're holding a giveaway or sale you can insert the end date in this area.

Link - if you would your image linked to a blog post, page or an outside webpage then this is where that information would go.

Image - this section offers two choices; the "From your computer" option is to upload the image from your computer and the "From the web..." offers you the option of inserting a link so the image will show up.  We will be using the first choice for this tutorial.

Shrink to Fit - the last option is a check box for the "Shrink to fit" option.  This enables you to use a larger image and fit it within your sidebar area.  The size it shrinks down to is dependent upon your own sidebar area settings at the time you're adding the image.  I don't usually use this option myself because all of my free sidebar tags are already set to the standard size of 200 pixels wide.

10. Now, to add an image ~ click on the "Browse" button to navigate to where you have your image/s saved...

11. Click on the image you wish to use...

12. Then click "Open"...

13. Once loaded, you'll see the image you selected appear in the window...

14. You can add any other information you choose and once finished click "Save"...

15. Your new image will automatically be inserted at the top of your sidebar area...

...so if you have other images or sidebar elements there, you'll know the top one is new.

16. If for any reason you wish to change the image you can simply click the "Edit" link to open the gadget window again...

17. Once you have your image uploaded you have the option of moving it to a different location.  To do this simply click on the image gadget and drag it to a new location...

18. When you're finished rearranging your sidebar gadgets be sure to click "Save arrangement" to keep your changes...

19. To view your new changes click on the "View blog" button at the top...

That's it!  You can easily add and make changes to this area at any time by returning and using the steps we just followed above.

Enjoy~