Time for a Facelift

This old blog was looking a bit tired.

I had to play with the layout to update to my Rootstech Ambassador Badge and my Gold Rockstar 2016 badge so the blog's appearance has been on my mind. My 7th Blogiversary is just around the corner so it's time for change.

When writing a post earlier today I used the image below and thought that it would make a nice header so I went over to Canva, imported the image and played around. See the result of my playing above.

I've had a few green leafy headers, some white and blue ones and some featuring my tribe of grandchildren but I've never featured myself. I loved the colours of the ocean in this photo from Waimea Bay so I thought I'd give it a go. The image tones in nicely with the Rootstech Ambassador Badge too. Of course I included my avatar drawn by my now 15 year old granddaughter when she was just six, I have to include that as it is my brand.

To maintain consistency I may have to change my Facebook and other Social Media headers too.

I'm pleased with my facelift.

A Genimate's Width Issue

I made this quick video today to answer a question form another geneablogger.




If this doesn't work it is probably because she has a large image in her sidebar. What she needs to do is to go to the image widget in Layout and tick the Shrink to Fit box. That should solve the issue.

Tweaking the Template

I am working on my Powerpoint presentation for my Blogging for Genealogy Webinar for The Society of Australian Genealogists next week.

The Header that was

I've been running a critical eye over my blog and decided that the font I used on my header was a bit daggy. I wanted to present a more contemporary image to the world so I've just done a little tweak to my header in Canva by adding a different font and then in the template I've removed the blue colour from the page links at the top of the header.  I'm no design guru but I think I've made it look a bit more clean. If I can get all the grandchildren together at Easter this year I'll try for another group shot for the header - wish me luck.

Now I feel better about sharing this blog with webinar participants. 

Geniaus in your pocket

Geniaus Mobile Template

Geniaus has gone mobile. No more should you have to squint and scroll to see the Geniaus blog on your mobile device.

I'm pleased that I selected the Blogger Designer templates for my blogs, Geniaus, GeniAusEvents and GeniMates because Blogger has released mobile-optimized versions of them.

I have set the options for my blogs to use the mboile templates on mobile devices and Blogger Buzz says this morning states "If you are using one of these templates, when you enable the mobile template option your blog will begin rendering using the mobile version of the same variant."

Well I have tried to look at Geniaus on my Windows Smartphone and Galaxy Tab this morning  and they are displaying the normal template.

Have I done something wrong or are there teething problems with these new templates?

PS.  I was just too quick with my test. I have gone back to my tablet and it is now displaying my three blogs in their mobile templates.

Makeover Magic

I have fiddled and diddled for most of the afternoon on this blog and will probably continue to tweak for a few more days. So far:

• I have a added a new style blogger template, this allows me to add static tabbed pages to the blog.

• I have created four additional pages: a contact page, a disclosure, a page about my presentations and an empty topics page on which I intend publishing the labels from my blog posts. I have struggled with the html for this, I have copied it religiously in the correct place (so I think) but it isn't behaving.

• I have sent a number of my widgets to the trash and have moved a number to the bottom of the pages underneath my posts.

• I have widened the posts section of my page so that I can fit more text in a screen view. This may have an adverse affect on the formatting of old posts but that can't be helped.

• I have reverted to a two column template to give me this extra width.

• I have added the Print Friendly button to my posts area.

• I added some html to move the text in the header that was covering my eyes in the family photo.

I am still trying to find the a blue for the Geniaus header and am having trouble finding the right blue to complement the ocean background.

I was in a bit of a rut with the template and am rather pleased that I finally got around to making some necessary changes.