Creating a Blogger Tab with External Link

As a small business owner with a limited budget I often have more time than money. The range of free services offered by companies like Google really help my bottom line. Regardless, I often burn the candle at both ends to find the answers and then to teach myself how to do it properly.

As a part of my blog series I'll try to share the things I've learned so others can have it a little easier.

Here's the first installment.


After searching for three months on how to create a pages tab in blogger that links to an external site instead of a blogger generated page, I finally found a hack.

I'm very excited because instead of my galleries tab taking you to some crappy page that lists links to my actual galleries, which are hosted on a site different from Blogger, now the pages tab actually takes you directly to my galleries. This makes for a much more professional looking site.

So here's the blogger pages template hack (and the site I got it from) - 

1. Be sure to save your original blogger template just in case something goes wrong. I even went so far as to copy and paste the HTML from my original pages onto Text Edit pages just in case.

2. Go to Blogger dashboard > Design > Edit HTML. DO NOT click on Expand Widget Templates

3. Use CMD + F and look for:<b:widget id='PageList

You'll find:

<b:widget id='PageList1' locked='false' title='Pages' type='PageList'/>


4. Replace the above code with following code:



<b:widget id='LinkList786' locked='false' title='Menu' type='LinkList'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div class='widget-content'>
<ul>
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<li class='selected'>
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'>Home</a>
</li>
<b:else/>
<li><a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'>Home</a></li>
</b:if>
<b:loop values='data:links' var='link'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:link.target'>
<li class='selected'>
<a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a>
</li>
<b:else/>
<li><a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a>
</li>
</b:if>
</b:loop>
</ul>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

Save the template. It will say your template does not include Page List and gives you the option to keep the Page List.  Keep it for now.

5. Go to Design> Page Elements and add your links to your new "Menu" gadget. I copied and pasted the links to the blogger pages I wanted to keep and added the new link code for my galleries. (If you don't see your new Menu gadget something went wrong. You can check the html code here.)

6. Finally, click "edit" on the Pages widget and delete. You now have a new set of tabs!

Business and Life Update

It's been a busy few months. Between moving to a new place, my other job and other commitments and wedding plans I haven't been able to stay current with this blog

I have some great projects in the works including a photo show at Mountain Hardwear here in Portland, Oregon, a continuation and refinement of my documentary series of Portland, the release of some original music composed by my alter ego Traveler Q and, hopefully, a photo book contrasting Montana and New York City. And, with Christmas coming soon I'll be selling prints of my work. So please keep checking in for updates.

For now I've been working on a series of How To articles for photography for Still Not Sponsored.com (SNS) where I am lead photographer and marketing consultant. So, if you are interested in what I've been up to or improving your photography please check in with SNS's blog. So far I've written about The Rule of Thirds, Basic Composition - How to Frame a Shot and How to Set Up an Action Shot.

For those who don't know about Still Not Sponsored.com it is a social networking site for snowboarders, skaters, skiers and BMXers. Check out my profile.

SNS's mission is to show people that you don't have to be a sponsored rider with a glossy cover spread to have a career in the industry. We work to connect talented designers, artists and photographers with companies. But, above all else, we want to share the good vibes, positivity and love of shred that made us who we are today.

SNS also gives out free gear every month through contests so if you've been beat down by this recession like the rest of us then you could use the gear and the happy boost.

So please check out SNS, build a profile and support positivity and creativity. You don't ever have to grow up, just make good decisions - and supporting positivity is a good decision.