Thursday 27 February 2014

How to add pages and their respective tabs

I have been asked to produce a tutorial on how to add pages and tabs to your blog. As you can see, I have quite a few at the top of mine. I should point out here though, that I don't use the normal blogger page tabs but a navigation bar. Creating a blogger page/tab takes a little more time than creating a post, which you will all be used to. However, once you do your first one, the rest will be far more easy:)

Pages are very useful for putting specific information onto, that your readers can easily access, without having to trawl all the way through your blog.  HOWEVER, pages are stand alone features. Whilst you can add links to your page from posts, (see my recipes tab above) you CANNOT to my knowledge, link a page tab itself to a single post.

Also, too many pages can look a bit of a mess, so don't overdo it.

Let's get started!

On your dashboard (the page that opens up when you access your blog) - push the same button as you would to create a new post. INSTEAD of going on to click Posts, click Pages:
When you click Pages, a new screen will open up:

Click on New page. This screen looks like a new Posts page, but where you would normally put your title, it says 'Page Title':
I tend to put the page title in and then save. You can now type a new entry from scratch or go and search your blog for a post you might want to copy and paste onto this new pages. The other day for example, I did just that to create my laundry detergent tutorial page. It should also copy and paste your pictures directly onto your new page without problems.

Remember to push save whilst working on your first page and save, then close, when finished. Don't publish at this stage.

You have now created your first page but a few more things need to be decided before you publish. Go back to your dashboard and again choose Pages as per the top picture.

Now you will see a screen that looks a little different from when you started but again, very similar to your posts home page:
Here, you can see my Laundry Detergent Tutorial. On the left hand side of this screen, look for and push the layout button:

You will then come to another screen, the top of which will look something like this (you will probably have been here when setting up and designing your blog in the first place:
In my case, the page title War Diary Year IV is showing. (It is also in this top position, beneath my blog title, as I want my page tabs to be at the top). Click on the Edit tab to its right and you will bring up this screen:
Here you can see the title of my page. Tick on the box that 'automatically adds new pages when they are published' and into the boxes to the left of any other page titles you wish to show. If you leave any un-ticked, they will not appear on your blog.

On the right hand side of this screen is the Page order. Here, you simply drag and drop pages into the order you wish them to appear on your blog home page. Don't worry it you don't get it right first time. Just come back to this screen, and drag and drop again.

When you are satisfied, go down to the very bottom of the screen and save:
That screen will now disappear and you will be back to the layout page. To the right of that screen is a bright orange button that says 'save arrangement'. PUSH IT!
Nearly there now, are you still awake:)

Look at the top of the screen once you have pushed save arrangement, and click on Template Designer. At the top of this new screen, but down the left hand side, click on Advanced, then Tabs Background:

You can now decide what background colour you wish your tabs to be when they have been selected. Otherwise they remain grey. I am working on this to see how to change the colour, because lets face it, grey is pretty boring. Push the orange button 'apply to blog'

Next, click Page Text and choose your font and text colour etc, REMEMBER each time to push the orange button 'apply to blog' before clicking on anything else:

Then press Tabs Text and do the same:
DO NOT leave this page without pushing the orange button - top right - 'apply to blog'!

Finally, go back to your dashboard, choose pages, find the page/pages you wish to add, make sure the little box to the left of them has a tick in it and you have dragged and dropped pages to where you want them. Now publish each page in the same way you would a new post. View your blog to see if everything is working as it should.

You used to be able to have only 20 separate pages/tabs with quite a length of information on them. Now it appears, you can have as many pages as you wish but each pages is limited to 1MB of text.

If you no longer wish to have it showing, un-tick it on the Configure Page List, save and it will disappear from your home page but remain available if you choose your mind on the Configure Page List screen!


You can have these tabs on the top of your home page or down the side. I hope you find this useful and can navigate your way around my directions.

5 comments:

  1. You are a star. I have been trying to figure these out for weeks now. THANK YOU :-)

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  2. Wow thank you so much DC. You really are a star and I'm so glad I picked your brains on this one. A busy few days ahead for me but I'll have a go as soon as :-))
    Patricia x

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, hope you can understand them.

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  3. You are clever! I'm afraid I wouldnt have worked that out for myself!

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