Changing Templates

The blog templates that Blogger offers are nice, but there aren't a lot of them. This means that it's likely that your blog will have the same look and feel as dozensif not hundredsof other blogs. If that bothers you, then you need to delve into the world of blog customization. Read on to learn more.

Choosing a Different Template

First things first. If you no longer like the template you originally chose for your blog, you can change it. Blogger offers more than 30 different blog templates, and there's no harm in switching from one to another to suit your mood. Here's how to do it:

1.	From the Blogger Dashboard, click the Change Settings icon next to your blog name.
2.	When the Settings page appears, select the Template tab and click Pick New.
3.	All of Blogger's templates are now displayed, as you can see in Figure 23.20. (This is actually a larger selection of templates than was visible when you first created your blog.) Click the Use This Template button next to the template you'd like to use. Figure 23.20. Choosing a new template for your blog. [View full size image]
4.	Click the Republish button.

Using Third-Party Templates

If you don't like the templates that Blogger provides, you can use a template created by someone else. There are lots of third-party sites on the web that offer Blogger templates; the most popular of these sites include

• Blog Templates (www.ehsany.com)

• Blogger Templates (blogger-templates.blogspot.com), shown in Figure 23.21

  Figure 23.21. Third-party templates from the Blogger Templates site.

  [View full size image]
  

• BlogSkins (www.blogskins.com)

• diaphaneity.com (www.diaphaneity.com/layouts/)

• Eris' Template Generator (www.erisfree.com/d2/apart.php)

• Free Blogger Templates (blog-templates.ravasthi.name)

• Noipo.org Blogger Templates (blogtemplates.noipo.org)

To use one of these third-party templates, follow these steps:

1.	Select all the code for the new template and copy it to your computer's clipboard. (Press Ctrl+C to copy.)
2.	From the Blogger Dashboard, click the Change Settings icon next to your blog name.
3.	When the Settings page appears, select the Template tab and click Edit Current, as shown in Figure 23.22. Figure 23.22. Use the Edit Current page to edit your template codeor paste the code for a third-party template. [View full size image]
4.	Delete all the code from the main text box.
5.	Position your cursor in the empty text box and click Ctrl+V to paste the new template code.
6.	Click the Save Template Changes button.
7.	Click the Republish button.