News!! The Page Gadget: A Card Bar For Your Blog, Alongside Links To Simply Near Anywhere

This article shows how you lot tin usage the Pages gadget every bit a full general role card bar for your blog.

Evolution of the pages gadget

When Blogger get-go introduced so-called "static" pages, I idea they had a lot of potential.

As I investigated, though, I came to the determination that they were to a greater extent than problem than they were worth, thence I recommended abandoning them as well as simply using posts.   Or at to the lowest degree abandoning the Pages gadget - fifty-fifty I sometimes usage a Page for things that I don't desire to ship out inward my RSS feed, eg custom-search-engine results.

But when the September-2011 version of Blogger  was introduced, the Pages gadget got a novel feature:  now, it tin include links to whatsoever website URL, non simply your ain pages.  

This makes it a lot to a greater extent than versatile - fifty-fifty though the number is simply the same every bit adding a Link-list gadget as well as putting it into the correct expanse of the blog-layout.

How to add together full general web-links to your Pages gadget

Go to the Layout tab of your blog's dashboard.

If you lot are non already using the Pages gadget, thence add it - the same agency you lot would add whatsoever other gadget.    Otherwise simply click Edit on your electrical flow Pages gadget to encounter the gadget-options.


Click the + Add Link Page  option

Enter the title that you lot desire to exhibit upwards on your card bar  (phrases alongside spaces are allowed, roughly special characters may non be), inward the Title field


Enter the URL which should hold upwards opened when person clicks on the novel menu-bar especial   (make certain the web-site address starts alongside http:/  )   inward the Web-address field:

Click Save


You tin change the order of the items inward your card bar past times picking them upwards using the "grab bar" to the left of the especial name, as well as drag-and-dropping them upwards or downwards the listing of entries entries.

And you lot tin take external web-addresses past times clicking the pocket-sized grayness "X" to the correct of their Title.


When your menu-bar items are inward the correct place, click Save to apply them, as well as then Save Arrangement inward the plough over correct corner of the Blogger dashboard.

What your readers see

Visitors to your weblog using a web-browser on a non-mobile device volition encounter a card bar either at the plough over or the side depending on where you lot pose your pages gadget.

Visitors using a mobile device volition encounter the same affair if you lot practise non receive got a mobile template enabled, or a slightly dissimilar fashion of card  (drop-down) if you lot practise receive got a mobile template.


Most readers volition intend that the items inward your card bar volition receive got them to "pages" inward your blog.   If they hover over an especial inward the bar, they volition encounter the web-address it is linked to, inward the same agency that their browser unremarkably shows this   (eg inward Chrome, I encounter it inward faint text at the bottom left of the screen).

This volition move good if the web-addresses you lot receive got added are inside your ain weblog (eg search-labels, if you lot are using this approach to putting your posts into pages).

But it may hold upwards confusing if you've pose inward links to other websites, or invalid links   (remember, at that spot was no "test this link" selection when you lot were adding the web-site URL to link to).

Currently I practise non know whatsoever agency to brand pages-gadget links to external websites open inward a novel browser window.   If this characteristic is necessary, thence your solely selection is to usage a hand-coded HTML gadget instead of the Pages gadget.

The Pages-gadget vs a Link-list

When the Pages-gadget was get-go introduced, they were simply similar regular linked-list:   the magic was that Blogger introduced a novel expanse inward the templates where linked-lists are formatted differently.

This is withal truthful to a groovy extent.   But on blogs viewed alongside dynamic templates, the presence of a Pages gadget causes the layout to hold upwards a niggling different.  

I haven't tested it thoroughly, but I suspect that the presence of a link-list gadget on the template (remember, you cannot add together gadgets to dynamic template blogs)  would non receive got the same effect.

This makes me suspect that Blogger may innovate another enhancements based on the Pages gadget, thence it may hold upwards worth using them instead of Link-list gadget inward the future, thence every bit to larn the practise goodness of these changes when they eventually happen.

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