Templates, Tags and Techie Stuff

Dawno

I just do it by hand in Blogger. You want I should explain? It's pretty much straight HTML.

Or, there are some very nice "blog editors." They tend to have a button you click to make a link. Let me know what OS you use and I'll suggest an editor to look at.

OK.

Let's say you want to link to Absolute Write.

First, there's really two parts to an Anchor Tag; it's the only HTML tag that works this way; there's the URL part, the address, and there's the Anchor part, which indicates the end of the "clickable" text. First you need to tell the browser that the following text is a URL:

<a href=

Then you supply the full URL (including the http:// or https:// or the ftp://)

<a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com">

Then you need to fill in the text that users will click on, in this case, the words Absolute Write:

<a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com">Absolute Write</a>

Notice that you indicate the end of the clickable text by using </a>--that's the "anchor."

Here's the full thing; anything after the end of the URL's close bracket (this>) and before the anchor tag (</a>) will be "clickable."

<a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com">Absolute Write</a>

Dawno said:

I guess I needed to be way more specific. Sorry!

In my blog itself I have a Dawno's Bookshelf bit in the sidebar. I'd like to put an anchor there and from another part of the sidebar that announces New Stuff I'd like one to be able to click there and it takes them down into the sidebar where I've got Dawno's Bookshelf. Neither the <a id> nor <a name> tags with the appropriate # by the title "Dawno's Sidebar" works, although in the w3schools instructions it should. I don't have any problem with linking to urlswith the <a href="http://url> tags.

Click to expand...

Aha! send me a url to your blog and I'll take a look. I may be able to come up with a kluge--I suspect you're being bitten by the fact that the side bar is in a <div> tag.

Dawno said:

That makes sense. My url is down in the sig - NVNC etc...

Click to expand...

Dawno, there's no way I can figure out to do it without you having to modify the Template every time, and then republishing.

What I'd suggest you do instead is look into "side blogs" in Blogger Help--essentially, a blog within a blog.

I'm not much of a techie either but I'm in a yahoo group that has helped me a lot with technical stuff. It's a blogger support group. If Blogger tech doesn't help, you may try asking them.

Opening separate pages

Medievalist said:

OK.

Let's say you want to link to Absolute Write.

First, there's really two parts to an Anchor Tag; it's the only HTML tag that works this way; there's the URL part, the address, and there's the Anchor part, which indicates the end of the "clickable" text. First you need to tell the browser that the following text is a URL:

<a href=

Then you supply the full URL (including the http:// or https:// or the ftp://)

<a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com">

Then you need to fill in the text that users will click on, in this case, the words Absolute Write:

<a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com">Absolute Write</a>

Notice that you indicate the end of the clickable text by using </a>--that's the "anchor."

Here's the full thing; anything after the end of the URL's close bracket (this>) and before the anchor tag (</a>) will be "clickable."

<a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com">Absolute Write</a>

Click to expand...

I just wanted to add one thing to this. If you don't want people to navigate away from your page, or you would like people to come back, you can have the new link open up in a separate window by using the "target=_blank" code. For example:

<a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com" target="_blank">Absolute Write</a>

By doing this, the AW site will open up in a completely new window, however the person will not be able to use the back and forward arrows on the IE toolbar, thereby not being able to navigate in the new page properly (Ok I'm confusing things by saying this, I know - try it and you'll know what I mean).

They will shut down the new window and (hopefully) return to your site. You can do this for every link that you have on your site - it will open up new windows for each link - which some people find annoying but at least it should make people return. I have it for each link on my page.

Marilyn Braun said:

They will shut down the new window and (hopefully) return to your site. You can do this for every link that you have on your site - it will open up new windows for each link - which some people find annoying but at least it should make people return. I have it for each link on my page.

Click to expand...

Personally, I tend to avoid sites where the designer puts in something to deliberately inconvenience visitors. And I do know how to work around some of the cruder tricks to manipulate a browser. For example, if you pull the "target" trick, it can be circumvented by right-clicking the link and clicking "Open in new window."

Of course, you can disable right clicking with JavaScript. Since I often open multiple windows just because, this tends to tick me off. So if I find a site that's disabled right clicking, either I don't stay long, or I turn off JavaScript, which kills the simpler methods of blocking right clicks, as well as most pop-up ads. Obviously, though, this also takes away any useful JavaScript tools your site might have, and possibly pop-up revenue.

When webmasters and web surfers get into an arms race, everyone loses.

BTW, other values for target besides "_blank" will get it to open in another window and have functional navigation buttons. Same effect that they're likely to come back when they close the window, less irritating them into not wanting to come back at all.

the Target parameter is actually a courtesy to users, if you use it intelligently. It's exactly like right-clicking in terms of its effect.

Target="_blank"

MadScientistMatt said:

Personally, I tend to avoid sites where the designer puts in something to deliberately inconvenience visitors. And I do know how to work around some of the cruder tricks to manipulate a browser. For example, if you pull the "target" trick, it can be circumvented by right-clicking the link and clicking "Open in new window."

Of course, you can disable right clicking with JavaScript. Since I often open multiple windows just because, this tends to tick me off. So if I find a site that's disabled right clicking, either I don't stay long, or I turn off JavaScript, which kills the simpler methods of blocking right clicks, as well as most pop-up ads. Obviously, though, this also takes away any useful JavaScript tools your site might have, and possibly pop-up revenue.

When webmasters and web surfers get into an arms race, everyone loses.

BTW, other values for target besides "_blank" will get it to open in another window and have functional navigation buttons. Same effect that they're likely to come back when they close the window, less irritating them into not wanting to come back at all.

Click to expand...

The purpose of the links on my site is to provide further information or direction to sites that visitors might find useful - but it's only secondary to visiting my site first. How does that inconvienience people?

From my perspective, If it's not set up that way, I do a Ctrl + N to open a new page. I frequent several royal news sites which have articles with the target tag on them - if the webmaster didn't have this set up on her pages, people would leave the site upon clicking on the first article that caught their eye, which isn't what she wants.

Perhaps I read a bit too much into the line, "which some people find annoying but at least it should make people return." It sounded like you were using the target feature to deliberately annoy visitors by turning off their navigation buttons when you follow the link. The line, "I know it annoys some people, but..." can be deadly when it comes to web design.

Maybe I read a bit too much into things.

Using target="_blank" or equivalents is a bad idea. If your user has a browser featuring tabs support, it throws them completely out of what they're doing by opening up a whole new window and hiding all their pages. If they click on a link, they're expecting it to open in the current window - if they want it in a new one (or in a tab), they can easily right-click and say so. You frustrate far more people by taking over the browser than you'll ever satisfy.

However, you can get around this in various ways, such as providing an icon to say that a new window will be opened.

So, does anyone add Technorati tags or other search stuff to see if it brings visits?

Click to expand...

I get a handful of visits from Technorati and such, but not enough to make it worth my time optimising any site to take advantage of it. For the most part, if you're talking about the subject and pinging the default sites, your stuff's going to show up in its searches in any case.

Annoying

MadScientistMatt said:

Perhaps I read a bit too much into the line, "which some people find annoying but at least it should make people return." It sounded like you were using the target feature to deliberately annoy visitors by turning off their navigation buttons when you follow the link. The line, "I know it annoys some people, but..." can be deadly when it comes to web design.

Maybe I read a bit too much into things.

Click to expand...

I acknowledge the fact that using that feature can be annoying to people, not that I'm trying to annoy people. Good grief - that would be counter productive to having return visitors.

I'm using the feature for the purpose I said before, to be helpful to my visitors should they want more information or be interested in other sites related to mine. Does that clarify it for you?

Dawno said:

I think it's very valuable to get input from people who have expertise in site building - even if we use a free site and the template they provide. I actually had no idea the "_blank" was an issue for anyone, I love it and I use it extensively. Guess I may need to re-think it.

Click to expand...

It's a UI (User Interface) Issue. The thing to do is think about the user's comfort, and not yours. Are you making it easier for your users? Yes, you want site traffic, but you don't want to annoy a reader. If you always use the target attribute, then post a notice where users will see it saying all off site links open in a new window.

Or use a java script that lets users set a preference for window behavior; the preference is stored in a cookie (this is not easily done on Blogspot sites, and is not something to be engaged in without cross-browser testing).

Alternatively, use a text link or icon that indicates that the link will open in a new window.

It's not such a big deal for users to leave one site via links as it used to be -- people have figured out the Back button and associated keyboard commands.

It's pretty high - although the most obvious limit is how many you can fit on your screen.

Well lets see from the tech point of view if you are linking to a web site that is not your own the you should always use the target tag in a link.



Surfers with little experience on the web hate when they find a site that is just what they were looking for just to click on a link and get lost. So it is a common practice to use the target tag when ever you link to some one else’s site.



Ok as for anchor tags in blogs well some will work and others will not. A blog site is made up of both html and php so in some cases where you can use certain html tags others will not work do to the settings the web app has this is usually caused by a java script that calls a certain function for that web app.



So unless your blog app allows for you to set up users side menus most likely the anchor tags will not work due to the fact that the symbol # is often used by hackers in an URL string to gain access to certain system commands through php and or jsp to take over the root of the system.



So a good server admin is more then likely to set up a system that would not allow a common user to have access to these commands thus saving the server and all the other users on that server.( this of course does not apply to those people who have hosting services that are not free to the public)



There are many open source web blog apps out there that will allow you to have anchor text even searchable text that can be found in a site search feature but at lass not to many blogging sites will offer this feature due to the vulnerability in php and other web scripts that blogs use.


Well I hope I helped and not confused the issue even worse .......