I'm just starting to work with CSS. Customizing my blog has been a good learning experience. If you'd like to try some customizing and need more help, leave a comment under the entry. If you have something in mind not covered here, post it under 'How Do I ....?'. Maybe we can figure it out together. -chris

Add an icon to side panel links
Mood:  special
Template: 'Advanced Customization' ---> 'Links on Main page (link.btpl)'
Topic: Link Tricks
An easy effect. Add a single icon to GROUPs one, two, three etc. side panel links. A small image about 16x16 pixels works best. The height of the image is most important. Try to use an image under 24 pixels in height. Tall images will increase the line spacing of your link text. Emoticon gifs uploaded to your account work well if you need an image.

Once your image is uploaded to your account, find and copy it's full http:// URL and paste it into Notepad or SimpleText. Use the URL to write an <img src> tag for your image.

<img src='http://your_image_URL' height='xx' width='xx' border='0' alt='blog link icon'>

Click 'Advanced Customization' at the bottom of the main 'Manage your Blog' control panel. Click the radio button next to 'Links on Main page template (link.btpl)'. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'Edit'.


Look for the following code shown here in red ......

<BLOG_LOOP LINKS><A HREF="<BLOG_VAR url>" class="panelLinks">

You'll insert the <img src> tag directly after <BLOG_LOOP LINKS> so it looks something like this.......

<BLOG_LOOP LINKS>
<img src='image_URL' height='16' width='16' border='0' align='bottom' alt='blog link icon'>
<A HREF="<BLOG_VAR url>" class="panelLinks">

Press the 'Preview' button to see what it will look like. If you like it click 'Save'. If not, just click 'Cancel' to start over and try again.

No changes will take effect until you 'Save' and also 'Publish' the changes from the main template list screen.

Here's some emoticon gifs to copy and try.




Each template may vary. If you can't find where to put your image code or need more help, post a comment with the name of the blog template design you're using.