New feature: standalone web pages in Blogger!

In February, Blogger added the ability to create freestanding Web pages for your blog. Until now, every page in a Blogger blog was a post, so if you wanted to provide an "about me" page, you had to host it elsewhere. No longer!I noticed this new "edit pages" tab in my Blogger Dashboard today. If you create a page, you get a form to type in that's almost exactly like the "edit posts" form. Click "publish" and you're given the opportunity to display the page in your sidebar (my right hand column), as a "tab" at the top of your blog (my blog doesn't have any tabs), or just as a web page you can link to. I chose the latter. The text on my new "about this blog" page is identical to what I had put in the post I used to use for this purpose, except, of course, I no longer need the caveat about it being back-dated.

What else could you do with pages? My friend Donna wants to keep a running list of what she and her friends are reading--except she uses Wordpress and I'm sure they have their own ways. You could provide a glossary, a list of references, an old-fashioned link page - whatever you like. Any ideas?

11 comments:

  1. Wow, Jeff, hadn't noticed that (despite using this tool for 7 years now), and probably wouldn't without your sharp eyes. It really pays to have smart and observant friends.

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  2. I'm happy to help! I suspect we're all smart and observant about a few things; the trick is to remember to put the information out there where it can help people.

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  3. You said it, Jeff. As for your more recent post, I've always been way more concerned about a blog's content than design. If it can also look nice, so much the better.

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  4. So bit of a dumb question...when I came across your blog I noticed you had gadget on either side, post on the middle layout. I chose a similar layout from the new bloger "template designer". In the layout editor it looks like what I want it to but when I look at the blog page it moved most of my gadget to the bottom. Any thoughts on why and how to fix it?

    If I add the static pages it has the desired layout!

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  5. That is pretty odd, Yosha. Right now your blog's layout looks OK - only the center column with the posts goes down to the bottom. I don't know that much about the HTML behind these templates, but I do think they often have buggy transitions between Blogger In Draft (basically, where features are in beta) and regular Blogger. For my template, there were all kinds of things in the Template Designer that didn't make sense until I added the static pages to that banner under the title.

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  6. its stand alone page . cant we direct it to another page ?

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  7. I will like to know how to activate features that will enable me to share what i have in my blog with the outside world

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  8. You have a very interesting template for your blog. Is it available to public?

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  9. Thank you! Yes, I used the "Awesome Inc." template, then customized the colors and column widths in Template Designer and used my own background photo. (The photo is in my flickr photostream, feel free to use it.)

    With this three-column layout, it is a bit tricky to keep things from getting too wide for their columns. I have to be careful how large I make the pictures, and put all the wide gadgets in the right column.

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  10. Hi! I just started blogging today for my small business. Still under progress though and i was searching on how i can use the menu button to link with my other pages. So, i found your interesting post and now i'm improvising my blog..hahahha..thanks a lot.. its good to share these stuff with others.. thanks!!

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  11. You're welcome! You may be able to share ideas and information with Blogger users near you. For example, I know there are many, many Blogger users in Manila, the Philippines. My local group of bloggers meets once a month to help each other. Good luck!

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