How to Increase Blogger Webpage Width

When you are creating your blog using the standard blogger templates, you can either select a fixed-width template or a stretchable width template. Both style has their respective advantages and disadvantages. The more popular style is the fixed-width templates that has a lot more Blogger template styles to choose from. This is probably because the layout of your published materials will look the same regardless of monitor resolution size or the browser page size. The stretchable template tend to "rearrange" your published material based on the monitor resolution and browser page side.

So you decided to use the fixed-width template but the width of the content typically is only 660px and this looks too narrow on your wide screen 24" monitor - too much "wasted" spaces on the sides. Changing the width to suite your need is actually pretty simple and the following is how I did so with my blog:

1. Go to your blogger Layout

2. Click on Edit HTML

3. Scroll down to find the section for Outer-wrapper like follows:

/* Outer-Wrapper ----------------------------------------------- */ 

#outer-wrapper {

width: 660px;

margin:0 auto;

padding:10px;

text-align:$startSide;

font: $bodyfont;

}

#main-wrapper {

width: 410px;

float: $startSide;

word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */

overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */

}

#sidebar-wrapper {

width: 220px;

float: $endSide;

word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */

overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */

}

As in bold letters above, the total width size is 660px, the width of the content/main-wrapper is 410px and the width of the sidebar is 220px. Main-wrapper + sidebar = 630px.  The other 30px for padding etc. Change the size of the main-wrapper or sidebar or both to suit your need. Sum up the 2 widths, add 30px and change the total width number accordingly.

4. Scroll up to find the section on header like the following:

/* Header ----------------------------------------------- */

#header-wrapper {

width:660px;

margin:0 auto 10px;

border:1px solid $bordercolor;

}

Adjust the width of the header to be the same width as the new outer-wrapper width.

5. Save your template by clicking on SAVE TEMPLATE

Now you can view your blog and enjoy a wider blog webpage.

How to Hide Blogger Navigation Bar

Hiding your blogger Navigation bar (Navbar) like the one above will help to make your blogger site looks more like a website rather than a blog. You may or may not want to do this depending on the content of your site. Hiding the Navbar is rather easy:

1. Go to your blogger Layout

2. Click on Edit HTML

3. Place the following line betwen the element < head > and < /head >

#navbar-iframe{display:none !important;}

4. Save your template by clicking on SAVE TEMPLATE

Now you can view your blog and the Navbar should be hidden.

What is RSS feed?

Here's something that I have just learned about and found to be very useful indeed. Say you have several blogs that you want to follow but find it troublesome to check all of the different sites or often find that there is no new postings on the sites, then you may want to use the RSS reader.

RSS is an easy way for anyone to keep track of the latest postings or news from their favourite websites in one convenient place.

RSS - which stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication - allows you to see the latest headlines from your favourite sites, and to then be able to click directly through to the articles that you want to read.

Using RSS Feeds on Mik's Apak sites:

Look for this icon or this icon and click on it.

A new window will be opened where you can choose to use either Google Reader or Google homepage as your preferred way of receiving and using RSS - you may need to register or subscribe to use your preferred service. If you have another reader, like My Yahoo, you can copy the feed URL into your RSS reader.

The sites that are available are:

Mik's Apak in Scotland              

Mik's Apak Favorite Quotes         

Mik's Apak Favorite Movies             

Mik's Apak on Computers                    

Mik's Apak Favorite Daughter                 

Start using the feed to track the latest postings from Mik's Apak!

My First Computer

My first computer was a notebook! I can't remember exactly when I bought it - must have been around 1995/96. However, I can still remember the price - it cost me a bomb (over RM8K) but I had justified the purchase by telling myself that I will use the notebook to increase my efficiency at work as well, since I frequently travelling offsite at the time. It was pretty much the top of the range then. Looking back, that purchase was a mistake. I could have make do with the "slower" office desktops at work then. So I learned a few things about buying computer for myself:
1. Never buy top of the range or the latest and greatest personal computer that is currently on the market unless my current computing needs really worth the price (... or if I have too much spare cash and I don't know what to do with it). Within the next weeks and months my great Acernote 950 was listed at a price that keeps dropping in a hurry. I know ... I shouldn't have checked the price after I purchased it but I did - probably because I knew it was not a wise purchase in the first place.
2. Desktop was and is a still a better option in terms of its value for money. It is always cheaper when comparing the same processor and capacity. The monitor is usually bigger. It also last longer since it has more capacity for upgrades unlike laptops. So, if I don't need my computer for travelling - I'm getting a desktop!

Only after 2 years of use I gave my first laptop to my sister. She made good use of it. I managed to find some pictures of it from my sister's website when it was 7 years old and completely obsolete.







I remembered when I visited my sister at the time, the notebook, in its dire conditions can still boot up and be used ... amazing!
It's just that we didn't have the patience to wait for it to do stuff ...